Diary of the Displaced Box Set

by Glynn James

  The sigil was burned into my memory for ever.

  The second thing that grabbed my attention, and the thing that sent the chill into me, was Nua'lath himself. He was standing about thirty feet away from the burning portal, arms raised, power flowing from his hands to the portal as he charged it up, ready for use, charged it up using the force drained from those who surrounded him...

  My wife, my daughter and my son-in-law, Andre.

  My family.

  There was one other, but I didn't see that one; he or she was unimportant to me. It was a moment of realisation that I will never forget my whole life. The faces were the same, but different. Instead of being the healthy people that I had once known, the gaunt figures that stood a few feet from Nua'lath, shackled in those chains, were but shades of what I remembered. Their eyes were glowing as brightly as the portal, their skin was tight and stretched over almost skeletal features, and they seemed less alive than the Zombies that stood motionless around them.

  A rage emerged from somewhere within me, in an instant. I was willing to launch myself off the edge of the chasm to get down there, even though I knew that the fall would kill me.

  I didn't have to. One quick glance told me that there was a winding stairway leading from about twenty feet away and curving around the entire chasm until it reached the ground.

  I ran, and with me ran the Maw and DogThing, but even though I was fuelled with rage, there was one running ahead of me.

  Sha'ris.

  He was much faster than I was, and as I almost flew down the stairway in my hurry to reach those in the centre of the chasm, he still gained speed and pulled away. By the time I reached the foot of the stairs, and dashed forward across the remaining distance, surrounded by the Black Maw, DogThing and GreyFoot, he had cut his way through the few Zombies that stood in his way, reached the dais, swung his blade, and struck down the fourth Icon.

  The man was barely alive, anyway. I don't know if he had been one of the original four Icons that were with Nua'lath when he was first trapped in The Corridor, but by his condition he had been one of Nua'lath's slaves far longer than Chione, Andre or Abegail. He was almost a skeleton, held together by skin that was almost transparent.

  The blade sang as it took his head off. It flew from the man's shoulders and past Nua'lath, who hadn't noticed our approach until that moment. I think we moved so fast that he was taken by surprise for the first time in my experience.

  The head bounced away across the chasm floor, and the body fell to the ground. The power that Nua'lath was feeding from, to open the portal, stuttered and stopped, and the portal began to fade.

  A panic sprang into my chest as I ran across the floor and jumped up onto the dais. Was Sha'ris intending to behead the others? Was he going to kill my wife and daughter? But he didn't. As I raised my gun, nearly firing at him, but hesitating, he swung his blade around and leapt towards Nua'lath, leaving the remaining three - Abegail, Chione and Andre - to sway in their shackles.

  Around me I could sense, more than see, the Maw, Rudy, and Adler, rushing at the Zombies that were even now coming awake and stumbling towards us. I heard growls and yelling and the moans of the creatures as they fell, but my attention was elsewhere, on the dais.

  I turned to face the nearest Icon, my daughter. My mind swam with memories of our past, of her as a small child, the times I had spent with her as she grew up. And now here she was, so thin and frail, looking more like a Zombie than the beautiful girl that I loved. In the back of my mind I was screaming at myself "sever the chain, sever the chain", but my body was rigid with horror. I raised my hand, the one without the gun in it, and slapped my own face, forcing myself out of my stupor. Then I raised the gun and aimed at the chain. I fired, but the chain didn't break. Instead the power surged up the chain and into Nua'lath. I saw his eyes glow for a second.

  The gun was giving him power. I couldn't shoot the chains without aiding him, without giving him even more power to destroy us.

  I let the chain go and turned to Nua'lath, I lifted my gun to aim, but everything seemed to move so slowly.

  Nua'lath ducked under the blade as Sha'ris swung it in a wide arc towards him, then he lashed out with his fist, I heard something break, and Sha'ris was thrown across the chasm floor, to land in a heap against the wall.

  Then the Maw arrived, flooding over the dais and enveloping Nua'lath, blocking my view and stopping me from firing. Teeth gnashed and claws scraped.

  I swung my blade at the chain, but it wasn't strong enough to break it. Then I stumbled as there was a burst of power, and a surge of energy. The Maw were sent flying, scattered away from Nua'lath, who even now was rising to his feet. His entire body was covered in blood from the claw wounds and the bites, but that wasn't stopping him. The wounds that had just been caused were sealing shut and healing already.

  Two of the Black Maw and GreyFoot were thrown the furthest, flying over the chasm towards the deep pit at the far end. The first Maw seemed to somersault in the air, and managed to land on the ground only a few feet from the edge, and the second flew right over the pit, but GreyFoot didn't. I could only watch in horror as the tiny thing fell straight into the pit and vanished into the darkness. I think that I heard a quiet whimper as she disappeared from sight, but there was so much noise that I couldn't tell if it was her or another of the Maw that cried out.

  Either way, I realised that she was gone, and when I turned back round to face Nua'lath, I saw him laughing as Rudy and Adler tried desperately to fight him. But of course they couldn't touch him any more than he could touch them. All they could do was distract him.

  But the distraction wasn't working, and he quickly turned his gaze towards me. I was the only one left standing in our failed attack, and the only thing stopping him from his escape. Sha'ris still lay on the floor near the wall of the chasm, and the Maw were not getting up. Some of them stirred and shook, but they were all too injured, including DogThing, who was still trying to crawl back towards the dais right up until the moment that he faded away. One by one the other Black Maw began to disappear as well, going to wherever it was that they went when they phased out of existence to heal.

  I looked to my daughter, and into her eyes, and realised that there was only one way to save her from this fate.

  I raised my gun to kill her, and at that moment I felt my heart dying. This was the end, and I had failed one last time. I had come all this way, and faced Nua'lath one last time, and he had won. I tensed, steeling myself to do what was needed, to kill the ones I loved in the hope of saving them from a life of endless torture that they would surely suffer for centuries after I was dead.

  But then the gun was gone, flying from my hand and clattering across the floor. And I was spinning round, grasped by the throat. Nua'lath was holding me. I lashed out with my blade, but that too was thrown from my hand. This wasn't the same creature that I had faced in The Corridor, the one that ran when I had faced him with his own blade, when the Maw had turned up and left him and his Kre'esh pets outnumbered. This Nua'lath was once more the thing that had led armies across countless worlds. He was strong once more, maybe not as strong as he had been back then, but his power was growing, and even now it was more than I could fight against.

  I felt my throat collapse and my neck breaking as he crushed harder. There was a ripping noise and blood spurted everywhere. I felt numb. I didn't understand what had happened, but as I fell backwards and hit the ground I pulled my hand up to my throat instinctively.

  He had torn my neck open.

  I saw through a blur of red that he was moving away now, moving towards the portal. It was barely open, the power flickering and fading, but it was still there, and he was going to use it. He looked back towards me, seeming to hesitate. Now was his chance to kill me, to end me for good, but the portal was closing. I saw confusion in his eyes for just a moment, but then he was walking forward, going for the portal. In front of him, leading the way mindlessly, was my Chione, Abegail and Andre. They stumbled
in their chains, driven along by the force of his will, moving slowly towards the glowing door. One by one they stepped through, vanishing from my sight. First to leave was Andre, then Abegail, and then Chione. Once more they were gone.

  Sever the link.

  This wasn't a voice in my head, not one from this time, and it wasn't DogThing. These words were coming from the past, and it was Dha'mir speaking to me, and it was all I could think of as I crawled across the floor. I managed to grasp the gun, and turned to aim it, but I knew it was no use. It would do no good. The gun would not aid me here. There had to be another way, but my thoughts and energy were blurred, my strength draining as fast as the blood poured from my neck.

  Sever the link.

  This time it was Sha'ris speaking in my head, his voice echoing from merely hours ago.

  Nua'lath was stepping forward now, his foot disappearing into the portal, vanishing from this place to somewhere where I knew I would not be able to go. I had maybe a minute before the lack of breath in my lungs and blood in my veins sent me into a coma that I somehow knew I would not recover from.

  Sever the link.

  The voice was that of the acolyte lying dead in the petrol station, the one who had ended his own life on my blade.

  How? How could I sever it? There was no way. All I could do was...

  It’s time to close it now.

  DogThing.

  His words echoed back to me from the moment that we escaped from The Corridor. Nua'lath had been running at us across the bridge, across the scaffolding platform, with his Kre'esh pets thundering along behind him. I had seen the fear in his eyes then.

  It’s time to close it now.

  DogThing's voice came back to me and triggered something in my mind. The words I was hearing him speak, from the past, made me realise how this could be done.

  The door.

  The portal.

  My family were on the other side and Nua'lath was still stepping through it. Only one foot and part of his leg was through. I lay there watching this in slow motion as my one chance was slipping away, as my stunned mind tried to catch up, and tried to figure out the thought that was stuck in there just waiting to surface, trying, trying to force its way out.

  It’s time to close it now.

  Then it came.

  The key.

  I had the key that I had taken from the body of the man at the petrol station.

  I had to use the key.

  I had to close the door.

  I reached into my shirt and felt for it, and was rewarded as it almost leapt into my hand. I had somehow known exactly where it was.

  Nua'lath was half way through the portal now, and slowly, so slowly, moving away.

  I grasped the amulet tightly and willed with every part of my being, calling out to the door to obey me.

  Close.

  Close.

  And it closed.

  One moment there was a bright blazing light, and the next it was gone. Only traces of the power crackled across the ground and spidered along the chasm walls.

  I was barely able to see what came next, but the little remaining energy from the portal discharged into the ground and gave off enough of a glow for me to see Nua'lath fall to the floor.

  No.

  It was only half of Nua'lath that fell to the floor.

  The door had closed and he had been sliced in two.

  He was finally dead.

  And in a few seconds I could join him.

  My throat had been ripped open. I couldn't breathe, blood was everywhere, and I could feel it pouring from the wound. I knew that I had but seconds before that and the pain overcame me. I may well have A17 running through my veins, and would probably recover, maybe, but how long would that take? If my body drained of blood would it ever recover? I realised that I needed to speed it up, and fast.

  I needed to do one last thing before I passed out into unconsciousness.

  I rolled over onto my back, trying to ignore the arc of blood that splattered across the ground, and pulled my backpack away, spilling the contents across the floor. I grabbed the small case that was on top of the pile, the one that I had found in the bunker. I fumbled with the latch, feeling my head swim and the world also spin around me, but I was able to open it somehow, open it and grab the injector and one of the small tubes. I fumbled with them both, my body threatening to just give up, but I managed to push the capsule into the injector.

  Lifting it to my arm was the hardest thing I have ever attempted to do. As the blood was leaving my body I was becoming weaker by the second, and this last thing seemed to take every bit of will left in me to achieve. Finally, I rammed the needle into my arm, and pushed down, feeling a burst of pure relief as the world slipped away from me.

  Day 64

  I don't know how long I was out, but I did wake up. I couldn't move my legs, and had to drag myself around. Rudy and Adler were trying to help, but they couldn't touch anything, couldn't help me at all apart from encouragement. Most of their talk just flowed over me like so much background noise and I was barely able to keep my concentration.

  The injection must have worked, for now my throat was healing at an incredible rate, and I could breathe again.

  It seemed that a lot had happened since I fell unconscious, and I had been unconscious for quite a while, though neither Adler nor Rudy could make a guess.

  Sha'ris had gone, as was Nua'lath's remains. I'd suspected that he wouldn't stick around for very long when he had what he came for

  His precious talisman.

  "He woke up, maybe an hour after the battle ended," said Rudy. "He went over to Nua'lath's body and he..."

  "He cut out his heart," said Adler, seeing that Rudy was struggling to speak.

  Rudy nodded, and Adler took over.

  "We tried to persuade him to help you, to try and give you another injection, but he would not," said Adler.

  "He was too intent on his goal to help," said Rudy, "but in the end he gave up after we badgered him endlessly. He opened the portal and brought back your wife, your daughter and the man."

  "He injected them with the same thing that you had used," said Adler. "We didn't know what it was, and we argued with him, but he wouldn't listen. He was acting as though we weren't even there."

  "Then I realised why he was hurrying," said Rudy. "None of the Maw were there. They were all still phased. But if any did come back, they would stop him immediately. They would pin him down."

  "So he took the heart," said Adler, "pulled the key from your neck, and opened the door again. He also took Nua'lath's key. He left leaving us no way to get out. I almost went to follow him, to try and persuade him to at least leave one key behind, but I knew that if I did he might close the door - as he did in the end - and I would be trapped wherever he was going."

  They both stared at me. I could almost feel the empty place near my chest where the key should be.

  "Then he was gone," said Rudy, "and we knew that when you eventually woke up you would have no way to get back out of here."

  Adler knelt down by my side.

  "I went back to the other ones, Sha'ris's people. I went to check if any of them had a key, and none of them did. I also tried to find my way back to the place where we first came into The Ways, but I nearly got lost, and spent hours just trying to get back here."

  I was listening, but my attention was on the three people who lay next to me as I held them in my arms. My wife, Abegail, my daughter, Chione, and Andre, the man who had married my daughter and was father to Eleanor. They were all still alive, and I couldn't believe that it was so. They were all still breathing, and the injection that Sha'ris had given them was working even now. They were regaining some colour, and breathing, and starting to look less frail. Somehow I didn't care that our situation was bad, that we may be trapped in this endless place.

  I had them back and they were alive.

  "We'll find a way out of here, James," said Adler. "We will."

  "Yes, we will
," said Rudy.

  I just nodded. I physically couldn't speak. I had my family back, and Nua'lath was finally dead. In the last moments before I had closed the door, when I had been the only one left standing against him, I'd had no hope, and no idea that there was a chance that I might still succeed.

  There were still no Maw around; they were all phased. I suspected that they would be back soon. All except maybe GreyFoot. She had fallen into the chasm. How would she return? I took one look over the edge, down into the darkness, and I wondered if there was any hope for her, because the darkness just seemed to go on and on. For all we knew the pit could be endless.

  Day 65

  I must have passed out at some point.

  When I awoke, DogThing and the other Maw were sitting nearby. I took a moment to count them all, and was surprised to find that there were still some missing. Of the two dozen that had followed me into The Ways, eighteen remained.

  Had some of them actually died, or were they just more injured than the rest, and taking longer to recover?

  I hoped it was the latter.

  GreyFoot was still nowhere to be seen.

  "Has she gone?" I asked DogThing, but he was silent, glancing towards the pit at the far end of the chasm and then looking to the ground.

  I think I'm going to be here for a while, now, as I wait for Abegail, Chione, and Andre to recover. I don't know how long that will take, but at least I have them back now. At least they are still alive.

  For them I can wait for ever.

  I'll even eat these damn mushrooms if I have to.

  This was the last recorded entry in the last journal of James Halldon recovered to date.

  As noted by Tremaine Ronson, Chief Archivist, central archive, Evac City.