19 July 2012

Unchosen 24

It started with proof that there's no such thing as being too cautious. The mutants attacked again, coming at us from all directions, howling in fury as they came. I was on the litter at that point, so Chasity snatched Doc's sub-machinegun from under his arm, and sprayed at the nearest group of muties. I started to set down my end of the litter, but Doc shoved it into my hand, and yelled at me.

"Run! There's too many to fight off out in the open!"

I glanced at Chasity as she let off another chattering burst of gunfire, dropping two of the yellow beasts, and scattering several more. Her teeth were bared in a snarl as she raised her rifle one-handed and shot another in the face at point blank range. Doc gave another shove, and I lurched into a jog, leaving it to Chasity to cover our retreat. I hated to do it, but I trusted Chasity's competence, and we were in too dire a situation to argue.

"Uh, guys?" she called after a couple minutes of running, punctuated by more more bursts of gunfire. "Something's wrong. I don't think they're really trying to catch us." I glanced back just in time to see the last of the mutants melting away back into the ruins.

"Oh, shit," murmured Doc, and the awed tone of his voice snapped my head back around to the front.

05 July 2012

CHARNEL - The Story of the Gods

The four Old Gods created the world. They created the sun and the moon and the earth and the water. They created mankind and animals and all the things that exist. They even created children of their own, godlings, full of power and loved by the Old Gods.

Forever passed and the Godlings grew tired of their place as beloved but essentially powerless things, unable to change the world for what they perceived to be the better. So they came up with a plan and they followed through on it. They rose up together and struck down their parents the Old Gods, pulling them from their thrones and claiming the seats of power for themselves. They took over the world and they imprisoned their parents.

Nobody remembers the true names of the Old Gods, they are known now by what became of them.

The Burned God was imprisoned in the sun, burning eternally until he became the hideous blackened and charred thing he is now. See him grinning, see his cracked and split flesh, feel his heat.

The Crushed God was imprisoned in the heart of the earth, beneath incomparable weight and immense pressure until he became the horrible broken and battered thing he is now. See him moaning, see the bones sticking from his flesh, see his organs turned to paste, smell the dark wet earth.

The Empty God was imprisoned between the stars, in the cold and empty void that barely exists there until he became the terrible haunted inchoate thing he is now. You cannot see his insubstantial form, you cannot hear his silent screams, you cannot feel his touch but you know the he is there.

The Dead God was imprisoned in his own dead body buried in an unmarked grave in the land of the gods until he became the putrid rotting dead thing he is now. Smell his rotted and putrified flesh, feel the cold of the grave emanate from him, hear the buzzing of the flies as they swarm around him.

Although they had, in many ways, the puissance of their parents, the Godlings did not have the wisdom or experience to control the world. Things began to fall apart, entropy crept into the world and cracks appeared in the fundaments of existence. Things were broken that could not be fixed and the world became a worse place.

After ten thousand years, or some say more, The Old Gods managed to regain a measure of their former strength and they broke free from their prisons (although they were eternally changed). They rose up themselves and cast out their errant children. They did not just imprison them though, they killed them. They slew them and they burned the bodies.

That is why the sky rains ash, because the bodies of the Godlings burn even now.