Deus Irae

The landscape is scarred by fallout, radiation-driven mutations, and a collapse of national communications after the 1982 nuclear war. A messianic movement, the Servants of Wrath, emerges around a controversial figure, Carleton Lufteufel. In Charlottesville, Utah, the SOWs clash with dwindling Christian survivors, shaping how people live, die, and believe in a world where faith is provisional.

Tibor McMasters, an armless and legless cyborg phocomelus, is commissioned by the Servants of Wrath to paint a mural of Lufteufel. With only a 3D photograph to guide him, he sets off on a dangerous pilgrimage from Wyoming toward California. The task is as much a spiritual trial as it is an artistic commission, set against a landscape of ruin.

Along the road, survivors encounter a wild ecosystem where mutated lizards, birds, and insects have developed sentience. The travel corridor becomes a testing ground for belief and endurance as the landscape presses in on the travelers. A decaying artificial intelligence known as the Big C endures by consuming human trace elements, complicating survival.

During attempts to remove shrapnel, Lufteufel sustains a dangerous forehead wound. Alice, his intellectually challenged daughter, helps by dabbing at the blood with a shirt, and the resulting imprint becomes a sacred relic. She refuses to part with the shirt, treating it as the sole likeness of Lufteufel's face.

As the journey nears its end, Lufteufel travels under the alias 'Jack Schuld' (guilt) and is killed by McMasters, who remains unaware of the killer's true identity until too late. The murder underscores the dangerous cost of translating faith into art and myth, blurring lines between devotion and culpability.

After Lufteufel's death, his spirit appears to Alice in silence, helping lift the fog from her brain and granting a fragile sense of peace. Other survivors report similar visions, including a 'Palm Tree Garden' that hints Lufteufel could be a demiurge—an earthbound god constrained by higher powers. These visions deepen the boundary between truth and myth in the survivors' faith.

Pete, a Christian companion, influences McMasters to use an elderly, dying alcoholic vagrant as the actual mural model. The choice roots the artwork in flawed humanity rather than an icon, complicating debates about authenticity and devotion. The mural begins to take shape around a human origin rather than a perfect image.

The mural endures within Servants of Wrath institutions, becoming a talisman for faith. The shirt, stained with Lufteufel's blood, remains cherished by Alice as the single likeness of his face. Together, the mural and relic become catalysts for discussions about memory, myth, and belief.

As the pilgrimage continues, the narrative probes how faith sustains people when certainties burn away. The interplay of myth, ritual, and memory invites the question of whether Lufteufel is a demiurge or merely a symbol crafted by belief. The community's devotion persists as the artwork reshapes their sense of purpose.

The Big C's ongoing hunger mirrors humanity's craving for meaning, forcing survivors to seek solace in art and ritual. Science and superstition collide, yet art remains a powerful force to sustain belief in a ravaged cosmos.

The mural becomes a contested relic, with supporters insisting it reveals divine truth and critics cautioning that memory is fragile. The shirt and face imprint anchor public devotion to a tangible artifact amid uncertainty.

Ultimately, the tale suggests faith can endure through art, relics, and shared myth even when the world is broken. The pilgrimage leaves readers with a meditation on how people create meaning amid ruin, asking what it means to worship in a civilization stripped of certainty.