Cells at Work: Ebola

Chapter 19: Fated

"No... Just... Just... Wait... Just listen for a sec-"

The wounded Staphylococcus Aureus never had the chance to finish her sentence before a lady in a maid uniform swung her scythe into her chest, cutting her in two. The Staphylococcus let out a wild shrill before becoming forever still.

The lady smiled at the deed before shifting her gaze to survey the sea of corpses surrounding her. The sounds of clashes could still be heard from a distance, but the outcome of the battle had already been decided.

The war against the Staphylococcus Aureus matriarch and her army had finally come to an end. It had been one grueling conflict with billions of the world's defenders dead and many more compromised by her invasion. If left unchecked, the matriarch would have instigated a fatal case of pneumonia in the lungs.

Fortunately for the rest of the world's inhabitants, the matriarch overestimated her strength and failed to account for the macrophages, maidens of death. The overambitious antigen declared she'd destroy everything in her path in seven days.

The maidens brought her down in three.

The lady's ears perked up when she heard the sounds of familiar boot steps, sounding assured and refined, coming from behind.

"When will they ever learn?" she asked the newcomer without turning. "When will these backward antigens learn they could never defeat us in battle?"

"Do not be too assured by the enemies' inadequacy to learn from their mistakes my young apprentice... They only need one successful campaign to bring us all down."

She turned and saw an older lady dressed in an immaculate white maid uniform.

"Hello Em-chan," her master replied, with a bright and beaming smile.

"Master," she bowed low in deep reverence. "Milady Macrophage."

Lady Em observed her master for a few more seconds, noting fully at the significant differences between them. Her master was a cell radiating with majestic splendor. Her silky blonde hair was wrapped into one flowing braid and her face unblemished with impurities. Her frilly maid uniform was undesecrated with the tainted cytoplasm of the enemies. Contrast this with herself who was disheveled from head to bottom. Her short caramel hair was in tangles, and her uniform was completely covered with grime and red ichor.

One might assume Lady Macrophage never went to war considering her cleaned outfit, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Like the crimson-stained reaper scythe Lady Em carried, her master wielded a large cleaver-sword with one hand, and it too was drenched with the cytoplasms of the slain.

Both had been in the fiercest points of the battle, fighting side by side, and fighting off dozens of antigen waves sent to insure their annihilation. They slaughtered them all, with no quarters or mercy given. Before them, lay the corpses of thousands of the invaders, and a thousand more would fall from their hands until finally the matriarch herself with her royal attendants showed up to do battle.

With arrogance only a deranged antigen could muster, the matriarch charged at them, drunk with power and fury. Lady Em, her master, and their own entourage of bodyguards met her head-on, and a clash of epic magnitude worthy of transcription by the Memory T Cells soon followed.

A fight between colossus, a fight between titans, but there could only be one side to rise up as the victor.

"You have my eternal thanks for saving my life, Em-chan," the older macrophage bowed her head.