History Literature / StationEleven

** Clarke remembers that the first year in the airport was horrible, but it's never shown nor specified what happened.

* NothingIsScarier: The airplanes ''full'' of corpses, who were locked inside after some passengers showed symptoms on the flight. Although, as Clarke notes, [[NightmareFuel that's no guarantee that everybody died of the Georgia Flu, which leaves the distinct possibility that some people were alive in there for days or even weeks.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Several, but most notably, Eleanor only appears in a handful of chapters, but it is due to her actions of [[spoiler: stowing away in the caravan to avoid becoming one of the Prophet's Brides]] that cause him to pursue them, [[{{Yandere}}even after he'd never tired to stop anyone leaving before]].

* ArtisticLicense: Epidemiology - The Georgia Flu is so deadly than in reality it could not wipe out the world before killing its' hosts. Understandable as a framing device to get to the post-apocalyptic society.

* PunkRock: Dieter, of the Symphony was playing in a college punk rock band during the collapse and morns the loss of the electric guitar.

* RealityEnsues: One of the main impetuses of the plot. The vast majority of human civilisation dies...and, as a result, nobody can access medicine or other necessary implements. For example, a woman commits suicide because she doesn't have enough of her antidepressants.

* HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt: The Georgia Flu epidemic rewinds the calendar to YearZero. The main action apparently takes place in what we'd consider the mid-twenty-first century, but it's universally known as Year Fifteen.

** Some people survived the flu due to isolation. When [[spoiler: Miranda]] gets sick she observes several ships out in the harbor who hadn't sent anyone ashore before the flu spread and thinks that by know they'll know about it and have a chance. The Third Cello of the Traveling Symphony and his parents rode out the flu in an isolated cabin (although his diabetic parents eventually died after running out of insulin).

* ClosestThingWeGot: Jeevan was studying to be a paramedic during the flue, and given how hard it hit the veteran doctor, at one point the text actually calls him "the closest thing to a doctor in a hundred mile radius".

** The hospitals get overrun but it's never shown, and only heard through one oblique phone call with one of Jaaven's friends.

** Some people survived the flue due to isolation. When [[spoiler: Miranda]] gets sick she observes several ships out in the harbor who hadn't sent anyone ashore before the flu spread and thinks that by know they'll know about it and have a chance. The Third Cello of the Traveling Symphony and his parents rode out the flu in an isolated cabin (although his diabetic parents eventually died after running out of insulin).

* ShootTheMedicFirst: While obviously there's no ''person''doing it, medical professionals are quickly infected while trying to treat the Georgia Flu, with quite a few of them dying the first day, based on the phone calls Javeen gets from his friend Hua (who is coughing himself in the last one).

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never find out how Elizabeth, Arthur's second wife, died (or even if she did for sure) after leaving the airport, but this is justified because in the post-pandemic world, death is cheap. Plot-relevant in the case of Kirsten's parents and Jevaan's girlfriend, Laura; all they know about them is that they went into Toronto during the workday and never came back. They might have gotten ill or been killed in the descent into madness.

* YourCheatingHeart: Arthur implicitly cheated on Miranda with Elizabeth, and explicitly cheated on Elizabeth with Lydia. Later, Lydia cheated on him with the director of a movie they were in.

* IntrepidReporter: Francois Diallo, who has been restarting, and distributing a newspaper with old school printing presses. Several chapters show excerpts of an interview he has with Kristen.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Several of the Travellig Symphony, and the group Arthur was performing with when he died given how many villains there are in Shakespeare plays. Its even lampshaded that the actress playing Goneril looks a lot less evil without the makeup.

* IntrepidReporter: Francois Diallo, who has been restarting, and distributing a newspaper with old school printing presses. Several chapters show excerpts of an interview he has with Alexandra.

* SerendipitousSurvival: Some people survived the flue due to isolation. When [[spoiler: Miranda]] gets sick she observes several ships out in the harbor who hadn't sent anyone ashore before the flu spread and thinks that by know they'll know about it and have a chance. The Third Cello of the Traveling Symphony and his parents rode out the flu in an isolated cabin (although his diabetic parents eventually died after running out of insulin).

* TheRemnant: Done unusually; with many founders of the Traveling Symphony were survivors of an Air Force military orchestra who spent years lingering at the old military base, keeping an orchestra of sorts together before eventually joining up with the actors. Tyrone, the only TSA agent to remain at the airport, which he continues protecting long after the collapse, also counts to an extent.

* CultDefector It's mentioned in passing that many of the younger members of The Traveling Symphony (including some major characters) were members of various doomsday cults in the years after ThePlague before breaking away from them and joining the acting troupe. In the main story, one of the Prophet's followers is clearly [[GuiltRiddenAccomplice upset]] by most of what they do and ultimately [[spoiler: kills the Prophet to project Kirsten and her friends]].

* EveryScarHasAStory: Survivors tattoo a knife on their forearm whenever they've murdered anyone. A major plot point is that it's nearly impossible to live your whole life in the post-pandemic world without killing.

** Jevaan's wife and her people, who are co-workers who were on a field trip during the outbreak.
** One of the last pilots at the airport, who goes to Los Angeles, look gin for his family, and takes a lot of others, who want to be closer to their own families, west of the Rocky Mountains.

* HumanNotepad: Clark notes this of Charlie, "Tattoos covered almost every inch of her bare arms. He saw flowers, musical notes, names in an elaborate scroll, a rabbit. Four knives tattooed in a row on her right forearm."
* TheImmune: Some survivors, like Ben (a man Javeen briefly travels with) who unsuccessfully nursed his parents and sisters after they got sick at a point when the hospitals were collapsing.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Several of the Travellig Symphony, and the group Arthur was performing with when he died. Its even lampshaded that the actress playing Goneril looks a lot less evil without the makeup.

* SerendipitousSurvival: Some people survived the flue due to isolation. When [[spoiler: Miranda]] gets sick she observes several ships out in the harbor who hadn't sent anyone ashore before the flu spread and thinks that by know they'll know about it and have a chance. The Third Cello of the Traveling Symphony and his parents rode out the flu in an isolated cabin (although his parents eventually died after running out of insulin).

* TheRunaway: [[spoiler:Twelve-year-old Eleanor stows away with the Symphony to avoid being married to the prophet.]]

* DyingAlone: Arguably Arthur, some of his castmates and associates discuss who to notify they observe that he's divorced, his son is too young to notify and not too close with him, they know nothing about his brother back in British Columbia and his current girlfriend (one of the stage workers) already knows. In the end they end up having to call his lawyer, which the bartender comments on as sad.

* FatalMethodActing: Arthur Leander dies onstage during a performance of "King Lear."

* Gratuitous French: The Viola Player likes to sprinkle her conversations with French phrases (something that annoys Kirsten). It's eventually revealed that due to her DarkAndTroubledPast she thought that since it had all happened in English, so to speak, it might seem less real to her if she adapted and thought in another language.

Kirsten Raymonde was eight years old when she landed her first theatrical role in a Toronto performance of King Lear, starring famed actor Arthur Leander in the titular role. The night the Georgia Flu arrived in the city, Arthur died of a sudden heart attack while onstage. Kirsten survived the deadly disease, wandering throughout what was once Michigan for some time before joining the Traveling Symphony at fifteen, inspired by her memories of Arthur.

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: A darker example (possibly combined with ChildByRape) as a pregnant young woman is seen lounging outside of a building where it's later mentioned that the Prophet and his wives stay.

* YourCheatingHeart: Arthur cheated on Miranda with Elizabeth, and later Elizabeth with Lydia.

%%* ArcSymbol: Airplanes.

* DeadGuyJunior: Jeevan's son, Frank, is named after his dead brother.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never find out how Elizabeth, Arthur's second wife, died (or even if she did for sure), but this is justified because in the post-pandemic world, death is cheap. Plot-relevant in the case of Kirsten's parents and Jevaan's girlfriend, Laura; all they know about them is that they went into Toronto during the workday and never came back. They might have gotten ill or been killed in the descent into madness.

* YourCheatingHeart: Arthur cheated on Miranda with Elizabeth.

* PostApocalypticTrafficJam: Kirsten encounters one while scouting a highway overpass.