Point Zero (One-Shot)

Point Zero

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Commissioned by: Patreon Special

Wordcount: 1043

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Help came to Earth eight years after the globe was struck by two superweapons of a past age. It was not malice, nor a need for resources, that spelled the end of humanity’s information age. Two weapons by interstellar empires long gone struck humanity’s homeworld in the span of two years. The gravest, most terrible misfortune to befall any species of the whole galaxy struck humanity.

It is only natural that the universe expected humanity to have fallen before a single ship arrived. It was too late. Even if humanity managed to glean technologies from the wreckages of their doom, then the fleets necessary to evacuate the world would take months to requisition, refit, and refuel. No matter the actions of private individuals, funding of relief efforts, and efforts of lesser stellar conglomerates, humanity would fall to the two world-breaking weapons that befell it. 

The first was a weapon born with the intent to harness the resources of whole enemy worlds for immense, stellar factories. Launched upon the world, the self-replicating technology would strike down the militaries via massed numbers and attrition, whilst mining the planet to create more of themselves. Each one of their number can restart the process. Each one can turn aside primitive firearms. Each one can salvage another, or any refined metal, to repair itself. A standard, industrialized planet can be expected to withstand a single stray missile with ease, as it was meant as a mass bombardment weapon, but a backward, pre-spaceflight race? Humanity was expected to die.

The second was a bioweapon whose origin was lost to legend. It was held within a small space station lost to time, which drifted across space for centuries, while miraculously avoiding everything besides all the hazards presented by space to its existence. It disgorged upon all of Earth’s creatures a virus that infected every animal. The vast herds of cattle used by humanity became monsters that rampaged through cities. Small creatures grew scales and spat acid, become lethal dangers instead of mere pests. Larger organisms, with more complex bodies, transformed into creatures that baffled every known science, and annihilated even armored vehicles that went against them. And, each one grew stronger with each kill, battle, and meal it had, becoming living storms that swept away city after city.

Humanity was expected to die, to succumb, and to fall forever.

The oncoming fleet expected to save handfuls of survivors, wipe the planet clean, and resettle it under their protection for centuries upon centuries.

Instead, they found themselves being declared in violation of Earth’s orbit by orbital weaponry.

We did not fall.

But, we paid a grievous price for our continued existence.

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The city block is vacant. A rare occasion for Point Zero. It is humanity’s most eminent city. A trade hub that connects humanity to the whole galaxy. It’s center is a massive space elevator gifted by our benefactors that permits the holder of the city unparalleled access to space. The city is always in contention in national politics, being the jewel that every superpower had their eyes upon, but that mattered little to me.

I was here to settle a problem.

The bodies of Drones litter the ground. They are mechanical units meant to hold back crowds, not the ones meant to assault hardened positions, so their loss is to be expected. No. The only concern I have regarding the situation is the excess of black, brackish blood that enrobes the walls of the alleys. How many had been consumed? How far along was my target? Was there hope for their person I intended to capture and convict?

Or, was there only a monster left?

The alley was dark, so I had the car enter above it. The cruiser’s engines cast a warm glow upon the dark alley, but its floodlights served me better.

At the alley’s end was something that used to be human.

Chitin plate barely constrained bulging, bleeding flesh. It filled the alley from side to side. Human feet extended from its abdomen, but they were receding quickly. It moved upon ball-joined spindles now. It was gigantic, bulbous, and in its skin-bound maw composed of both teeth and chitin jaws was an adolescent’s arm. 

I met its five-eyed gaze. Four were onyx orbs, while the last was that of a human’s.

Was there humanity left in that gaze?

I do not know.

And, it was already too far gone to be tested.

Infection compounded upon infection. One human limb, consumed by one already so heavily mutated, rarely allowed for a reversal in transformation. Those rare cases were of individuals forced to consume human flesh, yet somehow had the will to resist the bestial, monstrous instincts that arose within them from the corruption. I know only of two such cases, rescued from the clutches of syndicate, and lives spent fighting in illegal pits.

This one before me was nothing like either. 

For one thing, it was roaring at me in challenge, rather than trying to run away.

That meant its mental capacity was practically beyond my reach.

It charged at me with the bleeding limb still in its may. Body shuddering beneath its own weight, crushing its own shell, and breaking its limbs in its charge, it rushed at me nonetheless. 

It chose to fight, even if it meant harming itself.

It acted like a weapon instead of a beast, or a man.

Killing it would be the practical thing to do.

Yet, there were many questions that needed to be answered.

How did this come to be?

Why did this happen?

Was there anyone else in danger of becoming corrupted?

All of those questions could only be answered by the man turned into a monster. 

So, I plucked its brain from its skull, while crushing the rest of it into a slurry with a gesture.

I ignored how my blood boiled, roiled, and screamed with ease, as I reformed my hand and held the mass of chitin, teeth, and skin that remained of both a man and a monster.

Who was it did I need to hunt down as a protector of Point Zero?

Unfortunately, such answer will only come to me after the victim’s brain has been scanned.

Until then, I needed to be patient.