The child of humanity becomes the mother of all
Briefly

The child of humanity becomes the mother of all
"Sixty days ago The alien colonizers arrived on Earth, bringing guns, carriers, cannons - and the nanobot plague. The nanobots burrowed into our bodies through our spinal cords, roaming inside us, slowly eating us from the inside out. "These nanobots will torment you," the colonizers said, "until only one of you remains. Then they will stop." We understood - they wanted us to kill each other."
"I crawled out of the ruins, only to feel a gun silently pressed against my back. Cautiously, I raised my hands, signalling that I was no threat, and turned around slowly. His face was terrified, exhausted. I guessed he hadn't slept in a comfortable bed or had a decent meal in a long time - just like me; just like everyone else. But when he saw me, the terror on his face faded, to be replaced by a sense of relief, a kind of peace."
"They have no homeland. They merely drift through the Universe, searching for a place to stay awhile. Like locusts, they devour everything in their path before moving on to the next world. I stand before the Chief Governor as it scrutinizes me, its eyes filled with doubt. This is the first time they have brought the survivor onto their mothership. I suppose because I am a just harmless child."
A fleet of alien colonizers arrives carrying weapons and a nanobot plague. The nanobots enter humans through spinal cords and consume them from inside. The colonizers declare that the nanobots will torment humans until only one person remains, forcing humans to kill each other so colonizers can avoid direct combat. Communities descend into violence and survival instincts. A fourteen-year-old girl survives the deadly competition and emerges as the sole survivor. The colonizers capture her and bring her aboard their mothership. The Chief Governor scrutinizes her with disbelief and questions how a weak child outlasted everyone.
Read at Nature
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