Upworld

by Ian Woodhead

The last person shuffled inside and the door clanged shut, plunging them into absolute darkness. Branch released a dark chuckle. “Oh don’t start crying just yet, fellas. The lights will come on in a second.”

  Just as he promised, harsh white lights above them flickered into existence, showing Dane what looked like some kind of ornate citadel that would have looked more at home in a Bosch painting than amongst a bunch of peace-loving gentle giants. He stared in disbelief at the brutal depictions of every inhuman act of atrocity he could think of to inflict upon another human. He found it impossible to look away from the beheading, stabbing, strangling as well as a whole host of other vile acts.

  “Jesus!” spluttered Nelson. “This is like something out of a horror movie. What is this place?”

  A three-foot wall encircled the middle of the circular room. Dane leaned over. The walls sloped towards a five-foot hole in the middle. It felt like they were standing on the edge of a huge funnel. There was no indication to where that hole led. He was getting a very bad feeling about their immediate future, especially with total disappearance of the outer door. Dane couldn’t even see a joint.

  Somebody brushed past Dane.

  “Get ready to jump,” whispered Bradley. “They’ll be showing their hands any second now.”

  “What the hell is this place?”

  Branch grinned at Nelson. “This is where the bad ones live.” He put his hands behind his back. “Down there is where I was born.”

  Bradley tapped Dane on the shoulder and nodded over at Marlon. That nutter had another gun, and he was pointing it straight at Benedict! He dived on the man and pushed him to the floor just as the world exploded in gunshot. He kept his hand on the back of Benedict’s head and peeked over the top of the wall. There were three of them firing at each other now. How come none of them had hit each other?

  Nelson, the giant, and the native girl had all got the same idea to drop to the floor. Bradley knew that it wouldn’t take long before one of those maniacs started shooting the ones hiding behind the wall. He also knew that there was only one way out of here.

  The decision to move came when Bradley stopped firing. He threw the pistol at Marlon before planting himself to the floor. Before Dane could push Benedict over the wall, incredibly, the giant slammed herself into Branch. His body hit Marlon. The giant then jumped over the wall and slid down the steep slope. Dane managed to get the two protesting men over the edge. He pulled their fingers off the edge of the wall and followed them. Dane turned his head to see Bradley right behind him.

  Before he dropped into the hole in the middle, Branch started to shriek. The ear-piercing noise frightened him far more than what lay ahead. The noise abruptly cut off once Dane slipped through the hole. He gulped back his own scream when a bright blue sky suddenly filled his vision. Not that it would have made much difference, as the others under him had already found their own voices.

  Dane had no time to wonder how they could have possibly fallen up as the ground raced towards him at an incredible rate. He uttered a silent prayer and…

  …he crashed into a thick, dense bed of tightly-packed brown grass as soft as cotton. The stuff absorbed all his velocity. Dane lay close to the ground, unable to believe that he hadn’t broken a single bone. He slowly sat up and looked around him. The others were close by and judging from their expressions, they too couldn’t believe that they had reached the ground unharmed.

  “We should find some shelter,” said the giant. “They will have probably heard our noises.” She looked straight at Dane. “You do not want to be here if they do show up. I’m so sorry about this. I truly am.”

  It took Dane a moment to realise that she wasn’t talking about Marlon, Branch, or any of those idiots they had left behind. “Are you guys all okay?” Both Benedict and Nelson nodded. Bradley checked himself before standing up then grunted. The only one not to acknowledge Dane was the tribal woman. She had curled up into a ball.

  He got up and hurried over to her. “It’s okay now. You’re safe. The others have all gone.” He glanced across at the giant who looked close to following this woman’s example and seriously wondered just how safe they really were.

  His body and senses all told him that they were all back on the surface, yet, his mind and eyes both refuted that. It didn’t matter how hard they tried to convince him of otherwise, Dane knew that they did not fall up.

  “We should have stayed, Dane, and chosen the bullet.” The woman finally moved her arms and lifted her head. Her eyes darted from him to the giant and back. “It would have been a good clean death. They are going to find us and chew on our bones.”

  Nelson and Benedict joined him.

  “This is outstanding,” said Benedict. “It’s another level!” He looked up towards the sky. “That must be another fusion generator. I can’t even begin to imagine the technology involved to create such a device.”

  “So why is this one working when the other one isn’t?” Nelson looked at the giant. “And why does that question fill me with dread?”

  The giant walked over to the men, leaned over, and picked up the woman. “Because to deactivate their energy source would be a monstrous act,” she replied. “This woman is correct. They will eat you.”

  “We can’t stay here,” said Bradley. “Regardless whether this level is inhabited, Marlon and his goons are going to be following us, and they have guns.”

  Dane nodded. “He’s right. We need to go.”

  “Go where?” Benedict threw up his arms. “Don’t you get it yet? There is nowhere to bloody go. We can’t get back home now, that’s for sure.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Of course I do, Dane,” he snapped. “Have you not worked it out yet? This is their prison. Branch was on the ball when he said that this was where they put the bad people.” He glared at the giant. “Jesus, can you imagine the exact opposite of her? Oh God. This place is where Jack’s beanstalk took him!”

  “Will you just shut up!” Dane so wanted to slap him.

  “Only it wasn’t the blood of Englishmen they first smelled,” muttered Nelson. “This is why nobody knew about the giants. What’s betting that the Spanish Conquistadors ended up down here as well?”

  Dane shook his head. “Unlikely. For a start, how could they have possibly opened that section of wall?”

  The giant started to weep. She took a deep breath. “I opened it, then waited until they we all inside before I shut them in.”

  “This is all very dramatic and everything, but can confession time not wait until we’re no longer out in the open?” Bradley paused. “Bollocks, it’s too late now. I think we have company. Look over there.”

  Dane followed his pointed finger. He couldn’t see anything, then he caught movement. His heart started to race at the sight of a large pair of eyes looking right at them. The tree cover partially hid the rest of their body. “So much for going in that direction,” he said. The leaves parted and Dane slowly lowered himself and motioned the others to the same when it stepped out into the open. “Jesus, look at the size of it.”

  The terror bird’s malevolent gaze scanned the grassland. Dane silently wished it would decide that nobody was here and bugger off back into that woodland. It had to be twice the size of those monsters in the labyrinth. It was easily twelve feet in height. This had to be the biggest joke of the decade. To think that moments ago, they were thinking that a bunch of evil giant men would be running them down before grinding their bones to make bread or some such nonsense.

  The monster’s head stopped moving. It was looking straight at them. It squawked once. The terror bird obviously knew that they were all hiding in the tall grass.

  “Shoot it, for crying out loud, Bradley.”

  “What with, my finger?” He glared at Benedict. “Idiot.”

  Dane just wished they would all shut up. He moaned silently when the woman wrestled herself out of the giant’s grip. She firmly pushed the giant’s hands away before she started to slowly walk
towards the huge terror bird. “Come back here!” he hissed. “That thing will kill you.”

  She shook her head. “No, it won’t,” she replied, turning her head. “I know how to handle them. How do you think I was able to traverse through the labyrinth unharmed? Do not worry. I will send the bird away.”

  She walked through the shoulder-high grass, not looking back. Dane watched in fascination as the huge terror took one step towards the woman before it cocked its head to the side. If it wasn’t for the fact that he knew just how deadly that thing was, he might have found its actions comical.

  The giant got to her feet. She wrapped her fingers around Nelson’s wrist and pulled the man over to Dane and the other two. “We must go now,” she whispered.

  “Wait, we can’t leave her.”

  The giant sighed. “Yes, Benedict. We must. If we do not go now, then we will all die. The bird’s companions will have heard its calling.”

  Dane flinched when the bird covered the distance between it and the woman in one pounce. It hammered its beak into the top of her head. He spun around, feeling his guts turn over. Jesus, what a way to die. Surely, that woman couldn’t have possibly known the creature would do that?

  “She wanted a clean death,” uttered the giant.

  Chapter Twelve

  He finally believed that he’d managed to get his heart rate, pulse, and headache under control. The flight from that huge bird and its five friends who’d run out of the trees to share the feast was the worst moment of his life; far worse than the spider incident. Nelson wrapped his arms around his jacket and pushed his back into the corner of the wall in a vain attempt to keep warm. The sun or fusion reactor, or whatever the hell it was, reduced its energy output and dimmed to a dull grey light about half an hour ago. He suspected that the drop in temperature was the real reason why his fear had now settled to a dull ache

  The other four sat opposite him. None of those appeared to be cold, and they certainly hadn’t noticed his discomfort. They were too entranced in the giant’s story to pay him any attention. The archaeologist in him found her story of their great separation utterly fascinating. How could he not? These people had dispensed with their bad apples by simply throwing them down here. Benedict ought to be grateful that these people had chosen this path all those millennia ago. An advanced nation of giants, who weren’t just a bunch of frightened sheep, certainly wouldn’t have scurried underground when their smaller, uppity, primitive cousins knocked on their door.

  Benedict looked up at that fusion sun, imagining just how much energy was stored in that device to enable it to power this huge cavern for all that time. He shivered, this time not from the cold. In the wrong hands, that thing could have the explosive capacity to make their largest nuclear weapon look like a bloody firework.

  The maniacs, currently threatening each other with nuclear war would give their back teeth to own something so destructive. He tried to imagine how their world would be like if the opposing governments put all their energies into solving the world’s problems instead of creating weapons that could vaporise their planet.

  Could that huge, meek, soft-spoken woman be the future for their own kind? Now there was a scary thought. If the human race did follow a similar path to these giants, then he predicted that the species wouldn’t last more than a century before going extinct.

  “Guys, I know this is all interesting stuff, but do you think, by any chance that perhaps we should be devoting our time to looking for a way out of here? If, that is, there is one.”

  “We will, Nelson,” said Dane. “Once there is enough light to see. None of us know what could be waiting out there.”

  “Apart from huge carnivorous birds,” muttered Benedict.

  “As for finding, don’t worry, there’s bound to be some way. After all, Branch must have found a route to the surface.”

  “For crying out loud, Dane. That freak of nature spent the entire time in our company lying to us. We don’t really know that he originated down here. Come on, man, you’re supposed to be a scientist. Look at all the available facts. The woman has already told us that she led the little people down here, and they sure as hell didn’t leave. And what about the giants who are already down here? Don’t you think that in all those thousands of years, just one of them might have found some way to leave?”

  If Benedict’s glare could kill, then he’d be dead by now, but Nelson didn’t care. It was time that they all learned the truth of their dire situation. “To cap it all, you all heard what Bradley said about what he thought Branch was attempting.” The giant joined Benedict in the staring contest, only she looked as though she was about to cry again. The bodyguard had already stated that he believed that the hybrid was going to throw them all down here with the exception of the giant. As far as he was concerned, that made escape from here impossible.

  “Right, so you’re going to lie down, roll over, and admit defeat?” Bradley got to his feet. “Your problem is that you overthink the situation. You all do. Has it not occurred to you that the reason why there’s been no incursion from down here to her domain is because none of them wanted to leave?”

  “That’s just stupid,” said Benedict. “What happened to the need to explore and to learn?”

  Bradley shrugged. “Christ knows.” He looked at the giant. “Perhaps all that was spliced out of them at the same time.”

  Nelson shook his head. “Of course I’m not going to lie down and admit defeat. That’s what her kind did four hundred years ago.”

  “What happened to you, Nelson?” Dane leaned forward. “You never used to be this negative.”

  “All I’m saying is that we should accept the possibility that we might not get out of here, that’s all.”

  “That’s bollocks.” Bradley leaped to his feet. “You’re telling us, not bloody suggesting, that we’re all going to die down here. You’re showing your half-baked, stupid-ass idea down our throats and you expect us all to sit here and take it.”

  Nelson stood. “How dare you talk to me like that.” He faced the bodyguard. “I’m not scared of you, young man. Hell, you’ve been on my bloody case for ages now. It’s almost as if you have forgotten your place.”

  “Sit down!”

  “Don’t you tell me what to do.”

  Bradley dropped the stick he’d been holding and leapt on Nelson. He fastened his hand over the man’s mouth and forced him back onto the floor. “Shut up, you moron,” he hissed. The bodyguard looked up at the others. “We’re no longer alone.”

  The man rolled off him, grabbed his stick, and pulled Benedict and the giant over to Nelson. “Stay here, don’t move, and keep quiet.” Both Dane and Bradley ran over to the other side of the wall before turning the corner, leaving them alone.

  He was about to announce that those idiots were jumping at shadows when the shadow cast by the stone wall on the other side grew by a full foot. Nelson pushed his back against Benedict, hardly daring to breathe while listening to his heart rate, once more, go through the roof. The sound of a snapped twig reached his ears, and he inadvertently released a quiet moan when that shadow became longer. He moaned again when he spotted what looked like four thick, pale cream fingers reach around the edge of the wall.

  Bradley couldn’t believe it. Those fools had gone the wrong bloody way! Those fingers turned into a hand before the owner of that limb slowly peered around the edge of the wall. Nelson heard another moan, but it didn’t come from him this time.

  Nelson couldn’t even open his mouth to make any sound. The appearance of this creature had utterly froze his body. What the bloody hell was he looking at? The figure…was it a boy?…now scuttled, like a huge crab into the open. Nelson knew that if he stood, instead of moving about on all fours, he’d be easily seven foot. Powerful muscles rippled under the black-and-white striped paint.

  It took a moment for Nelson to realise that this creature wore a close-fitting mask. The inside of his stomach shifted. Oh no, this creature wore the dead skin of an
other creature like himself! Nelson’s bowels loosened when the creature moved closer and allowed another of his kind to openly stare at them. This one looked identical to the first one, only he wore no mask. It was just a child, no more than eleven or twelve.

  Even with the fact that their new guests were only kids, he was still frozen solid. The sheer size of them, as well as their terrifying appearance and movement, did nothing to quell his terror.

  “We don’t mean you any harm,” said the woman behind him. Her soft tones brought back the realisation that he didn’t face this first contact alone, and although the giant’s reassuring voice helped to calm him down, it seemed to have the opposite effect on the two boys. They both acted like they’d just been electrocuted.

  “What are we going to do?” he said, looking over to where the over two had gone. What the hell were they doing back there? Hell, could Bradley and Dane not see the trouble they were in? Nelson turned his attention back to their visitors, almost crying out as the pair of them each took a filthy hand off the ground in order to reach behind their back to pull out thin curved blades as long as their bodies.

  The one in the mask then opened his mouth and barked out a collection of sounds in what Nelson presumed to be their language. The boy repeated the same words, but this time, Nelson caught the unmistakable air of impatience and malice threaded throughout that last sentence.

  “How are we supposed to answer you when we can’t speak your language?” Benedict stood. He took one step forwards. “Look, don’t you guys have any grownups we can speak to?” He looked back at Nelson and smiled. “Hey, don’t look so worried, my man. They’re probably more scared of us than the other way around. I remember this time, back in the middle of the Congolese forests, facing a tribe of kids very much like these two when—”

  The old man didn’t have a chance to continue as both boys let out a single screech, which sounded unnervingly like that terror bird before they jumped on Benedict, bringing the struggling man to the ground. Nelson jumped to his feet and ran at them only for the woman to throw her arms in his way, effectively clotheslining the man. Nelson tried to get up, but she planted her foot on his chest. “Get off me, you bitch!” he screamed. “Bradley! Dane! Get back here, get back here now!”