Jim Version (Mainline Story)
Follow Jim Keening through one-hour SCBA runs into a contaminated world as he maintains the failing systems of a CDC lab, navigates the regressed “Toddlers,” and uncovers Ethan’s lattice of control.
An original post-apocalyptic novel & companion journals
The Last Adults
When a global regression virus turns almost every adult mind into a childlike echo, a handful of survivors face a brutal choice: build a world of control, or risk everything to escape it. The mainline story follows Jim Keening & Bonnie in Ethan’s new order, while The Lost Journals reveal how other survivors endured TEOTWAWKI and found their way back to them.
“He isn’t building a nursery,” Jim Keening realizes. “He’s building a system.”
What is The Last Adults?
The Last Adults is a near-future, character-driven story set after a viral collapse that left most adults mentally regressed— “Toddlers” in grown bodies. A few minds remain intact. They are the last true adults, and the way they choose to live will decide whether humanity becomes a humane community or a perfectly optimized cage.
At the center of the current mainline story:
- Jim Keening — a surviving scientist with old pilot training and a stubborn refusal to accept anyone’s map of the future.
- Bonnie — Ethan’s former partner in survival, now a ghost in his territory, sabotaging his growing lattice of control.
- Ethan Cole — the engineer of a terrifying new order, using regressed adults as components in a living surveillance system.
Part I follows Jim and Bonnie as they collide inside Ethan’s maze, sabotage his “lattice,” and race for a forgotten airfield on the edge of his domain.
Choose Your Edition
There are now three ways to experience The Last Adults on this site: the current Jim-centered mainline story, the original Sarah Edition, and the new companion novella The Lost Journals.
Sarah Edition (Original Draft)
An earlier version of the story with Sarah as the central viewpoint character, exploring the same regressed world through a different emotional and narrative lens. Preserved as a complete PDF.
The Lost Journals (Companion Story)
A companion novella following Caroline, Mary, and Alexis as they survive TEOTWAWKI, discover the scientific “lost journals” about NRV-2027, and ultimately find their way back to Jim and Bonnie. Available as a standalone PDF.
How the story is published here
The full text of the Jim Version is being released in structured sections, starting with Part I. Each chapter is presented as clean, scrollable text for easy reading on phones, tablets, and desktops.
In parallel, The Lost Journals – Part I is available as a single, ready-to-download PDF, along with the in-world research documents that the characters themselves discover: the NRV-2027 preprint and the “Life and Death of the Infected” field notes.
You can start at the beginning, jump between chapters using the Jim Version table of contents, or dive straight into the journals as artifacts from inside this world.
The Lost Journals & in-world PDFs
Inside the story universe, “the lost journals” are more than a title. They are the surviving scientific and field documents that explain what really happened when NRV-2027 rewired the human mind and how most of the world actually died.
You can read those same documents as in-world PDFs:
-
The Lost Journals – Part I (Story PDF)
The completed Part I companion novella following Caroline, Mary, and Alexis as they survive TEOTWAWKI and move toward their reunion with Jim and Bonnie.
Open The Lost Journals – Part I (PDF) -
Neuro-Regression Virus (NRV-2027)
A fictional CDC-style preprint that lays out the grim science of the virus: no true immunity, long-lived environmental contamination, and why almost everyone eventually regressed.
Open NRV-2027 Research PDF -
Life and Death of the Infected
Field notes on how regressed adults actually died in the months after TEOTWAWKI—starvation, dehydration, infection, loss of sanitation, and predation—plus what that means for anyone still trying to survive.
Open Life and Death of the Infected PDF
These PDFs are written as if they existed inside the world of The Last Adults, but they can be read directly as companion pieces to the main story.
Coming soon
Future updates may include:
- Part II of The Last Adults (Jim & Bonnie, post–airfield arc)
- Further parts of The Lost Journals as the five survivors begin to rebuild
- A brief “behind the story” note on how the world and characters evolved
- Optional ways to follow updates once new chapters or PDFs are ready