Neverland

They didn’t mean to rename the valley in their reports. An intern just happened to refer to it as Neverland once, and the name stuck. Naturally, this made the children the Lost Boys and Girls. Any leaders they identified in the myriad gangs they only ever glimpsed at the peripheries were nicknamed Pans. As for Hook and his Pirates...well, the captain figured that the blockade skirting the perimeter of the hot zone might count. They were the only adults for miles because of the virus.

Scientists were still working on identifying it and figuring out its underlying causes. All they had at the moment was that it was isolated to this one region, that it had sprung up seemingly overnight three years ago, and that it was both virile and deadly...but not to pre-pubescents.

Now bands of wild children roamed the land. The government organized air drops of food and supplies and maintained the blockade to keep the mystery infection from spreading...and, as they soon found necessary, to keep runaways from entering what seemed to be an adult-free paradise.

The captain peered through his binoculars, watching the nearest treeline. They’d seen a Pan and her gang skulking about the area, and they’d encouraged it with additional food and supplies.

The scientists were getting desperate. They needed to see how the virus invaded a human being. They had to know if the children were immune or simply unattacked, and they had to see if there was a biological trigger which they could suppress or replicate through medicine.

A movement in the bush caught the captain’s eyes. The Pan stepped out first, wild-haired, bold, and oblivious to the trap that waited.

The captain lowered his binoculars and breathed deeply.

Time to be the pirates.