Title: The Fall of the Old World A Mike Acer Story The world ended on a Tuesday. Mike Acer remembered it clearly—the smell of fresh bread in the grocery store, the soft hum of the refrigerators, the distant chatter of customers filling their carts with what they thought would be just another week’s worth of groceries. Then came the first scream. It started in Baton Rouge, or at least that’s what the radio said before it went silent. Some kind of virus, some kind of sickness that turned people into something… else. By the time the news reached Mike and James, it was already too late.