The year is 2025, and it is 12 years after the cordyceps virus began ripping its way across the United States and the world.  While FEDRA, The Fireflies, militia units, and bandit groups all made moves for control, territory, and supplies, the city of Blue Valley (fictional) remained relatively safe.  Because of a quick thinking, fast moving, and arguably paranoid, small government, large walls were built around the city and from that wall, anywhere from a bit less than a mile, to as little as 10 feet, debris was cleared back to allow visibility.

While there is much struggle, sacrifices, and conflict felt by the individuals, the truth is that the city itself has not suffered much.  There were some minor attacks, one outbreak that wasn’t massive, and no major riots.  

The city always had an open door policy, albeit a strict and heavily regulated one.  It allowed people to enter after weeks of isolation, quarantine, and interviews.  There were people turned away for instability issues, and some even say that those people were summarily executed as to not allow them to become a threat to the city.  This is adamantly denied by city officials however.   In the last few years, the stream of people has reduced to a rare occurrence. 

The city officials are a People’s Tribunal, Chief of Police, Mayor, and Logistics officer.  There are other positions under those, such as inspectors, the Militia, housing, logistics, energy officers, fire fighters, and several others.  The Blue Valley Militia is the police and military all in one.  They were patches with BVM stitched in, along with a number to show the ward that they are policing. 


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The city has power and running water due to two small solar and wind sources but these resources are rationed and heavily monitored.  Both of the sources are outside of the city, so maintaining them consists of leaving the city walls.  There is another smaller solar panel farm inside the city, but it is not large at all and its power is used for all needs deemed essential.  

While Blue Valley has remained safe for the most part, that does not mean it is pristine.  Buildings, roads, everything is in a varied state of decay.  Some building are falling apart, some have suffered fires, and some are being slowly stripped down for materials.  

The city is divided into 6 Wards.  The areas are broken up mainly by size and there is little to no prejudice in terms of who is housed where.  While the city itself is walled off, each Ward is also walled off, something that was done after the outbreak when it was deemed important to contain future breaches.  There are gates and checkpoints to each other Ward.

While the city seems a shade perfect, there are struggles.  Medical supplies are in short supply, as are new firearms.  There are few individuals able to do things like rebuild architecturally, engineers are non-existent, and fine trades are limited.  There are few doctors and not many people able to do things like rebuild engines or complex machinery.  There are some parties who want the city to expand, others that want to go out and look for both survivors, the government, and/or supplies.  There is a small divide among people wanting to support FEDRA and others the Fireflies, while a majority do not feel the need to become involved with either.  Some see that the need to take a side is eventual.  Then there are bandit threats.  It’s not uncommon for there to be raids or attempts, and it’s even more of a threat to those who need to go outside the walls.  Some people also feel that they should be allowed more freedom, mainly to go outside the wall at their own discretion.  They feel that the government of Blue Valley is stifling, if not oppressing them and limiting their freedoms for no reason.  Firearms are limited, there is only limited voting and more often than naught, the government can implement a law or rule and use “necessity” or “safety” as grounds to do so.  Then, there are politics between Wards, with constant disputes between resources and amenities.  There is a relatively high poverty rate and while the officials themselves are by no means living in luxury, well, people always want what others have.  

Blue Valley itself is about 50 miles north of Phoenix and about 75 miles south of Flagstaff along Route 17.  It is east along the highway and not far the small (fictional) Balta River and the Cordes Lakes, a group of several man made lakes.  All of these are well outside of the city.

While the main city is walled off, there is a good portion of the city OUTSIDE the walls.  While there are some patrols to monitor these buildings and the area, the frequency of them increases and decreases based on time and known threats.  


[hider=Map of Arizona] The city of Blue Valley is essentially directly on the 17 route marker, just south of where the 17 and 69 join
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[hider=Blue Valley basic map]
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