Kings of Hell
Chapter 19

Armageddon POV’s

It was my real BIRTHDAY today! My mother and father were Wade and Ariel. Frankincense City was a vibrant full city, so diverse in every possible way, even the city walls, graffitied and covered with unique messages, reflected the different and free people who lived here.

I’ve experienced it all through my grandfather teaching me. Well, he makes it clear he and all of it is a simulation – until I’m ready to wake up.

They didn’t want me to grow up as a child, Dale explained it was too dangerous and a liability. In truth I felt he probably meant that my mother and father were incapable of raising me. Which… was kind of understandable. They didn’t have the time, while helping to defend FC from threats beyond its walls.

But it wasn’t only that, Dale needed to stabilise my DNA, a mixture of Alpha and Leopard. He assured me I’d be ready by 18, which was sped up through the process of growing in an incubator-pod.

Speaking of…

My waking day!

I could see the timer in my dream, and Dale visually next to it, proud of me, “Are you ready for real life, Armageddon?” he asks, “We’re all so excited to finally speak with you. We’re all here waiting.”

Yes. Me too. I can’t wait!

“See you in a small minute,” Dale winks and disappears into an array of dissipating pixels – as the simulation reaches the end of it’s program.

Counting down from a minute. Only the numbers remain.

60.

59.

58.

Dale assured me, they’d all be waiting for me.

53.

52.

I would meet my mother!

50.

My father, my whole family, I list off all their names and picture all their faces.

40.

Dale had always said walking would be awkward for a moment, because I’d be so big and heavy, but it would quickly be a breeze when I began.

30.

My name is Armageddon. I’m an Ultimate. I was loved already. I had a bright future ahead of me.

20.

Instead of just thinking, I start to… smell something. Heavy. Oh, it’s so heavy. Are my senses switching on? What is that feeling over all my skin, gravity?

10.

The smell is the worst. Oh, fuck. It’s putrid. Incense. Overwhelming, disgusting, like trash – like dead rats. Like rotting food.

9.

Burning.

8.

Heat.

7.

Pain.

6.

W-why did it hurt?

5.

I’m crying out – a noise from my throat, deep and scratchy.

4.

Focus.

Focus!

3.

2.

1.

My eyes peel open, crusted together. My vision is a blurry foggy mess and I instinctively raise my hands to my eyes, wiping away the crust. Ow. It hurts.

Now I see the world, while I hear my breaths – and that’s a weird sound. They’re loud and getting louder. Because I’m breathing faster. My skin is so sensitive.

My skin is… ouch… my skin is burning with heat as the pod opens, and I move my spine forward, only to collapse in a heavy heap onto a dry foundation, no… a road… surrounded by a burning city, crumbling buildings, dust in the wind, and bones blown about everywhere, in the gutters, on the sidewalks.

I lie on a scorching tarmac, hyperventilating as I try to relax.

I didn’t expect this.

Everything is burning up.

The air is – disgusting – I sit up, trying not to gag, I pinch my nose. Okay, smells were too much right now. Being awake is… fucking difficult.

Okay, let’s stand.

I try, sticking out a foot, trying to figure out how to move up into a bipedal standing position.

Woah.

Movement is so weird!

I get up and almost fall back, then almost fall forward, then somehow I replace my centre gravity. My ears balance out. Now my feet burn on the ground.

I look all around me and I decide I need to walk to some shade.

Frankincense City is all around me. The sky, I stare at that, and the strange blue pulsing.

Above is an reflective electric dome, pulsing constantly, but one part is cracked – letting in a glowing radiating stream of tainted green air.

It looks like it’s being pulled down into some specific place, on top of some building.

Oh.

D-did the very old and automated nuclear defences kick in? I think so. Well, it obviously did, but this was rationalising. This was my brain trying to deny it.

Because I expected family to greet me, but now I’m in real life, standing in a desolate city.

It… looks like everyone is dead.

Aside from the rats.

I have to kick a few away as they come running at me, seeing something alive move and make noise in the middle of the street.

I turn back toward my pod, that’s rolled out onto the road. How the hell did it get here? Blast impact. Next to me I see The Black Lair. A black and gold building.

And my pod? I can see my reflection in the door. I see my face.

Oh, wow.

I look just like my father, Wade – with my mother’s tyrian eyes.

“Mum,” I whisper her name, as I cringe trying to think of where she could be. The bones all along the ground? No. It doesn’t take me long to realise this is a grave of a mass execution. And I see the bullet casings littered between the bones. “No,” I whisper, FC citizens had been attacked!

Massacred.

But where were my Ultimate family?

I had to save my family. I didn’t even know where to begin.

C-calling out their names?

“M-um!” I pause, “ARIEL… dad… dad… WADE… DALE!” I hear my voice echo back at me, over and over, “MUM!” I scream as loud as I can.

Nothing.

But now more rats are running at me as they hear my cries of despair.

Argh!

I run toward the Black Lair, kicking them away, tripping over my own feet multiple times.

Running is so awkward. Everything is so heavy. My bones ache.

Once I’m inside the Black Lair’s clubhouse, I call all their names again – and I hear nothing, only the echo of my empty pathetic cries.

It doesn’t take me long to realise – I’m the only one left alive in this city.

I’m –

I’m alone.