Lenny Mathews's Story

Apocalyptic New York: A crumbling city, empty of the millions that once called this place home. The plant life is reclaiming the city, stray animals can be found scavenging for food. Around the edges of the city roam fierce creatures that were thought to only exist in legend and myth.
But now reincarnations of the ancient gods are appearing around the city. Their goal: To find and kill the other pantheons' gods. The last surviving team not only leaves with their life but with the power to once again rule the human world and save it from destruction.




He had called her Ix Chel. Who the hell was Ix Chel and what was going on? Lenny had been out walking to the shops when the earthquake hit. Walls and tumbled down around her, people had disappeared and then this guy had appeared. He didn't look exactly human, in fact he was holding a scepter shaped like a snake and mirror, had feathers on his head and face paint that made Lenny think of a tribal warrior from the movies. Strangely enough, although he didn't give his name, Lenny felt that she somehow knew him. Huitzilopochtli?.

His explanation had been brief and not entirely satisfactory but Lenny had got the gist of it, she was in the future and being forced into a life or death battle against other... gods? The whole godly bit might have been a bit hard to swallow if she wasn't now standing near the docks of New York City. In the harbor she could see the statue of liberty, the flame in her hand hanging at an odd angle.

"Holy shit, what the hell is going on?" She said to herself, glancing around. "Excuse me! You can't just leave me here!" Lenny frowned as she received no answer, or at least not the answer she was looking for.
From away to her left came the sound of heavy footsteps. Lenny spun around, both hopeful and scared. Her hope quickly died as she saw the creature that stepped out of the shadows.

The body of a man and head of a bull. A minotaur. It gave a bellow and before Lenny could fully process the fact that the minotaur was real it charged. Lenny turned on her heel and ran. She had the harbor on one side so she went towards the city, dodging cracked pavement and thick weeds that grew everywhere. Lenny could hear the minotaur gaining on her and frantically glanced around for something, anything that could get her away from it. Her eyes alighted on a fire ladder, halfway pulled down and with a rubbish bin standing beneath it. Before she could second guess herself Lenny changed direction. She jumped, hoped onto the bin and then grabbed the fire ladder. It shuddered slightly as she added her weight to it but thankfully it didn't break. She quickly climbed up, leaving the frustrated minotaur below.

Only when Lenny reached the roof did she allow herself to slump down on the tattered tiles. A stinging sensation on her arm made Lenny glance down to see her long sleeved shirt had been cut on the sleeve. She couldn't remember when or how. The pinprick of pain brought it home to her that this wasn't a dream. Her eyes widened as the shallow graze on her arm, which had been welling with blood a second ago, began to heal itself. Did this have to do with this Ix Chel chick?



Cooper found himself on the top of a ten story apartment building. He had been called Horus by the guy/god that had appeared too him. 'Horus, was he Egyptian?' Cooper thought, trying to distract himself from the dizzying heights. He hated heights and was already searching for a way to get down. Luckily for Cooper he wasn't on the edge of the city, otherwise he would have been in danger of being attack by a monster. He could certainly hear them though. There was a loud bellowing coming from the docks a short ways away that made Cooper think of a bull.

Eventually Cooper found a door to the inside of the building and after a moment of tugging and pushing he managed to get it open. Below him the floors of the apartment building were strewn with litter. He poked his head into a few of them. In one he found a packet of cigarettes, half full and better than nothing. Cooper pocketed them before continuing down the building. It didn't bother him too much that the building was deserted and clearly falling apart. It looked as if a tornado had raced through the rooms. None of their power worked and he found nothing to eat.

The guy that had explained the situation to Cooper had made it clear that this was some kind of battle and that Cooper was expected to fight and kill other gods. Cooper snorted as he thought of it, there was no way that he was risking his own life for anything. No, he was going to find somewhere nice to hole up and stay there until this whole thing blew over... provided that it did of course blow over. Whatever happened he was going to make sure he steered clear of anyone or anything that might hurt him. It wasn't that Cooper was a coward, he just valued his own life more than, say the rest of humanity.

The front entrance was, strangely, without rubble or any other feature that might have made it seem uninhabited. An unopened chocolate bar sat on behind the reception desk and Cooper snatched it up as he passed. With a shove of his shoulder he pushed open the door and quietly glanced out into the street, making sure that no one was out there waiting.

As Lenny caught her breath she could make out other sounds erupting from around the city. If she had to, she would guess that others had been attacked by monsters. From a few blocks over she could just make out the shrieking of something . It didn't sound particularly human, somewhere between a human woman and a female. The sound sent chills down her back in just the same way that the Minotaur's shouting from below did.
"What did that guy say?" Lenny thought as she pushed herself to her feet, "There are others out there and some were in my team?"
Nothing made sense and as much as Lenny might have liked to imagine she was dreaming... well there was no way a dream would be this realistic. Not to mention the cut on her arm that had stung. Lenny glanced back down at her sleeve, the skin shown through the torn part was only marked by a thin layer of blood. The skin itself was completely healed.

Lenny pushed the cut out of her mind and wondered to the edge of the building, glancing down into the alley she had ascended from. Below the minotaur growled up at her, apparently it - he? - wasn't likely to quickly forget his prey but neither did it seem that the minotaur could climb or for that matter think of another way to reach her. That gave Lenny an advantage and quickly she strode to the other side of the roof. The flooring creaked in places, making her move more cautiously. Thankfully the building was pressed against another slightly taller building and Lenny was able to climb up onto this roof. From the higher view point she could see the things that had been making the screeching sounds.
Harpies? She thought, remembered some vague lesson on Greek mythology from years ago. Lenny figured that if a minotaur existed than why not Harpies.

Lenny glanced around and found a ladder leading back down the street, thankfully far from where the minotaur was still bellowing. She tested the ladder, found it satisfactory to carry her weight and then carefully climbed down. Once she reached the street Lenny paused. Just where was she going? It wasn't like she knew anyone in New York, it was deserted. Lenny glanced in the direction of the harpies, no doubt there were people there but the question was whether they were those who were supposedly on her side or the ones who would be trying to kill her...



Cooper found the street deserted. Cars rusted in the centre of the road while greenery had began to grow up through the concrete.
"What the bloody hell happened?" He spoke aloud, finding his cautiousness lost in the face of this mystery. Something had happened so the millions of people who lived and worked here and suddenly left and disappeared.
Cooper began to pick his way through the rubble, his ears pricked for any hint of a noise. He could still hear a range of bellowing and shrieking coming from one side of the city and he was both curious and nervous about what had caused it. His nervousness, of course, won out and his direction was in the opposite direction.

Cooper had just turned a corner when a sound caught his attention, someone's footfalls were echoing down the street. Cooper ducked behind a brick wall, half the bricks tumbled onto the road and watched as the person in question rounded the corner. He was a tall blonde man. There was nothing extra-ordinary about the man that might have indicated to Cooper that he was one of the other gods that were meant to be trying to kill him. As he drew closer Cooper could make out a Celtic tree tattoo on his wrist.

Cooper remained quiet, any move he made might draw this man's attention and Cooper did not want that. Besides you could often tell more about a person when they didn't know they were being watched as opposed to when they did know.
A question formed in his head as he watched the man,
"How would he be able to tell the 'gods' that were supposed to be on his side against the ones that were apparently trying to kill him? .
Cooper had heard the man that had appeared to him earlier use the words gods. Cooper had even understood that the man was including Cooper in the title. Even so there was understanding and then there was accepting. Cooper was a far cry away from accepting that he was a god.