Most of the remaining population developed almost superhuman powers to go with their superhuman knowledge; they became literal gods. But humanity was far from ready to ascend to the next stage of existence. We were still too petty, too jealous and too violent. Soon enough our newly born gods turned on each other too, and this time the devastation wasn't confined just to Earth. One faction destroyed the outer planets, the gas giants, and in retaliation another group detonated the sun, wiping out the inner solar system and any humans still left within the blast radius.
Fortunately my organisation had anticipated some manner of disaster on this scale, and had evacuated a number of the remaining humans. With our new understanding we had built a great sustainable ark, able to carry us and our technology; we were bound for the closest planet that could sustain us. This was the group I was part of. We thought we were safe, that we had escaped the madness that had consumed the rest of our people. There weren't many of us left, but we were confidant we could rebuild the human race from just us few. A new, better humanity, born from the ashes of the old. We thought we wouldn't make the mistakes of our forebears.
We were wrong.
8.
The post humans should have dedicated their lives to the worship of the Ancient Ones. Perhaps then we would have endured. But we were still arrogant and petty, and despite all that had happened we thought ourselves too good to merely be worshippers.
Fools!
Had we learned nothing from all the destruction? Had we not realized the grasp of the Ancient Ones was vast and iron clad? No. Humanity has always been slow to learn, and this time it cost us dear. The punishment given to the survivors of the Cataclysm was slow, but the end would come for them too.
9.
We survivors found a new home, somewhere far away from Earth where we could start a new colony of post-humans. Starting a new colony is always hard, but this time round some things were easier. We were all superhuman geniuses; we knew how to quickly remake the planet to suit ourselves, and the best way to ease the transition from uninhabited world to thriving colony. But it came at the cost of cannibalizing the Ark for the technology and raw materials.
We were doing pretty well for a while. We made it through the first year with almost no deaths. The second year came and went and we started to feel hopeful again for the first time since Earth had been lost. Very carefully we began to breed again, needing to increase our numbers as quickly as we dared. The only way to do this was artificially; every colonist had their DNA combined with that of every other colonist to produce a new child, and the foetuses were grown in artificial gestation chambers. We couldn't afford to lose the women to nine months of pregnancy, and the natural way would have grown our numbers far too slowly.
For a while everything seemed okay. We thought we had escaped the madness that had claimed the rest of our species. Our numbers were growing again, and it looked like the human race might manage to escape extinction.
The children were the first to fall to the madness, though we don't know why. Many of us blamed ourselves, for our faulty DNA or for gestating them artificially, for growing them too quickly. Whatever the reason, one night the children turned on us, turning our new colony into the same kind of bloodbath that Earth had been. Half of the adults were killed before the children fled. We grieved, we buried our dead and we created a new batch of offspring. Then the adults started going mad too.
10.
It was much slower for us. The Ancient Ones decreed that the final punishment for the human race would be a long drawn out death. Praise Them and Their infinite wisdom! At first the signs were subtle; bad dreams, memory problems. Then some of the adults started hallucinating and oh! the things an unlocked mind can dream up. They are so very clever, my Ancient Ones, they knew exactly what we deserved for our arrogance. Enhanced as we were, the humans who were yet unaffected tried to come up with treatments for their colleagues, and when that didn't work, restraints. But there is no fighting the will of the Ancient Ones; one might as well try to stop an avalanche with one's bare hands.
The madness spread, and that was when I started to understand. I alone was the favoured servant of the Ancient Ones; I alone could hear Their glory, I alone had been chosen to know Their will. And it was Their will that I should be given a glorious task. In Their name I was to hunt down the remaining unbelievers, force them to acknowledge the glory of Their name and send them on to meet their Makers.
This task I did gladly. Anything to do Their will and bring Them the greatness that They deserve.
11.
I killed them. I killed them all. The adults, the children, the unborn foetuses. All of them. There is so much blood on my hands. Is it still genocide when your species is dying anyway? I don't know. All this knowledge and I still don't know that.
I'm losing myself slowly. My lucid periods are becoming shorter and shorter and I'm spending more and more time as the other one. I want to believe that it was him that did all those awful things, but it was me. I convinced my colleagues to go against the will of the higher ups and give this gift to humanity all at once. I was the one who was tasked with bringing the survivors to this planet to try to start over. I was the one who suggested using artificial means to grow our population faster. I was the one who killed them all and I was the one who had to wash the blood off my hands. I'm the one who had to endure the nightmares and bury the bodies.
I am the last of my kind, and it is all my fault.
I won't let him win in the end though. When I die the human race dies with me, but I want to die as myself. I won't let him take that away from me. I won't let–
12.
–Fool! Did he really think that he could fight me? I am the Chosen of the Ancient Ones! I have given myself over to Them completely, and They have rewarded me! If They are satisfied I will ascend to become one of Them; if They are not They will kill me. Either way, the human race is over. All I can do now is wait. They will be here soon. I can hear Them approach. I must be patient, and I will be rewarded.
Soon.
***
Isle of Noise Page 26
