Gord Zajac - Major Karnage

The shot changed to Paco and Miki again. They were smiling gleefully.

“Looks like Spragmos begged to differ. What was the final time on that, Miki?”

“Three point seven seconds. That’s a record all right, but not quite the record any of us expected.”

“The Worm has had the Final Say, and that Final Say is nay.”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow, Paco. Mama-oo-pow-pow.”

“Looks like Ajay’s now one with The Worm,” Karnage said.

“No he isn’t,” Tristan said. “He’s just dead. Try not to follow his lead.”

“I’ll do my best,” Karnage said.

Homski and a pair of sentries led Karnage from the Green Room into a giant antechamber. A pair of massive metal doors stood before them. Karnage could feel a slight breeze coming through the crack. There was a toxic smell to the air reminiscent of creeper and pinkstink. Karnage wondered if it was the plants or The Worm. Guess I’ll find out soon enough. He cracked his knuckles.

Homski studied Karnage from the corner of his eye. “Is it true you are the Lightbringer?”

“I am,” Karnage said.

“The High Prophet thinks you are a fraud,” Homski said.

“And what do you think?”

Homski furrowed his brow a moment, then shook his head. “It matters not what I think. Spragmos will show the way. The Worm is The Word.”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow,” Karnage said.

Homski shot him a look. A voice crackled over Homski’s headset. Homski nodded and turned to Karnage. “You will enter the arena. There is a spot marked with an X. You will stand on it, and wait for the High Prophet to finish his speech. Only then will you be allowed to face the Arbiter.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then once Spragmos is done with you, you will have to face the technical director.”

Homski pulled a switch. The doors swung open. The orange light of the rising sun blinded Karnage. Once his eyes adjusted, he stepped through. The door slammed shut behind him.

A vast wasteland of pockmarked earth opened before him. The ground bore the scars of a thousand and one weapons tests: blast craters and blackened earth stretched out in all directions. Bits of old military hardware were strewn everywhere. Massive trails of freshly churned earth crisscrossed in all directions.

Mile-high concrete walls fenced him in on all sides. Lines of observation decks wound around the walls of the canyon like a giant corkscrew. Thousands of faces pressed against the glass. Tens of thousands of D-shaped lenses flashed and flickered in the morning sunshine.

A crude X had been scratched on the dirt in front of him. Karnage stood on it. The High Prophet’s voice echoed out from every wall as it was broadcast from every D-pad in the compound.

“There are those who say the end of the world is upon us. That our time upon this scorched earth is fast coming to an end. And they are right. This world is dying. Listen closely, and you can hear it gasp its last shallow breaths.

“But all is not lost! For as the Scriptures say, this is not The End Time. This is the Time For A New Beginning!”

The crowd cheered. The High Prophet waited for the cheering to die down, then continued. “Spragmos has shown us The Way. Spragmos has given us The Word. And The Word… is The Worm!”

The crowd chanted: “Mama-oo-pow-pow! Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“And The Worm will show us the way. And one day, we will all awaken The Worm within. But the question remains: is that day upon us? The Scripture speaks of the Lightbringer. He who will show us the Light and illuminate the True Path. And now, there is one among us who claims to be this bringer of Light. But is he indeed the one of which the Scripture speaks? I have heard you ask, ‘Is this the Light Spragmos speaks of?’

“And I say to you: I am but a man. It is not my place—nor any mortal’s—to interpret the meaning of the Scriptures. But there is also no need. For in the end, there is only The Word. And The Word… is The Worm!”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow! Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“Now, let us pray.”

There was a mass shuffling as thousands of heads bowed. Melvern’s voice echoed across the canyon. “Mighty Spragmos, we ask you to help guide us through these troubled times. Send us Your Messenger and show us The Way. Mama-oo-pow-pow.”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow,” the crowd replied.

“Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

A blood-curdling screech tore across the arena—a thick, jagged line of sound that ripped through the canyon. It slammed Karnage in the chest so hard he stumbled back. The noise ricocheted off the walls and echoed back across the arena, slowly fading into silence. The air itself grew still. The entire world was gripped by a sudden, terrible fear. Karnage wanted to scream into the void to break its spell.

That’s when he felt it.

It started as a slight tremor at his feet, like the dull vibration of an approaching train. The tremor grew stronger and became a deep rumble. The ground shook. The earth beneath his feet churned and boiled. Karnage leaped off the fast-rising earth. He tumbled over the teeming mass until he found firmer ground. He turned just in time to see the expanding mass explode. A skyscraper shot out of the ground with lightning speed, sloughing mammoth chunks of earth in all directions. A dark shadow overtook Karnage, travelled the length of the arena, and shot up the full length of the wall behind him. Karnage found himself enveloped in cold, merciless darkness, as if the thing had risen up and swallowed the sun. Karnage craned his neck up, squinting into the sky.

The Worm towered over Karnage like a freight train balanced on one end. Hair covered a body that gyrated and pulsed like a sea of quivering tentacles. Its face was nothing but a giant mouth framed with row upon row of shard-like teeth spiralling deep into its gullet.

And jutting from the tip of its head, just barely visible against the orange-tinted sky, was a single, stubby horn.

“Well, shit,” Karnage said.

A ripple ran down The Worm’s body, and it toppled towards Karnage. As it fell, its hairy tentacled worm carcass became a crumbling mass of steel and concrete, and a voice called out from behind him.

“Tower’s comin’ down!” It was Cookie.

“Run!” Velasquez shouted.

Karnage’s men started running in all directions. Panic hit him hard.

This was where it all went to shit. Where they lost everything. Not this time. He wouldn’t let it happen again.

“No! This way! Follow my lead!” Karnage turned and ran away from the surging tower at a forty five degree angle. Blood pounded in his ears, drowning out the raging roil of concrete and metal as it hurtled closer and closer. His soldiers followed closely behind. He could feel their urge to turn and look, to see if they would make it.

“Don’t look back, soldier!” Karnage shouted through the cacophony. “Don’t look back! Keep running! Keep running, goddammit!” Things would be different this time. He could feel it. He’d save them. He’d save them all—

The Worm’s mass smashed into the ground, just missing Karnage by inches. He was thrown across the arena and crashed into the remains of a crumpled old jeep, his wind knocked out. The last remnants of New Baghdad were swept away by the mammoth flood of stars pouring across his vision. The crackling explosions were replaced with the fevered chants of the Spragmites.

“Mama-oo-pow-pow! Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

Karnage hugged his knees to his chest, wheezing, trying to catch his breath as the last few stars in his eyes turned to fading embers. Keep it together, soldier! Keep it together! His ribs burned. He hoped he hadn’t broken any of them.