The Crustacean Age: a Post-apocalyptic Survival Thriller Fiction

The well runs dry. The surface belongs to them now.Nara Dunes has survived eight months alone in the ruins of a dead city, trusting no one and relying on nothing she can’t carry. When her water source fails, she’s forced into the sewers beneath the Dry Square—and discovers an underground river that should not exist.But the water brings more than salvation. Ancient crustacean creatures rise from geological depths, claiming the surface world as their own. A community of three hundred survivors has made a devil’s bargain with the crabs’ intelligent Queen, trading their dead for temporary peace.Nara must choose: submit to inhuman rule, or fight a war humanity has already lost.When she attempts to assassinate the Queen, the punishment is worse than death—transformation into a hybrid monster, conscious but controlled, forced to serve the thing she tried to destroy. Nara will become the architect of humanity’s extinction, her mind intact inside a shell that obeys the enemy.In the age of carapace, resistance is remembered only as pain.A dark, unflinching tale of survival, transformation, and the cost of refusing to kneel. Perfect for fans of literary horror, body horror, and post-apocalyptic fiction that asks what happens when humanity is no longer the dominant species.Content Warning: Contains body horror, transformation, dark themes, and tragic ending.