by Rob Buckman
"Damn it!” Ellis swore, looking at the ice field before them as they exited the tunnel.
"We are almost there, I can feel it.”
"But…”
"Just move, and quit complaining, woman.” He gave her a lop-sided grin as he said it. He wrapped the Thrakee thermal blanket around them. ”This should keep us warm while the power pack holds out.”
Together, they stepped off into the ice. It was impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction through the driving snow, and without a compass and the constantly shifting wind, for all they knew they might be walking in circles, but Penn refused to quit. Ellis kept her mind as blank as possible, trying to avoid the fears that plagued her on the lava field. Like Penn, she focused on putting one frozen foot in front of the other and nothing else. Penn was limping badly by the time they reached bare rock and warmer air, dragging his burned and frostbitten foot behind him, but he refused to stop and doctor it. Ellis looked up to see another opening, and a passageway beyond. She prayed that they reached the end, but instead, they entered another huge chamber with a transparent floor. The moment the entered, the portal closed behind them. With great caution, they started across the dimly lit room, expecting the floor to vanish from under their feet at any moment, just as it had for the trooper. As they reached what they thought was the center, the light strengthened until it became almost blinding and they discovered they were in a great spherical chamber. Everything was blindingly white, a complete absence of color. They looked around but there was nothing to see. It was if they stood suspended at the center of a giant sphere. The walls were impossible to discern where the walls were now, and the transparent floor gave them the impression they were standing on thin air.
“Oh crap!” Ellis said, looking at Penn. He wasn't looking at her, and for a moment, she thought he hadn't heard her. He turned back and said something. She saw his mouth move yet no sound came out.
“Penn, can you hear me?” He took hold of her chin and drew her mouth to his ear.
“Penn, can you hear me?” She said again, louder this time. It was obvious that he couldn't, and she couldn't hear him either when he attempted to yell in her ear. Penn gestured to her to stay, and dropping his pack, he limped away from her. Ellis watched as he dwindled into the distance. There was no way they traveled the distance Penn's dwindling figure suggested.
“Oh lord!” She muttered to herself. This place made no sense.
There was no puzzle to solve, nothing threatening them, just two people in a colorless, soundless, blindingly white sphere of unknown size. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the tiny figure in the distance turn and start walking back to her. Penn sat and she sank into a cross legged position on the floor facing him. Somehow, Penn seemed at peace, and after taking off his boots and doctoring his foot the best he could, he pulled an MRE out of his pack and handed it to her. She shared it with him wondering just how bad his foot really was. From the look of it, worse than he pretended, the skin on the toes and around the lower foot turning black. They followed the meal with a bottle of water each, and Ellis looked in her pack for something to write on.
'What now?' She wrote and handed him a pad and pen. He scribbled something and handed it back.
“Meditate.”
'Oh shit! He's going all Zen on me now'. Ellis thought, yet in a strange way it made sense. There was nothing for them to look at, nothing to hear to distract them, so what else was there to do but either sleep or meditate?
Penn placed the back of his open hand on each knee and composed himself. After a few moments, he closed his eyes, and began breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. Ellis had seen it all before, and it bored her. A sore butt was all Ellis ever got out of meditating, that and a stiff back. Still, Ellis followed Penn's example, laying her arms gently across her knees. It wasn't long before she felt herself falling somewhere between awake and asleep, but she wasn't sure that's where she was supposed to be. After a while, her mind drifted off into a sort of limbo, and she lost track of the passage of time. Her childhood came back to her, and she thought of happier times before the Empire arrived. She saw her grandfather's face as clearly, as if she was standing in front of him, seeing his wise old eyes, and skin burned dark by the rays of the desert sun.
“Yuta hey,” he greeted her.
“Yuta hey grandfather.” She smiled in greeting.
“So you have come back to see me, granddaughter.”
“Yes papa. I've missed you.”
“I missed you, too, Morning Star. We are waiting for you as always.”
“We, grandfather?” She was puzzled, but loved his use of her secret name.
“Yes. Your brothers and sisters are all here waiting for you to return.”
“I don't understand, grandfather.”
“I know, but you soon will. Come to Stone Mountain and you will find us.” He smiled then, and reached out to touch her face. Her eyes flew open at the touch to find it was Penn touching her.
Nothing had changed in the sphere, yet she felt more at peace. She looked down at the crono and was astonished to discover that eighteen hours had passed. Penn smiled as he offered her the canteen of water, before resuming his meditation. Ellis sighed in resignation, and began the breathing exercise. The next time she opened her eyes, another twenty hours had passed. It didn't seem possible, yet her crono didn't lie. If she dreamed this time, she had no recollection of it. The chamber seemed a little smaller somehow, but she couldn't put her finger on why, as there were no visual cues. Penn appeared deep in meditation. His breathing was very slow, and she knew his heart rate would be next to nothing. Composing herself, she started again. It was much easier to drop into a meditative state the third time. Time passed, and each time she awoke, she drank a little more water and went back into meditation. She trusted Penn would wake her if anything happened, and almost three days later, he did. Penn pointed over her shoulder to an opening no more than ten feet away. As they walked stiffly out of the room, sound returned.
“Christ on a crutch! What the hell was that all about?” She asked, ripping open an MRE and triggering the heating element. She was starving. Penn did the same.
“I suspect it was a test to see if we could do nothing.”
“That's daft.”
“Not really, it was just a matter of learning to be patient, to wait for something to happen. In this case, a door opened.”
“You think?”
“I suspect that if we hadn't meditated, the wait would have been a lot longer.”
“Shit! You could go mad in there if you stayed too long.”
“And that I think was the point.”
“But if you didn't learn to be patient, you'd never get out of that room. That's a hell of a way to die.”
“Yes, it is.” He answered thoughtfully, wondering what happened to the bodies of the people who come before them. If any of them had died, where were the bodies?
After the meal, they took off down the passageway. The short corridor led them to the doorway a huge cylindrical room, like a giant chimney with a spiral staircase leading upward. Ellis looked up in shock. As far as she could tell, the stairway went upward forever. There was no ceiling, but she was beyond questions now. If the path led upward, then upward they'd go. The stairway was just wide enough for them to climb side-by-side, and as they climbed higher, it reached a point where Ellis dare not look down. With no guardrail on the outside, she knew that one false step meant they would plunge to their death. Their pace slowed to a crawl, and their leg muscles started to cramp, screaming in agony with each step.
"Whoever dreamed this place up was a frigging maniac!”
"There's got be a method in this madness.” Penn muttered through the haze of pain.
They lost track of time or place, just to force themselves to take each step, their feet nothing more than numb lumps of meat at the end of their pain-filled legs. Neither looked up to see where they were going. It was pointless, their path just
an endless spiral of steps leading upward. Just when their legs could take no more, they stumbled onto a landing. Somehow, the shaft had narrowed, ending in a point above their heads. For a while, they just sat down by the entrance and rested, too exhausted to do anything more for the moment. By now, Penn right foot was nothing more than a throbbing black lump at the end of his leg.
CHAPTER - THIRTY FOUR: The Gate Keeper.
Even before he took his boot off, Penn's ankle started to scare him. The joint was so tender that it was easier just to leave damn boot on, but Penn knew he had to see how bad the damage was. His fears were confirmed. His whole foot was swollen and starting to turn black. Gangrene, he thought. There was nothing in his pack to help with something like that. They needed to finish this before the poison spread to the rest of his body. Penn urged Ellis to her feet despite her protest. They supported each other as best they could, groaning in pain with each step as they stumbled onward. They entered a circular tunnel some sixty or seventy feet in diameter, and in the dim light, they could just barely make out the giant statues along each side. Even from a few feet away it was difficult to tell just what they were. Ellis shivered as she looked up at the giant figures. Penn guessed they were somehow related to beings that had built this place. The gargoyles seemed to look down on them with disapproval, as if daring them to go any further. The horrible sound that wasn't music started again, grating on raw nerves like sandpaper. At last, the tunnel bulged out around a large pool of dark water with a path around the outside so narrow they would have to sort of sidle around it, one at a time. Even so, they'd have to take off their backpacks to make it around. Penn eyed the narrow path looking for traps.
“Another black pool,” Ellis muttered, her gut tightening. Penn toed the stone pathway with his boot.
“Feels solid enough.”
“That doesn't mean it will stay that way." She muttered as the liquid in the center rippled toward them.
A shadow of something unseen moved just below the water, and they both quickly stepped back down the tunnel away from the edge. The ripples died away. Ellis tried to look into the depths, but whatever caused the shadow was gone.
“Shit!”
Penn pulled out his knife, and edged closer to the pool. As he did, a snake like something lifted itself out of the blackness. The tentacle waved toward him, but did not appear threatening. Even so, Penn quickly stepped back.
More black tentacles emerged from the pool, and began blindly exploring the footpath around the pool. Three or four even entered the tunnel, the tips probing the floor and walls as if to determine their shape and structure, or looking for something between the statues. As Penn and Ellis watched, another part of the creature humped itself out of the water and slowly opened to reveal gleaming rows of hooked, bone white teeth inside what might be called the creature's mouth. The stench emanating from the beast made them both gag.
“What the hell is that?” Ellis gasped, shuddering in disgust. Penn didn't answer. Too tired to care what it was, concentrating instead of figuring out a way around it. There was no way they could jump across or walk around without the tentacles finding them. Backtracking was out of the question, Backtrack to what?
“There has to be a way around this.”
“I don't see how.” Penn answered.
“So let's look at it a different way. Each time we triggered a trap there has always been a way to get around it.”
“For some odd reason, I don't think this trap is meant for us. Ellis shook her head in disbelief. ”It's as if...” He paused, looking at the rows of teeth, “that thing is searching for someone else.”
“Thrakee, you think?”
“Dammed if I know, but I get the feeling that whoever it is now ahead of us.”
“Damn! We have to get around that thing somehow!” Ellis started to walk forward. ”Only way to find out…”
“Like hell! It's my idea. I'll go.” Penn snorted.
“Right. In a pig's eye.”
“Then we both go.” From the look on Penn's face, Ellis could see he hated the idea. Together they edged their way toward the pool, knives out.
As they approached, the tentacles reached toward them in a curious, non-threatening way. One reached for Ellis, and Penn quickly stepped between them, knife ready to slash. Penn could see its sucker-like discs, rather like an octopus tentacle along the underside. The narrow tip hesitated for a moment then moved forward until it was almost touched him. As it drew closer, the tentacle slowly faded from jet-black to white, then settled into a light shade of gray. Penn had no idea what that signified.
“Ellis, get your pack off and move ahead of me and see what happens.”
As Ells moved ahead, the tentacles seemed to lose interest and went back to searching the tunnel. Inch by inch Penn as Ellis moved around the pool, the tentacles somehow content to let them pass. Walking backward away from the pool, they kept their eyes on the searching tentacles until they lost them in the shadows where the statues stood. Exhausted and hungry, Penn never saw Dana until he was on him. Penn turned at the sound of his movement, but he was too late to stop Dana grabbing Ellis and slamming her with stunning force against the wall, and hitting him with the hilt of his knife. Ellis screamed as he fell like a pole axed steer.
Penn lay there unable to move, looking up at Dana. He was tired, almost wishing this were all over so he could rest. They'd come so far, escaped so many traps, won so many battles, and now that miserable asshole Dana was going reap the rewards. Penn didn't know if he should laugh, or cry. As he wiped away the blood from his face, he started to wonder why Dana hadn't just killed him. It was out of character.
“Glad you could join me at last.” Dana pressed the point of his knife in Ellis jugular as Penn tried to stand. ”I'll open her vein before you take a step.”
Penn settled back into a seated position, his golden eyes locked on Dana. Hatred boiled like acid in his gut. Before he, or Ellis could do anything about it, Dana slipped a thin black collar around Ellis's throat and kicked her legs out to force her to her knees. He quickly took a small control box out of his pocket and held it up where Penn could see it. Penn knew what it was. One touch of the control and the collar tighten around Ellis's throat. For a moment, she choked and clawed at the collar. He'd seen this type of control collar before. Dana now had Ellis's life in his hand. Any attempt to remove or cut it off would trigger an auto response and the collar would tighten and choke her to death. With the touch of a button, Dana could tighten or loosen the collar at will. Deep down, below his seething anger, Penn began to feel something he rarely felt. Fear! Fear for Ellis. Fear that this time he might not be able to save her, fear that in his present condition Dana could easily kill them both.
“What the hell do you want?” Penn said through gritted teeth.
“I want you to beg for this bitch's life!” Spittle ran down Dana's chin.
“You'll have a long time to wait for that…” And yet, was there any price too great that Dana couldn't demand that he wasn't willing to pay? Penn tried to distract Dana.
“Tell me this. How the hell did you get pass that thing back there?” Dana shot a nervous look over his shoulder before bringing his fever bright eyes back to Penn.
“That was easy. I just gave it Breen to feed on.” He laughed, sounding almost hysterical. ”You should have heard the stupid prick scream when that thing eat him.”
“So, what do you want from me, you sick fuck?” Penn muttered.
“You're right; I do need something from you.” For a moment, Penn thought about telling him to go pound sand, but the way Dana kept fiddling with the control unit forced him to bite his tongue.
“Penn… don't do it, whatever it is…” Ellis choked against as Dana tightened the collar. Ellis almost sobbed in despair. She couldn't even attack Dana. If she got too close, the collar would automatically tighten.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch!” Dana snarled. He looked down at Penn.
“Do it for the little woman.”
>
“Tell me what you want.”
“All you have to do is walk down to the end of the tunnel.”
“And then?”
“I need you to find a way around the obstacle you'll find there. You do that, and you and your bitch can go fuck your brains out for all I care.”
“Fuck you…”
“Do it you degenerate piece of shit, or I'll skin this bitch alive while you watch!” He slashed down with the knife, opening a gash in Ellis's arm, giggling hysterically at the sight of the blood running down her arm. Ellis clapped her hand to the cut, blood leaking out between her fingers. Penn knew Dana would kill them both even if he did return. But going would give him a chance to think of a way out of this mess.
“What's down there?” Penn asked.
“Oh, you'll find out. I don't want to spoil the surprise.” He giggled.