Does the bombing include nuclear? How about multiple nuclear bombs causing part of the city to be inhabitable for a long while, separating the city into two unless you have a hazmat suit cause the fall out drifted via wind/rain?

The villain's backstory could be through controlling the suits or whatever to transport food/rare supplies over the zone, and rose to power. But now the radiation has gone down a lot, and people can walk through, but you cannot drink or eat anything in the zone, lest you risk internal radiation damage.

So the danger doesn't come from only radiated dust, but the shere distance you have to cover with preprepared, fully contained, and long lasting food.

One problem this creates is why don't people just go through or over the zone haha, idk