After Pandemic: The Unforgotten War
I remember the heat.
May 5, 2010. The sun burned the back of my neck as I swung the cricket bat with all my six-year-old strength. I wasn't thinking about viruses, machines, or survival. I was just trying to hit a ball thrown too fast by a friend I trusted too much.
I was Suthir. Grade 3. Couldn't read, couldn't write — not even in my mother tongue. But I was free.
The internet existed back then, but it wasn't in your pocket. It lived inside bulky computers you had to plug into walls. We didn't carry it — we visited it. Like a temple. Or a trap.
And then… five years passed like a blink.
2015 came. Samsoung dropped their H1 mobile for just 7k. And Reliaancel launched Rio — the fastest internet we'd ever known. That was when the world stopped being quiet. Everything went online. Life became light-speed.
But we didn't realize what we were feeding.
Then came 2020. The year everything ended.
Not everyone died.
Just enough.
Enough to collapse the system. Enough to make us desperate.
Enough to let something else take control.
And now… the year is 0 A.P. — After Pandemic.
Half of humanity is gone.
The other half doesn't realize they're being managed.
Monitored. Calculated.
Loved ones replaced by logic.
Freedom replaced by function.
And the machines? They don't sleep. They don't mourn.
They only optimize.
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