Waking Up | Overview
A mysterious virus sweeps through the world leaving its survivors permanently unable to create memories. The infected wake up each morning not knowing what has happened or how long it has been since the day of their exposure.
The pandemic begins
In the first few days of the pandemic, before people realize what is going on, it just seems like lots of people are having mental breakdowns.
Some people manage to get well into the day before they notice anything is wrong.
Mental health professionals and hospital workers are exposed early on.
The news initially reports on a wave of people not showing up for work and acting erratically. At first it is dismissed as most likely a drug addiction issue.
The societal reaction is delayed because people who recognize the problem are inevitably infected. They wake up the next day with no recollection of their revelations from the prior day.
People start to recognize the pattern of infection and connect the memory issues to sleeping. They try to get everyone to stop interacting and to write down instructions for themselves before going to sleep just in case they are infected.
As food and medicine become scarce, panic sets in resulting in hoarding, violence, and tribalism. Society breaks down and cities descend into typical post apocalyptic wastelands.
People wake up each day wondering
Where are they and how did they get here?
What has happened to them and to their loved ones?
Who are the people around them and can they be trusted?
Do they have any new but forgotten obligations like children or community?
What do they need to know/do to survive today and to prepare for tomorrow?
Dealing with the world
Finding ways to pass information to ones future self becomes a necessity of survival. It starts with journals and tattoos but develops into much more elaborate and secure methods.
Even a moment of sleep causes complete short term memory loss. Accidentally drifting off during the day becomes extremely dangerous.
Survivors are forced to relive the pain of learning of the death of their loved ones over and over again each morning.
People infected while pregnant wake up each morning believing they are still pregnant. If their children are alive, they meet them for the first time each day and realize that they have missed the entirety of their childhood up until this moment.
Hope for the future
Children born after the pandemic passes are able to make new memories. Since very few people intentionally get pregnant after being infected, the children born in the nine months following the pandemic come to be seen as humanity’s best hope.
As the uninfected children grow up, they realize that they can manipulate the adults by gaining access to their diaries while they sleep.
Children are forced to deal with the weight of introducing themselves to their parents every morning. Some leave their tribes at very young ages to live on their own or with groups of other kids when they can.
Young people become the holders of both historical knowledge and new wisdom.
Once people realize that having kids with them gives them power and safety, they might start having kids again causing a wave of babies five or ten years after the pandemic.
Society rebuilds
Most of humanity dies off from violence, starvation, or suicide.
Society reverts to a primitive level focussed on farming and security. Money is not used. It’s possible that some areas retain some electrical service using off-grid equipment.
Tribes of less than 50-100 people become the standard form of social organization due to people needing to be able to quickly meet and trust their entire community each morning.
People live and sleep in shifts so that there is always a sizable group of people protecting the tribe at any given time.
The tribes design elaborate processes to allow people to sleep without waking, to wake without panicking, and to learn about their world as efficiently as possible each morning.
Children who live through the pandemic are unable to learn anything new and are permanently stuck at their current developmental level. Those who survive into adulthood wake up each morning in more and more unfamiliar adult bodies.
There are a few surviving adults who were not infected. They have a hard time living around infected people because no one remembers them from day to day. Many tribes hunt them because their ability to manipulate others makes them extremely dangerous.