While We Were Sleeping

Danica was an independent young woman living alone in downtown. She had taken the path of isolation, fighting alone to keep her life free of unnecessary anxieties. She thought that there would always be a future to deal with today’s issues, or would not?

On once warm night of summer, Danica went to sleep relying on a world of calculated risks and regularities. However, the world in which she woke up was quite different. A new, ruthless disease had caught humanity unprepared while she was sleeping. In this collapsing society, people fall asleep at random times, and stay unconscious for increasingly longer periods. No one could stay awake long enough to find a cure or to take care of others. The unthinkable became a certainty: the end of humanity was near.

This new story by Baltar Xinzo is not recommended for the faint of heart.

Note: The sequel to the events that happen in Incubator.

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The sound of alarms, the buildings crumbling and blazing fires, people shouting and crying, the crackling sound of guns firing in the distance and sometimes nearby, all of that frightened her, but the silence that followed was worse.

“While I was sleeping, the rats and ravens have feasted on those decaying corpses…,” Danica grumbled on the wrist recorder, “I’m counting fewer bodies. Some might have woken up while I was sleeping and walked away. They could not have gone far, though. By now, all must be dead.” She was leaning her forehead on the balcony rails, breathing heavily to shake out her nausea. “If you ask me, dragging those people down to the street was a dumb idea.” She looked away, shaking her head, “I would rather die at home than be eaten by animals while I’m unconscious.”

A rare historical snapshot of the slender men, allegedly seen around the world during the fall. Photo taken in Zhmerynka, Ukraine, on July 7, 2047.