New Age Death Machine

Inspired by a Mr. N. Gaiman.

   They came down the path, shuffling in a tight line reminiscent a prison chain-gang. The sky was black and no animals stirred. The path was dusty and covered with both rust and the imprints of feet, memories of those who passed before them. A stooped elderly man was at the line's head, two black birds at his shoulders and he clutched a twisted wooden stick. Odin's time had come.
   Behind him shone the goddess Amaterasu, her cloak was the stars and the moons of the heavens, her skin shone with the radiance and beauty of the sun. Next to her was Marduk, tall and powerful, his serpentine dragon wound about his waist like a sash. His face was impassive but his eyes bespoke misery and betrayal. Neptune followed close behind, undulating and rippling with the tides and all the waters in the world.
   Many others followed in their wake. There was Artemis, and Hades, Thor and Ngai side-by-side, falcon-headed Horus, the dragon Yinglong, huge and powerful, his breath the mist and rain.....
   The gods proceeded in complete silence as the road opened up into a yawning precipice, bridged by an old rope-and-plank bridge. Odin, ever the fearless, stepped foot onto it without head and the others followed his lead. At the other side rose a huge metal structure, spewing black clouds and ash into the skies that many of them had once called home. The gods crossed the bridge, their silent funeral procession, to the other side where others awaited them. One who looked like Lincoln one second, then Washington, then lastly Benjamin Franklin the next prodded them with a handful of arrows. Another, who was in fact a duality of beings conjoined at the waist, watched with sideways eyes, their heads locked in kissing, their hands groping the forms they shared. The last, a titanic being whose body looked like the static screen on televisions opened the door to the machine. Odin paused, eyes furrowed with anger and then hobbled forth. Noises escaped from the machine, hellish sounds of saws buzzing and gears whirring but Odin was not afraid. All of them, all of these gods had faced worse threats than a killing machine built by the modern age of man and they faced their deaths with pride and dignity. Odin stepped into the device first, the ebon feathers of his crows flying out of the door as they were torn apart by the torture devices. Amaterasu was next and once she stepped in, her light was extinguished.
   One by one, the gods walked to their deaths into the contraption and the world was still and silent, blanketed by darkness, under the thumbs of the newer gods of money, sex, television, power. The gods who cared little for their followers, swamping millions in thralldom. The modern gods, the most beloved gods, who disposed of the old gods, forgotten and dusty, like the ages past.....