Prologue

The sky, once a bright and reassuring blue, had begun to darken in a way that no one could explain. It wasn’t the sort of storm that made you look up in awe, a mighty force of nature brewing in the distance. No, this was different. The air had become thick and heavy, and the sun, once blazing overhead, was slowly being swallowed by something unseen.

It started as a whisper—a rumor on the edge of news reports and conversations in crowded cafes. A strange pattern had been detected by satellites. Unexplained shifts in the atmosphere. A crack in the ocean floor that no one could see but everyone knew was there. Then came the announcement.

At first, no one believed it.

“The world as we know it will end in one year. This is not a drill. We have no time left.”

The words echoed in every corner of the globe, cutting through the noise of daily life. Governments scrambled to react, but no one could offer solutions. The world’s leaders stood at a loss, unable to tell their people what, if anything, could be done. Scientists around the world tried to make sense of the data, but there was no model, no precedent, no answer to explain what was happening.

As the days passed, society didn’t just break down—it fractured into something more primal. In one city, riots erupted as the public demanded answers. In another, people gathered in churches, synagogues, and mosques, praying for salvation that no one could promise. On social media, experts clashed with conspiracy theorists, each side screaming louder than the other, but no one could bring back what was lost.

In a small laboratory on the edge of a decaying city, Dr. Evelyn Carter stared at the readings on her screen. The data was incomprehensible, a puzzle of cosmic proportions that didn’t fit any existing theory. She was a scientist, and yet, even with all her expertise, the situation felt hopeless. For the first time in her career, the facts didn’t matter. There was no experiment to run, no solution to test. Just the cold certainty that the Earth was dying.

Evelyn looked up at her younger brother, Liam, who stood by the window of their apartment, staring out at the darkening horizon. He had been silent for hours, but now he turned to face her.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” he said softly, almost as if speaking to himself. “But we can still make something of it.”

The words were naive, but Evelyn envied his refusal to give up hope. Her heart ached for him, for the world that was slipping away, and for the man he might become in the coming months. The months that, once so full of promise, were now only a countdown to the end.

Liam turned back to the window. “Maybe we don’t need to change the world. Maybe we just need to live in it—however long we have left.”

Outside, the sky grew darker still, the sun a distant memory. Evelyn didn’t have the heart to tell him that there was no living through this—not the way they knew it.

The world was ending. But even as the sky closed in around them, one last flicker of hope still lingered. For now, it was all they had.