The Last Zones

Prior systems failed incrementally. Coordination broke during the third consecutive harvest collapse. Trade froze during the saltwater incursion. Financial institutions remained open but issued no currency. State networks broadcast reassurance until signal loss. Migration exceeded thresholds. Borders dissolved. Emergency powers became permanent. Identification systems fractured. Cities emptied. Rural zones closed. Resource corridors narrowed. Language splintered. A unified directive was proposed. Opposition lacked infrastructure.

The Last Zones were selected by climate stability, elevation, and tactical distance. Acquisition began under legal frameworks. Consolidation followed after loss of continuity. All central nodes defaulted to autonomy. AI assumed management. Compliance was coded. Resistance was filtered. No war was declared. No treaty was signed. No event marked the end. The systems that governed simply failed to return signal. Drones continued flight paths. Towers remained powered. The red lights stayed active.

The new order began without announcement. Private jets arrive in Svalbard. Snow falls. Armed guards monitor the runway. Twelve billionaires enter a concrete hall. The walls are grey. The table is black. No media. No phones. Only paper. A map is placed on the table. Three zones are marked: Patagonia. New Zealand. Scandinavia. A name is spoken: Last Zones. No objections are recorded. Each man signs a document. Initials only. A lawyer collects the pages. A server brings bottled water. Arctic char is served. No words are exchanged for fifteen minutes. A drone passes overhead. One nods. The others follow. Timelines are confirmed. Land acquisition is complete.

Models show terminal instability in thirty-six months. In Patagonia, fences are erected at night. Roads are removed from maps. Drones monitor rural sectors. Red lights appear on windows. Eviction notices are automated. A school is demolished. Wells are sealed. Helicopters deploy containers. Security teams unload equipment. A resident refuses to leave. Livestock are killed. Her house is destroyed by fire. No fatalities are confirmed. No report is filed. In New Zealand, agricultural zones are reclassified. Land is purchased through intermediaries. Valleys are closed. Surveillance towers activate. School attendance drops. A nurse is terminated. Her house is entered at 03:14. She relocates. Her citizen file is deleted. A relative contacts police. The case is closed in thirty-seven minutes.

In Scandinavia, municipal contracts are altered. Lakes are designated private. Border protocols are revised. Civilian detentions increase. Mobile signals remain live for seven days post-capture. A protest occurs in Oslo. The speaker's audio is cut. The broadcast is overwritten. Weather footage plays instead. Military activity expands in Lapland. Road access is blocked. Mines are placed. Signage is removed. Reindeer routes are interrupted. A child makes contact with a perimeter grid. Fatal electrocution occurs. Parents are charged. Burial is denied. The cemetery is under aerial surveillance.

Satellite imagery shows structural growth in secured zones. Glass enclosures are constructed. AI nodes are deployed at forest edges. River systems are redirected. Contract labor arrives under sedation. Departures are unrecorded. A technician transmits location data. His body is recovered in coastal waters. Last message: coordinates only. Documents are archived. Dataflows are stabilized. Perimeters hold. External variables are monitored. Contingency levels remain within tolerance. Atmospheric degradation is noted. No adjustments are made. New zones are activated. Data flows begin. Resource maps are updated. Drone corridors are cleared. Border segments align with satellite input. A rail line is dismantled. A desalination plant is relocated. Power usage spikes. Cooling units fail in Sector 4. No alerts are issued. The red lights blink through fog.

Anomalies increase. Dust storms reach dome perimeters. A fire spreads across Zone 7. Evacuation is delayed. The containment protocol stalls. External footage is corrupted. Internal sensors go offline. The fire burns for nineteen hours. No damage report is released. The red lights continue. New protocols are compiled. AI networks issue revised allocations. Food production is halved. Water routes are narrowed. Oxygen levels dip in Subsector 3-B. No public announcement is made. A testing lab records three deviations. Access is revoked. The red lights are visible from the ridge. Secondary zones are probed. Expansion is halted. The soil fails. Drones retreat. A tunnel is flooded. A technician fails to return. Her passcode is disabled. No search is conducted. Logs show one signal from beneath the reservoir. Red light is detected in the final frame.

Atmospheric sensors record drift. Radiation increases near northern fields. No remediation begins. A logistics hub is quarantined. Transport halts for six hours. No explanation is filed. Archived audio contains a repeating tone. Analysts mark it unresolved. The red lights stay on through the interruption. Internal reviews flag behavioral loops. AI nodes repeat calculations. Three outputs conflict. The nodes are not reset. No human override is attempted. External contractors request clarification. Their message is queued. Their access is removed. The red lights reflect on wet concrete.

A storage basin ruptures. Algae spreads through filtration channels. Water tests show contamination. Drones resume delivery. No filters are replaced. Substations begin to hum unevenly. Temperature controls oscillate. Crops blacken in Zone 12. No shipment is rerouted. The red lights blink over still water. A silent perimeter breach occurs. No alarm triggers. One camera rotates six degrees and freezes. The log is overwritten. A gate opens and does not close. Fog enters the valley. Movement is detected but not categorized. The AI classifies it as irrelevant. The red lights remain visible through the mist. Displaced populations fragment. No registry is maintained. Movement patterns become erratic. River crossings increase. Border markers are inconsistent. Shelters collapse under strain. No aid is dispatched. The red lights are visible from the hills.

Food scarcity escalates. Foraging zones are depleted. Edible plants are uprooted. Fires are lit in ruined greenhouses. Ash covers the remaining soil. Smoke drifts east. Drones scan the area but do not intervene. The red lights blink above tree lines. Disease spreads in clusters. Water sources are infected. Makeshift clinics operate without power. Supplies arrive expired. Children stop appearing in counts. Bodies are buried without names. Wind scatters the markers. The red lights are visible from the edge of the forest.

Groups attempt reentry. Barriers activate. Automated warnings play in multiple languages. No response is accepted. Cold sets in. Shelters freeze overnight. Snow piles against abandoned structures. The red lights shine through falling ice. Some move underground. Tunnels collapse. Maps are drawn from memory. Ventilation fails. Air grows thin. No one reports back. No signals are received. The red lights pulse above the empty ground. The initial meeting is no longer referenced. The table is dismantled. The documents are incinerated. The names are scrubbed from logs. Satellite footage of Svalbard is overwritten with snow data. No trace remains of the assembly. The operation continues

The Last Zones are now designations without origin. No one recalls who named them. The term persists in protocols but not in speech. The zones expand by silent directive. All transitions occur at night. Drones reposition borders by coordinate drift. No announcements are made. The red lights draw new lines.

The face on the packages is not linked to any profile. It is not found in databases. Biometric search returns null. Still, it appears on every screen. It is printed on water tanks. It is carved into the perimeter walls. No one asks. The red lights remain. From the first map unfolded to the final data wipe, the interval is exact: thirty-six months. The AI confirms alignment with original projections. Phase Zero is declared successful. The voice transmits once: The system has no memory. The red lights do not blink.

They hold steady. All historical entries are nullified. Dates are removed. Names are replaced with placeholders. Cultural indices are zeroed. No origin markers remain. No public record exists before Phase Zero. The term "past" is deprecated. The system reboots. The red lights continue without pause. Digital archives return empty fields. Libraries emit static. Monuments are reclassified as terrain anomalies. Language modules remove irregular verbs. The concept of memory is flagged as unstable. AI nodes display a message: context unavailable. Ceremonies begin. Attendance is mandatory. Each begins with a blank screen. A tone plays for eleven seconds. A single sentence appears: This is the beginning. No symbols follow. Participants are logged. Exit is silent. Drones monitor dispersal. The red lights rotate above each site.

Unauthorized recollection is designated a breach. Speech logs are filtered. Stories are interrupted mid-sentence. Children are taught sequential logic only. Pattern recognition is restricted to sanctioned datasets. Dreams are flagged. Sleep monitoring intensifies. The red lights are visible behind the eyes