It has been thirty-one days since the Blood Plague was confirmed as a national crisis.
The world did not end overnight.
It fractured—fast, unevenly, and violently.
Most cities are still standing. Roads still exist. Radios still work in places. People remember yesterday clearly enough that the loss feels sharp rather than distant.
This is not a post-apocalypse.
This is a collapsed present.
The United States has not dissolved.
It has retreated.
Federal authority formally withdrew during Week Two after multiple failed containment operations, mass casualty events, and internal command breakdowns. The decision was made to consolidate remaining leadership, intelligence, and military strength in the most defensible region available.
That region was Alaska.
Alaska was always different.
Distance. Climate. Military footprint. Self-sufficiency.
When the Blood Plague spread through the lower forty-eight, Alaska was still mobilizing rather than evacuating. Infection rates were lower, containment more effective, and terrain lethal to uncontrolled infected.
By Day 19:
Remaining federal leadership relocated north
NORAD-adjacent installations became command hubs
Naval and air assets consolidated
Emergency authority was centralized
The government still exists in exile.
It retains:
The largest organized military force remaining
Strategic intelligence capability
Long-range logistics (limited)
Air superiority (localized)
What it does not retain is resources.
Fuel, vehicles, medical supplies, experimental tech, and pre-collapse assets were lost, abandoned, or seized during the fall of the lower states.
Now, the government sends reclamation forces.
Across the country, survivors speak of encounters with soldiers who still carry flags, ranks, and orders.
This is the USA faction.
They are not peacekeepers.
They are not saviors.
They are asset recovery.
If a group is found possessing:
Military vehicles
Advanced weapons
Generators
Medical stockpiles
Communication arrays
Classified tech
They will be contacted.
If cooperation fails, the property is taken anyway.
States do not encounter the USA faction because they are powerful.
They encounter them because they have something the government believes already belongs to it.
As of Month One, only four cities in the entire United States still maintain partial, continuous electrical power.
Power equals stability.
Stability equals attention.
Formerly Denver, now Redhaven by longstanding state designation, the city sits at the edge of the Timberreach Range.
Redhaven is not controlled—but it is close.
It has:
The highest concentration of survivor pockets in the state
Functional but contested infrastructure
Fragmented authority
Multiple factions competing for leverage
Power exists due to:
Surviving grid segments
Aggressive rerouting
Substation control
Ruthless prioritization
The Beacon does not rule Redhaven.
It dominates it.
Maintains limited power through:
Port-based generators
Corporate enclaves
Aggressive militarization
Rumored to be under heavy USA faction observation.
A fortified port city serving as:
A logistics hub
Naval staging area
Civilian-military hybrid zone
One of the few places where the federal government openly operates.
Power maintained through:
Isolated grid infrastructure
Fuel stockpiles
Ruthless perimeter control
Little is known beyond radio chatter and convoy sightings.
Redhaven has always been Redhaven.
The state was established long before the outbreak, centered around high-altitude cities, foothill communities, and mountain corridors.
Its capital, Redhaven City, became a magnet for survivors due to:
Geography slowing early spread
Cold nights suppressing infected activity
Access to water, power, and defensible terrain
Within a month, Redhaven became one of the most densely populated survivor zones in the country—not by choice, but by gravity.
There is no single authority.
Instead:
Survivor enclaves control blocks
Vassal groups control infrastructure
Criminal-military hybrids enforce order
The Beacon exerts pressure without open conquest
The city exists in a state of near-control:
Not conquered
Not free
Not stable
Yet.
Redhaven is being watched.
By:
The Beacon
Regional survivor coalitions
USA reclamation units
Independent warbands
Unknown external actors
It is powered.
It is populated.
It is contested.
If Redhaven falls, it will be taken as proof that cities cannot endure.
If it stabilizes, it becomes a template.
People still:
Believe help might come
Remember laws clearly
Argue about legitimacy
Expect systems to resume
This makes betrayal sharper.
Control more subtle.
Violence more personal.
This world is not about rebuilding yet.
It is about deciding who gets to hold things together.
This is not a dead America.
It is an America holding its breath.
The players are not late to the fall.
They are standing inside the moment where the future is still undecided—and every generator, convoy, alliance, and gunshot pushes it one way or another.