Paragon- Ghost Hunters

by Freddy Milton

  Paragon got the conversation back on track.

  ”We're looking for a connection to a military camp, which should be somewhere here in Limbo.”

  ”Oh yes, I've heard of that place. Admittedly, it was before my time, but I know approximately where it is.”

  ”Fine. We want to go there.”

  ”Then we'll see if I can find the tracks.”

  Larry went ahead, but could not find what he was looking for. After going back and forth a few times however, he found an old switch, overgrown with plants and small bushes. He removed most of it and came up with what he was looking for.

  ”Here it is. I thought as much. It must be the secondary line to Therinka.”

  ”Is that the name of the camp?”

  ”It was called that earlier. I think it’s deserted now.”

  Larry removed some more bushes.

  ”This hand trolley may help you to get there faster.”

  ”Maybe, if the track is not overgrown too much. Thank you anyway. We’ll try.”

  Paragon and Anders hopped up onto the trolley. By tilting some handles, they were able to keep the vehicle moving.

  ”Goodbye and good luck. I hope you find out the answer to those mysteries.”

  ”Goodbye and thank you, Larry.”

  Paragon and Anders pumped the handles, but often they had to stop or the hand trolley was derailed because of rails overgrown with weeds. After a while, the going became easier.

  ”Here the weeds have been removed. Someone seems to have used these tracks recently.”

  ”That’s probably true. That jibes with the sight we saw of cattle trucks being used to transport the souls.”

  The tracks now went through an open land area where cratered ramparts and ruins testified that the place had at one time been a war zone. It seemed deserted and empty now. That was perhaps because the affected souls had passed on over to the afterlife.

  At some point someone came running towards them. It was a boy, shaking his fists, who might want a ride. They stopped to hear what he wanted.

  ”Who are you?”

  The boy gasped, and tried to get himself together.

  ”Vladimir.”

  He was still gasping.

  ”If you want to go with us you can get up here. We have room for one more.”

  He shook his head eagerly.

  ”No, no, that's not it.”

  ”What do you want then?”

  ”You really must not continue.”

  ”You seem to be serious. Why?”

  ”It's dangerous. You’ll get caught and taken away.”

  ”Where to?”

  ”At first, the Detention Center.”

  ”Do you mean the military barracks?”

  ”It’s a prison camp. Believe nothing else. And if you get in there you won’t get out again.”

  ”Will you stay there?”

  ”No way! They get exterminated. With all the souls coming in, there wouldn’t be room for everyone. They simply disappear.”

  ”Thank you for your warning, Vladimir.”

  ”Promise me you’ll turn back. I know, what I am talking about. My sister was captured and brought there.”

  Anders spoke.

  ”So did mine. That's why I want to go there and save her, if I can.”

  ”That would be very heroic. But, unfortunately, you couldn’t do it in a million years!”

  Paragon had to tell Vladimir about the situation.

  ”I’ve been sent by the security administration and it’s my job to find out what’s going on. Matters are without doubt completely unregulated, and that situation must end. Therefore, we can’t turn back now. We’ll have to continue.”

  Vladimir was overwhelmed.

  ”It’s extremely courageous of you. But now, at least I have warned you. I hope you avoid being wiped out.”

  ”We do, too.”

  The two travelers continued driving the hand trolley for a while without meeting any more souls. After awhile, they saw a shed just a bit ahead.

  ”Now we’re approaching a whistle stop.”

  Paragon slowed down, pressing a block against one of the trolley’s wheels.

  ”This looks like the place where I saw my sister being led away along with other children souls.”

  ”Wait! People are there now!”

  Paragon and Anders both jumped from the trolley in a hurry. Just then, a few monsters appeared behind a wooden shed, leading a bunch of souls, both adults and children. The shrill sound of a train whistle blared.

  ”Now the prisoners will be picked up. Just like I saw earlier.”

  In their eagerness to follow what was going on over at the shed, Paragon and Anders had not noticed what was happening on the other side of the track just behind them.

  A few of the ugly thugs had emerged behind some bushes near the railway track. They had passed a little in advance, and behind them, a few other monsters led a new group of souls to the shed. When they spotted Paragon and Anders, they immediately threw out their nets. The two would-be heroes got hopelessly entangled in the net. As they tried to escape, they were tied to the new group of child ghosts on their way to the shed.

  ”Haha! An additional side benefit! Yes, it all helps!”

  ”What do you say?”

  Anders looked at Paragon.

  ”I'm not saying anything.”

  ”I think the sound came from you, but it clearly sounded different from your voice.”

  ”Oh, now I know. It was this transmutator. I had completely forgotten.”

  ”What did you say?”

  ”It’s a universal translator box. I bought it from Bamrok for 113 blutoks.”

  ”Who is Bamrok?”

  ”It's a Hysfobide from Mirkos. He had bought it on Tralfamadore.”

  ”Excuse me, but that explanation didn’t help one bit.”

  ”No, it's true. I hadn’t thought of it. But the box can translate a number of important universal languages, and apparently also the one by which these unpleasant monsters express themselves.”

  ”There’s a display lighting up on your machine now.”

  ”You're right. What does it say?”

  Paragon turned the box over so he could see the display.

  ”Baskytjak.”

  ”I wonder what that means?”

  ”It must be the inter-universal name for that strange language.”

  ”Move! Now get going!”

  ”It did not have to translate, I understood well. You'd better turn it off, otherwise those pesky Baskytjaks are sure to notice it.”

  Anders was right. It was best not to draw attention. Paragon turned off the transmutator.

  Up at the shed the second group of souls had already been pushed into a wagon. The loading ramp was then moved to the second carriage, where the doors were unlocked. The new group was also herded into place in the dark inside cramped in the car, because there was already another group of souls inside the wagon.

  The ramp tilted, and up in the cattle car the doors slammed shut. They could hear the sound of the bolt pushed into place so that the door only opened from the outside.

  They soon heard the sound of a whistle, and the train started to move. Between the narrow bulkheads and the underside of the roof, a narrow stream of light beamed into the cattle wagon. All they could hear was the wheel’s monotonous sound when they drove over the rail connections.

  Ga-da-gunk, ga-da-gunk, ga-da-gunk...

  Chapter 16

  THERINKA

  They were standing inside the cattle wagon but fell over whenever the wagon buffers crashed during braking. Was this yet another station with several more captured souls herded in with those already standing cramped in the dark room?

  It took a while before anything happened, and the trapped souls blinked from the intense light, when the doors opened.

  ”Sjuba! Sjuba!”

  A group of spear-armed Baskytjaks ushered the frightened souls into taking their first tentative steps
down the chute.

  ”Sjuba! Na sjuba var!”

  Four Bastytjaks led the souls from each wagon through the gate, where the top of a curved band of wrought iron was designed to look something like writing. But it was not readable. If some of the souls hesitated and stumbled, the Bastytjaks prodded with their spears, to get them to hurry.

  Inside the big muddy place, the prisoners could see the many low wooden barracks that stood side by side at a distance. In the middle of the square was a flagpole; but there was no flag on its top. At a distance, a tall chimney stretched upwards towards the sky. Emanating from it, a thick gray-green smoke rose straight up into the air.

  As the newly arrived souls were led over to the barracks, they could make out some figures looking at them from the other barracks. They weren’t human souls like themselves, but gruff and ugly creatures, reminding them of the Bastytjak camp guards.

  The newcomer souls were placed in some empty barracks with wooden bunk beds in three levels. In the bottom of the beds were some thin dirty mattress. In some places things were left, suggesting that others had resided in these barracks not so long ago.

  The prisoners went over to the empty beds. Some of them were walking with difficulty and preferred seats at the bottom. While others didn’t mind using the primitive wooden ladders and sleeping higher up. The heat was rising, so perhaps at night, it would be a bit warmer in the top bunks.

  After the prisoners had waited for some hours, the doors opened again, and the souls were chased out to the square. There they stood lined up, and were then ordered to march over to some buildings that appeared built of stone.

  In the middle of the gable was a very solid metal door, which resembled those used for bank vaults. It had a wheel-shaped handle in the middle, which one of the guards twisted with some difficulty. The heavy door squeaked on its hinges when it opened swinging inward.

  The soul Group was ordered into the brick house. When hesitating, the guards poked at them again with their spears. Before long, all were herded into the building.

  Anders had kept quite near Paragon all the time.

  ”Were you prepared for this?”

  ”No, but I’m not that surprised, as we were warned of what to expect.”

  ”And we were stupid enough not to listen to the warning.”

  ”It doesn’t help to think about what else we could have done. Sooner or later, we’ll find out what happens, and preferably also why.”

  There were no windows in the house, but before the door closed, prisoners could only get to see that some devices hung in the ceiling that looked like showerheads. Maybe it was a shower room, where they could get a bath. That was not a bad idea, at all, as the souls were tired, and could use some refreshment. The group of trapped souls calmed down a bit.

  Again, some time passed, but then prisoners could hear a hissing sound. Soon an unpleasant odor began to spread through the room.

  Panic spread. The rumors had apparently been true. This was a process used by someone who seemingly had the evil motive to eradicate souls. And, to compound this problem, it may already be too late to do anything about it. The souls who stood nearest to the door, pounded and pushed on it. But it was not going to open, as it only opened towards the inside.

  Before long, all noise ceased inside the building. The guards knew from experience how much time needed to achieve the desired effect.

  Then a door opened at the opposite end of the stone house. Guards went in pulling the lifeless bodies out and putting them up on some carts that carried the soul remains over to an area at the back of the camp, where they were unloaded onto a large muddy field.

  ”Where are we?”

  ”I don’t know.”

  ”It feels strange and unreal.”

  ”There’s been some kind of change.”

  ”It's like something has been taken from me.”

  ”Yes, and then there's something else instead. Something strange. Something nasty and intimidating.”

  ”There's something sticky, which is being dissolved.”

  ”And now there’s a horrible stench.”

  ”This can’t keep on going. I hope it will soon be over.”

  ”I think it’s getting better now.”

  ”The light will return.”

  ”The headache is not so bad anymore.”

  No one knew how long, but after some time something happened. One by one, the souls regained consciousness. When they were clear-minded enough to think about it, they could see that they were not destroyed, but maybe were passed on to another state. They still had remnants of a memory of what had gone before, but now things were decidedly different.

  First, the souls were puzzled about why they regained consciousness with a group of Bastytjaks. But the surprise was solved when they started to look at themselves. They found out that they had all become Bastytjaks. Or, rather, not quite as the guards, but something that looked like them.

  Someone came crawling over to Paragon.

  ”Paragon! What happened?”

  ”Who are you?”

  Paragon looked at a disgusting ugly little creature with gray-green scaly skin and blisters and warts everywhere. Some crooked teeth were sticking out of the wide chops.

  ”I am Anders!”

  Now Paragon looked at himself. He had similar dubious bodily features, but they varied slightly from those he saw in Anders. He also still had a bit more mottled blue skin.

  ”How come you recognized me?”

  ”You still have that instrument around your neck, and the remains of your clothes.”

  ”Well, you also still wear a bit of clothes. I should have noticed that. Forgive me. I need to get used to this.”

  ”Get used to this? Is that all you have to say? That we should just get used to looking like this?”

  ”No, no, Anders. Don’t worry. I didn’t mean that. Not in the long run, of course, but just temporarily, you know.”

  The others in the group had come to similar conclusions. It served no use to let panic carry you away, especially given that in the rebirth process, all of them would need to come to terms with a different appearance at some time, anyway. But no one expected to end up as a Bastytjak.

  Anders was downhearted.

  ”Now we’ll never make it. Nobody will find us and help us out of here. They will look for human creatures, if anyone does manage to come here to rescue us. We’ve been completely alienated from those who wish to find out what this is.”

  Paragon had to comfort him.

  ”Take it easy, Anders. It’s not over yet. As long as we can remember something from the past, we can also look for a way out. It amazes me. in a way, that they have not cleared us completely of memories of our previous existence. I would somehow have expected that, given that they have been able to change our appearances.”

  During the afternoon, they saw that two more teams of souls were treated and ended up as grotesque creatures resembling Bastytjaks.

  The barracks were about to be filled, so maybe there was hope that the gathering up of souls in Limbo was nearing completion. But being trapped in an old prison camp could not be the ultimate goal of the system saboteurs. That ending wouldn’t be of use to any of the parties involved. Paragon wanted to find an answer to that question, but, evidently, he would have to be patient.

  While he and Anders walked around the yard and thought about the situation, Anders spotted a pale creature that had caught his eye.

  ”Come on, Paragon. Let’s go over there.”

  ”Why?”

  ”Just follow me. There’s something I want to investigate.”

  The creature that Anders had chosen was talking to two other alien creatures, who turned around when Anders approached.

  ”Dorrit?”

  ”Who are you?”

  ”Anders... In a strange carnival costume.”

  ”Anders!”

  The monster gave Anders a hug.

  ”Then you came anyway.”

  ”Yes,
of course I did. I wouldn’t want to lose you again so soon after I finally found you.”

  ”But how did you recognize me?”

  ”You have a chain around your neck with that flower pendant, which I remember from my early childhood.”

  ”Imagine! You really remembered such a small detail?”

  ”Yes, it's strange what you go about remembering without knowing.”

  ”You’re right. It’s totally weird. You could, of course, not know we were transformed when you decided to let yourself be caught.”

  ”It’s not that simple. Come on, you must meet Paragon here.”

  Paragon had remained somewhat in the background.

  ”Hello!”

  ”Hello, Dorrit. Anders told me about you. You are actually the reason why I'm here.”

  ”So you were probably also much prettier before?”

  ”I think there are mixed feelings on that, but yes, I preferred my old look.”

  Anders had to explain.

  ”Paragon comes from the Soul Service. When you were caught, Dorrit, I took a quick trip to the Seventh Sky to get some reinforcements. You gave me that idea.”

  ”So you've given up an existence where you could keep an eye on your little sister?”

  Anders bowed his head. Even in his altered state, one could feel he was not at ease with that issue.

  ”Maybe I can return to that state... later.”

  Paragon came to the rescue.

  ”Right now, we can at least rejoice that Anders raised the alarm. No one else had done that before. We also experienced a loss of souls from the Soul Incarnation Center, but there was no intelligence coming in from Limbo. The current level of communication leaves much to be desired.”

  ”But if it’s something new and unusual, it’s hardly any wonder, that no one has discovered it. The souls here are very egocentric. They have enough trouble coping with their own mental condition and problems. They couldn’t deal with those while they were alive, and certainly can’t deal with those, as well as additional problems in Limbo. It's all very sad.”

  ”It’s true that the loss of souls in the Seventh Sky is recent. But, in reality, we don’t know for how long souls have been lost from Limbo. Perhaps this traffic has been occurring for a long time. There may have been tens of thousands of bewildered souls abducted from here.”