The Afterworld

In the 21st century, a meteor hit somewhere. Nobody knows where, but it hardly matters anymore. What does matter is, food supplies fell short, a war broke out, and all the governments fell apart, one by one. It is now a thousand years after that. The dust kicked up interfered with communications, and the governments all destroyed each others' sattelites. If any are left, they don't work. The good news is, no nuclear weapons were used for fear of food contamination. In the aftermath, many people resorted to piracy; It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of pirates on the roads and seas, stealing any food they come across. As a result, most islands in the sea became disconnected from the outside world. Thousands of small republics, minreps, formed everywhere. Many of them formed alliances with other minreps and effectively act as a single nation. Euskadi, Basque Country, in former Spain, is an example of this. Most big cities fell to gang warfare, and were divided into urban territories. Eventually, the violence faded, and the inhabitants put dirt on the rooftops to grow crops and combat hunger. Small farming communities lost touch completely, and survive on their own.

The protagonist is a Roader. He travels from town to town buying and selling things from other towns. He travels the roads in his car, which is in terrible shape but works well. It was altered to run on alcohol, since all the oil was used up centuries ago. He travels alone, but keeps a constant vigil for the Road Pirates. They travel in packs of cars, each with their clan symbol painted on it, and they are bloodthirsty predators.