Things return, but they are changed by the very fact of returning. Just as time is skewed, and no longer linear, so space is no longer homogeneous. The city of Bellona has been altered in a strange cataclysm. The familiar laws of physics don't entirely hold. You can't quite be sure of distance and direction.
Fires break out at random, and burn inconsumably.
Buildings twist and collapse. The city is largely depopulated. The few remaining inhabitants scavenge in the rubble. They make a living out of waste and ruin. There are always more abandoned supermarkets to plunder, always more empty apartments in which to squat.