John Jackson - The 9th Fortress

The ascending tunnel became gradually steeper and extremely difficult to avoid any bites or tares. Like cats on a hot tin roof, Curtis and I went on all fours up a route of clinging nails and snarling expressions. Suddenly, my prisoner squealed, and I turned to see his left hand trapped inside of one mouth, the teeth grinding away at the bones. Surprisingly, Curtis did not yell for my assistance; instead, he screwed up his face and personally tugged his hand free, moaning as the skin was peeled away like a rubber glove.

Our exit lay feet away, another glimmering light amongst foaming mouths and greedy hands. Curtis held his ravaged hand to his chest and hastily followed me up and out. Thankfully Eddinray, Harmony, Kat and Yuki, were not far behind.

***

The steps were our next implausible challenge: red steps to a savage sky with violent forks of lightning. The steps were thick and substantial, with vertical drops at each side.

"Another shadow over hope." said Harmony, completely sapped. "It will take us forever."

"Then let it be forever!" returned Kat, his grit spurring us on over the first giant play block.

The absence of demons here concerned me. Perhaps the real demon was the gruelling staircase itself or the drops on each side? Nevertheless we continued over them without complaint, without rest, and without incident.

Hours passed. Two, maybe more. The winds picked up as we approached what looked like burning clouds, clashing like a hundred Hindenburg’s. “Does anyone see the top?" panted Curtis, recovering against me.

"The top?" chuckled Eddinray, sarcastically. "Who can see the bottom?"

Curtis squirmed back to an obscure fall of blacks and oranges, rolling in a glowing churn. I held a calm demeanour throughout; for every step conquered brought me closer to the end, and the more we ascended the more assured I became.

To avoid falling, Curtis was scrupulous at my side, and our umbilical chord did not once strain taut. It was the pair of us who led this gruelling ascent, and the pair of us who discovered the first corpse.

There was a horned helmet left over ravished rags, furry boots and an emerald necklace between twelve worn arrowheads.

"Not the first to make it this far." I said, crouching to survey the morsels. "What could have done this all the way up here?"

"It's beautiful." said Harmony, gazing at the sparkling necklace. She bent to collect it, and giving no reason for doing so, she discarded this precious stone over the edge of the steps. It plummeted to the puffy fires and we watched it fall like spittle all the way.

"There!" announced Eddinray, pointing two steps above to similar arrows with trails of flesh clinging over the tips.

"Appears we are the latest in a long line of attempted escapees." he muttered, picking through the remains."

"Keep an eye out." I said, with a considering squint. Kat too, appeared more than usually troubled.

"Been quiet." I said to him. "You think we're in danger?"

"We're always in danger. I do not know what killed these people Fox, but we are being followed. I sensed it before the locomotive," he added, hoarsely; "and I sense it here now. This feeling won't leave me."

"Before the train?" I said, bewildered. "Why did you keep it to yourself?"

Lightning struck near to startle us, but still I demanded an answer from Kat.

"Does it matter?" complained Harmony. "I mean, really boys, if we keep going at this rate then what's to catch us?"

I peered behind to see nothing on our tail, and meagrely content, we continued our reach for the sky.

We climbed and occasionally rested, every so often coming across more arrows and scattered entrails. I counted thirty-seven skulls sprinkled over the next sixty steps. The rotting virtuous.

"I can't go on!" begged Curtis, red faced and setting himself against a step. "No more! No…more!"

We were all thinking it, but his refusal to move gave us all the excuse to stop. I placed my drained head between my legs. Eddinray and Harmony flopped like worn out slippers whilst Kat and Yuki slunk on a step below us, the samurai wearing a brave face over exhaustion.

"We stay here." I said, rubbing the burn from my joints. "Enough for tonight, eh?"

Agreeing heads bobbled and relieved mouths sighed. "The cloud above is breaking." said Harmony, heaving. "A good sign. Perhaps, perhaps we are close to the top?"

"I hope so." huffed Eddinray. "I dearly do. Can see some birds over there. Is that a good sign too, Harmony?"

"Birds?" asked Kat, suspicious. "Where?"

The knight directed his finger to the fluttering of three busy winged silhouettes.

"Not birds!" exclaimed Kat, getting fast to his feet. "Move!"

His order terrified tiredness to the back of our minds, and we did as we were told. "They were waiting!" he growled, guiding Yuki up the steps. "Waiting!"

"What are they?" I asked, feeling the rope pull at my guts as Curtis scampered ahead. Suddenly, a female cry cut through the sky like nails down a blackboard, and curiosity getting the better of Harmony, she delayed her climb for a look back. "Harpies!" she announced, her eyes bulging. "We're done for!"

Armed with chunky bows and arrows, the three women like creatures had winged backs, crackled blue skin and baldheads, tattooed over with an indecipherable design.

"Go Godwin!" Harmony yelled, feeling a forceful gust from their passing wings.

Starved in the stomachs and deranged in the eyes, the Harpy women attempted to separate us with swooping dives cutting into our group. Twice they spliced us down the middle, but our swinging swords caused them to rethink that strategy. They returned to a safe distance — and there — before a brewing storm they armed their bows, placing three arrows in each to make nine projectiles.

"Huddle!" roared Kat, stopping suddenly. "Now!"

All collected on the same step without question as Kat positioned himself before us, his shadow like a bomb shelter over our bodies. Kat's bravery seemed to amuse the ugly women, who wasted no time firing their arrows. With a whistle, nine sharp sticks came toward our man.

The samurai closed his eyes, honed his focus, then became a blur of cuts, volleying and deflecting all the arrows with spasms of strength and steel, with only a splinter making it through his brilliant shield to score bloody across his forehead.

"Up!" he bawled, immediately. "Up! Up!"

Our huddle broke and we clambered over the next step, and the one after that, hoping to see Hell part above and the exit reveal itself.

"Down" thundered Kat, and we five came together as he single-handedly faced another onslaught of harpies and arrows. He searched, found his mental centre and -

STUT-STUT-CLANG-CLANG!

The attack was over before we could brace ourselves for it, and yet again, we were ordered to our feet and up the steps.

"Up! Up! Up!" he yelled, snatching Yuki by the wrist and pushing her backside ahead.

The moment she was clear on higher steps, Kat received a blow from behind, knocking the swords from his hands and his head near clean from his shoulders.

Bamboozled, Kat opened his eyes to dizzying disorientation as a hysterical Harpy grasped him by the ankle and hung him over a boundless whisk.

"Put him down!" all but Curtis yelled at her. "Drop him! Drop him!"

The fritter faced woman held Kat as if he were weightless in her hand, and carelessly she trailed him upside down until streams of vomit spewed from his mouth.

"Pass the warrior man here!" rasped one Harpy. "I must have him in my hands, sister!"

Presently, we gawked as Kat was flung clear across the clouds. Violently he spun, only to be snatched by the delighted Harpy who demanded him.

Harmony joined Yuki on the higher step, as wife bent and prayed.

"To me sister!" cried the third Harpy. "Pass me the man!"