In a small house on the outskirts of Moscow were a husband and wife making the preparations for dinner.

Their kids would be back in a couple hours, sure, but turkey must be marinated for hours to be just right.

In school, recess was made all the more fun by the addition of thunderclouds. Kids, excited to play in puddles and splash their friends, looked at the rapidly darkening sky in anticipation. Their teachers, excited to retire, looked at the rapidly darkening sky in dread.

Gardeners, commuters, construction workers, people from all backgrounds at least glanced at the sky at this moment.

Some had the foresight to get inside when they saw the color of the clouds.

Others relished in walks in the rain and had thought themselves clever for bringing umbrellas.

It didn’t matter in the end, of course.

The first raindrops fell, and a swirling purple fog rolled in, appearing like a cloud of doom.

***

A woman who had stepped outside to investigate those strange clouds found himself among neighbors, who had also left their comfortable and safe houses.

The woman took a deep breath.

The air had a chemical taste to it.

A raindrop her forehead, and then her eye, which she reached up to rub, before pausing.

She mechanically looked up at his surroundings, her eyes now a swirling cloud of black and purple, before walking back into her house and grabbing her brother.

In his surprise, he didn’t think to resist the strangely strong tugging force pulling him to the door and outside.

He was shoved into the now-torrential rain, before meeting the eyes of its sister.

The being joined the rest of his neighbors in going door to door, before grabbing the residents of houses and apartments alike and shoving them into the rain.

You see, Prometheus had the foresight to alter the initial procedure of infected cells.

Once the cells had infected an entire unit, the unit would then be ordered to identify other non-infected units and infect them via the quickest means available.

In any other situation, the quickest means available would be rather tiresome, consisting of somehow getting them to ingest an infected cell through means as crass as breathing into their face.

Brutish and barbaric, completely unfitting of an existence such as the perfect life form.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Fortunately, given the circumstances, the most effective course of action for infected units to take would be to take advantage of what was literally falling out of the sky.

To anyone still in their apartment, looking out on the street, it would look like a scene out of a western zombie movie.

To a drone above the city, it would appear as a city of robots, all moving in perfect metered and rhythmic step.

And to Prometheus, it appeared as perfect order.

Similar scenes appeared all across Moscow, but didn’t extend beyond the city bounds.

***

“A shocking development in Moscow has occurred, the entire city seems to have come alive under the strange purple rain.”

“Reports are coming in from those taking shelter that Moscow has been completely overrun by ‘zombies,’ as they’re being called.”

“Those affected by the rain lose all sense of agency and mindlessly follow instructions given by a 3rd party. The situation is still developing.”

“The police have released a press statement about the suspected origin of the purple rain, the Arista crime gang.”

“And now we’re coming to you live from the inside of the Moscow Police Department, here’s Captain Roanov.”

The news broadcasts from varying channels all cut to a live feed from the inside of the police department, an imposing middle-aged man center frame.

The broadcast began while he was mid-sentence.

“-and we can say with high confidence that the origin of this unknown virus is the Arista crime gang, who may have been pawns of some higher power. Civilians, keep your windows and doors covered and boarded. We don’t know much about the infection capabilities of this virus, but it is airborne and dangerous. That will be all.”

The camera operator stopped filming just in time for Captain Roanov’s face to morph into one of despair and fury.

The police were locked inside their own station.

For hours afterwards, all TV channels local to the Moscow region were locked onto a broadcast detailing everything known about the unnamed virus.

***

After a handful of hours, everyone on ground level had been infected. It was at this point that a change occurred in all of the infected units, shocking the helicopters in the air reporting on the situation.

Starting on various points on the unit’s body, their cells began to pulse, sending out purple waves along the surface of their skin.

This pulse would continue until the entire body was flashing at once, at which point they began synchronizing their flashes with the nearby units.

This was behavior commonly seen in fireflies, who tended to nudge the timing of their flashes closer to their neighbors until the two were on the same frequency.

Lo and behold, the same situation took place on the ground level of Moscow.

Once everybody was in the same frequency, they all glowed at once, before slightly dimming.

The startup sequence had been completed.

Prometheus breathed in from all of the units simultaneously, and exhaled.

He sent out a ping to all of his infected cells and tallied the total number of infected at 7 million.

Frozen at the number momentarily, Prometheus ordered each cell to scan its surroundings.

A comprehensive awareness of the state of the entire city of Moscow appeared in his consciousness. Every piece of information sung out like an angelic harmony, and Prometheus imagined himself as an omnipotent figure high above the clouds.

Everywhere the raindrops fell, he received an update.

Everywhere the fog was, so was he.

It was an intoxicating feeling.

He quickly assessed the situation.

Prometheus noticed multiple dense clumps of body heat emanating from certain pockets around the city.

The virus couldn’t see the insides of the buildings, as his fog hadn’t made it there. He assumed that some ants had clung to each other in their final hours to try to escape him.

Prometheus controlled the fog to directly attack these safe havens, exploiting tiny gaps that weren’t quite watertight.

In this method, he made his way from haven to haven, watching the soon-to-be infected unit’s eyes widen in horror before glazing over entirely and joining his fold.

If there were no gaps, he would infect the ventilation.

And if there was no ventilation system?

One would be made.