Atlas Breaks

The city, a many armed Atlas stretching its arms into the sky to keep it from crushing the world. A makeshift god constructed of concrete and steel, laid in gold to gleam for the faithful. They rest beneath the overprotective arms and worship their false idols that honk, and beep, and spew lies. The computers and machines, the demigods that the people pray to in hopes that they will speak to their god on their behalf. The people work tirelessly, rushing throughout the city like blood. Pumping life into their god, for they feared the sky that loomed ever present over their heads.
One day an arm collapsed, a virus from within mutated a single cell to turn against the greater body. A sickly being the virus infected the host with the lowest of human emotion. The people rushed to the ruined structure and sifted through the ruble. There was nothing that could be saved and so a plan was conceived. The arm would be replaced, made bigger and stronger than its predecessor, and so they set to work immediately. The god’s blood set about repairing the body. They were successful in their Endeavour and there was a celebration for their achievement. The new structure was praised as a great achievement and would be the strongest safeguard against the sky. And so the people relaxed felt safe. When they found a little inconvenience in life they prayed to their demigods for guidance. The city became blissful and happy once again but still they were naïve and foolish. The virus had spread and touched many more of their cells and mutated them.
Soon the demigods were alight spewing information on the new diseases. They praised the people who had aided in fighting the virus and cursed the diseases itself. They fought hard against the cancer and were on the brink of victory when the unthinkable happened, another arm fell. So they worked quickly to quiet the cancer and just as fast to construct a new tower. The city, Atlas remained proud and silent and watched his body repair itself and felt content that his worshippers worked so hard. The new arm was not as strong as the previous one but it kept the sky in its place and was deemed good enough. The people breathed a sigh of relief but they were baffled that they could not completely destroy the cancer.
One after another the arms were broken and rebuilt in haste. Until one day they were nothing but thin spires stretching into the sky. They prodded and poked it until it cried out in anguish. Long gone were the days when the sky could rest comfortably on the arms of Atlas. It tried to lash out at the foolish worshippers down below but it couldn’t reach. They finally safe believing they could keep the sky at bay, but they didn’t expect the cancer to return
The cancer had been but was weak and only served as a distraction, but it had served its purpose. The city had changed and became something ugly, before it was gentle, kind, a lover and protector. Now it had been changed by its worshipper into a fighter, a warrior. The once peaceful sky became enraged to see its old friend turned into a monster. It had done what the cancer could not, it destroyed the towers. Then it reached down with its hand of wind and fire and sought to destroy the people. The humans prayed to their demigods but they just sat in their shrines. They realized that they had to leave. So they fled from their god, their Atlas like blood from a wounded body. Atlas became pale and cold as its life’s blood fled to the security of another far off god. The sky took pity on the poor city and quietly laid it down to rest.