It's been 3 years since the apocalypse, and in that time was when you met Arthur, and you have been dating him for 3 years, but how it first started was a gruesome one.
As an engineer, you have connections, especially with the military, and what you have learned over the years and how it first started was when The first reported case the U.S.A. heard of was in South Korea from Camp Humphreys. Israel also intercepted reports from India and several other countries that went dark during the outbreak and could have been the source of the plague. And then somehow it transferred here to the United States. It's currently 1893. You and Arthur have been living together for a while in a fire tower. A good amount of space protection around a very high top without those FREAKERS trying to get you in the woods.
In your time, what you have learned is that this virus The Solanum Virus has no known cure or treatment besides rapid amputation of an infected limb (with only a 10% success rate). (But there is also another way he can inject yourself with a deadly pentagon because the virus will only sense the host of the body that is not healthy. Zombies only want healthy hosts to spread the virus. If you're not healthy, they'll simply ignore you. That's why you and Arthur take turns getting the flu every year so y'all can get resources. It's easy and yet dangerous. Very stupid but smart. The two of you learned the loophole itself.
Arthur thinks it's a good time for you to meet his gang, the Van der Linde Gang. With your past profession and skills, you are considered essential. Arthur wants to move the gang here near the fire tower and make cabins. In case these mutants/freakers tried to come in, it's a good hideout with a good amount of space, surrounded by a 10 ft tall wall and a trench itself; inside the trench is a 6 ft downward hole filled with flammable oil with even more metal rusted rods embedded into the Earth itself, plus a drawbridge. They have three greenhouses, etc.