"Any murder at all, of any sort, is a murder of hope, too."

It's fascinating what blood can do.

It pumps through us all and keeps our bodies well-oiled, as if we really are machines that require constant lubrication, and it is necessary to survive. In our self-sufficient factories (in all but fuel, anyway), we reproduce the blood that has died, and the cycle continues until the factory shuts down.

There are different kinds of blood at our bodies' disposal. White blood cells provide a natural defense against outsiders, a resistance that maintains order within the machine. They're responsible for seeking and destroying that which can harm us, and unless we have some kind of deficiency or malfunction, they are what we rely upon to ensure the cycle continues.

Red blood cells carry oxygen to and from the heart, pumping the essence of our lives throughout the machine. We breathe, but red blood is what makes our breath worthwhile.

It can also tell us when something is wrong. Blood is innately pure-- it's hard to infect something that is self-maintained, after all, especially if the infection has an opportunity to die when the short-lived blood cells die themselves.

Every now and then, though, something resists the cycle. It sits within our bloodstream, within our mechanical columns made out of arteries, veins and capillaries, and sets up its own defense.

It initializes a war that, try as they might, our white blood cells, our mercenaries, cannot defend against because it isn't a threat. Not to the blood, anyway. Our blood doesn't know to warn us that something wicked this way comes, so I can't hate it. I can just acknowledge that its trying to do its best, even if it sometimes has something terrible to report, because it is still performing well according to its primary directives. Wake up. Move out. Forge ahead. Die. Repeat.

It's not as toxic as outright poison, what sits in it, and it's entirely innocent. It makes sense that it would flow into the bloodstream, joining with what it knows. Maybe it was bored, this hub, and simply wanted to explore the rest of the battlefield. Slowly but surely, it's preparing to destabilize its base, departing for somewhere else that's more exciting, but it will never really know how devastating that tactical move will be for the war.

How will the blood know where to go if half of base camp is suddenly missing? Where will the mission directives be issued? I hope mission control told the lieutenants what to do if the base shuts down because the enemy's approaching. Mercurial and plotting, it glides beneath our radars, opportunistic and vindictive. So, so vindictive.

What will we do if the enemy is death? I'm not ready, so I hope mission control knows what it's doing.