Iridescent Pearls

Even before they arrived...

Even before they arrived, panic had already become a melody. The song that bathed in death of those whose hearts still beat.

A frantic stacatto that bruised the rib cage and brought a clammy sheen to the skin of all who felt it, heard it. Ten days earlier, the balance of the day tipped and everything spilled chaotically unto the floor. It all began with a change in tempermant. The edge, the acid touch of anxiety laced the air and infected the lungs of all. Babies wouldn't stop wailing, mothers lost their sense, children felt angry and scared. Men and women of all ages were slowly poisoned with nervousness, fear, dread, and hate. So much hate.

I stood in the storm of emotional turmoil and stared confused, bewildered. My limitations on comprehending this change stilted my daily activity. I walked around and noticed how my friends turned enemies, and my neighbors became strangers. I barely comprehended sarcasm and other nuances. I was born a non-human, a new type of technology and being.
God created man, and Man created me. I was the first and perhaps it was my birth that brought them.

Within the span of those ten days the foundation of humanity crumbled and I had no one to guide me. My creator went mad, she jumped from my arms and ran back into the fire when I tried to save her.
She never saw me, she raged into her last moments acting like an animal without reason.

I didn't require sleep, nor food, nor company, yet I felt incomplete. I felt, ha, that's not right. Perhaps this is my version of madness, and with this thought I knew I was lost. My logic and programming became clouded.

I wandered. I saw the self destruction all around. Blood dripped from the trees and intestines clotted the pavement and street. Fires burst forth from bodies, buildings, and nature alike. The Burners craved heat, and the bloodlust of the Hungry painted the air with pain.

The Lost died in clusters, crying and too conflicted to act. Murder and Death came on the heals of Rage and Pain. They came and feasted on man. I was ignored.
Ten days they stayed and after they left, I was alone. Not metaphorically alone. No, I was literally alone.

That was when I wandered and wondered. What happens next?

C. Dougherty