Into Tordon

by Z. F. Kingbolt

  Zane hovered above her, holding a wet cloth to her forehead. As their eyes connected, his lips broke into a smile. She tried to sit up, but Kira pushed her back down and continued to press white petals against her foot.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘She’s awake! You were bitten by the green cobra.’

  Zane patted her arm. ‘We saved you with the petals of a sacred white lotus flower.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She shut her eyes again. ‘I was having this strange dream.’

  ‘We heard you call out,’ Zane said.

  ‘It was just the fever,’ Kira told them, weighting the petals on Beth’s foot with a large pebble. ‘You will be fine by the morning.’

  ‘I was pretty worried, you know,’ Zane said as Kira moved off to speak with her family.

  ‘I know.’ Beth smiled. ‘You need me to defeat creatures like the Hupuleq and overgrown snakes, right?’

  Zane nudged her arm. ‘Right.’

  She sat up too quickly and the world spun again. Zane held her hand to steady her and pull her upright.

  The circles on his wrists glowed in the late afternoon light.

  She turned his hand to look at it more clearly. ‘I wish I knew what these were counting down to—going home, losing our minds, some kind of special event?’

  ‘I’m not sure I want to know anymore,’ Zane said. ‘I thought you were gone just now.’

  ‘I know how that feels,’ Beth said, remembering the snake swallowing Zane in the caves.

  They exchanged a look and smiled. Beth had heard near-death experiences could make people appreciate each other. After everything they’d been through, she certainly did. She didn’t think of Zane as Mr 007 tough-guy anymore, the kid who’d pushed her through the doorway of an abandoned house. He was more than that now. Was he her friend? She’d never had anyone to share thoughts and feelings with before, not even a mother like most other girls. She tried not to dwell too much on that loss, but with Zane around everything felt less hard. The emptiness filled. Would she still think that way if they went home though? Would he?

  Your heart knows what it truly craves, the hat-message had said.

  But Beth’s heart felt torn. She wanted to go home above all else, yet would she lose Zane if she did? Her heart ached at the thought of him no longer being by her side through every battle and test.

  Test?

  The word made her think of something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, and before she had the chance to think it through, a flash zipped from their wrists, blinding her again.

  Chapter 18

  It was dark, really dark. Beth blinked as her pupils dilated, trying to soak up more light. Only the single segment left shining at her wrists and Zane’s beside her, lit their faces.

  ‘Are we in a cave again?’

  ‘I think we’re in a building. Feels like floorboards.’

  Zane stomped his heel down. ‘Can you see anything?’

  ‘Not really.’ She angled a wrist so its light shone around the large room.

  ‘Hang on, there’s a light switch.’ He flicked it up and down repeatedly. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Shush, I hear something.’ Beth closed her eyes, tuning into her other senses. She smelled something electrical, like burning metal. And there was a sound of water or…small feet running? It echoed like they were in an abandoned building. Then someone groaned. ‘What was that?’

  ‘I don’t know. Let’s find out. Here.’ Zane’s hand reached out and hit her stomach.

  ‘Hey, stop groping.’

  ‘Give me your hand then. Right, this way.’ He pulled

  her along for a while, then stopped. ‘Did you hear that?’

  Beth nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see her. ‘Footsteps, ahead of us?’

  Zane started hurrying. ‘There’s a light too.’

  A faded glow seemed to be coming from the end of a long corridor and around a corner. The groaning got louder.

  ‘I really don’t like that sound. Let’s go back.’ Beth tugged on Zane’s hand.

  He paused. ‘Yeah, maybe. Or down that way?’ He pointed to another corridor leading right. ‘What kind of place is this?’

  ‘Forget about where we are—look!’ Beth pointed at the corner.

  From around it came a dozen pale creatures with gigantic eyes, shuffling and groaning. Luminescent green slime covered them, oozing down their faces and sliding off their chins onto the floor. Something gross dribbled from the corner of one’s mouth. Another was munching on something that looked like sausages. Or perhaps it was intestines. Or a finger.

  Zane froze beside her. ‘What are they?’

  ‘Let’s not find out!’ Beth said, tugging his hand again. ‘I think I’ve seen some of them before.’

  ‘Yeah, in your nightmares, zombies from the nuclear lagoon! Let’s go before they try to eat our brains or something.’ The glowing faces surged closer. ‘Watch out!’

  One of the creatures lurched to grab Zane’s spare hand and held it up, staring at the glowing circle on his wristband.

  ‘Getitoff getitoff!’ Zane shrieked, shaking his arm. Beth punched its ribs, twice, hard. It groaned and let go.

  ‘Run!’ she yelled, grabbing Zane’s arm and pulling. They hurried as fast as they could down the opposite corridor, Beth limping with her sore foot. She could only see a few metres ahead through the darkness, but at least they were moving away.

  ‘Thanks,’ Zane puffed. ‘That really creeped me out.’ ‘No worries,’ Beth said, busy searching for an exit.

  There were only more corridors, rough walls and the occasional luminescent graffiti. Had the creatures written it?

  ‘The man who invented it doesn’t want it,’ Zane read aloud, hurrying ahead to read another message. ‘The man who bought it doesn’t need it.’

  ‘Very interesting, but let’s keep moving,’ Beth said, spying another zombie-thing a few metres away. It was bumping into the walls, slowly moving closer, staring at their wrists. ‘Go.’ She gave Zane a shove as he paused by a third string of words. ‘Faster.’

  ‘We need to read it.’

  ‘Move!’ She was tired of inscriptions, messages and carvings. They only ever got them out of one world and into another—never home. ‘Quick, it’s coming!’

  Zane ducked to one side. ‘In here!’ He pulled her into a tiny alcove.

  ‘What are you doing? This is a —’

  He clapped his hand over her mouth. ‘I think our wrist-lights attract them,’ he whispered. ‘Hide your bands.

  With all that shiny slime in their eyes, they probably have terrible night vision.’

  She pushed his hand away. ‘Probably? You better hope so!’ She hid her wrists anyway. The creature was too close now.

  Thankfully it just shuffled past, groaning.

  Beth shuddered.

  ‘Did you see that other graffiti?’ Zane whispered when it was safe again.

  ‘The man who bought it doesn’t need it?’

  ‘No, the third sentence.’

  ‘I saw only two.’

  ‘It can’t mean anything good if nobody wants or needs it,’ Zane mumbled and stuck his head out of the alcove. ‘Okay, it’s clear. I want to go back to where we arrived.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I smelt something like hot wires back there.’

  She remembered the electric smell. ‘So?’

  ‘Do you remember smelling that once before, in the Witheng forest?’

  ‘Yes, in DaveT’s gateway.’

  ‘Exactly. So we should check it out.’

  ‘What’s in here though?’ She held a wrist up to the back of the alcove. It was a door. She tried the handle and it opened onto a room full of long wooden boxes. Each one had an octagonal shape at one end. ‘Some kind of fancy box factory?’

  Zane stepped inside and knocked on a lid. ‘They’re empty. At least, they sound hollow. Why are they so long, oh…’

  ‘What?’

  ‘They’re caskets.’

 
; ‘As in coffins? Ew.’

  ‘Look at this one though.’ Zane touched a black coffin beside them. ‘Looks a bit like the Black-Door-With-No-Doorknob. There’s even a rune on the lid! Tordon’s four-rods Rune of Death. Wait, I think that graffiti has something to do with coffins.’

  Beth was already backing away. ‘The man who invented coffins doesn’t want it, and the guy who bought it isn’t buying it for himself… Yeah, I’d say the graffiti has something to do with coffins. It’s probably where they all sleep! Like vampires!’

  ‘Or it could be our way out.’

  ‘What?’ Beth tried to think through her rising panic.

  ‘How?’

  ‘Because the lids look like doors. See?’ He shone a wrist over the black coffin, which did kind of look like a door. ‘Let’s get in one.’

  ‘I am not getting inside a coffin!’ Her stomach clenched at the thought. ‘Didn’t you say there was a third sentence? It might say: whatever you do, don’t climb inside a zombie’s coffin.’

  ‘Fine,’ Zane sighed. ‘We’ll find it on our way back.’ ‘Great, let’s go.’ Beth firmly closed the door behind them and hobbled after Zane, who was scanning the walls.

  ‘Here’s the third sentence,’ he said. ‘The man who needs it doesn’t know it.’ He glanced at her. ‘Well, a dead man doesn’t know he needs a coffin, right? Maybe zombies

  and vampires don’t need coffins, but we do? That one was shaped like the Tordon door.’

  ‘What about that smell? Let’s check that out first…’ Zane shook his head but followed her, sniffing and hurrying down the corridor before turning left round a corner. Soon they were back near the broken light switch.

  ‘There it is again,’ said Beth in satisfaction. ‘Like electrical burning. And it’s coming from those stairs.’ She peered into the darkness. ‘Wait, there’s one set going up; one going down. Which way?’

  Zane sniffed. ‘The smell could be coming from either direction, but there’s more light coming from downstairs. Or is that…argh, not more zombies! Up, up!’

  Seven bug-eyed, glowing creatures shuffled up the stairs towards them.

  ‘Quick!’ Beth yanked Zane by his top, hobbling up the steps. There was a landing to turn before the stairs continued up, ending in a corridor exactly the same as below, covered in the same luminescent graffiti.

  The man who invented it doesn’t want it.

  The man who bought it doesn’t need it.

  The man who needs it doesn’t know it.

  ‘Keep moving!’ Beth yelled.

  Pulling each other along, they raced down the corridor.

  ‘This way!’ yelled Zane, grabbing Beth’s hand and jerking her left down a hallway as more zombie-things came at them from the corridor on the right.

  Beth glanced behind her. ‘Do you have a plan? Because now there are two groups after us!’ Zane turned another corner and she slammed into his back. ‘Keep running!’

  ‘Dead end.’

  ‘What?’ Beth flicked her hand, using the final lit segment for illumination. An unfinished brick wall had been hurriedly slapped up in the middle of the corridor, blocking them from going further. A neat sign was imprinted in the middle: ‘Memorial Hospital— Burns Ward’. Below that was another hastily-hung sign: ‘Danger—Hospital shut down—Virus X10.23. Keep out!’

  But they couldn’t keep out—they were trapped inside, and the groaning and shuffling of virus-victims was getting louder and louder. If Beth and Zane stayed where they were, they’d get infected too.

  Yet there was no way out.

  Chapter 19

  ‘Can we get past this wall somehow?’ Beth asked, trying to hide her wrists at the same time as feeling the wall and bricks for gaps. ‘There’s a ten centimetre gap on this side. What about your side?’

  ‘Same.’

  Beth looked up. ‘You’re taller than me. Can you feel the top? Can we go over?’

  Zane squatted and slapped his shoulders. ‘Climb on.’ ‘Are you nuts?’

  ‘You want to see if there’s a top, right?’ He slapped his shoulders again. ‘Make it quick. See how light it’s getting? They’re almost here.’

  Beth gritted her teeth and trod on one of Zane’s shoulders. Her foot still hurt from the cobra bite. ‘Don’t drop me, okay?’

  ‘Did I drop you over the snake nest? Just be thankful you’re not still in a sarong.’

  ‘True.’ They were back in their long-sleeved tops and shorts. Beth wanted to think more about that, except Zane kept wobbling. ‘Try not to move around so much, my foot’s still sore.’

  Zane grunted and gripped her shins, then slowly stood, stretching to his full height. ‘Okay, can you feel an edge?’

  Beth strained upwards, her hands balancing against the wall. ‘I don’t feel anyth…hold on.’

  ‘Hurry!’

  ‘Yes, there’s a hole. It’s big enough.’ She leaned closer.

  ‘But how are we both going to get up?’

  ‘We’ll help each other.’

  Beth glanced down. Zane was becoming more visible in the glowing light appearing around the corner. ‘I’m not strong enough to pull you up.’

  ‘Just you get up there first.’ He adjusted his hands so they were under her feet. ‘When I say jump, I’ll push you up. Then reach a hand down for me. I’ll just use it for leverage and pull myself up. Ha, now that is something I learnt from survival camp.’ There was a strange tone in his voice that Beth couldn’t identify. ‘Ready? Jump, NOW!’ He pushed and she launched herself up.

  She hooked her elbows over the hole then hauled her leg over the top. ‘Okay, I’m up. The other side has an old lightbulb, it’s turned on. I can see! There are more stairs and some stretcher things on wheels.’ She swallowed. ‘I think there’s a dead body on one! Ew!’

  ‘Lower your arm!’ Zane yelled.

  Beth looked back to see creatures shuffling into view.

  They were only a few metres away. ‘Where are you going?’ Zane was jogging over to them. ‘I need a run-up. Get ready for a tug on your arm!’

  She stretched her arm downward, turning her wrist so he could see the light.

  Then he ran at the wall in full sprint.

  She braced herself as he leapt and yanked on her arm before scrabbling against the wall. The sheer webbing on his fingers pulled against her skin but he couldn’t get a grip on the wall itself and with a yell, he crashed down, landing hard on his side. ‘Zane!’

  ‘Man, that hurt,’ he groaned. He pushed himself to his feet, checked his neck gash and rubbed his old chest wound. The movement seemed to make the luminous virus-victims shuffle faster, almost excited.

  ‘Try again, Zane!’ She stretched her hand further. ‘Come on!’

  ‘I can’t! You go! Find the coffin room—it’s the only way out!’ He had his back to the wall as the creatures moved in.

  ‘I’m not leaving you!’

  ‘You don’t have a choice!’

  A dozen glowing-faces leered toward Zane, their arms outstretched. One at the front had its emerald-green eyes locked on Zane, its luminescent slime twitching as it winked, a jagged smile stretching across its dripping face.

  ‘Go, Beth! I’ll fight my way through! Trust me!’ He began punching and kicking and she could hear his fists connect with their oozing flesh. ‘Meet me at the coffins! Get out if you can!’ Beth whimpered as Zane was lost among the bodies. Maybe she could find something to help fight them off?

  ‘Aaahh!’ Zane burst from the jumble, his arms flailing. The creatures fell aside as he leapt off down the hall, though they soon stumbled up to follow him. At least he was running away from them now, heading for the coffin room himself.

  ‘Keep moving, Bethlyn,’ she told herself.

  She turned and lowered herself onto a stretcher on the other side of the wall. She did not want to be here alone—of all the places they’d been, not here. She climbed off the stretcher and headed for the stairs she’d seen from the top of the wall.

  Above the
stairwell was a sign—down was ‘Morgue’, while up was ‘Canteen’. She saw more biohazard stickers slapped about too. She shuddered, then headed down the stairs.

  A glow appeared from overhead. Was that daylight? No, a pale white hand appeared on the railing above her.

  She ran down the stairs, pausing at the bottom. It was the same room as before—the one with coffins everywhere, only this time she’d entered from a different direction. Now where was the one with the rune? And where was Zane?

  A groan sounded behind her, sending her rushing across the room. A creaking noise cut through the gloom on her left—the lid of a coffin slowly opening. A drooling virus-victim sat up, then clambered over the edge, keeping its green eyes fixed on her.

  ‘Zane!’ she screamed, hoping he’d hear her somewhere. No answer.

  She backed away, only to see the same thing playing out on the other side of the room—another luminous virus-victim climbing out of a coffin. More coffins opened, their lids rising. Where was that black coffin? Wasn’t it by the door they’d opened earlier? She ran across.

  Yes, there it was.

  She opened its lid and got ready to jump in, as soon as Zane burst into the room. Black velvet lined the coffin’s insides, making it look soft and comfortable. Still, she wasn’t going to get in by herself. She might get trapped! What if she turned into a glowing virus-victim? What if she forgot who she was, or Zane?

  Where was he? Why wasn’t he here already? He hadn’t sacrificed himself so she could get away, had he?

  The virus-victims moved in, closer and closer—their arms outstretched, reaching, oozing.

  The door opened.

  ‘Zane!’ she called out.

  It wasn’t him. It was more virus-victims, scores of them. She was totally surrounded and if she didn’t get in soon, they’d get her.

  ‘Zane!’ she cried one last time.

  Nothing.

  She had no choice. She rolled into the black box and slammed the lid shut. Glowing fingers slid under, trying to lift it and she jabbed each one hard until it let go. There was a light behind her head, so she twisted around to poke it, but it wasn’t zombie-fingers, it was a familiar shape. A raised skull with three holes—Tordon’s Rune of Self-Belief.