John Jackson - The 9th Fortress

After a long pause, a serious samurai replied. "Many times in my life…I too have considered surrender. Many times. We cannot have victory without defeat — cannot have strength without weakness. Savour your victories Fox — learn from your defeats. We are men, and only monsters belong in this Hell."

His focus then returned to his stirring wife, while I proudly examined my battle weary friends under the firelight.

"Kat?" I whispered. "Do you still feel…a presence following us?"

"I do." he growled. "What I sense is no man, but an ancient cold. We will not escape this demon. It will follow us everywhere."

Harmony glanced up at me, having just finished counting the dimples marking Eddinray.

"Sixty four in total." she said.

I smiled, then dropped off to sleep…

***

"Can't see the hand before my face!" exclaimed, Harmony. "Not a thing!"

We had long passed the comforting light of torches, and here in cramped pitch-black darkness, I led the way. The floor bobbled like bunched together boulders, and the smell was a concoction of bile and vomit. Blind, I sensed the walls crunching and then expanding out again — inhaling, exhaling, and elastic to the touch. The footing incredibly unstable, I stumbled forward to splash into a pool of some kind, taking Curtis with me on the rope.

My stomach muscles contracted and I wretched. This pool was the source of the stench, and I was hip deep in it. The others joined us and complained at the unknown objects, body parts presumably, floating amongst them. Worryingly, I then heard the numerous popping, as if water was slowly coming to the boil.

Harmony screamed, Yuki too. Both women experiencing a very sudden and excruciating pain. The water was gargling, bubbling and roasting hot. I reached back for my prisoner's hand then guided us through this corrosive toward the vague outline of a boulder. I pressed my back against that rock and forced Curtis on top of it. Then, feeling acid eat at my legs, I waited to lift out my arriving friends one by one.

Once out, their hands reached down for me.

"Intolerable heat or intolerable cold!" wheezed Eddinray. "Is nothing lukewarm?"

"All here?" I asked, and all replied dismally. I took slight comfort now, however, a fragile hope in my heart to see a faintly shining star ahead. "Please be the way.' I said.

Already feeling that burning sensation die, all of us climbed with grimaces and spills up a dark tunnel, gripping strands of growing hair hanging from above.

"Who has their hands on my throat?" gasped Harmony, suddenly. "Oh, it's cold! Is that you, Godwin?"

"My dear," he said, behind her; "why would I ever wrap my hands around your throat? And in the dark too! Hold on…" he stuttered; "I fee — "

The knight squawked like a parrot, followed by a guttural sound, which spread like a virus to Harmony — to my prisoner — to Yuki — to.. "What's wrong?!" I bawled, waving blindly. "Someone? What's happening?"

Similar choking came from Kat also, and I could hear their bodies writhing over the lumpy boulders.

"Kat?" I begged. "What the fuck's going on?"

Why would my eyes not acclimatize to this darkness? I tripped again to land over a convulsing Curtis, who in full spasm grasped his unkempt nails into my arms. I forced him off, and standing, I suddenly sensed a curious pressure begin to tingle at my own throat. "Oh no…"

There was no stranger's hand at my neck, only invisible, harmless air. The disturbing sensation continued nonetheless — increased, intensified — five fingertips unmistakably grazing the stubble under my chin before constricting a hold around my neck. A knot was tied around my breath, and I collapsed to choke beside my friends.

Kat's katana scraped against bulky boulders and rubber like walls. I too reached for my short-sword, and slashed as consciousness shrunk. I needed light — I needed guidance — I needed fire! Then, at the very end of that thought, the blade in my hand abruptly sparked into a rippling, jagged, and brilliant fire.

"This sword will bring light to the dark." Bludgeon once said, and instantaneously, the throttling hands withdrew, and we sucked in the air.

Heaving, I saw darkness itself as thin and tall figures over each of us; spindly fingers, faces without eyes and bodies growing giant and minute at the same time. I roared and cut at these shadows, which danced petrified from my steel torch. The more I swung the more these creatures fled, and the more the light illuminated this cave. "Is…everyone…alright?!" I yelled, swinging.

Their grunts reassured me, and I continued at it until the killer shades retreated. I wanted to recover, but this burrow revealed an exit. We where inside some kind of mouth complete with foul halitosis, where further upward, over a gooey tongue and opening lips, beautiful daylight awaited.

"There!" I pointed, yanking Curtis close. "Follow me!"

The shadows gathered to prevent our escape as we climbed for the light — Bludgeon's blazing sword the only thing holding them back.

The surface boulders were the taste buds of this tongue, and it was these we gripped, pulling and battling past puddles of saliva, and all the way to its slimy tip. The murderous lot attacked then recoiled, screeching back to their secret hideouts when we leapt free and out. Eternal damnation was now, finally and at last, behind us…

Her smile like the sun, Harmony bounced up and down on the sand, and then shocked Eddinray with a smothering hug. “We did it Godwin! We did it!"

Light-headed, I saw the reality but could not believe. We had run the gauntlet — we had beaten Hell itself. How could I believe it?

"Never seen the Distinct Earth." murmured Curtis, likewise disorientated. "Almost like the real thing."

Before us was a boiling ocean. Condensation rose thick and gale force winds carried a hot mist over the beach.

"Will you remove this?" asked Curtis, showing me our rope. "I won't run. I tell you I won't run."

"The boiling sea!" declared Eddinray, over great sprays of it. "Our names are for all time! For all time I say!"

A well-packed ball of sand suddenly burst over his face. "Got you!" giggled Harmony.

Kat mustered a snicker at the startled knight, who ducked Harmony's second ball before scooping up his own.

"Amazing." I said to no one in particular, feeling the synthetic air of the Distinct Earth form musk at the back of my throat. I coughed into my palm and noticed more blood than mucus.

"You're a mess." said Curtis, lingering over my shoulder. "You won't last the night."

I wiped my lips clear of blood while Curtis felt the sudden brunt of Kat's fist across his cheek. The punch put Curtis to the sand, and there he cursed us from the side of a swelling mouth.

Unperturbed, Kat smeared the pain from his knuckles then lumbered back to Yuki, who sat watching the burping waters.

***

We took shelter that evening in a large burrow of earth, created by a creature long gone. It provided reasonable shelter from the elements and a spectacular view of the ocean and receding sunlight. Tomorrow, first light, Bludgeon's dragon Seppuku would arrive to carry us all to the Waiting Plain as planned — she had my scent, and my mind's eye could already see her flying over cloud and continent to get here; but with the whole night to wait out, and trouble forever brooding in darkness, the dragon couldn't come soon enough.

Before settling himself to sleep, Kat again attended to my wounds, cleaning them thoroughly whilst ignoring his own. Recovery of the body was certainly fast here, but the passing of time could never heal the mind's injuries, and we were all suffering from those, in one way or another.

Eddinray volunteered to take first watch outside the burrow while we others enjoyed some much-needed rest. "You will be home soon." Eddinray whispered to Harmony, who snuggled against his back. "Do you think a man of my — heck hem — moral ambiguity may be granted passage into your Heaven? Is there a place for the likes of me?"