Four Stages

The end of the world came in four stages.

Obviously the initial impact of the thing was the first stage, as it quickly became clear what was going to happen.

The second stage was the inevitable outcome of many people who were survivors of the initial stage seeing what was coming and opting out of the third stage.

The third stage was painful, as those last few who refused to give in fought as hard as they could for as long as they could.

The fourth stage, well, the start of the new world means the end of the other...