United States

The United States of America is a primary location and country within The Suffering. It contains the strongest military. The capital was changed to Baltimore due to the destruction of Washington D.C. in 2022.

Apocalypse
During the outbreaks in Asia, the United States made minimal efforts to prevent the spread. Their tactics included shutting their border with Mexico and to monitor the temperatures of arriving peoples. Unlike other Anglosphere countries, the States did not order their citizens to return or close their airports/ports.

The first reported case was of a travelling Japanese man and his son in Philadelphia. Shortly after, the city of Philadelphia went under lock down after another case of an American woman was confirmed infected. It is reported that this lock down was successful as the three infected were sent to a quarantine zone outside the city.

However, in late May 2021, the States also confirmed up to 6 cases within Boston, New York City and Chicago. It was clear to early scientists and reporters that the lock down didn't successfully keep the plague contaminated and that many other cities would later report cases to the public, with no way to prevent the spread. In the meantime, the states of Florida, Nevada, Colorado and Hawaii all closed their airports which is the reason as to why these states were the last to be infected. The first public outbreak within the States was within Boston in June 2021, where a predicted 20% of the population died/became infected. Fleeing citizens were taken to quarantine zones and those who remained within the city were told to hide and wait for a military liberation.

Two days after this outbreak, the cities of Houston, Chicago and Philadelphia also reported their first outbreaks but had minimal casualties. As a result, the government paid advertising companies $30m to stop a great panic, which featured celebrities claiming to have used Doxycycline that cured the infection from them. Although, to those suffering, Doxycycline was proven to be ineffective and useless. Toward the end of June 2021, the UN released a statement reporting there had been over 200,000 confirmed cases and up to 10,000 deaths in just the US.

Sometime in July 2021, the Outbreak of Washington D.C. sparked the Great Panic within the US as the city was later quarantined and placed under lock down. Survivors within the city were known to of had defended for themselves by hiding within The White House, Pentagon, Thomas Jefferson Memorial and known museums/churches. For this, all of the buildings became somewhat damaged (especially The White House which resulted in a fire). 24 hours after this outbreak, New York City also suffered their first outbreak which killed roughly 60% of the population. Only a predicted 11% successfully fled the city as the others remained trapped. The President ordered for a military liberation of both cities which resulted in heavy casualties on the army's side.

Due to fleeing survivors and uncontrollable outbreaks, the Government fled to Seattle which resulted in most of the east coast suffering from major infections. It took until November for the plague to reach the west coast, January 2022 for it to reach Alaska and March 2022 for it to reach Hawaii. Although mostly unprotected, the city of Honolulu managed to suffer 0 causalities and became the first state to start liberating themselves in April 2022. The US Government and Military managed to help the citizens in May 2022 and together helped them finish liberating the islands in early June 2022. Hawaii suffered the least causalities with 14% of the population dying. For a couple of years, Hawaii became known as "The Lonely State of America".

In early 2024, the US Government launched a plan to liberate the states of California and Washington in an attempt to liberate the nation, following tactics from the surviving Vancouver city.