A volcanic eruption at Mount Etna’s Vorgaine crater in Sicily, Italy on December 3, 2015. (Photo by Marco Restivo/Barcroft Media)

Cosplayers attend Day 3 of WonderCon 2017 at Anaheim Convention Center on April 2, 2017 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Justin Baker/FilmMagic)

A worker spreads paddy crop for drying in a rice mill complex on the outskirts of Ahmedabad February 3, 2011. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Saint Nicholas poses with students during a traditional parade in central Brussels, Belgium December 3, 2016. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

A woman wearing a protective mask walks outside a village that was placed under lockdown due to the number of COVID-19 cases among residents in Manila, Philippines on Thursday, March 11, 2021. The Philippine capital placed two villages and two hotels on lockdown Thursday and police have renewed warnings against kissing and other “public display of affection” after a new surge in coronavirus infections. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

The civilised world lies on its knees, a sickness wracking its body. The affliction causes a necrotising of tissues so perfectly uniform in distribution that victims take on the appearance of corpses long before death occurs due to organ failure or secondary infections. ...