Setting

In 1995, the Cold War reached its conclusion, wiping out most of earth’s human population.
In February, American generals learned that the Soviet government had constructed vast underground bunkers, capable of supporting human life for years at a time, able to withstand almost any attack by nuclear weapons and impregnable to conventional forces. On receiving information that most of the Soviet military and leadership had already been moved to safety, American scientists began work on Project Styx.
By August of 1995, American scientists had genetically engineered a variant strain of myxomatosis to affect humans specifically. The virus had only a minimal effect on most other species, but in humans it would cause massive buboes and swellings on internal mucus membranes, leading to a rapid death by suffocation as the victim’s lungs became blocked off and ruptured. For some reason, those that survived were almost always children under the age of ten. Unusually, it also had a minor effect on some feline species, although it was rarely fatal for them. On September the 23rd, American infiltrators released several cats infected with the Styx virus in the vicinity of entrances to soviet bunkers. It is unknown whether the infection penetrated these bunkers, although a subsequent lack of activity around them suggests that the inhabitants either all perished or sealed themselves in completely. What is known is that the virus swiftly spread to the rest of the world. By September the 28th the infection had spread to almost all of mainland Asia and Europe, leaving billions dead in its wake. By September the 30th, it had reached Africa and Australia, with similar effects.
By this point the Americas had placed themselves under strict quarantine, but on November the 7th the virus appeared in Brazil, and spread to the rest of the continent in the ensuing days. By the end of the year, only one person in every thousand remained alive, and modern civilization had conclusively ended.

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