"God"

One hand raised, he held it up, and he watched as red petals blew in the wind, brushing his hand and fingers.  His fingers traced the growths that sprawled across the city.  A system of water absorption and transfer drew water from the coast and fed the plague growth that smothered the city.  At the water’s edge, tendrils like the ones that had snared the plague victims floated on the water’s surface, a film that was alternately pink and brown, depending on how the light caught it.  It might gain ground on that front if the ocean currents started to push a great deal of seaweed or other material toward the coast.

The ocean here didn’t smell like ocean, the city didn’t smell like city, and the countless dead who scattered the streets, buried under the carpets and tangles of red vines.  Here and there, dessicated bodies lay, mummified by the environment, faces pulled into mocking smiles by the retreat of skin and the pull of the vines that were still hooked into them.

Everywhere, red flowers carpeted surfaces.  From a distance, it looked like the buildings and streets were drenched in fresh blood.  From as little as ten paces away, they looked like flowers.  When he reached out to tear one free of the vine and held it before its face, the makeup of it looked more like a chimerical hybrid of a starfish and a snowflake.

Dog eat Dog Arc 18 (Enemy)

Half of the city was burned.  Maybe a fifth of the city was overgrown, now, tinted red with an overgrowth of the red flowers, but those areas were contained by walls that seemed to be holding steady.  For reasons I couldn’t discern, possibly a lack of bodies, the remainder of the city was dotted with red flowers here and there, but the infection hadn’t quite managed to get a foothold.

Cut to the quick 11.15