The sweeping sickness, a global pandemic.
Billions lie fallen, gripped by an unknown affliction.
Hope is all the few survivors have. Hope that the collapsed will recover and wake again.

But waking is when the real nightmare begins.

A mystery illness sweeps the globe. Swifter and more virulent than anything ever recorded, enfolding the earth like a savage hand snatching a child's marble.
The City Flu in Britain. The Sweeping Sickness in America.
Misnomers, semantics, swirls of the matador's cloak, the names don't matter. There isn't time for that. Normal life is...