by Ramy Vance
Neither Beth nor Diana looked as if they were capable of meeting each other’s eyes. An awkward silence descended over the party until Suzuki spoke up. “If that’s the case, let’s make camp. I want everyone to be rested before we get to this,” he ordered. “Who knows what the fuck we’re going to come across down there.”
Chip was already pitching her tent with an ale in hand. She looked over her shoulder and grinned at Suzuki. “Glad you can read minds,” she joked. “Anyone care for a tankard of good ‘ol grog?”
The Mundanes did not need to speak. There was nothing words could say. They went about their own tasks, although broken in some ways. Beth and Suzuki built their own tents, and Stew erected his. Chip and Diana set their own up, as was their fashion. There was little said between the members of the party.
They ate in silence, then went to their tents and slipped into their sleeping bags or cots. Sleep came fast and without warning for each of them, heavy and deep. No one awoke until morning. The sun rose, and they traveled to the volcano.
11
The Mundanes approached the volcano with little thought or words.
The morning had been sunny enough. If Suzuki had believed in omens, he would have assumed this was a good one. But as he had already come to understand, there were no good omens in Middang3ard. Nothing was certain.
The side of the volcano had been carved out by what could have only been a large machine. It was the only option. The hole in the volcano was at least twenty feet high. Somehow, it looked as if the rock of the volcano had been changed. Suzuki thought it was the techno-organic corruption he had seen touch the various aspects of the Dark One’s army.
That was not the case, though.
As the Mundanes got closer to the volcano’s entrance, Suzuki could see it was an entirely different construction.
It was a distinction that almost would have been unobservable to the layman’s eye. The Mundanes stopped to look at the volcano’s entrance. Before they passed through its threshold, each of them stopped and looked up at the ceiling or at the walls as they walked through.
The porous rock of the volcano had given way to something else, something which looked to be growing out of the rock itself. It was almost as if the rock had become pregnant on a cellular level. Life was bursting out of the rock, but it was a type of life none of the Mundanes recognized. Even Diana was confused by what they saw.
Something like black bean sprouts were forcing themselves out of the rock. They moved in unison with each other, almost like the way sea anemones wave in accordance with the waves around them, although the black sprouts did not actually move. Suzuki couldn’t quite understand what it was he was looking at; it felt like an optical illusion. The sprouts were definitely moving and also absolutely still. That, coupled with the bizarreness of them growing out of the solid rock, left an impression that was more akin to horror than anything else.
Stew reached out to touch one of the sprouts, and Diana grabbed his hand. “Don’t touch anything,” she whispered. “I have no idea what any of this is. It could be deadly. Poisonous at the least.”
Stew eyed the black sprouts, obviously not impressed by them. “And we’re supposed to go in there?” he asked. “If this shit is growing outside, you know there’s gonna be a lot more once we get in there.”
“That’s a good point. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything to be done for it, though. As I said before, I have no idea what is down there. We need to be careful. And not go around touching anything that catches our attention.”
Stew withdrew his hand and shrugged as the Mundanes continued to look at the volcano’s threshold. There was something deeply unnerving about the black sprouts. No one seemed to be able to put their finger on it, so they did the only thing they could, which was to stare at the threshold until someone coughed or made a joke. It took a long time for someone to cough. Finally, Suzuki suggested they cross the threshold and delve into the volcano.
The Mundanes began their descent.
It was unsurprisingly hot, and the tunnel they traveled down sloped at an extremely vertical degree. Suzuki felt as if he did not have a choice to walk but was compelled to keep moving forward, or he would have fallen flat on his face. It seemed to be the same way with the rest of the Mundanes. They moved at a slow jog for some time before the tunnel evened itself out.
The tunnel itself was also extremely claustrophobic.
The tunnel was tight, and the Mundanes had to walk in single file as the walls grabbed their shoulders. It was almost the feeling of being hugged.
Suzuki tried to stay on the lookout for any more of the black sprouts they had seen at the onset of their journey. He had seen none but was also aware that even if he had, it wouldn’t have made a difference. There was only one way to go now, and it happened to include rubbing the internals of the volcano.
Farther and farther, they descended. Suzuki wasn’t certain how long he had been walking. Time had ceased to exist the moment the Mundanes had begun walking through the dark, hot tunnel. Diana had cast multiple illumination spells, but the lights were of no use. It was not as if they fizzled out; it was something else. Suzuki could see the light, see the brightness, but it was as if the light could not cast its rays anywhere. The space immediately around the lights was bright, but it was like the tunnel sucked the light away.
Suzuki wished they had torches. Not because he thought it would be any different. He was just curious to know how much light this place could gobble up.
They continued through the tunnel. Suzuki wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he was having a hard time breathing. It confused him because he could feel the air in his lungs despite the feeling. He wanted to ask the rest of the Mundanes if they were experiencing anything similar, but he thought it was a stupid question. No one else seemed as if they were having an issue. That was, until Beth stopped walking and knelt against the tunnel walls. She raised her hand and coughed loudly and said, “Gimme a minute. Just a minute.”
Suzuki took a seat next to her. He was worried about her, but more than that, he needed to take a breather. “Are you okay?” Suzuki asked.
“I can’t fucking breathe. I can’t fucking breathe.”
The rest of the Mundanes took a seat as well. The tunnel filled with the sound of wheezing, stressed lungs.
Suzuki filled his lungs with whatever air he could. He wasn’t certain it was air, but he knew he needed it. There were words he wanted to share, but he knew he could not spare the air. He hoped the rest of the Mundanes were aware of this as well.
They sat there. The only sound was the sound of coughing. After some time, Stew stood up, tried to walk away, and fell against the increasingly suffocating tunnel. “What the fuck?” Stew whispered as his eyes swam toward the back of his head.
Suzuki looked around, trying to figure out what was causing this reaction. And that was when he saw the black sprouts. The walls of the tunnel were covered. He hadn’t even realized the entire time he had been journeying into the depths of the volcano, he had been brushing against these sprouts. His mind flashed back to a point when he was younger, when his parents had been looking for a place to live. The first apartment they had checked out was filled with black mold. At the time, Suzuki hadn’t known what black mold was. He had been a child, hardly capable of understanding the concept itself. As they had toured the apartment, he had clenched his chest and tried to express to his parents that something was not right. Something was off.
Suzuki stood and stumbled farther down the tunnel. “We need to keep moving,” he wheezed. “We can’t stop here. We need to keep going.”
The rest of the Mundanes looked up at Suzuki with clouded eyes. He wasn’t sure if they had anything to say but realized this was not the time to try to understand that. The most important thing was they kept moving. That was the only thing that mattered.
Slumped against the wall, Suzuki took Beth’s hand and pulled her up. He shoved her forward. Next, he took Stew’s hand and dragged him up
. He grabbed Stew and said, “You need to make sure she’s still going forward. Do you understand?”
Stew looked up at Suzuki, his eyes misty and red. “Wait, what?”
“Fucking listen to me. You don’t stop walking, you understand? You keep moving, you keep her moving. You look behind you and make sure they keep moving. Do you understand me?”
Stew nodded solemnly. He opened his mouth as if he thought there was something to be said and then closed it again, then he turned and followed Beth, who was already slumped against the tunnel’s wall. Stew leaned against the wall next to her. After a couple of seconds, he straightened up, placed his hand on her shoulders, and guided her farther down the tunnel. He cast a look over his shoulder as if inviting the other Mundanes to follow him.
That was all Suzuki needed. He pulled Diana and Chip up and shoved them after Stew. They didn’t bother asking questions. Once they had been given a direction, they continued walking.
Suzuki did not know how long it took for him to be alone in the darkness. Faintly, he realized he was alone. The black sprouts looked beautiful. Even more than beautiful, they looked delicious. He wanted to eat them. He felt if he were to take a bite, everything would work itself out. If he were to sit down and enjoy their saltiness, the world would expand around him, and he would be able to get the answers he wanted. But his arms were so heavy. He couldn’t lift them even if he wanted to. All he could do was sit and smell. The perfume of the black sprouts wafted up, filling him with craving. If he could have, he would have cried.
The tunnels fell in on themselves.
Suzuki saw the blackness folding, distorting itself. He knew he was alone, and this was the way he was going to die.
Blackness and the soft petal sprouts against his neck.
In the darkness, there was a voice he had never heard before. It called out to him, singing softly. If he could have, he would have reached out and held the voice in his hand. There had never been anything more important to him than the voice at that moment. It was almost as if he could run his hands across it, to have held it in his hand, to have felt it creeping into the crevices of his fingertips, to have felt it pouring into each and every part of his cells.
If death had been a thought in Suzuki’s mind before, it had never been as present and tangible. He felt it wrapping around his throat, creeping into his bones, hollowing out the marrow. This feeling, these emotions, they were the same things he had caused so many orcs and trolls to feel. They had watched their lives flash before their eyes, remembered their friends, their lovers, and their families. They had seen those moments play across the back of their eyelids as Suzuki’s axe had come crashing down on their skulls.
It was a fear Suzuki did not want to think about. The last few months came rushing back to him, slamming into his head, cracking him open. He was screaming. He did not know when he had started. His voice was hoarse. If he could, he would have stopped. But the terror was within. It was deep and he had not been aware how far down it went.
Suzuki felt someone grab his arm.
They lifted him, and it seemed as if he were floating despite how heavy his body felt. The black sprouts grazed his face. Suzuki wanted to lean his face against the wall, to feel the gentle caress of the sprouts.
But he kept moving.
Not of his own accord.
When I close my eyes, only when I close my eyes… I don’t understand it, it’s almost like… I don’t know, Suzuki thought.
A strong slap brought Suzuki’s attention back to the present. He looked around, his eyesight still blurred, until he could make out the Mundanes surrounding him. “What the hell happened?” Suzuki finally managed to ask.
Beth helped Suzuki sit up as he started hacking. He spat black mucus into the palm of his hand and stared down at the mess. It looked like there was blood in the black gunk. “Did this happen to any of you?” Suzuki asked.
Diana leaned forward and took Suzuki’s hand in her own. She turned it over a couple of times and held her wand over the gunk. The little bit of light that came off the wand was enough to see that the mucus had a bizarre texture, almost like sandpaper.
Diana took a vial out of her robes and handed it to Suzuki. “Wipe that off in here,” she suggested. “Whatever caused this to happen to you is something I haven’t seen before. And it no doubt was caused by those black petals we walked through. Everyone was affected in some way, although you seemed to be more deeply bothered by the sprouts.”
“What happened to the rest of you?”
Stew coughed loudly and spat into his hand. His mucus was the regular color. “It was like allergies or something. I used to live in a place that had tons of black mold. It wasn’t any worse than that. Just a tight chest, and that’s about it.”
Suzuki tried to stand, but his legs felt weak. He thought he could hear singing in the tunnels. “How far down are we going?” Suzuki asked.
Chip pulled up her map and projected it for everyone to look at. The map cast enough light so everyone could see the diagram of Middang3ard. “Can’t say for sure how long,” Chip admitted. “Don’t know if anyone has ever tried to walk the path before, but it’s doable. Straight shot all the way to the guts.”
“Do you think those sprouts go all the way down?”
Chip shrugged as the map she was projecting changed to a visual dictionary of all the flora and fauna in the volcano. “Years old,” she muttered as she scrolled through the information. “Don’t see nothing ‘bout sprouts. Might be something new. Might have been overlooked before. Only thing I’d say for certain is not to put your mitts on them. Especially you, Suzuki. You already got a little too carnal for my approval.”
Suzuki finally made it to his feet.
He coughed again but didn’t bother looking to see what was in his lungs. He didn’t feel as tired as he had a few moments before. The feeling of fatigue had disappeared so quickly that Suzuki wasn’t sure if he had felt it. He nearly reached out and leaned against the wall until he remembered he probably shouldn’t touch anything.
Another fit of coughing racked Suzuki’s body, but it wasn’t as violent as the first few had been. “All right, I guess we should get going. No need to slow down because of me.”
The Mundanes continued on through the narrow tunnels of the volcano. The tunnels themselves were widening, with nearly enough room for three of the Mundanes to walk side by side, something they all unconsciously started to do. Suzuki thought it made the walk feel less lonely. There was something about the darkness that was oppressive. Suzuki couldn’t put his finger on it, but the feeling couldn’t be shaken. In the darkness, Suzuki felt Beth’s hand reach out and grab his own. “You feeling okay?” Beth asked.
Suzuki nodded and took a deep breath. “Yeah, I feel a lot better.” Suzuki coughed. “Lungs still feel like shit.”
Beth continued to hold Suzuki’s hand, forcing him to walk more slowly. The other Mundanes walked far enough ahead that Beth was able to comfortably lean closer to Suzuki and whisper in his ear, “They were being very careful with their words. Careful enough that I don’t think you got the whole truth.”
“What are you talking about?”
Beth pursed her lips. “We were all lost longer than any of us understands. Stew’s the only one who doesn’t seem to have any lost time, but we had no idea where you were for what seemed like hours. Me, I felt like I was gone for weeks.”
“You’re joking, right?”
She shook her head. “Diana didn’t want to say anything because she doesn’t understand what’s going on, but I don’t think we should be keeping it a secret from you just because you can’t remember what was happening. There’s something else. This one I thought we probably shouldn’t tell you, but secrets can be deadly, you know? You were singing. That’s how we found you—leaning against the wall, practically rubbing your face in the black plants. You were just standing there singing.”
“That sounds extremely freaky.”
Beth laughed, but there was n
o humor in her face. Suzuki could tell she was worried. “It was freaky,” Beth admitted. “Whatever the hell is going on here, things are very different than on the surface. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chip and Diana have no idea how fucking far we’ve gone down so far. I don’t blame them. This doesn’t sound like whatever their last experience was. And that makes a lot of sense if the Dark One is behind this.”
“Sounds a little mutinous.”
“Not. I just understand what they’re doing. They’re worried, and they were supposed to be the adults on this trip. I’ve seen this look before. Things are going bad way faster than they were prepared for, and I don’t think either of them is used to being caught off-guard like this. I think they both thought they had some kind of handle on the situation. Just thought you should know, since, you know, you’re the one who does all the last minute planning. Now come on, I don’t want them to think we’re up to anything weird.”
Beth pulled Suzuki’s hand, and they finally caught up to Chip, Stew, and Diana. The three other Mundanes were talking. Suzuki tried to make out their words, but they sounded far off. This was another one of those odd occurrences Suzuki was going to have to make sense of.
Whatever was going on, it seemed like there was some kind of distortion of time and space. Suzuki had read about this sort of thing happening with alien abduction.
But whatever he had read about was nowhere near as severe as this.
In addition, when people related their abductions, they rarely remembered or understood what was going on when it happened. It was something that only came back to them later.
Suzuki knew a trace amount of quantum physics and mechanics. Just the sort of knowledge you pick up from being interested enough to try to understand.
That was about all Suzuki knew, and it was apparent that whatever was going on was happening on a quantum level. It was more than met the eye. Suzuki thought through some of what the Forest Spirit had told him. Gods, alternate realities, stacked dimensions. It had all seemed to be way too weird, but here he was, descending a volcano and trying to find the center of Middang3ard.