The 9th Fortress

by John Paul Jackson

  Bright faced, the angel pointed out a whirlpool growing dangerously close to our little boat. "That is our door!” she announced. “There is our portal!"

  We all creaked our necks to this guzzling vortex. It sure didn't look like a door, but Harmony insisted, and her angelic intuition somehow gave the notion credibility; after all, no sensible mariner would run his ship into a whirlpool, and that logic would ultimately contain men and ships alike here forever. "Row boys!" urged Harmony. "Row!"

  Backs facing the swirl, all of us grabbed the ends of unused oars and rowed toward the churn. Several heaves later the oars became unnecessary, for we had reached this black hole's event horizon, and there could be no turning back. "Don't be scared!" yelled Harmony, so certain as our boat began to turn and descend.

  "I'm going to be sick!" announced Eddinray, throwing his mouth over the speeding sides.

  We four collected in the centre of the boat, whilst the water grew like walls on all sides. The sea like a closing hand, it then began crushing our boat into leaks and splinters. "Hold your breath!" I howled. "Hold your — "

  The boat imploded, and the instant our bodies touched water, the hammer of the sea fell hard upon our heads.

  ***

  My forehead thumped against ice — trapped underwater — the lungs were like lead weights in my chest. Darkness all around me, I punched at a glassy ceiling, but it would not crack. The water was thick like oil, sapping all the energy from my beating fists and kicking legs. I could no longer hold my breath, and when the last of it burst from my mouth and nose, a miraculous hand reached down from some unseen hole to save my second life.

  Harmony and Eddinray dragged my sopping body from a broken pocket over the ice, and on my hands and knees, I puked out a litre of slurry over my stomach.

  "Kat!" yelled Eddinray, returning to the hole and reaching in as far as he could.

  "Find him Godwin!" shivered Harmony, her hair and clothes glistening wet. "He must be there!"

  "I have him!" he cried. "Got him!"

  I screwed up my eyes to witness Eddinray hauling an unconscious samurai from that same watery grave, then settle him over a sheet of mirrored ice. "That's not Kat." I said, coughing.

  This person was frozen stiff and grotesquely bloated. I looked again at this man's armor, at his swords, and at his scars, till my head could no longer doubt what my eyes were seeing.

  "I watched him!" Harmony sobbed. "He cut the ice with his sword then pushed me up through the hole."

  "Why didn't you come up for air?" I yelled down at the petrified warrior. "Why didn't you?"

  "He returned for you Daniel." she added. "Only you!"

  Thinking back, I had no recollection how long Kat or I were trapped underwater. This moment now, however, was horribly vivid. "He doesn't have long." said Eddinray, and bending to the samurai's lifeless body, he cleared Kat's mouth with his fingers then listened down his throat. "He's not breathing." he added, methodically tilting Kat's head back, elevating the chin and blowing several deep breaths into his mouth.

  The world moving too fast for thought, a concerned Eddinray pressed two fingers over the samurai's neck.

  "Nothing…" he said."Not a bloody thing!" Growing desperate, Eddinray began to compress Kat's chest using hands on that old armor. Push. Push. Push.

  "What are you doing?" asked Harmony, scared. "Get off Godwin! Get off!"

  "He's trying to save his life!" I cried, pulling her back.

  Eddinray vigorously pumped on Kat's chest for sixty more seconds, and with no response, madness suddenly came over the Englishman. He beat at Kat's heart with his wet fists, he bashed and he pounded, grunting and panting, spitting and screaming.

  "Godwin!" shrieked Harmony. "Stop! Stop!"

  Kat's ribcage ghoulishly cracked inward, and seeing no further point, I attempted to put a stop to it, but utterly hypnotized, Eddinray fought me off, and then lashed a final strike on our friend's chest.

  Kat returned that instant, vomiting oil and blood. Harmony and I sighed so deep with relief; Eddinray on the other hand, expressed nothing. Still on my hands and knees, I viewed the gaunt face of Eddinray with admiration. Strangely, he didn't look pleased. "He's okay Eddinray." I said. “Where…did you learn that?"

  Eddinray smeared at his bloodshot eyes then turned away. Almost immediately, a belligerent Kat attempted to sit up, but a stabbing pain in his chest put him down.

  "Rest silly man." Harmony, snivelled and cried. "We won't be moving an inch 'till I'm satisfied!"

  Resting his head on her lap, Kat allowed the angel to tend to him, and looking at me through her caressing hands, the samurai's bear husky voice asked — "Who revived me, Fox?"

  "Eddinray." I whispered. "It was Eddinray…"

  ***

  Despite the black rings now permanently marking Kat's eyes, his strength soon recovered, and his pigheadedness too, as he ignored his broken ribs. We trailed him over a barren dark plain; a flat and frosty mirror was our surface, and it reflected all the twinkling stars and space above us. Unusually, Kat did not keep his sight ahead, but on his own shimmering image on the glass. "Hurry!" he badgered. "Keep up!"

  "To what?" asked Harmony, frustrated; but like an energetic Labrador, curious by a scent, Kat kept his focus to the floor. Our reflections were as clear as the faces next to us, and with nothing but walking to do, we examined them.

  Harmony was disturbed by the blood and dirt staining her wings and once spotless gown, before attempting to untangle the knots in her ropey yellow hair. Eddinray's features were sunken and his figure looked emaciated under mail, but his mind was clearly elsewhere right now.

  I was far from pleased with my own face, generously wrinkled with patches of grey in the hair. I wonder what Missy would make of her Daniel now, and if Kathy would still recognise this beat up old man as her father.

  Kat did not care for his grim looks of course, something much more imperative concerned him. Faster than I've ever seen, he drew out his katana and began slashing and growling at thin air behind us.

  All of us startled, we could only wait for him to stop swinging, and when he did, there sat a fragility over Kat's face, a fright he could not control nor conceal; and that fearful expression on the fearless sent shivers running down my spine. "There's nothing Kat." Harmony said, coming to caress his shoulder.

  Shaking off her hand and his own paranoia, Kat returned his sword to its sheath and gave no explanation for his actions. A question appeared ready on Eddinray's lips, but he held it in when Kat dropped to his ass and frenziedly began dusting at the mirror under his nose. His predator eyes hungry, the samurai was smiling now. Mystified, we others gathered round, and smiled too at what Kat had discovered. There where two steel rails and many sleepers under our feet, under the ice; train tracks running in an easterly direction.

  A content Kat now rose from his crouched position, patted the cold from his palms then said -

  "The Fortress is close."

  35. The Express

  That rail track went uninterrupted under the icy mirror, and we followed it. The cold stung like bee-stings all over, but numbness soon replaced the pain of Jack Frost's bite. Harmony and Eddinray seemed glued together in their stride, whilst Kat and I pathetically blew what heat we could into our hands.

  "Rub at your chests." chattered Eddinray. "Your extremities will…take care of themselves!"

  "And where did you hear this?" asked Harmony, wiping a runny nose.

  "A witch doctor my dear, right before I impaled her on the leg of a table. The wretch had it coming, of course, and fine English Oak did the job too!"

  I couldn't tell if Eddinray was rambling good advice or just plain rambling, but whatever the answer, the thought of rubbing frozen hands over my bare chest did not appeal. The journey over the mirrored terrain did its best to take our minds off the cold. The flat surface glittered like diamonds in the darkness and was littered with interesting things to look at; mostly the remains of previous explorers, now preserved as
ice sculptures for all time. I paused to observe the features of one ordinary looking man, no older than myself. It seemed as if he was reaching one hand toward the stars when the freeze snatched him. "Move it!" ordered Kat. "Move it or join him!"

  "The cost of sin." muttered Harmony, over my shoulder.

  Soon after, a unique sight astonished us. It was a gargantuan work of modern art — thirty chilled, and translucent tentacles came down from the sky to stab into the mirror. I touched one of those enormous legs on passing, and green mucus dribbled over my fingers. Squinting skyward, I saw nothing of this creature’s body, it was far beyond my sight. There were, however, plenty more exhibits to catch the eye.

  Paused in motion were a dozen Yeti like creatures, each more than twenty feet tall; and walking between their oversized woolly legs, Harmony pointed out one great white shark a little ways off, its curved snout clearly petrified the instant it broke from the ice. It took time to get my head around the idea that the bulk of these souls originated from distant planets in undiscovered galaxies, that they too had brains and personalities behind the hair, tentacles and teeth. We were all children of other worlds.

  Snot hung like an icicle from Kat's nose, and his eyebrows and beard were white from frost. Yet onward he persisted, onward until at last his determination paid off. Our leader held up his katana like a barrier, then broke off the dangling ice from his nostrils.

  "What have you found?" I asked chittered.

  Still fascinated by his reflection, the warm smirk on Kat's face seemed to thaw the frost from his beard. Next to the long track underneath us, our reflections stood around an upright post with a golden bell on top; below that bell hung a delicate silver chain. "Wondrous illusion." said Harmony, puzzled. "How do we reach it?"

  "Is that what you've been looking for, Kat?" I asked him, while he tensed his right hand. "What are you up too?"

  "I cannot feel it." he replied, and making a fist, Kat lowered himself to the mirror before punching through the ice. I winced at the sound of cracking glass and knuckles, but unconcerned, Kat immersed his arm whole into that murky water.

  After thirty seconds of scouring, an agitated expression told us Kat was having difficultly finding what he was after. "Your arm will freeze off!" gasped Eddinray. "Freeze off then break off! Don't say I didn't war — "

  Harmony shushed the knight for stating the obvious, and thirty seconds later, Kat's face beamed brightly.

  “What have you got?” I asked, excited. My answer came the very moment Kat pulled his arm from the water. A tremendous school bell rang out underneath us, rippling the water, vibrating the mirror and all her statues in the distance.

  "Back!" Kat moaned, as that golden bell and standing post suddenly appeared beside him. Thick train tracks with sleepers ran between our feet too. All but Kat were amazed, and proceeding without pause, the samurai rang the bell again. Its shattering alarm brought our group into a huddle. Kat then manoeuvred us away from the tracks, then pointed his bleeding fingers to a steam locomotive chug-chug-chugging toward us. The glare of its approaching light was uncomfortable, but nevertheless we cheered and waved this machine closer. No matter what cargo the train transported, we wanted inside it; anything to get out of the cold. The oncoming whistle was like teakettles exploding over the working gears and steam, and this transportation, as I could see, stretched its boxy tail back to infinity.

  "Room for everybody!" I declared, dusting the ice from my hair. "Amazing! Kat, you're amazing!"

  "Thank goodness!" cried Harmony, her lips blue. "Thank goodness!"

  The industrious locomotive was a cold-hearted design with the look of labor about it. I could easily imagine it carrying coal from a bleak Welsh mineshaft, or taking tourists to some grey Scottish loch. It swept past us with a ferocious wind, grinding wheels and sparks of screeching steel. At the windows, I noticed her many passengers.

  "Workers," yelled Kat, over the mechanical storm; "taken to toil over the greatest structures!"

  "The 9th Fortress?" I asked.

  Kat's nod confirmed this a second time, before the rolls of ghostly steam smothered him. The locomotive slowly came to a hissing standstill, and when its smog had cleared, a set of steel steps on-board became apparent.

  ***

  Kat slid a wooden door to one side and moved into the passenger car. Everything here seemed straightforward — basic seats stretching down each side; some full, some empty. We ignored the ogling and demoralized eyes of the few scattered passengers in here. It was deliciously warm after all.

  We sat in pairs at vacant seats to the right — Kat and I together, the angel and knight behind. The train did not wait long at this stop. It sounded another mighty whistle outside then started a stagger and shunt over the tracks. "Nice to get warm!" said Harmony, rubbing the heat into her arms.

  "Absolutely toasty!" replied Eddinray.

  However before we could relax, the door we entered slid open, and filling the frame was a repulsively fat man with no eyeballs in his sockets. He was dressed in a formal green uniform, complete with matching hat and tie. Much like Deadeye in the saloon, his sudden and substantial appearance spread anxiety amongst the passengers sharing our car. The tension increased when he snatched the wrist of the passenger nearest to him — Kat's. The eyeless man's grip looked firm, and unusually, Kat did not struggle or attempt to remove it.

  "What do you want?" I asked, scared.

  "I am the conductor!" he wheezed back, blood now falling like tears from his exposed ocular cavities. "Four new passengers on my train! Destination?!"

  We hesitated at first, and he impatiently repeated.

  "Destination?"

  "9th Fortress." returned Kat, calmly. "All four…"

  Instantly, the expression on the officious conductor's face mellowed, the blood stopped running from his tear ducts, and he removed his hold of Kat. "Choose wisely who you sit with." he advised us, using a handkerchief to smear the blood from his cheeks.

  "What on Earth do you mean?" asked Harmony, but with deaf ears, the conductor continued his work through the rollicking locomotive.

  "A queer one." said Eddinray, looking back. "Our wits will certainly need to be about us here!"

  "You've been on this train before?" I asked Kat, watching the scenery race past outside.

  "No." he said. "But I have heard of its power."

  He crossed his arms and said no more, and while I took a moment to contemplate the power of a train, an unwinding Harmony and Eddinray caught each other's eyes.

  "It's fine to be alone." said Harmony, tapping his palm. "Don't you think?"

  "Indeed," replied the knight, peering at his fellow passengers; "but we are hardly alone my dear."

  "This is good enough."

  "Good enough for what?" he asked, clueless.

  "To share.” she said, scratching her elbow. “You were right Godwin, about me firing that arrow on the Bounty. I should have listened, I should not have been so stubborn. I destroyed that ship, and almost lost you in the process."

  Eddinray set his blushing face to a blur of land beyond the glass. "Do not let Kat hear you talk that way," he said; "I'm sure the samurai would claim credit for the destruction of that pirate ship. And as for the firing of that arrow? Well, if it weren't for the rain distracting you, the excruciating pain in your arm and the three hour wait for the invisible flesh eating dinosaur…you would have surely made that shot!"

  Her smile was subtle, as was the weight of her bandanna wrapped forehead resting against his shoulder.

  "It was incredible what you did for Kat on the ice." she whispered.

  Instantly uncomfortable, Eddinray was quick to divert the subject. "Faces here…they seem terribly afraid of you, don't they?"

  Harmony hadn't noticed Eddinray's observations, and turning her head back, she was bewildered to witness the few dotted passengers cowering from her sight, as if each were staring down a very personal nightmare. "What's wrong with you people?" she asked, disturbed.

 
; Like frightened animals, their response was a collective whimpering. "Well?" she demanded. "Speak up!"

  Some lowered their heads, whilst others were reduced to tears now. "I bring no harm to you!" Harmony pleaded. "None at all!"

  "Save your breath." Kat muttered back. "They think you're a black angel."

  "Me?" she gasped, her heart shaped face contorting. "One of those…demons?"

  "You are an angel." Kat returned. "Black — white — all the same to them."

  "Outrageous!" she hissed, huffing back to her seat with a frown. "Ignorant lot!"

  "I'd be delighted to trade costumes?" offered Eddinray, but unfortunately for him, Harmony was left cold by the remark.

  ***

  The locomotive was recovering at the next stop, a concoction of chilly wind and hot steam blew in through opening doors as passengers stepped on and off the train. Harmony and Eddinray were asleep, strewn together like lazy dogs on a Sunday afternoon. Kat and I remained awake, and in silence, in our seats.

  I stood to stretch and was suddenly overcome with weakness, as if all my energy was draining out a hole in my boot. Recent events had caught up for sure, and although I felt the need to sit down again, the thought of more silence with Kat sent me wandering down the car.

  I was taken aback by how comfortable Harmony and Eddinray appeared together, and how they could sleep so deeply. I envied their connection, and their burden free minds. The train shunted suddenly and, as I recovered my balance, I felt a pair of eyes examining the side of my face. This passenger, very different from the rest, sat alone. No more than forty years old, this man had flowing black hair to the shoulders, and a healthy pink glowing on his cheeks. Tall with perfect posture in his seat, he was immaculately dressed in a grey three-piece suit with white shirt, red handkerchief and black tie.

  "It is quite absurd for you not to sit down." he said, with an appropriately eloquent voice. "I have only seen one man look as weary as you do now — the man who last stood where you are standing, and I assure you, he felt moderately better for the seat."