Original Prompt: “As the last uninfected human perished, a curious thing began happening to the zombie hordes…”
EDIE History and Rehabilitation Guide, excerpt from Chapter 6: The Great Transition
Though it may not be known when the last homo sapien expired we do know that it was around eight decades before the Reawakening. During this “dark age” the rapid ascension of homo immortali was predicated on the transition from eating human brains to gather the chemicals required for the final step in evolution. When the final sources of Human specific brains were depleted the Fever’s hunger caused a great many Everlasts into a dormant state. However, those whose intellect remained intact after the Fever were able to scavenge for the restorative benefits of eating other creatures.
Trace amounts of the six required, primary chemicals in our nervous system could be found most commonly in fish. Subsequently a large quantity of the first Everlasts began small communities on the coasts and surrounding inland sources of aquatic life. This was aided by the amount of dead sea creatures washing up on shore due to the pollution caused by the Human species and the rapid deterioration and destruction of the power sources used before the Great Transition, discussed in the previous chapter.
There has been a great deal of research on and evidence gathered that focuses on the early tribal phase of Everlast history. Mirroring the transition from ape to man, the conversion from man to Everlast revolved around communal efforts. Everlasts that first breached the barrier to true consciousness had awoken to a world unlike the world their minds last saw. A great deal of tribal warfare dominated the first few decades as colonies grew, but a unification began with a scarcity of available food due to a shift in oceanic ecology. The fish and other aquatic life had stopped washing up on the shore as more species adapted to the new “normal” and those that could not survive had been driven to safer waters or extinction. Due to the necessity to adapt or move in-land Everlasts formed larger colonies and resources were shared rather than fought over.
During this time, around 10-20 years before the Rewakening, the Everlasts started to remember in greater detail their past lives. If you have experienced this sensation you are not alone. The acuity of these remembrances vary based on a huge variety of factors, explained further in Chapter 8: A New Society.
This brings us to the start of the Reawakening, where a great many of the Everlasts were able to remember how to use the deteriorating equipment left by our predecessors. With the return of this knowledge, Everlasts around the world began experimenting on themselves to discover the cause of our apparent immortality. Colonies began leveraging the communication networks that were still intact and began sharing the results of experimentation, leading to a reconstruction of the essential tools required to maintain life. This included production and mass manufacturing of the substances that prevent our bodies from deteriorating and ensure the bio-indefinite mortality of our brains and nervous systems.
Success was found early on with introducing the required chemicals to the nervous system through intravenous therapy and spinal taps to allow Everlasts that had not transitioned completely to regain more conscience and then more memories from their prior existence. This advanced the progress exponentially as more memories meant more knowledge, quickly leading to more discoveries about how and why only the nervous system appears to be able to last indefinitely while the body that housed the brain still continued to deteriorate.
Most commonly, people in areas where cold weather dominated portions of the year have had success as their bodies and brains were better preserved.
While the Rescue phase of the Reawakening was underway it was discovered that a great many people were affected by the Fever but were not able to feed and immediately went dormant, preserving an almost perfectly intact brain, and subsequently their memories from their former existence. Unfortunately the success of these individuals to transition varies based on how long they were dormant and whether the Awakening could be aided by methods meant to introduce the chemicals required for transition directly to their nervous system.
A large portion of the population that transitioned north of latitude 57°, as well as almost the entire population of Tibet, were able to be Awoken completely with spinal taps. This was due in part to their preservation but also the resilience inherent to being subjected to the cold weather during their previous state of existence.
It was at this time that an initiative was started to search for the remains of other host bodies that contained candidates for Awakening. The hubs of Human population, major cities and unsuccessful bunker and ark programs, were treasure troves of dormant Everlasts and often could be found in abundance. The Everlasting Mind Recovery (EMR) program began after short-wave radio communications were established throughout the world and with that the great Rescue project was fully under way.
After nearly a hundred million Everlasts were restored, a new, unified organization was formed to aid in sharing resources, findings, and foster comradery, called the Ecumenical Data and Information Exchange, commonly referred to by the acronym EDIE. With the dispersed colonies having a new rally cry to find and rescue as many candidates for Awakening EDIE made efforts to restore physical connections to colonies and began work on restoring transportation and infrastructure.
With the advent of an increasingly connected world a need arose to establish a new common era. A heated debate ensued but without having a lot of technology that maintained the old ways of chronicling the passage of time a new Common Era was started. Year One was established by unanimous vote, but non-compliant equipment still displayed the year from the human era, 2284. The scientific community still honors the now obsolete year references, but typically will show both the CE and HCE, or Human Common Era.
The start of the Common Era was filled with discoveries and rediscoveries as the Everlast grew in numbers due to the rescue program, but as we have come to understand, could not grow due to procreation. During the transition the Fever reconditioned the brain to seek to grow the species by infection, not through creation of new individuals. This caused a large divide in how some Everlasts view their former gender and the previous biological imperative. Those who went dormant without or with little “feeding” still hold a much stronger sense of individuality and the chemicals that defined gender were still preserved in their brains.
With the Reawakening under way a new conversation was starting about how to honor the bodies we awoke in while moving to the new, androgyne mode of existence, one free from sexual desire. You may have experienced some memories of a time before, depending on where you were found and how well your body was preserved, but common consensus is that it may take up to three years from Awakening to shed the vestiges of the biological imperative.
In an effort to assist those whose bodies were no longer ambulatory EDIE established a branch of scientists that began working on converting and improving the prosthetic equipment once used by Humans. This was the dawn of our current state of being where flesh is stripped and the nervous system is threaded into advanced prostheses. As a large portion of the Everlast population began moving away from flesh-based frames we have watched our forms change into increasingly more diverse shapes and sizes.
You may already be familiar with these options, but as a reminder, EDIE’s Prosthetic Empowerment for Ambulatory Bodies branch, commonly called PEABody, has a large variety of available choices for regaining partial or full autonomy. Switching to a prosthetic or fully cybernetic body can greatly aid those who find our new lives daunting or are struggling with achieving self-sufficiency with the limitations imposed by deteriorated bodies.
Counseling is available for those whose mental health is affected by the many new forms of flesh dysphoria, please do not hesitate to contact EDIE through your local Rescue and Rehabilitation Administrator to discuss what you require to pursue a fulfilling life. Please see Appendix A for regional contacts who can direct you to your local administrators.
Inspiration Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/pygabn/wp_as_the_last_uninfected_human_perished_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Mike Lightheart 