When gods Remember they were Born in Blood

The golden dome pulsed like a heart under stress, its latticework of light holding the valley in a trembling cage. In the control room they whooped like fools who’d found a miracle.

“Containment successful!” shouted a technician.

Emily sagged into a spinning chair. “His crazy plan actually worked.”

Outside, the hive had stopped moving, but inside Zero stood motionless — the dome’s light refracting across his body in waves. His tendrils shuddered and then split apart, peeling from his back like torn muscle.

For the first time, Zero bled without meaning to.

He looked down at his hands as blood seeped through his fingertips, each drop hissing as it fell down.

Victor forced himself to his feet, coughing. The golden field scorched the air, every breath tasting of fire and metal. His eyes glowed golden, so he could see Zero standing in the center of the crater.

Zero’s voice came, ragged but eerily calm.
“So this… is pain.”

The child in his arms cried, its small hands trembling. Zero set the child down and cut a piece of his cloak and covered the child with it.

“Stay down,” Victor said, stepping forward. “It’s over.”

Zero tilted his head. “Over?”

Then, slowly, he turned — his eyes landing on Victor.

It was dark, both their eyes glowed: Zero red and Victor golden allowing them to see, what normal eyes wouldn’t.

“What are you doing with that child?” Victor asked.

Zero smiled faintly then he looked at the child. the infant was crying now, louder than before, its small hands trembling.

“Are you surprised father? Well, this is what rearing a child looks like.”

“I am not your father!” Victor yelled.

“are you not?” Zero started pacing in circles around Victor. “I have your blood inside me. isn’t that what makes a father and a son relationship? Familial blood.”

“You’re insane.”

“Am I? Most fathers want their sons to be like them, in every way. Play sports they want, have the same opinions about life. But I don’t want him to be like me. Like you want me to be like you. He will be better, grow up in a much better world without strives and all the worst tragedies humans have to offer.”

“You think you’re helping that child but you’ll kill him. You're delusional. Give the child to me. I will ensure he finds a good home.”

“You call me insane, but it is you father that display your insanity. But that is irrelevant…”

“…I am not looking for an argument father. You have proved time and time again that you will choose the worthless humans over your own kind. But as your god, I offer the choice to you once more; join me and together we will cleanse this world of evil.”

“You’re not a god!”

“We will let the history books decide that.”

“Only thing history would tell is how you lost.”

“How I lost?” 

“You see this dome. Its especially to trap you. Or what did you think this was some bonding experience for us.”

“I admit, I thought it was but now I think otherwise.”

“No,” Victor said laughing. “This my “son” is where your “godhood” ends. You are right. I did create you and that is why only I can uncreate you. I've learned the secret to how you control the hive. You have to see them. Take away that and they are nothing.”

“Hmm.”

“Don’t try to act like it doesn’t bother you. You’ve lost and in case you’re thinking about using the Four Sentients. We have a plan for them too. Surrender.”

“Sentients, I like that name. Simple, effective. I wish I thought of it but I went with something more purposeful. Apostles. Do you know why that is?”

“I couldn’t care less.”

“You see father, I was asked recently by one of my Apostles. ‘How do I know I am a god?’ A simple question really but it puzzled me….because I had no answer. What is a god? I decided to learn about the concept and came upon various religious texts. Each religion had differing answers, differing interpretations. But none explained how God came to be, just that they exists. There are many gods in this world and the humans cannot seem to unanimously agree on who is the one that stands above all. Then it dawned on me, a god is nothing and everything. Omniscient. Omnipresent. Omnipotent. A god is anyone who no one can stand against. Their word is final and those who defy it will be punished. I will be that god.”

The air around him rippled. Zero’s eyes burned deep red and the ground rumbled and he laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Victor asked.

Before he could get the answer, the static in his earpiece began to speak. “They’re moving Victor!”

All the infected had suddenly resumed their movements toward the control room. Soldiers started rapidly deploying firearms but they were too many.

Victor’s eyes widened. “No…”

Zero smiled faintly.

He stepped back, voice calm and almost pitying. “This was a clever plan, truly. But you made one crucial mistake. While true that I did require sight to control my hive, I have long transcended such limitations. They started as whims that my unconscious mind moved without knowing but now, my hive are my creations. I need not speak. They know my word and will never defy it.”

Victor grimaced angrily and darted forward to punch Zero but he evaded quickly going to his back.

“You look distraught father.”

Leland’s fingers danced over the keyboard, pulling up thermal scans. “Wait— I’m only getting two Sentient readings. Where the hell are the other two?”

Emily leaned forward. “What do you mean? They’re right….” She froze, staring at the live feed. “Oh, fuck…”

The screen showed Everett and Elcy standing beside — but the other two shapes, the ones they thought were Nara and Leon, tilted their heads and started moving with the rest of the hive, attacking the soldiers.

“Those weren’t Sentients,” Leland breathed. “They were decoys.”

Emily’s face went pale. “Then where are the real ones?”

Far beyond the Alps

“Ma'am,” a naval operator came rushing in.

“What is it?” the Admiral demanded. She moved closer to see.

“Multiple thermal tracks crossing the Channel at high velocity.”

“Explain?” she demanded looking at the radar.

“They’re in the water,” the operator said. “The infected are swimming towards London, ma'am and two heavy contacts above them coming across toward the Thames.”

“Oh my God. Call it in!”

“This was your plan all along, wasn't it.”

“Divide and Conquer, father.”

Victor stumbled backward as he got the information in his earpiece from Emily. “Wait…son. It’s not too late to negotiate. We’ll release the field in exchange….”

Zero’s mouth spread into a grin. “Thank you father but I do not require your aid.”

Tendrils of blood untangled from Zero’s arms like living rope. They snaked to the cradle covering the child then toward the dome, threading themselves into the smallest of openings in the structure and began to pull.

At first the field resisted, refusing to break.

Victor’s voice was a low growl. “Wait!”

The dome flickered, and a higher frequency feedback from it. then like a circuit overloaded, the field convulsed. Victor was slammed into the inner wall and the world sawed sideways.

BOOM.

Energy folded into itself and unmade the air— punching through the dome, instrument panels exploded, fracturing. Shrapnel chewed the snowy hillside and for every human soldier in the vicinity, they were caught in.

“Energy output rising!” the technician cried. “The field’s— wait— it’s inverting!”

When the snow fell, the dome was gone and the alps were a mixture of guts, blood and more guts.

And Zero — still whole, still standing — stepped out. Everett and Elcy unfurled their bones, taking to the sky. Victor coughed, blood at the corner of his mouth, his ribs stinging. He tried to speak into the radio.

“Everyone okay?”

Static was his only answer.

Zero floated above him untouched, red tendrils whipping violently behind him.

“This is the revelation, father.”

Then he lifted up following his Apostles toward the northwest sky while the infected run after them through the snow.

One hour Later

London was awake

Not the London of laughter and pubs and busy traffic, but one in cold military light. Searchlights cut through the fog above the Thames.

Thousands of French refugees clustered along the bridges and embankments, their faces streaked with soot and sweat – huddled under foil blankets, eyes darting at the rumble of distant thunder. Except it wasn’t thunder. It is the very things they had escaped from. Soldiers erected barricades across Westminster and Trafalgar, searchlights sweeping through fog as military transports roared overhead.

The Prime Minister had issued an ugly decree: asylum would be granted — on paper — in exchange for temporary sovereignty concessions, emergency measures and the surrender of some regional command to joint Anglo-French authorities.

In the Command Tower, the tension could be felt from a far. The Prime Minister stood at table’s head — tall, sharp-featured, wrapped in a navy coat that did little to hide the exhaustion under her eyes.

“Status?” she demanded.

“Satellite confirms contact,” said a communications officer. “Visual shows massive movement in the Channel. The reports suggest they’re infected.”

Rowan lit a cigarette with calm, practiced fingers. “They’re making damn good time. If what we heard is true, they’re still walking here from the mainland.”

“No, Captain. Our fleet’s confirmed it….they’re bloody swimming. They’re quite fast too, radar barely caught them.”

“All the way here. Mad bastards’ve got some lungs on ‘em. I’d wager we can cut them off at Dover….”

“Have the French responded?” the Prime Minister asked cutting Rowan off who blew out smoke staring at her.

“Monsieur Duclair handed over the signed agreement in Calais a few hours ago. It is done,” her secretary replied.

“Let the refugees in. In exchange, France’s sovereignty passes to the Crown once this is over.”

Rowan turned, half-smiling. “Aye, ma’am. Bit of empire-building in the apocalypse, eh?”

The Prime Minister shot him a glare. “We’re not building anything, Captain. We’re surviving. Now get your men in position. London’s about to have company.”

Rowan exhaled a long puff of smoke. “Aye, ma’am.”

“Um, Captain,” the Lieutenant started. “The infected have already reached the tunnels. We have multiple signatures.…Jesus they’re a lot of them.”

“Then let’s give ’em a proper welcome. Lock down the Underground. Send in the drones. Get everyone ready, we’re going hunting.”