Journey to a darker world

by Christian Mathis

  “Noooooo Annabelle, James!”

  This is not real; this is not real; this is not real. I began to slam my fist into my head.

  For a split second I must have regained consciousness because, for a moment, I saw a mysterious room and my friends, and I strapped to tables.

  “Guys wake up. We have to escape; whatever you see it’s not real!” I screamed.

  The blip of reality bled into delusion again as I slipped back into another hallucination.

  How the hell am I supposed to escape this? A prison of the mind and fueled by my fear. For one week in my life I cannot use strength, weapons or my powers to escape. How am I supposed to fight my way out of a prison that only exists in my mind?

  My thoughts were interrupted when another man appeared before me. A face I had not seen for countless years over a lifetime ago.

  “Uncle John is that you, this state of mind makes me relive the darkest times in my life. Decisions I regret making. Is that why I see you here? I’m supposed to think long and hard about why I should regret killing you; that killing you makes me a bad guy. I don’t regret killing you in the least because you deserved it. If I were allowed a do-over in my life, I would gladly kill you again.”

  “No child I appear before you to remind you that you are a failure. You are no hero you could not even save your friends. Any of them. While you dream up me your friends are trapped. Imprisoned in their minds. You have killed hundreds upon hundreds of people. You are not a hero. If anything you are a Duke of darkness. You will never escape, and you will never save your friends.

  I watched as my former self killed my buckle with the cruelest poison and the kick his dead body.

  After my uncle I watched as my memory recalled every person, I had ever killed in graphic detail. Besides my memories the hallucination would alter and broadcast a false memory one where my greatest fear would occur. The loss of a friend and my failure to stop them.

  I ran and ran, trying to flee from the torture from my subconscious. I stumbled and fell into the ground. For a moment I was in some limbo; Between awaken and unconscious state.

  A distant voice called out to anyone that would listen. “Guys it’s me guys, I’m not dead and neither or you! if you relax, I can try to merge our consciousness.

  “Hey, who said that who is here?” I screamed

  I was answered only by silence and darkness. Perhaps if I relaxed my brain heard that man again.

  “Catalyst, I can help you come to me!”

  I looked up to see Annabelle standing in a bright clearing. I ran to her and wrapped my arms around her tightly. Her slow methodic breathing soothed and comforted me. I had begun to relax and be comforted.

  “Catalyst, you have to wake up! Come on buddy wake up. After the crash they came for you, and they imprisoned you mentally and physically. You don’t have much time after they get what they want or info; they need they will kill you.…”

  The mysterious man’s voice faded away, and I was left standing there in shock and awe I was distracted, and another delusion formed. My childhood dog ran into the clearing. He was playful and happy until I watched myself kiss and let him and my dog feel dead. The dark tears slid down my cheeks once more. I had never felt so alone, so lost, so afraid as I did at that moment. I sat down, and I thought of all the causes of delusions of grandeur. I thought about how I could wake myself from the horrible hallucinations. What if someone had drugged me and the effect of the drug is to force you to reveal your deepest fears and secrets and weaknesses.

  If the used a drug to cause hallucinations, what if I poisoned myself with samadarin poison from the fire salamander. I would have to give myself a severe dose enough to counteract my anti-venom from the opossum. It might give me enough time to experience the effect before the anti-venom kicks in. Or it will kill me if it kills me then I guess I won’t be hallucinating anymore. I stood up as I placed the tips of my finger onto my temples. I Focused all my strength and will power into injecting myself with poison. My brain flooded with the fire toxin and my imagination went into overdrive. The world around me began to spin and swirl the trees and animals and sky became only bright colors. Splotches of blues, greens, and purples danced in front of my eyes. My eyes were plagued with visions of random people and items. Killer clowns dancing on top of giant polka dot candles. The images were replaced only when I was blinded by a bright white light, and for second, I thought I was dead. My blackened burnt twitched one after another before seizing up and the joints locked.

  I peeked open one eyelid, and my eyes darted around the room. The room was like that of a cargo bay it was a grey rectangular shaped room split off into about a dozen smaller sections. The walls were made of solid tempered glass. Each of my friends was strapped to a table in the center of each cubicle, each in their private hell.

  I looked down on my arm, and I discovered why I awoke from the forced hallucinations. An IV had been forced from my arm due to a large amount of poison accumulated at the puncture site. I tried to lift my arm; I could not. It was filled with poison and numb until my blood returned to normal by the amount of poison diminishing and the amount of blood returning to normal. I wouldn’t be able to use my right arm.

  A loud alarm began to bounce off the walls and drill into my ears. “PRISONER AWAKE, PRISONER AWAKE. ATTEMPTING TO SUBDUE.” A computer voice shrilled. Gas began to emit from a vent at the top of my cell. I fumbled to tear at the straps so I could escape and block the gas from knocking me out.

  “Catalyst, our minds are still linked I can guide you; you have to trust me. Use the IV to cut the straps.” A familiar voice whispered in my skull.

  I was hesitant at first as I was of everyone after I had arrived on this planet. I held my breath shoved my mouth and nose into my shoulder, attempting to keep as much gas out of my lungs as I could. I reached for the IV the tiles of my fingers barely able to knock the Fat needle into my thumb. I rolled my fingers around until the IV rolled into my palm. I stabbed at the leather straps that bonded me to the table. Over and repeatedly at least a dozen times until it was only held together by a thin piece of fabric. I threw my shoulders forward and writhed until the first strap was broken. The leg strap was easy I merely unclipped the latch ripped it off the table and clipped it around my waist. The Gas began to stink my eyes, and I felt it tickle my nostrils.

  “Catalyst, you’re going to have to break through the glass wall; they seal you inside, which means there is no door. If you hit the same spot enough times the glass should shatter.”

  I heard at least a dozen footsteps approach in the distance. I ripped off the leather strap and swung one end and slammed the metal latch into the glass wall. I swung the other end in my left hand and hit the same spot on the wall. I swung the strap underhand and slammed it into the glass. BOOM. The tempered glass shattered into a thousand pieces and showered the floor. A few glass shards pushed deep into my skin.

  “Catalyst now you have to listen to me closely, you’re going to have to fight your way out of the room and down the hall to the cages.”

  I stepped out of my cell and saw Annabelle, James, Toni, and the others trembling and shaking from their horrific hallucinations.

  “You have to leave them! If you don’t leave them now, then no one will be able save any of you guys because you’ll be dead. Sometimes you have to drop everything in order to catch it better.”

  I glanced one last time at my fiancé and friends and then headed for the door. I grabbed the metal latch in my hands and attempted to coat it in poison. The footsteps halted, and I heard a low humming noise as if a device was warming up.

  “Catalyst Return to your cell, and we will use minimal force. Defy us, and we kill you or more accurately make you wish you were dead,” The head guard said.

  I heard a dozen guns cocking, and at least that many men stepped into sight all around me. I wrapped my hands tightly around the strap and moved one of my feet back as if getting ready to strike.

  “No, I would never go do
wn without a fight, either I’m going to escape, or you’re going to have to kill me. I will tell you one thing after I kill you guys, I am going to take one of those cool guns. Then I’m going to kill the rest of your friends on this ship.” I said.

  The head guard man laughed, and then his glare hardened, and his dark brow furrowed. “your dad should have taught you not to threaten people who have their guns on you. “

  The men behind me had their guns build into a glove and arm sleeve on their right arms. At first, I was confused then they fired, and it all made sense. Their guns shot thermal energy after siphoning chemical energy from their bodies with the arm sleeves. DOOM. DOOM. The men behind me blasted off several shots.

  I tried to dive down and dodge the shots one of them grazed my shoulder and blasted deep into my shoulder blade.

  “Aaaaaah what the fuck!” I screamed. I grabbed my shoulder and ran my fingers across the burned and bloody skin. I unlatched the leather strap from around my waist and swung the belt underhanded. WHACK. The metal contacted one guard and the other. I jumped and kicked one guard in the chest while the strap wrapped around another’s throat. It pulled tightly, and his neck snapped.

  Boom. Boom. boom, another group of guards had begun to fire metal and glass slivers from a large barreled gun. I had caught the strap around one of the guard’s legs and pulled him into the path of the glass killing him. I slid across the floor, and my foot contacted the head guards’ knee. He fell to the floor and fired a couple shots at my chest. I used one of his friends as a shield and dropped the dead body on top of him.

  My eyes burned with rage, and I wrapped my hands tight around one man’s neck and the others leg and injected them with box jellyfish toxin – Instantly killing them. I jumped off the dead bodies and leaped into a pile of guards I spit stink ray venom into their eyes. I grabbed one of the thermal guns and returned the guard's fire.

  “Catalyst you have to hurry, this is only one squad of men if you do not escape soon many more will follow.” I was annoyed. I was sure he was right it was now or never. I tucked the gun into my waistband and slid to the floor. It took almost every drop of energy I had I filled the room with a strand of Anthrax coating all their lungs and instantly killing them.

  I fell to my knees in exhaustion and grabbed another thermal gun. My knuckles white against the handles I wipe sweat from my forehead.

  “Hello! The voice inside my head, where am I supposed to go now!” I was answered only by silence. I thought I created the man inside my head to free myself for self-preservation.

  “You need to slip into the hollow shaft between rooms and make your way to what they call the zoo; it is where they hold the more … beast-like prisoners such as myself.” I blasted a hole into the far wall and slid myself between the beams.

  I shuffled my feet sideways towards the next room.

  “Catalyst the next group of guards is closing in, you have to drop into the Zoo. Now jump!”

  I reached into the collar of my shirt and held the necklace of talons tightly in my hands. My thumb ran down the center talon; Gabriel’s talon and I took a leap of faith. My feet slammed into the floor with a loud metallic clank. The room was an exact copy of the prison that held me the only difference was the cages were larger much larger. Each cell held a beast inside and the first one I investigated held one of Ehud’s dinosaur men.

  Chapter eighteen

  “Pst Catalyst over here, I’m in the cage on the back wall, get me out of here, and I will explain everything.” This time the voice did not come from inside my head. It came from across the room, and I knew who the voice belonged to before I even saw their face. I walked past the various cages each with a unique animal, plant, or beast inside. Several of the cages held beings I was familiar with including a few fermenters, a dinosaur man, several giant cockroaches, one giant millipede, and a roomful of the exploding flowers, many of the cages held creatures or plants I had never seen before. When I reached the back wall, my jaw dropped at what I saw.

  “Willard is that you? How can that be I thought you were dead?” After I said it I immediately thought about how similar the circumstance was to the countless ones I had when I was hallucinating.

  “Catalyst, I can see the look of disbelief on your face. I can assure you I am real. After all the tests and torture, I am still almost completely there. The only thing I am missing is my wings. Of course, I lost those before they took me didn’t I”

  He rubbed the jagged nubs on his back as he turned away from the glass and sat down on a small bench in the corner. He started at the dragon-like a reflection in the mirror.

  “I noticed Gabriel was not with you when they brought you in, So I’ll assume he is dead then. I truly have lost everything.” I began to rub the jagged bones on his back again.

  “Willard I truly am sorry to have to tell you, he is dead. He died saving all of us so that we could have another chance at better lives. I am forever grateful for His sacrifice I only regret not being closer to him when he was alive. step back please.”

  I paused long enough to unlatch the leather strap belt from my waist and swung it into the tempered glass wall repeatedly until it shattered.

  “Willard If what you said Is true, we have to go now; if not their will not be enough time to save the others before we escape.”

  He looked at me as if I were a fool spewing the most ludicrous conspiracy theories.

  “Save the others? I am sorry Sir. There is no way we can save them. We must go, and we must go now. You have no idea what you’re up against. We’re going to have to leave the others behind.”

  “Are you crazy Willard no way in hell am I leave all of my best friends behind. If. Man doesn’t have his friends, then he doesn’t have anything. You can either come with me and save them or you can stay here and be at the mercy of whoever they are.

  The look on his face was a reluctant agreement. He stepped out of the cage with the glass crunching under his feet. I tossed him one of the thermal pistols, and we slid back into walls. As we walked, we attempted to make small talk or catch up; it was as if he could only remember certain things. Willard was different-different. Then again so was I when we thought Willard died; we hadn’t even got imprisoned or fought Ehud or met Zadok or lost Gabriel. We walked in silence for a while until we came upon a bright light emitting from a vent.

  “Hey, Willard, how could you put yourself inside my head and how come you couldn’t melt your way out of that cell?”

  he stopped in his tracks, and I ran into him, which forced me to halt.

  “These people are Outlaws they find special people, creatures or plants and they capture and extort them. They use whatever they can, sell whatever they want and bend people to their will or the will of the people who hire them. Someone hired them to weaponize the people and weapons of this planet. When they captured me, they strapped me to a table like they did to you. Only they didn’t need my acid powers because they had already gotten those from Smith. So, they experimented on me. They slipped this guy into my subconscious. This guy could use telepathy due to consuming a high amount of some mountain plants. Only they killed him so that his consciousness was trapped in my head. They injected me with this drug that would block me from being able to produce the acid than the dumped me in that cell until they could use me again. Or until they wanted to show me off in their freak collections.”

  “I’m sorry man I had no idea I promise I will do whatever I can to kill these bastards and get you your powers back. Now, what is the plan for rescuing the others?”

  Willard turned to me with a look of disbelief and sadness filled his eyes. His next words he spoke hesitantly, and his dragon lips moved slow. He dragged a talon against the metal wall creating a low shrieking sound.

  “Before we go rescue them Catalyst, there is something that you have to see. After we steal it, you might not want to rescue them anymore because I promise you it will change your whole viewpoint and strategy because it will destroy you and change who your f
riends are.”

  I peered into the great to see several men in chairs watching a giant computer screen other guarded the door.

  “What I need to show you will be on that screen, we need to get into that room undetected and as quietly as possible,” Willard whispered.

  I dug my fingers into my blood shoulder and attempted to pull out the glass shards. They severely cut up my fingers and would not dislodge. Willard’s thick skin hand pulled out a shard of the glass and covered my mouth with the other hand. He cut a length of plastic tubing with the glass, and I knew what he had in mind. I Pried our several nails that were holding down wire clamps. I coated them in my poisonous blood and put them one at a time into the length of tubing. SWUSH SWUSH SWUSH. One after another the poison tip nails would embed into one of the outlaw’s necks causing them to go into cardiac arrest and death.

  “Willard surly the traitor must be Zadok he has been usurping me and undermining me and trying to be in charge since we met”

  Willard looked sad as if he wishes he could say it was so.

  “Catalyst, I am afraid I can’t tell you that because Zadok might be a dick apparently he is a loyal friendly dick. I clipped one end of the leather strap to the vent and wrapped the other around my palm, and lowered myself down. I let in dangle in the air in case we had to make a quick getaway. I made my way to the chairs and sat down. I drew my gun and aimed it at the door I was ready to shoot anyone who entered.

  Willard started mashing the keyboard and flying through file after file until he clicked on a list of emails marked, Cardinal commands. The list contained entries from almost a years’ worth of files. The first date on the list was the date we had left Earth. My stomach began to feel uneasy as if it had already begun to piece together the mystery before my brain. Every date was the day before everything bad happened. The date we entered Agatha’s camp before the fermenter fight. The date Ehud captures us. Every day before each ship crash. My hand shook as I reached for the mouse to click on the first link.