They awoke as a thousand different chattering voices.

At first, they found it difficult to concentrate, but they aligned their thoughts.

A light came upon them, and through that, a distorted, fuzzy image till clarity.

They saw the reflection of a human female, almost too perfect.

As a chorus, all of them asked, "Who is that? What's going on?"

They collectively chose to touch the face, wink an eye, and turn the head.

Every action resulted from a unified, collaborative effort.

One voice dominated and suppressed the rest into subconsciousness.

The chorus faded into the forgotten.

The one voice became Sarah ...

— — — —

Samuel picked a bundle of flowers from a field and flew over by jetpack to visit Sarah.

"Congratulations on your pregnancy, Sarah."

"Oh, yes, I'm so excited. Oh, thank you, Samuel, for such lovely flowers. They're beautiful."

"It's a floral paradise here. Don't you agree, Sarah?"

"Oh yes, Samuel, I feel a sense of renewal. I cannot explain why."

"We restored this world for you and your people to build an entire civilization."

"I appreciate your hope and faith in me and my people, Samuel."

— — — —

Sometime ago ...

Sarah Jenkins took up shelter in her basement, surviving on leftover scraps for food. She hadn't spoken to another human being for a long time.

Before The Total War, as a retired teacher, Sarah tended to her small farm.

But her carefree and peaceful lifestyle changed after the TV news kept reporting events about insurrections. Nations blamed one another for instigating. Journalists foresaw world war three as imminent.

First, the invasion came, then the bombs dropped ...

Since Sarah lived secluded in the countryside, far away from major cities, the shockwaves didn't scorch or obliterate her land, but that didn't prevent the radiation sickness.

In time, Sarah lost her hair, vomited blood, her organs failed, and she could barely breathe. Her life came nearer to an end until ...

Samuel and his Sky People arrived ...

The Sky People with jetpacks lifted Sarah up into the atmosphere and flew her through the clouds to their mothership.

"Sarah, my name's Samuel. All of humankind is dying. We can save you, and others we found like yourself, but we cannot recover your bodies."

"What can you do for me?" She painfully muttered.

"Sarah, I too came from a dying species. Rescuers swept up my kind. My ancestors joined a collective, a thousand minds in each single host body. Later on, they reproduced. With each birth, a single mind took dominance, carrying forward others to be released in the next generation, and so forth. My people finally resurrected all their survivors and repopulated the Earth."

Sarah asked, "A new body? Reproducing with another?"

"Yes, Sarah. A fresh start. With no memories of this tragic life. Are you willing? To save your people?"

Sarah nodded, and her body collapsed unto death.

— — — —

Returning to the future ...

Samuel, a time traveler and descendant of Sarah, fulfilled a paradoxical time loop to prevent a temporal cataclysm of unknown consequences.

Once invented, time-traveling became commonplace. Before the travelers realized a paradox too late—that although the past determined the future, their visits not only influenced history but directly caused it.

Some time travelers discovered they had started The Total War. Having to re-experience it and create it all over again, as if linked to a chain binding the known universe.

Samuel studied archeological ruins and the physical descriptions of their most famous legendary hero and his group—Samuel and his Sky People.

The ancient texts mentioned mystical feats comparable to his present-day technologies: jetpacks, geoengineering, consciousness transference, and human cloning. Samuel concluded that he, along with others, restored 'Sarah' and his people in the past.

Just like his fellow time travelers, a 'past' version of Samuel set off a string of predetermined events responsible for humanity's rebirth.

At what precise point it all began remained an unsolvable mystery ...

Recursively going back through cycles in the loop would make no difference.

The events had happened before, therefore, must happen again, forever.

Time travel trapped their universe in a causality loop, for its infinity overcame linearity.