Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Two Hundred Eighty

Christmas Eve in the year of the grippe reborn. It is strange to think that at this time last year we were gathering with our families and friends to celebrate unaware that the dread lord was already showing himself in certain parts of the world. We would not experience the full weight of his terrible power for months, but he was there, operating in secret, marshalling his forces and sending his minions out to all corners of the world to do his terrible work.

We now live in a different world after this lonely and despairing year. Last Christmas seems several lifetimes ago, another brighter age that we inhabit the ruins of. And though there is hope upon the horizon, it is still far away. We have many months left of this half-life before we can all begin to emerge from our isolation.

But at least we know there is hope now, the promise of an end and the eventual defeat of the grippe reborn. This week there was word that he has altered his guise yet again and there was fear that it might allow him to slip through the inoculation’s defences. But we know our defences work so it is a much simpler thing to alter them to counter whatever the dread lord might do.

The days have begun to get longer now that we are past the solstice, though the change isn’t yet noticeable. That is what I will be watching for. Signs of longer, warmer days and the shattering of the grippe reborn’s power that will arrive with them. That is reason enough to celebrate this year, that and the fact we have endured through all the trials that have come our way. We all know that there is more to get through, but we also know that it is within us to do so.