Ekron

The Fall of Ekron 1

A few years after the noxious effects of the first nuclear winter and its consequent ice age began to recede, commerce started between Ekron and Kish. The ghost of Lidya was forgotten and new generations barely knew that was the name of an ancient city. Nevertheless, Achish, King of Ekron, remembered the City of Plagues with vivid detail, as he led his own city of spawns with a soft and warm iron hand.

His children, as he called them, were part human and part machine, their souls were decorated with data that shone through their eyes in metallic strokes. Achish sent ambassadors to Kish, both to commerce and spy, with a growing fear for the plagues of the past. It was not a whim, but the result of a specific prophecy presented to him by his oracles, Heidrun and Baphomet; forever connected to large mainframes, fed with cards and tapes of infinite information. But his spies reported no trace of biological warfare being developed in Kish, only witchcraft and electronics.

Then he sent expeditions to the ruins of Lidya, but they could not enter the giant bunker beneath what once was Riga, it was still sealed from the inside; noises came out of its entrails as if someone could still live down there. The specter of Gog was seen in the Baltic shores casting spells on the sea, with a strange girl by his side.

Achish was restless in his throne, his crimson vulture head had become black, and his eyes were transitioning from black to red. He never wore a crown, he never needed one. Uneasy, he went down to the Mainframes' Hall, were a couple hundred functionaries typed data into tapes and cards to feed his oracles. From a cluster of machinery, thick cables made their ways to the heads of Heidrun and Baphomet. Heidrun was dressed in white, from her goat head, a pair of curved horns, pointing down still grew a little every year. Baphomet was wearing a red robe, his horns were large, sharp, and grew straight up from his ox head. They were both sitting on metallic thrones, filled with wires and rubber. Achish had been created by Gog centuries before, prior to the Annihilation War, conceived originally as an oracle himself. With time he created his own oracles, ruled Ekron and other underground cities, which succumbed to the vicious plagues of the war, so only Ekron survived under his rule. Baphomet and Heidrun had recently prophesized that the fall of Ekron was near, also caused by a plague, sharing the same destiny of her sister cities.

Achish stood in front of Heidrun, who opened her green eyes and said, "There's nothing you can do now, go to your throne, and let me suffer in mine. A city has to breath, even beneath the ground."

At that exact moment, a horrid eel, with white skin and red eyes, entered an air intake that provided oxygen to the subterranean city of Ekron. It chewed through the filters with black fangs and a sharp proboscis opening itself a path. When facing the enormous fans that sucked air into the city, it threw itself to them; the blades made several wounds on its pale body and spurts of blood came out of them. But it passed through the fans and kept crawling deeper into the guts of Ekron. It emerged from an air duct to a cobblestone street, near the city's central square. Foam came out of its mouth, and from that foam, a thousand little spores scattered and traveled on artificial winds, finding their way to Achish's children. A black spirit came out of the eel's mouth and went back to the air duct. The eel's eyes became human, the beast collapsed to the ground and died from its injuries.