The End of the World asWe Know It
This post-apocalyptic novelette follows Fern Ramsey, a mysterious seventeen-year-old wandering alone through an America devastated by plague. Most of humanity has died from “Captain Trips,” and the few survivors scatter across a dying civilization where towns collapse and nuclear plants melt down, irradiating the Southeast.
Fern possesses strange abilities and physical abnormalities—superhuman strength, silvery hair covering her body, deformed toes, mismatched eyes, and a white streak in her hair. She can “think sharp” to make things happen and levitate when reading. She collects written testimonies left by the dead in houses, seeking connection with those who wanted to be remembered.
The story reveals Fern’s true nature through nightmares. She dreams of a schoolhouse with an ominous bell and a white-haired teacher, and of a wasteland where a “handsome man” in denim confronts her. A crow eventually explains she’s “new”—a mutation in an eternal cycle. The handsome man is a dark force that rises and falls across time, always taking a bride and fathering a child to end the world. Fern is that unborn child from the last cycle, never properly born when her mother fell to her death while heavily pregnant. Now she exists outside the wheel of reincarnation, potentially either harmless or “the final momentum that shatters the wheel into darkness.”
Fern desperately seeks human connection but finds that towns die around her—whether from disease, violence, or her own unconscious influence. She briefly finds companionship with King Sue, a powerful woman ruling a settlement in Wisconsin, but Sue dies of plague. In grief, Fern nearly kills a distant stranger through her powers, realizing the darkness within her.
The story interweaves Fern’s journey with vignettes showing the apocalypse’s progression: nuclear plants failing, animals reclaiming the land, and the last remnants of humanity struggling to survive. A crucial moment comes when Fern finds a message left by Kimberley Lynn McKiver, a pharmacist who survived decades after the plague. Unlike other testimonies, McKiver’s box includes supplies for future survivors—showing someone cared about whoever might come after.
This act of kindness catalyzes Fern’s choice. Understanding she’s the son of the Devil—like the medieval legend of Robert who rejected his dark heritage—Fern chooses constant pain over evil. She dulls her thoughts to hide from her father, renouncing her dark potential.
The story concludes with Fern meeting elephants on Interstate 70. She will reach Colorado, build a cabin on the outskirts, and watch over humanity’s slow recovery from afar. She’ll die peacefully, unknown and unremarkable, having chosen goodness over her demonic nature through an eternity of self-denial. The elephants, freed from zoos, will carry forward small acts of beauty—painting flowers taught by their human keepers—showing how kindness and memory persist even after civilization expires.
Catherynne M. Valente is the acclaimed author of The Glass Town Game, and a New York Times bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction novels, short stories, and poetry. She has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, and has won the Locus and Andre Norton award. She lives on a small island off the coast of Maine with her partner, two dogs, one enormous cat, a less enormous cat, six chickens, a red accordion, an uncompleted master’s degree, a roomful of yarn, a spinning wheel with ulterior motives, a cupboard of jam and pickles, a bookshelf full of folktales, an industrial torch, and an Oxford English Dictionary