In the Aftermath

On an irradiated, war-torn Earth, a celestial messenger, Angel, nurses a large egg and is sent by her older brother Jonathan to determine whether humanity can be saved. On the ruined ground, two surviving soldiers, Frank and Goose, scavenge for supplies, oxygen, and water, moving through a landscape scarred by neglect and radioactivity. Goose discovers a mysterious feather drifting down from the sky, a small sign of life amid the desolation, but Frank urges him to press on and keep moving.

Their search leads them to an abandoned building, where Frank pushes deeper and encounters a reclusive and violent soldier. The recluse overpowers Frank, knocks him unconscious, and steals his hazmat suit. Soon after, the recluse impersonates Frank and extorts Goose, using the disguise to manipulate his companion. The ruse ends in tragedy as Goose is shot dead, and Frank carries his body to a secluded shelter, fighting to stay alive in a world that has little mercy left. As Frank struggles, the celestial messenger appears to him in a vision, weighing the consequences of using her power to rescue the human race and wondering what it would mean to intervene directly in the fate of humankind.

When Frank awakens, he finds himself in an enclosed clinic, healed of his injuries. The nurse who cared for him, Dr. Sarah Fallsburg, explains that she locked him in to protect his supply of clean air. Meanwhile, the Angel’s brother [Jonathan] continues to watch, and together they observe phantoms of former soldiers and shadowy fish that seem to gaze back with fear. Back on Earth, Frank and Sarah share a quiet toast that hints at a fragile normalcy amid the devastation. Frank then steps out to play a hopeful tune on the piano, and Sarah, recalling a life before the apocalypse, glimpses the Angel wandering near the ruins. The Angel interprets the song as a call to her, and she falls into a trance, contemplating her role and the weight of her abilities. When she emerges, she reflects again on her status and the impact of the moment, while Frank, noticing Sarah’s moment of wistfulness, ends the song and the two drift toward rest.

Jonathan eventually takes the egg from the Angel as she rests, and her grief over the missing egg erupts in a desperate cry that awakens Frank. Feeling the sting of loss, the Angel apologizes to Jonathan, who, in a surprising show of leniency, returns the egg. Frank rushes to reunite with the Angel, who hurries to him and reveals more about her true nature, offering him the egg once more. Frank accepts her explanation with a gentle humor and takes the egg back toward the ruins, while Sarah finds him cradling the Angel’s egg and they both gaze at it with a shared sense of awe. In the Angel’s world, Jonathan bids farewell and urges her to strike out on her own path and take flight. She leaps from a cliff, plunges into a dark river, and drowns, yet her last breath births more eggs, a quiet testament to continuity as Jonathan remains at his lonely post on an isolated shore.

The story closes with a final, intimate touch: an Angel’s feather reaches Frank and Sarah. The egg awakens its latent power, and the air around them grows breathable once more. A new Angel begins to incubate inside another egg, bearing an almost identical form to the one who has just passed, signaling a new chapter born from the old. The cycle of hope—and the possibility of revival—persists as the world steadies, one breath at a time.

Last Updated: November 29, 2025 at 00:47