Blackbay

Overview

Blackbay sits wedged between collapsing sea cliffs and a forest that stopped growing twenty years ago. Salt corrosion eats through every building, leaving orange streaks down church steeples and hospital walls. A chemical fog rolls in from the bay each evening at six, thick enough to taste, carrying the smell of copper and rot. Roads leading out of town end in landslides or radar installations that have never had power. No mail comes in. No one who leaves for the coast highway comes back. The locals have stopped trying. Graffiti covers every public surface, desperate messages from people who wandered in on vacation or business and realized the exits don't work. The smart ones stopped looking for an exit and started looking for ways to survive until morning.

Society

Three rough power blocs control different districts, and they trade through intermediaries because direct meetings tend to end in violence. Currency stopped mattering when the supply trucks stopped coming. Now people trade in antibiotics, batteries, and fresh water. The hospital demands blood donations for treatment. The church offers sanctuary but requires confession of every sin, recorded and filed. No formal laws exist, but snitching to the wrong faction gets your throat cut. Most residents sleep in shifts, never alone.

Technology

Pre-collapse infrastructure barely functions. Electricity runs six hours daily, routed to essential systems first. Generators burn rendered fat from creatures killed in the fog. The laboratory beneath town maintains functional biotech equipment, powered by geothermal vents, but fuel for the sterilizers ran out years ago. Surgical procedures happen without anesthesia. Radio equipment picks up only static and occasional screaming. Working vehicles exist but fuel hoarders have been known to kill for a gallon of gas.