The World of Myth Magazine

A hot breeze blew by into the night, and I smelled the ever-familiar scent of fresh death, the high-rise known as the Sodom Tower was an unwelcoming backdrop while the frame burned uncontrollably. The flames lit up the sky, and the closer Renee and I got, it looked more like morning than the middle of the night. The heat was forceful, and the Unlucky onslaught of death became more visible.

The concrete sidewalk was covered in a thick layer of blood; the gore squished beneath our feet with each step. I removed my fire axe when I saw a freshly turned demon feeding on a pregnant woman; without thought, I swiped at its head and severed the cranium from the spine. I grabbed the corpse and pulled it off the would-be mother's body, afraid to find her face familiar. I braced before identifying her as my daughter-in-law, but thankfully it was not her.

A wave of hate and anger covered me, and I went on a brutal assault on the surrounding Unluckys. I slashed at anything around me. Some got back up and tried to advance on me, which was what I wanted at that moment. One creature, still wearing a business suit, charged me, and I placed the blade of my fire axe perfectly centered in his face. It blinked a few times until I pulled back on the handle and left the head split into two.

Renee screamed as she got caught between three Unluckys, two men and one woman who wore a blood-covered nightgown. The fear was evident on Renee's face while she unloaded a clip of bullets into the three, but they continued to advance on her. I had warned her multiple times that traditional weapons like handguns were useless in the fight against those damned beasts. Instead, pointed weapons like a knife, sword, or in my case, an axe was best for killing those things.

I rushed the three Unluckys and created an opening for Renee to get out of the middle of the trio of death. I stood in the middle and could not help but smile at the opportunity to slaughter more of God's forgotten servants. I waited for them to move in on me; the first to make a move was the woman in the bloody nightgown, who lunged at me, and I placed the head of the axe into her midsection and pulled upward, which created a large cavity in her and to my surprise the other two Unluckys forgot about me and immediately went after the woman. I had never seen Unluckys turn on one of its own before.

Two loud gunshots rang in my ear as they hunched over and fed on the entrails. Each bullet found a home in the two devils that continued to dine. I turned toward Renee, who stood there with a reloaded revolver and shrugged at me.

To my surprise, the woman with the bloody nightgown got to her feet and moved in my direction despite her insides being shredded. Only on instinct, I whipped the fire axe toward the neck and, with ease, removed its head from the shoulders. Black tar-like blood spewed from the spot where the skull once set atop. Yet, there was something different about it—I had killed many beasts from then until now, and never had there been a yellow tint to their blood; it was reminiscent of motor oil.

It had always appeared to be black and thick, like overused oil, was it caused by the vaccine? I spotted another Unlucky who was just turned, over by the entrance into Sodom. With a hard swing of the fire axe, I charged the devil and decapitated it. Like before, blood poured from the neck; I dipped my finger into the fluid and realized that the blood was not black at all but darkened yellow.

A younger female scientist plunged the needle into my vein and placed a tube to release the captured blood. I was a bit unnerved as I watched the fluid fill the capsule. It was a dark, grimy oil color. She noticed the expression on my face and explained that the color was from the chemical compound already in the test tube—that I was perfectly fine.

I asked what the compound was, and the Scientist explained that certain chemicals slowed mutation in lab rats. The theory was that the natural antibodies in my blood would slow the transformation to a crawl, essentially making the Unlucky go dormant.

She paused for a moment and then chuckled and continued that it would either stop it or my antibodies would destroy the compound and induce cellular mutation. People would become Unluckys without contracting The Sickness.

I returned to reality with the deep-hearted realization that all of this was my fault. I glanced over at Renee, who appeared somewhat hesitant when I called out to her, I asked what the matter was, but she did not respond, only moved farther away from me.

I took a step toward her, finding the answer as I spotted a glimpse of my reflection in a shard of broken glass. I stood there momentarily and saw that I was reshaped into an Unlucky. I did not recognize who I saw at first I had lost most of my hair in the front; my skin was dirty, swollen, and cracked open as crimson blood poured from the openings. My eyes were yellow, and my teeth shuffled with more teeth that came in over them. They were sharp and jagged.

It was the first time since I was in Nevada that I made a transformation, but never like what I saw in that glass. I looked back to Renee, who now held her revolver at me. I tried to speak, but only a garbled sound escaped my lips. I took a single step toward her, and she screamed out for me to stop, her hand shook, and the revolver barrel wandered wildly.

Renee needed to know that I was not a threat and would never hurt her, so I did the only thing I could do. I sat down on the ground, crossed my legs, and heaved the fire axe across the ground to where she stood. I closed my eyes and breathed. The anger and rage slowly faded, and my mind drifted toward Michael and Fran, that we needed to get inside Sodom. We had already wasted a good five minutes trying to get to the door.

My thoughts returned.

It was a light touch, a soft caress, and my name said sweetly. I opened my eyes, and Renee kneeled before me. Her face no longer wore a mask of fear but rather one of concern. I asked if I was back, and in response, she nodded. I started to stand, and my legs ached. At that moment, I required Renee to help me stand.

I asked what had happened, and she explained that I went on a killing spree with my fire axe and killed every Unlucky around me and, in the process, turned into one of those demons myself. Once I slaughtered all of them, that I then fixed my sight on her. I crawled and hissed and then oddly sat down in the blood until I returned back to myself.

I retorted that my mind wandered and that I saw her with the gun when I came too and that I needed to show her that she was safe from me. I was trapped and knew what was happening but could not convey it.

Once I felt strong enough to stand under my own power, Renee released me, and I took a few steps toward the entrance into Sodom. At that moment, bodies fell from the sky and crashed into the concrete sidewalk. Their bodies exploded upon impact. I glanced up and saw the workers who were trapped on the top floor of Sodom jumped from a window.

While I watched the other bodies plunge toward me to their extinction, I happened to notice that the penthouse suite where Helen and the others were was not on fire. In fact, it appeared that the plate glass tunnel that connected the Sodom tower to the Gomorrah tower was still intact.

A dozen bodies were collected on the sidewalk; those poor bastards decided to die by suicide rather than be burned alive. I thought about how they must have felt and what a horrible way to end it all, knowing in mere moments that you were coming to a painful conclusion and there was no turning back.

Moving past the dead bodies, I spotted a baseball cap caught on a nearby small flagpole extending out from the building. I snatched it down, ran my fingers over my bare head, and put it on with the bill facing backward. I glanced at Renee for approval, who gave me a thumbs up and handed me back my fire axe.

Finally, we pulled the door to hell open and walked inside.

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