The Last Wake

The end of the world did not come with fire or floods.

It arrived quietly-inside the human brain.

The virus did not kill its hosts. It emptied them. Slowly stripping away sight, hearing, reason, and memory-until only one instinct remained. Desire, amplified into madness. Obsession sharpened into violence.

By the time scientists understood it, they were already infected.

By the time governments reacted, order had already collapsed.

Men lost the ability to feel pain, fear, empathy, or restraint. Language faded. Logic dissolved. Civilization crumbled into hunting grounds.

Women died first.

Those who survived learned to vanish. To erase themselves from the world. Birthrates dropped to near zero. Female children became miracles-and then became myths.

By the year 2205, humanity had not gone extinct.

It had become something else.

And then-without warning-

A woman from another time opened her eyes.