General Timeline Questions

Can someone dumb down the timeline from the three games and how much time went by before events?

How much time passes after The Following, but before DL2? They mention the cure was found and shit was fine, but then the world fell entirely leading up to DL2?

During the time things were all good, was Crane in captivity getting experimented on? Did Crane literally get out after The Following and then get caught/turned over to the Baron by Olivia's father shortly after?

In the now scraped prologue of DL2, Spike says "poor guy" or whatever, hinting at his fate. Was this supposed to be towards Crane being infected in general? Or was it about him getting experimented on by the Baron?

I guess I'm trying to figure out timeline of the characters as well as the DL universe timeline