As gamers, we’ve seen it all: earth-destroying alien attacks, global-scale military wars, and end-of-days apocalyptic scenarios. But Ubisoft’s new game (releasing in the spring) proposes that Mother Nature is the biggest, baddest end boss of them all by starting I Am Alive off with a literal bang — a 10.3 magnitude earthquake that turns Chicago into an isolated wreck where purified water is the new hotness and civilized humanity is the old busted joint.

Scrabbling around in the aftermath and rubble, you are 27-year-old Adam Collins, just some normal white-collar desk jockey trying to make sense of what has happened. In the new ruins of your old city, everyone has gone a bit mental — tourists and natives alike are now even more dangerous than the aftershocks continually reshaping the landscape. Everyday folks have turned into looters, criminals, and murderers in order to survive. With no communications with the outside world, no electricity, and no steady source of food or water, you’ll be battling your fellow man in order to reach safety in scattered refugee camps and outposts set up by sane souls like an ex-fireman captain named Peter, a doctor named Riley, or a war veteran named Virgil.

While staying alive is the biggest challenge in IAA, your real goals will have you tracking down an ex-girlfriend, Alice, whom you still care for. Where is she? Did she survive? And during your search, you’ll rally together other hapless survivors in order to build a camp big enough to hopefully attract the attention of rescue units…if they’re out there to begin with. Your hope for survival is still a mystery — is there a world outside of Chicago, and are they coming to help you? The game gives you nine days to find out. Stock up on bottled water now.