by Leo Romero
“Those roving eye creatures are Baal’s blood cells. They have the knowledge of the prisoners. Sneak up on one.”
I saw one floating down toward the end of the bridge, its gaze fixed on the prison cells ahead of it. I bent down low and scampered up to it, that rotten eggs stench fresh in my nostrils. I reached the blood cell, now able to see it pulsating, a bubbling sound emanating from it.
“Stab its eyeball,” Draxil ordered.
The thing was preoccupied with the prison cells ahead of it and their inhabitants. I cleared my throat. The blood cell spun around, its giant, bloodshot eye boring into me. I thrust Excalibur into it without hesitation. A hot squish and spurt of white goo, and I had it impaled. The thing tremored on my blade.
“Hold on!” said Draxil.
“Hold on for what?” I asked in a hot whisper, that thing still skewered.
“I’m reading its mind.”
“You can do that? Cool.”
“Ah-ha! I know where Jagelon is. Release it.”
I yanked out Excalibur; the blood cell dropped into the gastric pit where it melted like a marshmallow in hot chocolate.
“We need to go up,” Draxil told me. “Be careful.”
The opening at the end of the bridge led into another intestinal tunnel that sloped upward. I moved up it, melting in with the shadows. I emerged higher up the stomach wall onto another fibrous bridge, almost running straight into one of those squid-like amoeba monsters. I ground to a halt, waving my arms like windmills to stop myself from slipping off. Luckily, the amoeba thing was facing away from me. It slid along the bridge, leaving a thin trail of viscous slime.
I glided up to its back, melting with its shadow as I followed it. It reached the end of the bridge and turned on its tentacles. I followed it around, staying out of its field of vision until it turned one-eighty. Now, I was clear to get into the tunnel. I rushed into the sanctuary of its shadows. The tunnel veered upward until it branched off toward various bridges. I still needed to get higher up, so I stuck to the tunnel that sloped upward, Draxil guiding me. I eventually reached the right tunnel, and I emerged onto the bridge beyond.
“Jagelon’s cell is across there on the left.”
I scanned the wall opposite before moving along the bridge. I took a peek over the edge. That pit of bile was now all the way down there, and I was all the way up here. I got a hit of déjà vu, and I was back on the twenty-fifth floor of Amazon Heights. I forced myself not to look down again. Baal’s blood cells hovered around like balloons, glowing and watching. I slipped by them, making myself a shadow, moving like a thief.
I reached the end of the bridge. Some rows of cells had a small ledge running below them, giving access. I moved out onto a ledge, pressing myself up against the stomach wall to merge with it. I went by the cells and their occupants, who were oblivious to my presence. I saw horns and fangs, hooks and claws, nightmare creatures, twisted deformations that should never be allowed to step beyond the deep subconscious. They frothed with hate and despair, their rage swelling with every century that passed. I had a horrible thought of them all being released at once, and I shivered.
“Look at them,” Draxil said as I went by.
“I’m trying not to,” I replied.
“Even Satan doesn’t wish them to be running around in Hell.”
I went past a cell with a thing with a gaping mouth almost the size of its head. Needle-like fangs lined its gums. It gazed left and right with black pebbles for eyes.
“They’ve done something wrong?” I asked.
“Who knows? Maybe Satan has them locked in here on purpose to cultivate their insanity and rage to make them stronger.”
I shuddered. It wouldn’t surprise me.
I reached a cell where a red thing with long, muscular limbs sat in the corner, its head slumped between its shoulders. I noticed the etchings of Hazatar running up its forearms.
“That’s Jagelon!” Draxil snapped in an excited tone. “Get his attention.”
I looked up and around. I was about halfway out onto the ledge from the bridge. The cell window was a tough, see-through material like reinforced jello. I cupped a hand over my mouth and pressed it against the window. “Psst!”
Jagelon’s bulbous head snapped upward. His brow furrowed in confusion.
“Over here!” I hissed, not wanting to draw attention from anywhere else but the inside of Jagelon’s cell.
Jagelon turned my way. He drew up to his feet and stomped over to me. He reached the cell window, and we were face to face. He was sporting a black mohican and a goatee tied into a braid, his pointy, elfish ears adorned with tiny bone earrings. Boulder-like shoulders contrasted a waist so slender, size zero models would’ve been jealous. He stared at me with a face knotted in confusion, looking me up and down with his glowing yellow eyes like I had a fish head and a camel’s body.
“You Jagelon?” I asked.
“Who wants to know?” he growled.
“I’m with Draxil. I’m here to rescue you.”
He crossed his gorilla-like arms over his chest. “About time! Where is the old bastard?”
“Inside me.”
“Ha! You’re brave. Or a total fool.”
Did this guy actually want to be rescued?
“So what does he need my help for this time?” Jagelon asked.
“The horsemen are back,” I said in a low voice.
His eyes lit up. “Ooh, I’ve been waiting in this damn cell for an age for another round with those sons of whores.” He rubbed his hands. “Come on, get me out of here!”
“Hold your horses. I’ve gotta work this out.”
“Not a lot to work out, friend. You break the cell wall, and I’m free.”
“Easy as that, huh? Then why haven’t you broken out?”
“My magic and strength have been neutered in here.”
I looked at the cell window. “So what do I do?”
“Got a sword?”
I nodded.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Cut me out of here!” He bopped his head from side to side, and I was getting this weird feeling like I was Hannibal Smith breaking Murdoch out of a mental institute.
I pulled out Excalibur.
“Get some magic on it,” Jagelon advised.
I ran dark magic down the blade and then jabbed it into the cell window. The dark magic went to work, withering the cellular makeup of the window, making it pliable. Excalibur sank in, the tip popping out the other side.
Jagelon flinched back and cackled. “Yes!” He fist-pumped the air, clenching his jagged teeth together.
I dragged Excalibur down; the cell window came apart like a knife cutting through Spam. I cut all around the hexagonal edge. “Stand back,” I told Jagelon. I kicked the window. It fell back into the cell, releasing the mother of all lived-in stinks. I wafted my free hand over my face. “Jeez, Jag, you’ve been in there a while.”
“Around a millennia and a half,” he said as he hopped up to the exit of his cell. “But who’s counting?” He popped his head out and breathed in deep. “Ah, the smell of freedom.”
“No, it’s the smell of Baal’s gastric juices.”
“When you’ve been through what I have, it’s freedom.”
“Enough talking!” Draxil snapped. “We need to leave.”
“Draxil says enough talking we need to leave,” I told Jagelon.
“Oh hush, you old oaf!” Jagelon retorted. “He always was a killjoy.”
“I heard that,” said Draxil.
“He says he heard that.”
“Good!” Jagelon stepped out onto the ledge. He peeked down. “That’s quite a drop.”
“Best not fall then.”
A blood cell came roaming over, its eye bulging in alarm at a released prisoner. Jagelon balled up his fist and whacked it as hard as he could. The eyeball was sent on its way. It smashed into the opposite wall where it bounced off and careered back again. It bounced off the walls to and fro like a basketball, mov
ing down through the chamber. Jagelon and I watched it go all the way down until it went into the bile with a small plop.
I met his stare.
“We better get out of here,” he said.
“Follow me.” I led him off the ledge and into the intestinal tunnel leading down to the bridges below.
“Ah, I’m really going to miss this place,” Jagelon said in an ironic tone as he ran across the sludgy ground.
I stopped by the tunnel exit and peeked around the corner. Amoeba creatures were sliding along the bridge.
“You got hide and seek magic?” I asked over my shoulder.
“Naturally.”
“Use some.”
Jagelon got his dark magic up. He grinned. “Ah, it’s good to have magic back.”
We both masked ourselves and set off onto the bridge once the amoeba creatures’ backs were turned. We bent down low and scuttled up to them, trying to hide in their own shadows. The amoeba creatures slid along, making a strange warbling sound. The blue one in the lead doubled back. I ducked, melting with the creature in front’s shadow. The blue one slicked our way. I winced as it came level with us. Its tentacles writhed on the air, its globular eyes gazing at everything. They prowled close to us, and my heart skipped a beat. Its head rolled back the way it came. My chest released. It slithered by, oblivious to us.
I met Jagelon’s stare. He shrugged. I cocked my head toward the green amoeba creature ahead of us. We stayed in its shadow until it doubled back, leaving the exit clear for us. We dived into the tunnel.
“Would rather just attack things than sneak around,” Jagelon said as we raced downward. This guy had a death wish. We made it down to the bridge spanning the bile pit, which led to the exit. I peeked around the corner. Amoeba creatures were now sliding up and down the bridge. Red, blue, green, yellow, all the colors of the rainbow.
“Okay,” I said to Jagelon. “Same again, just stay close—”
“Enough hiding!” Jagelon snapped. He stomped ahead of me, throwing off his hide and seek magic. “Haven’t had a good fight in years!”
“What—” I had time to say before Jagelon reached the amoeba things.
“Who wants it?” Jagelon sneered at them, making them turn his way. With a pleasurable groan, he punched the green one in the back of the head, slapped the red one’s eye, kicked the yellow one in the groin area, and shoulder-barged the blue one. His howls of delight reverberated through the prison.
“He never did have much respect for figures of authority,” Draxil told me as I watched Jagelon go.
The blue amoeba toppled and splashed into the gastric juices where it melted. Jagelon picked up the yellow one and threw it in to join the blue one in the steaming bile. The green one faced him, its tentacles writhing. Jagelon marched up to it and punched it as hard as he could. The blow sent it over the edge of the bridge. It plopped into the pit, but not before it rang its bell. The noise resounded all through the chamber, alerting every guard and blood cell. I looked up with concerned eyes. They were slithering down toward us faster than I realized they could move.
In seconds, that warbling noise was echoing through the tunnel behind me.
“Let’s go!” Jagelon urged from the bridge. Tentacles rounded the corner behind me, the light from the lead amoeba thing’s lamp illuminating the tunnel, melting my hide and seek magic away. Giant eyes spotted me. The warbling swelled in volume, the dinging of its bell reverberating.
I raced out of the tunnel and onto the bridge. In my haste, I slipped on the sticky sinew and lost my balance. “Whoa!” I shouted as I flailed and fell backward toward the pit of gastric juice. The world hummed by.
Jagelon whirled around, his eyes widening in alarm. He leaped toward me, throwing out one of his long arms. His huge claw clamped on my flailing wrist. I came to a jarring stop.
My heart jumped into my mouth. My mind whirled, the myriad of bridges above us coming into view, crisscrossing the chamber all the way up.
I dared not breathe. My heart hammered in an insane staccato as I turned my head tentatively to the side. That deadly pit of steaming juice stared back at me. I gulped.
“I’ve got you,” Jagelon grunted.
My body trembled in response. Thank God his demonic arms were that long or I’d have been Baal’s breakfast.
Jagelon eased me back upright, and my heart calmed. A squelching sound caught our attention. Amoeba creatures were flooding onto the bridge behind us. The nearest one waved its metal rod on the air. A wave of energy rippled out from it and hit me like a soundwave. I went to run but was caught mid-motion as my limbs became heavy and hard to move as if they’d been turned to stone. I tried pumping my legs as hard as I could, but it was useless. It was like I was underwater or frozen in time.
My eyes rolled toward Jagelon. He’d been caught in the wave too. His teeth were clenched as he struggled to move his limbs. The first of the amoeba things slithered up to me, and a cold, slick tentacle wrapped around my head, my eyes in particular. There was a sucking sensation and my mind went blank.
“It’s mind wiping you!” Draxil shouted and let out a groan of pain. “And me too!” he added.
Memories were being sucked out of my brain. I lost my tenth birthday party, the first time I shaved. Out went the time my high school buddies stole my pants and left me in the street after I got really drunk. Actually, I wasn’t sad to see that one go.
“Do something, Stone!” Draxil groaned.
I couldn’t move. I was lost in the blackness behind my eyes, memories being stolen from me.
Out went Super Bowl 39.
Something whipped up by my side. Something else whistled past my head, and my mind thankfully blinked back into life. I watched the tentacle slop to the bridge where it writhed and twitched. I flicked my head up to see Jagelon wielding Excalibur, his remaining sliver of divinity allowing him to do so. He’d pulled him from my side and sliced the tentacle away from my head.
The etchings on his arms glowed ferociously. The magic they emanated must’ve somehow saved him from the effects of the amoeba thing’s magic. I staggered forward, my mind fried. Jagelon raced ahead of me, slicing and dicing the amoebas. In seconds, calamari was on the menu as chunks of tentacle littered the bridge.
I shook my mind back into one piece and looked up. A purple amoeba thing was sliding in from the opposite exit, the one leading out of there.
One raised its metal rod.
“Uh, Jag!” I blurted.
Jagelon whirled on his heels. He barged past me, almost knocking me into the gastric juices. I fell to my knees, coming face to face with that green pond. I got a hot sniff of rotten eggs, and my stomach turned.
Jagelon roared and cut Excalibur across the air. The tentacle holding the metal rod came away and splashed into the pit. Jagelon punched the amoeba thing; it toppled over, joining its tentacle to melt into a more digestible form.
Jagelon grabbed a chunk of my jacket and hauled me to my feet. “Come on!” he sneered. He dragged me along the remainder of the bridge, my tender mind reeling. Behind us, amoeba things slithered and warbled.
A blood cell zoomed in after us.
“Pah!” Jagelon shouted and sliced through it like it was a hardboiled egg. The two halves flopped down, bouncing off the bridge and into the pit.
Jagelon yanked me harder, and I was dragged along the intestinal entrance.
“So long, Baal, you ugly bastard!” Jagelon shouted as he lugged me. He ran Excalibur’s tip along the intestine wall, triggering Baal’s groans and tremors. We reached the end of the tunnel, and Jagelon roared in delight. The guy was nuts, but I kinda liked him.
He raised his clenched fist, his etchings of Hazatar glowing hard. The fleshy curtains of Baal’s bellybutton parted like the Red Sea. Jagelon gave me a final yank. His hard cackles echoed down that intestinal tunnel as he burst through Baal’s bellybutton to his freedom.
Chapter 21
We emerged back into Violence to find my hellbike where I’d left
it.
Jagelon raised his overly long arms to the sky. “Ah, freedom!”
I got on the bike, and Jagelon jumped on behind me. Margaroth peeked out from my jacket pocket, then ducked back down, realizing it was the safest place to be.
“Okay, Draxil. How do we get outta here?” I asked as I got the bike started up.
“We’ll need to find a statue of Atazoth so he can open a portal,” he answered.
“Where’s the nearest one?”
“I’ll guide you. Now go!”
A clanging noise made me turn. Baal’s soldiers were flooding the area from all angles, tens of them, swarming like ants. In their midst were tanks. The soldiers in the lead caught us in their beams. Crackles filled the air. In seconds, everything was heading our way.
“Er, it might be a good idea to drive away,” Jagelon said.
I pulled back on the throttle, and the souls wailed Metallica at us. We shot forward, the clang of soldier legs and drone of tanks violating my ears. We pulled away from the first wave of soldiers, only to run into a bunch more pouring into the street ahead of us. And some were on hellbikes. I swerved away into a new street, the soldiers in hot pursuit. Varying choruses of different rock and metal songs competed with one another as the bikes gave chase. I took a glance over my shoulder. The chasing bikes were dangerously close. Behind them all, the tanks rolled on without mercy.
A vwoop! made me duck on instinct. A green laser beam shot by on the right.
“Can this thing go any faster?” Jagelon shouted above the cacophony. I gave it more throttle, and Metallica wailed harder. Another laser beam was shot our way, striking the bike, knocking us off track. I gritted my teeth and pushed against the momentum, managing to straighten us.
“Great rescue plan!” Jagelon shouted. “It could only be Draxil’s!”
“Maybe you’d like it back in your cell,” I shouted over my shoulder, swerving around a corner and almost running into a tank. It shimmered, the gun on top rolling our way. A laser shot out of its muzzle. I yanked the bike to the right, deftly veering by the tank. The laser hit a bike behind us, obliterating it. I afforded myself a smile.