I was an orc in a world populated by humans. Before the pandemic, I lived in a small village deep in the mountains of my homeland. There weren’t many orcs left, but we still stayed hidden. We kept our distance from humans, not wishing to risk being discovered and enslaved. Our relationship with humans had been uneasy since long before the pandemic, a product of centuries of oppression and exploitation. Humans saw us as subhumans and treated us as property.

Then came the pandemic; everything changed.

It began with the virus; it spread like wildfire, infecting every person on Earth. It wasn’t biological warfare or a bio-engineered disease; it was simply the culmination of many years of neglect and apathy. The pandemic grew exponentially, spreading from one country to another in only days, often hours. The first victims were those most vulnerable: children, the elderly. Soon enough, it infected everyone else. There was no stopping it. Most people simply ignored the signs of infection; they didn’t think that any virus, natural or otherwise, could kill them. When the symptoms appeared—fever, vomiting, diarrhea—they attributed them to some other cause, such as food poisoning or a stomach bug. Many people did not know what to do when they became ill; they tried home remedies and folk medicines, hoping for a miracle cure. They went about their lives, unaware that death lurked just around the corner.

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It took only three weeks to turn the world upside down. It started slowly, with a few isolated cases, but quickly sped up. The virus struck almost everyone, not sparing even the youngest children. Many parents refused to believe the truth until it was too late; they couldn’t understand how a disease could strike young children. Some parents thought their children had been poisoned, although poisoning was usually fatal. Others believed that their children had fallen victim to a supernatural curse, but the truth was far worse.

The pandemic was man made, engineered by scientists who wanted to save humanity from the scourge of infectious diseases. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams; instead of curing the diseases that plagued mankind, they created a plague that killed everyone.

My story begins after the pandemic, when I was one of the last remaining orcs in existence.