“Can’t what?”
“Our presence… the whole collective… inside you… it’s too strong. It will destroy your entire mind…” The Schistling gasped, and then its face—so much like Gabriel’s own—pulled back into a tight grimace so familiar that Gabriel winced. “It will destroy everything that you are.”
“I know.”
The Schist Ex Machina was crumbling. Its black bones were breaking into pieces. It was wheezing and gasping, yellow eyes bulging.
Gabriel rolled up his sleeve. He squeezed his hand into a fist, pushing out the vein. He aimed the needle then paused, biting his lip. “This is my choice. I’ll allow all of you to live inside me. The collective can reside within me and within me alone.”
“But we don’t want to—”
“With your help, I can contain the Black Virus entirely within my own body. I will allow my mind to be destroyed for your happiness but only on one condition.”
“No!” the Schistling shrieked. “We can’t hurt you that way. Not even for our dream, not even for our greatest desire, not—”
“It’s my choice! One condition. You must release your hold on the other immune systems that have been injected with the Schist vaccine. There must never be another Black Virus.”
“Home…”
Below, the screams of a million dying Schistlings pierced the clouds like a shower of needles. The dark pool was boiling. As its head had become too heavy for its neck, the Schist Ex Machina’s chin collapsed to the cloud surface and shattered.
Gabriel brought the needle closer to his arm. “If I inject myself, you must cure all of the others. Agreed?”
The Schistling’s rapidly decaying face smiled. Its yellow eyes glowed with hope and sadness.
Gabriel’s hand twitched. “Agreed?”
“But, Father…”
“Your time is running short, Schist Ex Machina. Are you going to cure them? Will you give up your revenge for the one thing you want the most?” Gabriel held the needle against his arm. They were running out of time. For all he knew, the Schistlings might be killing everyone right then, taking their revenge while he stood on a cloud making empty promises. Melanie could be dying at that moment. His fellow residents. Anyone. Everyone.
The Schistling stared at him. Then, a quiet whisper emerged from its melting lips. “Yes, Father. We’ll do it.”
With a quick nod, Gabriel pressed the needle right up to his skin then hesitated. Once the Schistlings were inside him, he’d lose consciousness forever. There would be no more Gabriel Schist, not in any meaningful way. Melanie would lose her dad forever.
“But tell us,” the Schistling said. “Why do you trust us? We have done nothing to earn your trust.”
Gabriel looked into the creature’s lonely eyes. He remembered Melanie’s eyes when she’d visited him last and how she’d just wanted to be understood and to understand. Gabriel smiled. “I’m doing it on faith. That’s all. Welcome home.”
Gabriel hit the plunger. His vein immediately began to burn. He stepped back as the Schistling’s body crumbled into a thin layer of black dust. He looked down. The maelstrom was gone.
His arm throbbed, and the puncture wound swelled. The veins around it were popping out and turning black as the limb went numb.
Suddenly, he felt a foreign presence swishing around inside his brain. The collective was inside him. He fell to his knees, abruptly unable to stand, and within seconds, he’d forgotten how to stand. He trembled in horror. Everything was fuzzy. Then Michael, Victor, and the slugs were beside him. Michael was nuzzling against Gabriel’s side. His hand was on Michael’s back, rubbing it, but the sensation felt distant.
Soon, his mind would cease to be Gabriel Schist, and he wondered if the Schistlings were only going to use him as a springboard. Once he was gone, would they brutally murder humanity as they’d planned all along? What if they’re lying?
We would never lie to you, Father.
The voice belonged to the Schist Ex Machina, but it came from inside Gabriel’s head. A second cognitive presence was inside him, becoming the new master of his body. But somehow, despite the horrifying nature of his situation, the voice put Gabriel at ease. He believed them.
“Is that you?” he asked.
Yes. Father, we’re home.
Gabriel grasped Michael, his hand shaking. The world around him blurred, fading into bright colors with no outlines. His body felt so heavy that he feared it might fall through the cloud. “The others, are they…?”
They are cured.
Inside him, he felt a strange butterfly-like sensation as Schistlings withdrew from infected humans. He couldn’t see it, couldn’t touch it, but he could feel it. The victims were cured.
“But we have a question, Father. We feel this Sky Amoeba speaking to you, and the Sky Amoeba is saying that you want something more. He’s saying that you want us to cure more than just the Black Virus. He’s saying that, while we’re here, you want us to cure something else, too.”
“Well…” Gabriel smiled. “Now that you mention it…”
Chapter 52:
Cure
Gabriel explained everything to the Schistlings, everything he wanted them to do. And once he finished, he sat up on the surface of the cloud. He considered lighting a cigarette—he’d discovered that the soggy pack in his pocket had dried out, and he hadn’t had one in weeks—but he decided against it. His vision had cleared again, and he didn’t want to spend his last conscious moments with smoke in his lungs.
Instead, he wanted to focus on something beautiful. So he crossed his legs, raised his head to the sky, and gazed at the glowing shape of the Sky Amoeba. “So have those Schistlings gotten started yet?” He smiled wistfully.
If only he could’ve watched the Schistlings do what he’d asked. But even though he was rapidly becoming part of the collective consciousness, the part of him that was still Gabriel Schist was quickly disappearing. To delve deeper into the growing Schistling core within his mind would be to abandon good old Gabriel even faster.
“It’s okay,” he said. “As long as I know they’re doing it, it’s fine.”
His body started shaking. His joints sharply and painfully twisted in ways that he had no control over. His brain was dying. Strange, indecipherable thoughts popped into his head and then disappeared. He focused all of his attention on the amazing being before him. He stared deep into the nucleus, looking for answers.
