NetherWorld

by Daniel Quiles Pagan

  Odd sounds came from beyond the door. Maybe I’m better off in the hyperrom, thought Nick. Wherever he was, he would have to manage alone. Whizzy was far off in the Hall of Hazbinz.

  The closet door opened into a dank dark series of tunnels. An invisible force pushed Nick from the hyperroom. With loud snap, the door closed, and the closet was whisked away to some unknown destination. Nick steadied himself and looked around the area. It was hot and humid in the dimly lit maze. Dense air condensed on his skin as soon as he exited the closet. The grimy glaze sticking to his skin smelled of rot and bodily neglect.

  “Man this NetherWorld place stinks!” Nick spat, trying to expel the sickening taste in the air.

  Looking around, he saw that the tunnel split into two directions; neither looked particularly inviting. Green goo dripped from the arched ceiling and the smell of rotting flesh grew even stronger. Both tunnels were dimly lit and appeared to go on for quite some distance. The door slammed shut, sealing him into this subterranean maze. The floor and walls looked and felt like stone, but they were actually formed from the same fish scale polymer as the rest of NetherWorld.

  “Hello?” Nick shouted, looking around. “Is there anybody out there?” He looked at each tunnel to see if either direction appeared more promising. They were mirror images leaving no clue to the more favorable tunnel.

  “What is this, some psycho hall of mirrors?” Nick asked.

  Pregnant droplets of goo puddled on the tunnel floors, creating an odd echo that already began to wear on his mind. Desperate sounding babble came each tunnel. Nick tried to make out what they were saying, but it was too jumbled. Moments later chilling screams arrived, adding to his anxiety.

  Since no tunnel offered an advantage, Nick decided to take the tunnel on his left. He walked with goose bumps growing under his blue body suit. He tried to avoid the scattered puddles of fallen green muck.

  A low pitched droning buzzed from behind him; making Nick’s stomach turn. He looked back to find the source, but saw only darkness. The drone grew louder and louder, becoming more of distraction. He was finding it hard to even think.

  Moving through the tunnel, Nick navigated the twists and turns until reaching the first fork. A small clearing offered three different tunnels. Again, each one was identical to look at. Nick decided to stay with the theme of always taking the left tunnel when confronted with choices. This should make it easier to backtrack in case any tunnel lead to something unsavory; which seemed inevitable. The rotten odor never dissipated. It was consistently awful. Tepid green slime randomly splashed on Nick’s head, sliding down his body, causing a chill. This further excited the goosebumps covering his body.

  He continued to confront tunnel forks along the way, always choosing the left one. With each tick the droning grew louder and louder. He walked for hours hoping this would lead somewhere safe.

  “When will this maze end! C’mon already. What do you want from me?” yelled Nick exhausted and quite fed up travelling the tunnels.

  “Kaarbon. I can sssmell the ssstink of your pitiful fear” hissed a lethal sounding voice. It sounded like the undead whispers heard in second rate horror films. “Kaarbon. I will enjoy eating you filthy flesh. Your time is at end. I will feast on your shredded corpse.”

  Nick could not tell where this voice was coming from. It sounded like it was coming from every direction. He picked up his pace, hoping to outrun whatever wanted to threatened to eat him. His steps splashed puddle echos through the drippy caverns.

  “Kaarbon,” it hissed.

  More twists and turns, more forks; nothing seemed to change. He was beginning to think he was moving in circles.

  “Kaarbon.”

  After running for some time, Nick stopped and decided he needed to confront this creature.

  “Who are you? What do you want?” he said.

  “I want your deletion, Kaarbon.” it hissed. “Kaarbon and Sssilicate must never Join. Ssso sssaysss our true leader, NazKlan. We will prevent it Kaarbon.” The hissing sound with which this creature spoke sounded like a loud whisper.

  Nick decided to back track towards the point of origin. Before he had gone ten steps a wall fell from the ceiling blocking his way. His only option was to move forward and hope for an escape.

  “I can sssmell you Kaarbon. Your doom is almost upon usss. Ssstinking filthy Kaarbon. Your people ruined our world, deleted our Bytes in the name of reckless ssselfishnesss. You will pay. Your world will pay. Sssoon, Kaarbon will be memory. I can sssmell your fear, Kaarbon. Weak biotic beingsss. You deserve extinction. Ssso sssaysss the true leader.”

  “NazKlan right?” Nick asked.

  “NazzzKlan. Yesss. True leader.”

  “What about Tera?”

  “Tera ssservesss falssse prophetsss. Ssshe must be converted. We must keep her from Joining with Kaarbon. Joining isss evil.”

  Nick continued to navigate the tunnels while talking. His only hope was to find a way out while keeping this beast distracted. Each tunnel had the same grimy view. He tried to avoid the gooey puddles to stay as hidden as possible during this search. He still could not determine where the beast was at. Constant droning began to disassemble his thoughts. Before long, Nick would be a babbling heap.

  After navigating the last turn, Nick saw glowing green spots on the cave walls and floor. No tunnel had these before. The droning became unbearable. Nick now knew the source. The green spots vibrated on the wall while making that infernal noise. He tried to run past the spots. Again a solid stone door slammed down, splattering green mucus onto his blue suit. He turned away from the neon spots.

  “Ok. Whatever those things are, they can’t be good,” Nick said to himself.

  Nick dashed back the way he came. The spots flew off the wall and formed a clouded of buzzing neon. The green swarm surrounded him. There was nowhere to run. They hovered . Droning. Droning. Standing still, he looked around for any help. He tried not to move for fear of reprisal from their pulsing stingers. In the distance, countless clicking sounds preceded the purple spiders crawling towards him. There were hundreds, if not thousands of them. More of them flooded, crawling all over the walls, ceiling and floor. Tap dancing sounds overwhelmed the droning Sprites. Nick wasn’t sure which sonic assault was worse. Pretty soon, all he could see was Pixals and Sprites. He was trapped.

  Crawling from every direction, the robotic insects overwhelmed him. Nick could feel their tiny legs moving up his body. They clung to his suit. Clattering sounds echoed in the tunnels as more spiders moved in. Swatting in a violent manner, he was able to shed a couple of the purple bugs. In mere ticks, spiders crawled in to replace them. Soon his arms were wrapped tight to his body. Next his legs were enveloped with the spiders. Except for his head, Nick was covered from in a purple cocoon.

  “We have you now Kaarbon. We will ssshred you to piecesss. NazKlan will thank the Thrasher for deleting the Chosssen One. Sssilicate future will be grand. Kaarbons will perish.” said the Thrasher with a hissy bit of joy.

  All he could see was the sticky arched roof of the tunnel. What little light left in the room captured a menacing shadow looming into his reclined view. Long tubes of hair snaked on the ceiling. A lumpy sphere moved closer and closer.

  “Ssstay ssstill. My sssprites will sssting upon my command. A ssslow painful death. You will beg for the ssshredder,” said Thrasher.

  Death by sprites is perhaps the most painful demise a Byte can face. Each stinger is equipped with the poisonous bile left over from Thrasher’s creations. They pump this substance into the Byte turn it’s blood and shell black. The bile eventually dissolves all the blood, leaving only a dark hollow corpse. Thrasher loved watching his killer insects take down a terrified Byte.

  Nick tried again and again to squirm around in the spiders’ blanket. Each time the spiders maneuvered their tiny legs to restrain him. He could hear the pinchers of one spider chattering in his left ear. It gave him goosebumps all along his neck, while digging into fears fashioned by years o
f evolution. He was trapped and terrified, laying in wait for the lumpy snake haired monster.

  Thrasher finally reached our hero. His wide awake eyes saw the bumpy black sphere sporting crimson serpent hair. Even in the dim tunnel light , Nick could see the slimy scales rubbing together as the snake follicles slithered through the dank air. The bumps on his globe seemed to breath, pushing in and out, while tiny bubbles of foul air escaped. Thrasher was quite a bit larger than the average Byte. He was easily twice Whizzy’s size.

  “Ssshredder will chew Kaarbon to pieces. Thrasssher will enjoy chewing dead Kaarbon.” rejoiced Thrasher in his unforgettable hiss. The foul stink of carrion followed the creature. Nick’s unexposed nose caught the full brunt of the deathly odor.

  A few snake follicles rubbed along his exposed face. Nick could feel the slimy coating stick to his cheeks. The spider chatter in his left ear reached a crescendo. A helpless feeling washed over Nick’s body, dropping his body temperature at least a few degrees.

  “Time to die Hero. There will be no Joining with Tera. Ssshe will lie in waiting while NazKlan guides our people to the Awakening.”

  “Look, I have nothing against you Mr. Thrasher. In fact, I am not even sure this is real. Instead of shredding me, send me back. My old life was pretty cool.”

  “Sssilly Karbon. You can never go back to you filthy world. You are forever in the land of Sssilcatesss. And you mussst be ssshredded for NazKlan to rule.”

  “What do you mean never go back? You guys got me here. You’ve got to be able to send me back. Really, I understand you are ready to slice me and all, but I would like to go home now. What kind of slippers can I tap together to return home?” Nick could not help but be perplexed by Thrasher’s view of filth. NetherWorld had more in common with a sewer than Karbonon.

  “Not negotiable.”

  Nick, stiff with fear, tried to digest his dilemma. If he somehow survived this mad lumpy Thrasher, he will be forever marooned in this mad murky world. Trapped in the grip of thousand of spider limbs, surviving was going to be quite the challenge.

  Thrasher began spinning, lifting his slimed serpentine hair from Nick’s face. Tendrils of snotty slime clung to his neck, stretched thin as the snake heads pulled away. He could hear them hissing. Some strands were flicking fork tongues into the dank air. They were agitated or excited; either way the end result was not favorable for Nick. The slime residue they left behind was beginning to harden into crispy bits.

  Thrasher headed north. As he did so, walls that formerly blocked Nick’s passage began lifting. The spider legs began moving Nick’s body in the same direction.

  As they approached the Bin, the metallic clattering grew louder and louder. The smell of ground Silicate permeated the area. Still traveling in supine repose, the spiders floated him inches from the puddled floor. Looking up, he saw the cracked arch ceiling give way to an open circular area. The roof dome was much higher that the tunnel ceilings.

  The spiders began to prop Nick upright. He could now see the great Shredder. In the center of the Bin, a massive vacuum rattled eight feet above the ground. The vacuum led to an equally large cube. On the other side of the cube, pieces of deleted Bytes dripped from another tube. The tube poured into a segregated pool. The shredded Byte product looked a lot like hamburger churned through a meat grinder. A large button was situated a few feet above the pool of Byte remains.

  A long narrow path led up to the vacuum. More purple pixals lined the path. Inside the path the spiders enveloped a line of globes. It looked like a large string of purple spheres pulled towards the vacuum. As the closest bead reach the floor under the mouth of the vacuum, the spiders scattered. A Byte remained trapped under the suction of the vacuum.

  The Byte shivered and shook with all its energy. Still, it was no match for the Shredder suction. The sphere collapsed as if something sucked the innards out of it. With resounding slurp, the vacuum inhaled the crumpled Silicate. A malevolent metallic squeal ensued as the Shredder minced the helpless Byte into spaghetti strings of Silicate remains. The distinct odor of rotting flesh wafted throughout the Bin. Nick’s eyes began to tear as he suffered the sour smell.

  A gaggle of what appeared to be miniature Thrashers attended to the Byte remains. Thrasher called them his Minions. Thrasher made these Minions in his image as a tribute to himself. His insatiable appetite was nearly surpassed by his unchecked ego.

  They lined up along an assembly line table. A belt moved the pieces to a series of workstations. Each work station was manned by Minions working feverishly to complete their tasks. As the pieces moved along the belt they looked more and more like the purple robotic spiders holding him captive. At the end of the line, newborn spiders crawled off to serve Thrasher.

  The spiders were technically not Bytes. These Frankenstein creations are actually Bits. They are far more primitive than the Bytes from which they were made. They communicate in a primitive Analog dialect known as Turingi. Turingi is spoken using two numbers, 0 and 1. Bits are programmed at birth. If the instructions are lost or damaged, the Pixals and Minions cease to work.

  Bit construction generates considerable waste that cannot be used. This excess material is deposited in a large pool. Thrasher designed a drainage system that feeds the pool with any residual waste from the building process. He never consumed pure Jaba, instead he gets his sustenance indirectly by eating the leftover shredded Bytes and drinking from this pool of waste.

  One by one the spiders lead captured Bytes to their shredded demise. Under the purple blanket of Pixals, desperate Bytes visibly wobbled in a vain attempt to escape. Thousands of tiny legs adjusted to maintain their grip on the struggling Silicates. Nick began to understand what was to come. His spider captors moved toward the path leading to the vacuum. He too tried to shake off the spiders. Their vice-like grip held fast as Nick began to tire. Nearly exhausted, his strength waned. Nick began to accept his inevitable march to deletion.

  He thought about his parents and the Karbon world he left behind. He decided he would miss his parents, but not much else. Karbonon was not kind to Nick. His few friends would undoubtedly envy this dreamy experience in NetherWorld. His only wish was to let the world know of his dimensional journey. The closer he got to the vacuum, the calmer he became. Nick found it funny, that in the face of certain death, acceptance was cathartic. Many of the mundane burdens seemed meaningless. Only at this time can a person truly weigh the relevance of concerns. It would have been amazing to make history in two universes.

  Three more helpless Bytes were in front of Nick. Once they were whisked away and shredded, Nick would face the vacuum. Byte after Byte was imploded like a crushed soda can and then dispersed into a Silicate salad. Thrasher scooped up shreds with an arm that erupted from him asymmetrical sphere. The blue spaghetti coated in yellow fluid hung in long sinuous strands before he shoved them into his mouth. Yellow fluid driped from his maw as he made sickening sounds of perverse pleasure.

  Brown fluid flowed from the Minion workstation. As the pool began to crest near the lip, he pulled a large lever on the wall. A loud flushing sound preceded the great whirlpool. Brown bile began to swirl clockwise, accelerating near the center. The whirlpool spat off small bits of Silicate death into the room. Seconds later, the entire pool was flushed. The waste sank into the Subsuction zone where it would decompose and drip into darkness.

  One more Byte to go and Nick would face his demise at the hands of Thrashers powerful machine. He had reached an inner peace as the final Byte was inhaled into the Shredder. The Pixals moved Nick into position. The vacuum already began pulling his long hair into the air. The machine pulled his face upward with tornadic force. He did not stand a chance against the vacuum. The spiders were making their final maneuvers before they scattered, leaving Nick to face his fate exposed and alone.

  Chapter 18

  SubRoots

  Book of TranFor: That which lies under either supports or contributes to the collapse.

  The SubRoots were an an
cient attempt to improve Silicate transit within the Walled City. This elaborate series of tunnels was the handiwork of Data Miners. They were the excavators of NetherWorld. Deep within the base code of Data Miners were protocols that made these creatures relentless diggers. Once they started drilling, these Bytes were nearly impossible to stop.

  At one point the Streams and Walkways of the Walled City became too crowded; creating traffics jams and Byte bumpings. This inefficiency interrupted the smooth flow of data. With Bytes bouncing all over the jabaways, many ended up at the wrong destination.

  After far too many incidents of Stream Rage, something had to be done. Normally docile Silicates were ripping out each other’s tubes because someone forgot to yield to the right. Every major intersection resembled a wrestling Battle Royal. In fact, the Calculations were born from these events. Some savvy promoters decided that this was great entertainment under the right conditions.

  The High Council decided to develop an underground system of mass transit to absorb the increased traffic flow. Data Miners were the only Silicates equipped to handle this project. This Big Dig was fraught with problems from the very beginning.