After the Flood

In the video game Halo there is an infestation known as the Flood. Nobody knows how the Flood came into existence but it is known that they were such a threat that an entire civilization, prior to the race of humans and their alien enemies, opted to wipe themselves out rather than have their evil take over the entire galaxy.

What sort of evil would there have to be in the world to make somebody push the button that would end everything? Is it better to run; to seek out some fabled colony where shelter from the storm might be given? Or do you stand and fight for something that you don't even know if you can believe in; but something that you've lived with long enough that it's become your life?

How long would it take before madness would set in? Three months worth of good days of outwitting the enemy replaced by one moment where you take your eye off. Perhaps the madness is such that you'll convince yourself you'll survive; that even though you're hitting the self destruct button that somehow while all of your enemies are laid to waste in front of you, that you, the hero, will somehow escaped unscathed. Because you are special; because you are good.

Towards the end, we find out that the Flood are sentient beings. A fact that despite their insatiable need to strike whatever human they come across compounded by their need to infect humans and make them become Flood, would surely turn some of our hippy, tree loving friends into starting some sort of rally to save them. And perhaps the hippies are right, perhaps there are alternatives to fighting. Perhaps we could work it out and someday, down the road I could go to the grocery store and buy a rutabaga across from a like minded Flood.

For now I'm going to go blow Halo rings outside and watch them dissipate into the wind. The next chapter of Halo comes out soon and, ultimately, the fate of the Flood rests in the hands of the good folks at Bungie and the standard issue Marine rocket launcher that has been carelessly left for me to find.