Endangered Species

Nobody noticed when it started.
The birds still sang. Dogs still wagged their tails. Farms ran like normal. Life in Terrenceville felt small and safe, the kind of place where nothing truly bad ever happens.
But beneath the town, something changed.
When an airborne pathogen spreads across the globe, it doesn't make animals sick. It makes them aware. For weeks, nothing seems different. Pets still sleep at the foot of the bed. Livestock still graze. Wildlife keeps its distance.
Then one day, they stop pretending.
From the smallest insect to the largest predator, the animal kingdom begins to move with intelligence no human can match. Power grids fail. Cities fall quiet. And the creatures people trusted most turn on them without hesitation.
As the world collapses, twelve-year-old Elijah is forced to survive in a place that no longer belongs to humans. Because this time, the endangered species isn't the animals.
It's us.