by Scott Reeves
The battle raging on the surface could be heard even down here, deep beneath the Earth. The sound of distant gunfire drifted down from far above. The battle could be felt as well, as occasionally the ground shook in response to muffled booms, and a fine dusty powder rained down on them. So Mike didn’t doubt Jason when he said that bad was an understatement.
“Then we’d better get moving,” Mike said.
“No shit.”
Stewart pointed with his gun at the lake of fire. “But what about the others?”
Mike shook his head. “Forget them. We tried earlier, before we were captured. Most of them don’t want to be rescued. They want to burn. I say let them.” He looked firmly at Jason. “If you’ve got a way out, let’s go.”
Jason nodded and helped Mike to his feet.
Stewart looked at the people twisting and screaming in the lava, clearly unwilling to abandon them. “But...”
“Trust us,” said a voice behind Stewart. “It will take forever to find the ones that want our help.”
They all turned. Siri was padding toward them across the bare ground, brushing lava from her skin. Apparently she had just climbed forth from the lava a short distance away.
“Who’s she?” Jason asked.
“Who’s he?” Mike replied, pointing at Stewart.
As Siri joined the small group, Stewart searched their faces one by one, hoping to find someone sympathetic to his cause. Clearly realizing he was outnumbered, he muttered, “Fine. Let’s get going, then.”
Paula threw her arms around Jason. “Thanks for coming back, Jason.”
Jason patted her back, nodding. Then he pushed her away and stepped toward the lava, looking out across it. “Where’s Stacy?” he asked. “Do any of you know?”
Paula, Mike and Siri shook their heads, no.
Jason sighed. “Stacy!” he shouted. “Stacy!”
He waited for long moments. But there was no response, and he couldn’t see her anywhere in that vast sea of faces. And all the while, the clock was ticking.
How could he leave her? His heart lurched into his throat and jammed there. How could he leave her here? But how could he ever possibly find her in time? This cavern was immense. There were thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, burning here.
“Stacy!” he shouted again. A primal scream, really, born of utter despair and the thought that he might never see her again.
But they had to leave now, or they would all die.
He choked back a sob. Then he turned from the lava and took a deep, quivering breath. “Okay,” he said. He pointed at the nearby slope that rose upward along the cavern wall and eventually leveled out, making a ledge from which Diabolus could survey the lake. “That way, up there.”
Stewart turned and headed toward the slope at a jog. The others followed, with Jason bringing up the rear.
As they climbed the slope, Jason opened up his mind. Ignore us, he thought intently, hoping he was broadcasting to whoever was listening. Ignore us. Let us pass.
And they were ignored. The enormous tentacled beasts crawling the walls paid them not the slightest attention. Neither did the winged creatures they passed. And they did pass a few on their way up. As Mike, Paula, Siri and Stewart pressed themselves against the wall, terrified, expecting to be attacked, the creatures skittered or flew past, seemingly oblivious to the presence of the humans. Stewart even killed a few of them, dispatching them with expertly aimed shots, before he realized they were being ignored.
“Why are they ignoring us?” Mike asked, as if he really expected one of the others to know.
“No idea,” Jason said gruffly.
They made good time getting up the slope to where it leveled out and basically became a stone walkway circling the heights of the cavern. Good time, that is, considering all the activity going on around them. Creatures skittering past, climbing past, flying past, cacophonic screaming and shrieking.
When they finally did reach the top of the slope, Jason, in the rear, pointed at the opening at the far end of the shelf. The same opening that led to the Beast’s cavern; the same opening through which Jason had earlier escaped using his makeshift balloon.
At Jason’s direction, they crept along, moving faster now, having gotten used to the fact that all the creatures seemed to be ignoring them.
About halfway to the far opening, they passed another opening. The others ignored it, hurrying along past. But Jason stopped, sensing something.
The very notion of “sensing something,” as if he were Darth Vader sensing the nearness of Luke Skywalker, was completely ridiculous to his scientific mind. But that same scientific mind had been pretty much demolished over the last few days.
There was something down the darkened tunnel beyond the opening. Something Jason needed to see. He didn’t know how he knew it; he just did.
So he turned aside and trudged down the rocky tunnel. There was a light at the far end, issuing from the only other opening in the passage.
Reaching that far opening, he peered into a small chamber. It was about the size of a master bedroom in the average American house. Very little furnishing; just a wooden desk and a wooden chair. No pictures hanging on the walls, of course. No rugs on the ground; just the cold bare rock of the Earth. Very Spartan, very utilitarian.
Against the far wall was a dirty Queen-sized mattress, stained and fraying. Jason had no idea how a modern-day mattress had gotten down here. Perhaps it had fallen through the cracks as the Earth shifted and settled, or had been carried here by one of the underground rivers, as Diabolus had said things of the surface world tended to do. In this place, that bedbug infested, horrendously stained mattress was probably a fantastic luxury, a treasure from Heaven itself.
And speaking of Diabolus, that self-appointed devil of this hellish place: he lay on his back on the grimy mattress. Stacy was astride him, her back to the door, riding him like some sort of lust-maddened cowgirl. The same deliciously sweet way that she had ridden Jason himself too many times to count.
Had it been her presence that had called to him, or Diabolus’s? Was he linked to the man, the same way he was linked to the Beast? If so, the red-skinned man didn’t acknowledge Jason’s presence. Either he could sense Jason watching and did not care, or it had been Stacy he had sensed, rather than Diabolus. But it didn’t matter either way.
Jason didn’t watch for longer than a few seconds. Just long enough to realize that she wasn’t being raped. She was doing this of her own free will.
She had made her choice. She had chosen her fate.
She had been stoking the embers deep within his soul almost since the day they had first met, constantly flirting and teasing other men, always approaching the line but never quite crossing it. Now, the heart-wrenching sorrow he had felt only minutes ago at having to leave her behind ignited into an inferno of rage at her betrayal.
“Unfaithful bitch!” he wanted to shout. But he resisted the temptation. Instead, letting the rage consume him in silence, he slipped quietly back down the tunnel and rejoined his friends.
They were waiting for him on the ledge just outside the far opening, backs pressed against the wall, looking around warily at all the creepy, crawly activity in the cavern.
“Where did you go?” Mike hissed at him. “When I looked back and you suddenly weren’t there, I thought something had gotten you!”
“Sorry,” Jason muttered. “I just thought I saw something down that tunnel.”
“Did you? What was it?” Mike asked.
“Nothing,” Jason said. “Nothing at all. Let’s go.”
With Jason now taking the lead, they stepped through the short tunnel and out onto the ledge that overlooked the cavern of the Beast, with the piles of shed skin at the other end. None of the winged creatures had melted up to the surface from here; the ceiling of this cavern was still intact. Jason wondered if the Beast planned to eventually walk the surface world, or if it intended to stay down here, all nice and cozy, telepathically directing the process of unleashi
ng Hell on the world above.
The immense blubbery monstrosity was still here, almost exactly as he had left it. It turned one of those huge eyes on Jason and the others as they entered, staring placidly at them as if they were no threat at all.
There was no one, no thing else, in the cavern. The vast creature was entirely undefended.
Everyone took a step back when they first beheld the Beast. Everyone except Jason. He felt himself transfixed by the massive eye. He felt the sudden pressure in his mind as the Beast tried to force its way inside.
“It’s like a mega-sized version of one of those creatures out there,” Mike said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at the lava cavern they had just left.
Paula moved closer to Mike, standing behind his shoulder as if to hide. “That huge eye,” she whispered. “I feel like it can see right into my soul.”
“I saw this thing once, when I was a child,” Siri said. “Right before I was placed in the lake of fire.”
“Ah, the sweet memories of youth,” Mike said with forced humor. In truth, he was about ready to shit his pants. Of all the things he had seen in this wretched underworld, this massive creature was by far the most disturbing.
Stewart, who held his gun trained on the Beast, as if such a puny thing were any sort of protection, realized that something was wrong with Jason. “What’s wrong with him?” he said, nodding his head at Jason without taking his eyes from the Beast.
Paula timidly ventured out from behind Mike and put a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Jason? Are you all right?”
He didn’t respond. He merely stood as still as a statue, his unblinking eyes fastened on the similarly unblinking eye of the Beast. Unbeknownst to them, his mind had once again been absorbed by the Beast. It was sifting through his thoughts, rifling through his memories of his brief escape and what he had seen on the surface.
Then he felt a terrific mental jolt that drove him to his knees. With a gasp, his mind returned to itself, and he vomited onto the rocky ledge.
In front of him, in front of them all, the Beast, that squidish monstrosity that had long ago swam up from the innermost depths of the Earth and called Diabolus’s ancestor downward, closed its immense eyes and simply died. Its lifeless body sank downward, slowly, like a sinking Titanic, until the lava swallowed it.
“What happened to it?” Paula asked.
Jason dizzily got to his feet and shuffled to the edge of the ledge. He peered down at the agitated lava, which slowly smoothed over as the last of the pale hide of the Beast sank from view. “I think I killed it with my mind,” he said.
“No kidding,” Paula said sardonically.
Jason nodded. “Yes. I’ve got a very powerful mind. I’ve got a powerful mind and a magic dick. Did your boyfriend happen to mention to you how he thinks my dick is magic? He told me so, a few nights back.”
Paula looked at Mike. “Is this something I should be concerned about, honey?
Mike shrugged.
“How can you people keep joking around?” Stewart said in irritation. “Is this all just fun and games to you?”
Paula shook her head. “It’s a coping mechanism,” she said. “Our friend Stacy is a psych major, so I’m sure she could explain it to you better if she were here.”
“Anyway,” Jason said darkly, fighting down the image of Stacy riding that horrible red-skinned man that was conjured by the mention of her name. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“How?” Mike asked.
Jason pointed over to the piles of skin. “Everyone grab a piece of that stuff,” he said. “Each of your pieces needs to be really large, because you’ll be using it as a balloon.”
Mike walked over to a pile and felt the stuff. “This is what you used to float out of here?”
“You saw my grand escape, did you?” Jason asked.
Mike nodded.
“I thought maybe you were too caught up in Diabolus’s wonderful sermon to notice little old me getting away.”
“Are you kidding?” Paula said. “We were cheering you on.” She tried to pick up a piece of the material. It wasn’t as heavy as she had expected, but it was still far from light. “What is this stuff, anyway?”
Jason shook his head. “Trust me. You don’t want to know.”
They each grabbed hold of their chosen square of skin and, following Jason’s lead, dragged it across the ledge and back through the tunnel into the lava cavern.
Jason knelt on the ledge and showed them how to bunch up the corners of the skin sheets.
“Just be patient,” Jason said. “Let the hot air collect inside.”
“Be patient,” Mike chuckled manically, looking around at the chaotic, crawling activity all around the cavern. “Be patient, he says.”
“I don’t understand,” Siri said. But she did as instructed.
Jason looked sidelong at her. She was pretty. Nice body. He was tempted to give her a long-winded lecture on the nature of heat, and how hot air balloons worked. His knowledge had always impressed Stacy, damn her. But there wasn’t time. Surely these creatures would not ignore them forever, now that he had killed the Beast. They were about to escape, after all. So he merely grunted, letting her wallow in her ignorance.
The makeshift balloons filled quickly, gaining buoyancy. In a matter of moments they were tugging forcefully at their respective passengers, eager to rise to the cool air of the surface.
Jason closed his eyes and broadcast his mantra to any creature listening. At least he hoped he was broadcasting. He was so new to this strange world of the supernatural that maybe he was getting it all wrong. Ignore us, ignore us.
Finally his makeshift balloon became too strong to resist. It yanked him from his feet, and he rose upward, heading toward the black arc of the night sky far above. As he rose, the cavern walls moved downward at an increasing clip.
He looked down and saw that Paula, Mike and Stewart had also become airborne. They dangled and spun beneath their balloons. Siri was the last to be yanked upward by her balloon.
Halfway up the sheer walls toward the surface, Paula screamed. Looking down, Jason saw that a passing beast, descending the cavern wall with a squirming sack full of people from the surface, had lashed out with a tentacle and lassoed her around the waist.
She screamed again as the thing reeled her in. Mike kicked at the air, trying to steer himself toward her, to help his lover. But it was futile. He was unable to move a single inch in her direction. He merely continued rising, kicking futilely at the air. He watched helplessly as a second tentacle slapped the balloon from her clutching fingers, sending it spiraling down to the lava far below.
Mike screamed as the thing continued downward, crawling down the wall like an immense spider with Paula struggling in its coiled tentacle.
“No!” he screamed. Then he let go of his own balloon and plummeted back down to the lava. Apparently figuring that if she was going to burn, he would burn with her.
“Goddamn it!” Jason shouted. “Mike! Paula!”
Jason swore again. So much for his ability to command these creatures.
As they continued to rise, their ascent became a harrowing run through an obstacle course of reaching tentacles and dive-bombing winged creatures.
But somehow he, Stewart and Siri avoided capture. Not through any skillful maneuvering of their balloons; that sort of control was completely impossible. No, it was just dumb blind luck, or perhaps a miracle from a God he still did not believe in, that they weren’t plucked from the air by either tentacle or claw.
Just as he came level with the surface, Jason saw two huge metallic shapes hurtle past him, sleek harbingers delivering a message of final doom to the underground world. They dropped quickly, shrinking with distance and becoming lost against the vast landscape of lava stretching wide below him.
And then he was above ground and shooting upward toward two industrial-sized helicopters that hovered over the edge of the immense canyon. Two helicopters waiting on him and any escapees h
e managed to bring with him, which was the last request he had made of General Moore. The helicopters rose to avoid getting his balloon tangled in the rotors. From high above, they dropped ropes.
As soon as he came level with the rope, he reached out. When he had managed to get a one-handed grip on the rope, no easy task due to the random swaying of the rope, he let go of his makeshift balloon. No longer held together by his hands, the edges of the sheet of skin flared outward, freeing the trapped heat, and the sheet fluttered away, buffeted by the rising thermals and the wind from the thrashing helicopter blades.
Jason held onto the rope for dear life.
He watched as Stewart took hold of a rope dangling from the other side of the helicopter and let go of his balloon. Then at last Siri reached a rope dangling from the second helicopter and took hold if it, just as she had seen Jason and Stewart do.
Below them, the battle no longer raged. The British Army had made a strategic retreat from the area. It was a conflagration down there as the countryside burned, flames licking the sky, whipped into a frenzy by the cold night air and the heat rising from the many rifts that fractured the landscape from horizon to horizon. Tentacled beasts stalked the land, hellish invaders from the netherworld, supreme in their command of the flaming battlefield. Winged creatures flapped across the night sky like demonic birds.
The helicopters surged forward. The ground rushed past far below, and Jason had to fight to cling to the rope. Hot wind rushed over his skin as he was pulled through the night.
Behind him, there was a muffled boom. The ground for miles around surged upward and then buckled, collapsing in. A wave of intense heat and pressure slammed into Jason and rushed past. The helicopter lurched and dipped wildly, and he thought they were going to crash.
But they didn’t. As the land burned behind him, as an immense wall of flame obscured the stars and licked at the heavens, as the tentacled beasts and the winged creatures screamed in agony from the mortal wounds inflicted by the bunker busters, Jason was flown to freedom.
EPILOGUE – From Fire to Ice
SIX MONTHS LATER...
