Initially presented as being merely an earthquake the disaster is rapidly shown to be far more bizarre and wide ranging. The majority of the population has become infected with an unknown affliction that appears to severely damage cognitive function, causing them to bleed from the eyes, become violently hostile on sight towards anyone not also infected and seemingly immortal, able to recover and heal from even the most grievous of injuries in a short time. All natural water sources and rainfall in the town have been replaced with a strange liquid (referred to as "Red water") and the town, previously located in a mountainous region deep inland, has become an island surrounded on all sides by an ocean of the red water with no other land in sight. Furthermore, multiple sections of the town appear to have been replaced with past versions of themselves with buildings destroyed by landslides 27 years prior, although derelict as if abandoned for decades, suddenly reappearing or replacing their more modern counterparts.