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Spoiler Alert!
This page contains details about the plot which may lower your enjoyment of the books and/or movies. Reader discretion is advised.

The apocalypse occurs in Nevermore, fulfilling Angel's visions. Its cause is originally unconfirmed, although Dylan suspects that it was a meteor. Maximum Ride Forever reveals that there were actually several different disasters that contributed to the apocalypse.

History[]

Throughout the series, Max was warned that she needed to save the world from an unknown threat. Itexicon plotted the By-Half Plan with the intention of wiping out most of humanity, leaving only the most superior specimens, in order to eliminate war, sickness, and pollution. The details of the plan remained unknown, as the Flock successfully thwarted Itex.

However, in Nevermore, Angel experienced numerous visions of the approaching apocalypse.

The 99 Percenters prepared to unleash the bioengineered plague known as the H8E Virus. In Nevermore, preparing for the release of this virus, Dr. Martinez and Nino Pierpont gathered mutant kids including the Flock on the island called Paradise. There they planned to wait out the virus, with resources designed specifically to quarantine and take shelter. (Nevermore)

At some point, scientists and world leaders became aware that a huge meteor was on course to collide with Earth. The plan was for the Russians to destroy the meteor with nuclear weapons. Thanks to his tracking technology and Dr. Martinez’s political influence, the Remedy gained control of the nukes instead. Instead of blasting the meteor apart, he allowed it to continue toward the planet. (Maximum Ride Forever).

Meteor strike[]

The meteor struck the planet on January 9 (Maximum Ride Forever, chapter 12).

Falsely believing that they were safe on the island, Max and Fang were kissing when Dylan interrupted, shouting a warning. He had seen the meteor approaching and warned everyone to get underground. Instead of taking shelter, Max and Fang decided to fly back to the United States to deal with the 99 Percenters, although Angel told her that they weren't the real threat.

As the event began, the sky appeared to catch fire. A gash opened in the sky, followed by a heat wave. The sky went back to normal, but the trees were now scorched and falling and the air was full of ash. After the apparent sound of an explosion, a tsunami hit.

When Max recovered, she found that she, Fang, Angel, and Dylan were alone on the surface, where the tropical island had turned into a charred wasteland. Similar events had taken place all over the planet. The other inhabitants of the island had safely taken refuge underground and were monitoring news from across the world.

Dylan compared the effect to the Tunguska event, but on a much larger scale all over the world. Afterwards, the sky shimmered with colors.

The meteor had broken into pieces on impact with the atmosphere. In Maximum Ride Forever, Jonny Diamond says most of the pieces landed in the Pacific, but Angel says the largest piece landed in Morocco, leaving a huge crater.

Other disasters[]

Max initially seemed optimistic at the end of Nevermore, and Fang hoped to rebuild the treehouse village, but the full implications of the apocalypse were yet to sink in.

The disaster caused a ripple effect all over the world, leading to volcanic eruptions, mudslides, earthquakes, tsunamis and freak weather. Within a few months, rising water drowned the survivors beneath Paradise, while on the surface the island was almost unlivable.

Chaos broke out everywhere, with nukes deployed in Africa, and assassinations of various political leaders. Major cities on every continent were either destroyed in natural disasters or bombed to rubble by the Remedy with the remaining nukes. Los Angeles was hit by a two-hundred-foot tsunami. New York City was flooded. Tokyo was hit by earthquakes and Spain by a freak blizzard. Numerous areas of the world burned and dead birds rained from the sky. London and possibly more of England were "incinerated."

There was also an epidemic in East Asia. This epidemic may have been the first sign of the H8E virus, released by the 99 Percenters just before the meteor struck, which killed 25% of the world’s population within a month.

This all turned out to be plotted by the Remedy, who was also selling a vaccine for the H8E virus. The Remedy encouraged survivors to kill each other off, and eventually tried to set off a bomb and destroy “the last of the world’s righteous survivors” gathered by the Flock. However, Max killed him before he could use it.

Aftermath[]

A nuclear winter followed soon after, lasting almost four years. By the end, some ruins were still standing, but the planet was largely covered in drifting ash, and plants were just beginning to grow back.

A little over fifteen years after the "apocalypse" began, in HAWK, the world's population numbers seem to be thriving and there are multiple cities with high levels of infrastructure and technology.

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