Journey to a darker world

by Christian Mathis

  I interrupted him and shrugged my shoulders and ran my hand over my mouth and chin like I always do when I’m focusing.

  “James, I struggle with being good or evil too. The thing is, I don’t think there are good people, I think bad people do good things, and good people do bad things.”

  James looked at me with a questioned look on his face; he paused before answering.

  “Well, I guess we’ll see where life takes, whether we make good or bad decisions. I want you to know that no matter what happens I got your back; this journey is going to be rough, and I know we will not be able to save everyone. If it gets bad, I want you to save the others before me.”

  I started to interrupt him and tell him how ridiculous he was being; he raised his massive mitts to my mouth to quiet me. His face got serious, and his eye Narrowed.

  “No, I am serious, when you get home, you need to tell my daughters that their daddy is a hero.”

  “James “

  “Promise me!”

  “Ok James, I promise they will know that their dad was a hero’s hero and saved many lives. I promise I will do everything I can to get you home so you can tell them yourself.”

  James stood up and ran his ring over his palm and drew blood, he took my palm and slightly pressed his ring into my palm and scratched it across the top to bottom and then left to right forming a plus sign. He held his fist above my hand and then dropped a few drops of blood onto my palm. He reached his hand out and shook mine. He had clotted the blood on my hands.

  “Through bloodshed, we are blood, “James chanted as he got up.

  Toni’s head popped in the doorway; he spoke with quickness and urgency.

  “Agatha wants to leave in an hour she’s getting her people ready now she suggests you do the same.

  “Annabelle wakes up,“ I shook her awake.

  “We have to get going, get your stuff, and round up all the people you can find, and if we have to fashion a few stretchers to carry the weak, we will have to do that too.”

  I headed down the stairs, James and Ray loaded people on to the stretchers, and Toni was sharpening the remaining swords. Sliver and Thermal walked over to Toni

  “We have a gift for you; it’s a sword made from the bones of the first-ever animal we killed.”

  The sword was about three feet long and was made from one solid bone, curved toward the front and doubled-edged.

  Toni jumped up in wonderment and awe. “Oh my gosh, THANK YOU! It is like a cross between a Falcata of the ancient Celtiberians, the Romans Famed Gladius.”

  Toni practiced swinging its weight, and as he swung it underhand and overhand, it made a swooshing sound. He swung it with all his might and cut a tree trunk in half.

  A loud echoing TWUNK rang out.

  “Catalyst this time I will lead the way, you and Annabelle can lead from the rear, James you and Ray protect the left, and right flank, Agatha, Thermal, and sliver protect your people in the center. Let’s move out people!”

  Ray walked over to James and I and whispered.

  “Guys who put this guy in charge. They gave him a fancy sword, and now he thinks he’s Colonel badass.”

  I looked at James and the symbol on my palm

  “Guys, don’t worry, I’m in charge. I’m letting him lead because of his powers and military experience if I think he makes a bad call I’ll call him out on it and take the lead again.”

  They looked satisfied enough for now as we existed the bone fort Agatha stopped for a second and looked back as if memories replayed in her head. She looked almost sad, she turned around and continuing to walk with the group.

  We marched toward the unknown territories; we walked in perfect unison in unison as if all our arguing and fighting was over, and we were one. Ba dum ba dum ba dum. We began marching onward making small talk about passing the time. We entered a wooded area with strange black trees with dark grey leaves as tall as buildings the eerie razor wind licked and cutting our faces.

  I smelt death and rotting flesh in the air.

  We walked for several miles in silence; the only sound was the stomping pattern of our footfall on the ash-covered ground. The clouds of black soot being stirred up by the dozens of steps being taken. Annabelle caught up to me and opened her mouth to speak before she could start talking, Agatha shouted from up ahead.

  “Catalyst we are nearing the edge of the woods on the other side are the outlands where there are tall grasses and fermenters. No one has ever survived a journey through the grasses. These demons feast on rotting flesh and can ferment your flesh.”

  Ray and sliver looked concerned and scared.

  With an unsure voice, Ray stood in front of me and squared up his shoulders.

  “We should go back! At least we won’t be dead; even if we somehow make it home, they will lock us up or kill us. Here we will have a life even if the planet kills us. At least we will have a choice. Who’s with me?”

  Sliver was the only other person to step forward.

  “Catalyst, Toni, he’s right. We have lived on this planet for twenty years. Sure, it has been rough, and we have lost people we cared about at least we stayed alive. Agatha lets go back.”

  She pulled her hands away and shook her head.

  “Live for how long, Sliver, a few miserable years — scrounging in the dirt like rats just waiting to die. That’s not living. I’m going with them for a chance at life, and if you want to be a part of mine, I suggest you come with me.”

  They grew quiet and drifted toward the back of the group.

  Everyone was edge and weapons were drawn, Toni unsheathed his bone sword and used his fingers to turn the sword in his wrist and swing it underhand.

  He got in Ray's face and screamed loud and unwavering.

  “Look, man I promised I would help catalyst get us home; we need you; when we get back to earth you can help us rule! Now I’m not asking you again come with us, or I will kill you”

  Toni raised the sword above his head and started to bring it down on Ray. Ray jumped back and pushed his hand through the air turning Toni’s energy from kinetic to potential, and Toni fell flat on his back. Agatha turned and blasted him with sand so powerful it pushed him six feet. His feet left miniature trenches in the dirt. James drew his mace, and I drew my sword.

  I started to shout.

  “Ugh, guys that’s it I said no more fighting! I don’t care if I have to start paralyzing people; we will not destroy our selves. We cannot make him come with us that it not right gives him a pack and let him go.”

  Ray hugged James and Annabelle goodbye, he went to shake hands with Toni pulled his hand away at the last second and stuck his middle finger in Toni’s face. Sliver and Thermal handed him a pack and some rations; he turned and walked back toward Agatha’s camp.

  We marched on a little farther and stopped only to check on the weak. We were out of the woods, and I saw tall pointed grass and a low marsh. We pulled our swords out with a Schuck sound made by the swords being pulled from the handmade sheaths. I stepped into the swampy marsh. My footsteps displaced the water as I shuffled through the water. Close behind the man in front of me.

  I smelt rancid rotting flesh. The stench started to overcome everything and filled my nostrils and burned my eyes.

  I heard a deep roar and howling shrieking from a distance. The sloshing of water as if people running fast drew near.

  “Guys, get ready. I raised my blade in anticipation. Everyone else did the same. Thermal and sliver raised their hands and fist ready to fight.

  Annabelle stood in front of James and I. Her fingers curled around her book as well as her sword, and her knuckles turned white. Beast emerged from the tall grasses and began to surround us. They resembled giant dogs the size of bears their fur ink black and their eyes and dark orange.

  I yelled, “This is it. We can get past this beast and triumph. We must all attack at once!

  A fermenter leaped toward Agatha and the others near her she blasted him back with sand, T
hermal began shooting energy to heat her sand. A second beast ran toward James and I; I lunged at him bringing my sword down on his neck. The monster looked up and absorbed it into his body! It rusted metal and spit the pile of dust and ash to the floor. James forged a blood dagger into the fermenter’s skull, blood oozed and poured forth from his mouth. The monster bucked and sank his teeth deep into James’s massive forearm. It depleted his arm’s blood of oxygen and sugar in his blood turned to carbon dioxide, which fermented his arm and rotted his flesh and turned his skin into a deep purple and black and had almost reached his shoulder. James screams took over everyone’s ears.

  Toni ran over and screamed

  “There is only one thing to do now as the military would say.

  “Save life over limb.”

  He swung the bone sword and cut James' arm clean off. James screamed in agony.

  “AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT THE HELL.”

  Then he passed out from shock.

  The fermenters started coming again and again. Another fermenter leaped on top of me, and I smelt death on his breath. The beast dug his claws deep into my legs and another set into my chest, then it began to ferment my body. He bent down to close his jaws on my throat. He got closer and closer. I placed my hand on his chest and filled his chest with box jellyfish poison, instantly killing it. His corpse fell to the floor. I grabbed James’s knife and used it to cut the rot out of my leg and chest.

  I fell to the ground, weak and exhausted. Another fermenter had started to attack Agatha and sliver. The animal clawed at Agatha; she blasted him with sand, he shook it off as if it were dust. I stood up to help fell to my knees once again. Sliver had reached down to touch one of the dead fermenters and shot slivers of their bones back at the fermenter that attacked Agatha. The bone slivers pierced the fermenter's eyes. The monster seemed Unfazed he barreled along after them when a second creature came. They pounced on Sliver and bit and clawed at him. His body’s oxygen escaped. Then his body fermented like alcohol; the sugar turned into carbon dioxide, his organs pickled and burst open as his entire body turned purple and black and he fell to the ground his screams were animalistic as he died. More fermenters came, and with James and me weak, our rear and right flank was exposed and vulnerable.

  Herds of the demons had broken our lines, and I had begun to lose consciousness when I saw the fermenters ravage the men and women of Agatha’s exiled crew.

  Dozens of them died horrifying deaths. One fermenter leaped upon Annabelle; She grabbed James’s discarded mace and dipped it into the dead fermenter’s chest of poison. With one mighty swing, she sang it into the fermenter’s skull.

  I looked around at the dozens of fermenter dogs that surrounded us, and we're about to kill my friends. I knew what I had to do, well if I could do it. I had only blown disease spores once. I used every ounce of strength in my body on a maybe. I filled the air with an incredible amount of canine distemper enough to kill 500 regular dogs. It killed a good many of them. Toni and Annabelle sliced through the rest. The thwack of their blades easily cut through the weakened fermenters. I helped Annabelle to her feet, and Thermal started to help Agatha up when a fermenter bigger than all the rest rose from the ashes. I felt the heat emitting from the ashes and the fermenting purple bloated bodies. A strange gravelly animalistic voice started to speak.

  “You may have killed the animals, my underdogs. It will not be so easy to kill me. I am a true demon above demons; these beast bodies serve me well for feasting and a host body. I possess one of them until they die and then I possess another. They serve me phenomenally.”

  There were a few of us left — Agatha, Thermal, James, Toni, Annabelle, and a few of the powerless exiled ones. We circled Annabelle and the people who had lost their powers. Toni raised his bone blade to the sky in anticipation.

  “Annabelle! Catch!” I yelled.

  I threw her a sword from one of the fallen men. She stood back to back with me, ready to battle. The Demon stood to his feet and was ready to kill. Blood dripped from his teeth and onto the floor.

  I shouted with intensity and unwavering need.

  “Everyone attack now, it has to be all at once!”

  The beast gained speed as he ran for us. Thermal blasted him with thermal energy. Agatha began to blast him with sand. He shook it off as if none of it fazed him.

  The attacks went through his ghostly figure one at a time. The fermenter demon pushed his hand through one of the exiled men's bodies. His paws pushed through the man’s chest. It killed him and turned his body into a pile of purpled bloody flesh and rot. Toni raised his blade to strike the demon and slashed the blade through the air.

  The demon phased through the ground. He emerged from the ground below Agatha’s feet and grabbed her legs then sank his claws into her ankles.

  “No, I see now that there is only one way.”

  Thermal threw himself into the demon’s fermenter form and tried to push the demon out. Toni slit the fermenter's throat and cut off his head. The demon was free and formless. It latched onto Thermal. They wrestled for control of the body.

  “If you need a host body, then take mine.” Thermal dived into the marshy water and drowned himself while heating the water to boil his body.

  The rest of us stood there with our mouths agape, barely able to comprehend everything that had happened. We stood there for several minutes, trying to make sense of all the events. Agatha cried and mourned for her best friends, who were lost. She walked over to me and slapped my hand across the mouth. It was hard enough to echo in the distance.

  She was angry and sad and shouting through her tears.

  “This is all your fault!

  “They are dead because of you! You promised we would all get to go home!”

  “Ray was right. Some leaders you are, we barely got anywhere, and two-thirds of us are dead!” Her face was red hot, and her spit was flying.

  She pressed her face into Slivers' dead body and cried into his bloody chest.

  “Of course, you wanted to go through none of your people died! I have almost no people left. You used their dead bodies as a steppingstone to carry you and your friends to safety.”

  She frantically dug up dirt with slivers sword so she could bury the dead. Dirt and dark grass were frantically thrown into the air.

  I kneeled beside her and wrapped my arms around her.

  “I am sorry for the loss of your friends truly. I am! If we could have made it through without their deaths, I would have taken that route; they had to die so that we could live. They knew the dangers, and I’m the one who saved you and everyone I killed nearly all the fermenter dogs. Thermal killed the demons, and for this, I am grateful. Let’s get one thing straight change is inevitable I won’t be the same person when this is over, and neither will you. Now let’s move out. We will grieve later.”

  James helped her to her feet, and they started to move out. Toni gathered the swords and put them in his pack. He spun his sword through the air and took the point once again. He sharpened his sword and wiped the blood off as he went. Annabelle walked next to me and spoke slowly and thoughtfully.

  Annabelle walked by me, and my eyes lit up. Damn, she was beautiful. Despite all the tragic events, I still managed to crack a smile.

  She turned at the last second and flipped her hair.

  “I guess that trick with the airborne dog disease was pretty cool; I mean not as cool as when that one with a mace, it was still pretty cool.”

  “Hey James, you’re going to be alright I know it’s one thing to die in battle. It's another altogether to live be missing an arm,” I said.

  He looked at his shoulder longingly as if wanting it back enough would bring it back. He spoke hesitantly and sad.

  “It’s as if I can still feel pain in it. My arm is fucking gone, and I wish I could feel the pain in it. I will be fine at least I’m alive I’ll still give them a hell of a fight.”

  Toni and I picked up the stretcher and carried the wounded. We marched forward
toward were no one had ventured before.

  Chapter Four

  Night had fallen. We wanted to put more distance between us and where we had slain the fermenters and the Demon king. We traveled in painful silence. We mourned the lost and the wounded. We were one step closer toward getting back to earth and being free. What would it cost us? Everything? Everyone?

  I heard a familiar sizzling sound, so I looked at the ground. The acid-like lava slivered downhill and into a black lagoon. It churned and boiled and rumbled. The steam burned upon my arm. An acid geyser shot a hundred feet into the air. We bent down to shield our necks. James and I wrapped our bodies around Agatha, Annabelle, and Toni.

  The other exiled ones from Agatha’s crew had not caught up to us yet. James and I felt It splash my skin. It took it’s time as it burnt trails into my skin as it rolled down my back. My eyes tightened, and my veins popped out of my head as I screamed out in pain.

  “AHHHH HOLY CRAP AAAAAAAAAA”

  I fell to my knees as the geyser began to retract back into the ground. I looked around and saw bits of metal and other debris.

  I winced in pain and spoke in short sharp breaths.

  “Hey Toni, can you check out that, Debris field.”

  Toni walked over to the biggest chunk of metal and flipped it over. We all stared in awe and disbelief, the piece of metal had part of an ancient logo of the Earth's space program and the words: THE ECLIPSE.

  Toni looked puzzled and started to stare at Agatha questioningly.

  “Hey Agatha,” Toni paused as he asked, trying to word his question particularly.

  “So, if you’re telling the truth about your ship and where you landed and all of this, then what is this wreckage from? This logo Is too old to have been the one that brought you?”

  Agatha was pissed, especially at being falsely accused. She got in Toni’s face and shot sand into his face.