Upworld

by Ian Woodhead

  “Do you know why they have no arms and legs?”

  Marlon shook his head.

  “Take a guess.” Branch chuckled. “Yum, yum, yum.”

  The possession ground to a halt. The four giants lifted the two cages onto a wooden platform and placed a few metres apart. Marlon watched, fascinated, while two priests climbed onto the platform. They bowed their heads and muttered some nonsensical sentence before they each approached the corner of a cage.

  They pulled out a small metal wheel and pushed it onto a rod, half-way up the cage, then they started to twist the wheel clockwise. The crowd in front of Marlon all leaned forward. None of them spoke, not that Marlon would have heard anything as the two men in those two cages were doing enough screaming, shouting, and begging to drown out every other sound. Their pleas for mercy obviously fell on deaf ears as they didn’t stop twisting their wheels.

  They weren’t just begging to be set free. The wheels were bringing two of the cage sides closer together. Each turn wiped out another inch of space. The priests were smiling; they looked like they revelled in the humans’ discomfort.

  By now, both men were having difficulty in talking due to the steel wire mesh cutting into their flesh. The priests continued to turn the wheels for another few seconds before stopping. They walked over to the edge of the platform and raised their arms. At this gesture, the crowd went wild. Two more priests approached the edge of the platform and passed the priest a sword each.

  “You better watch this next bit closely,” said Branch. “This is what will happen to you next if you don’t behave.”

  The priest walked back to the cages. They pressed the blade against the mesh, muttered another chant, then lowered the blade, slicing through the skin and tissue pushing through the gaps in the metal.

  Both men shrieked in agony, much to the amusement of the assembled villagers. The priests picked the little square parcels of flesh from the platform and threw them to the villagers before returning to the wheels.

  Marlon’s throat tightened when some more priests lifted another cage onto the platform. “Please don’t tell me that’s for me!”

  Branch slapped him again. “You’re big for a human, but you’re not that big. You really can be stupid.’

  ‘I’m not stupid,’ he growled. “I’m not scared of you or your friends. You’ll find this out if you hit me again.” Satisfied that he had made his point, he turned to watch the priest push another giant into the cage. This one wore the remains of clothing made from bird skin. It seemed like such a waste. Their prisoner had the build of a warrior. He would have made a great addition to his army.

  “Branch. You need to tell the leader that I need to speak to them.”

  His companion giggled. “That’s not going to happen, fella.”

  Marlon pressed a thick blade against the hybrid’s back. “You’re going to do as you’re told or you’ll end up dead.”

  “I can’t. It isn’t allowed. They’ll kill the pair of us.”

  “You’re going to die right now if you don’t.”

  He expected some resistance. It was only natural. “You’ll be dead right now if you don’t open your ugly gob and do as you’re told.” Marlon very nearly slid in the blade when the freak opened his mouth and uttered a stream of words in the giant’s language. One of the giants responded in kind before pointing at Marlon while laughing.

  Branch shook his head. “They said food isn’t supposed to talk back.”

  Marlon grinned. “How little they know.” He reached behind and pulled out his hidden pistol. “Let the games begin.” Marlon aimed at the prisoner and fired one shot. He didn’t even need to look to know that is round had just blown out the back of the giant’s head. He guessed the dead giant would have preferred a quick death to what awaited him. Over a dozen giants now surrounded him, each one holding a spear thicker than his wrist. Marlon guessed he had their attention now.

  He placed the gun on the floor and raised his hands. “Branch, you tell them that they can have more weapons just like that one to use against their enemies if they help me destroy my enemies.”

  Branch spoke again. This time, the giant didn’t laugh once he had finished. This time, they smiled.

  The giant replied with just two words. Marlon didn’t need a translator to understand that the giant would do anything to possess such awesome firepower. Of course, he wasn’t going to hold up his part of the bargain. These giants were too untrustworthy. They’d rather eat humans than fight for them. It would be a lot safer to kill most of them. Keep a couple of the larger specimens and set up a breeding program. This was just great. Everything was working out perfectly.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The distant cloud of dust that briefly appeared on the horizon had long gone, but the apparent disappearance of their pursuers hadn’t convinced Dane that the bastards were still following them. After all, there couldn’t be that many places for three fugitives to run to, and the ones after them would know this landscape like the back of their hands. Nelson had told him to stop worrying, that whoever had been following them were long gone.

  Even Dane didn’t think the older man believed what he was saying. Nelson would probably say anything as long as it was the exact opposite of Dane’s opinion.

  The childish moron blamed him for losing the female, like she fell out of his pocket or something. If he didn’t know better, then he would believe that the idiot had fallen in love with her. At one time, that idea sounded utterly preposterous. Nelson only loved his work. Nothing else mattered. However, the man’s mind wasn’t as it used to be, and something had happened to Nelson on this journey which had sent the old man a little strange. Still, it’s nothing a good holiday wouldn’t be able to fix. Even though Nelson’s attitude had annoyed the hell out of him, this adventure had certainly awoken something inside Dane’s body that he thought had gone out years ago.

  “They’re back, Dane,” said Bradley. “No shock there.”

  Now that Bradley had confirmed Dane’s suspicions, Nelson’s high and mighty attitude went right down the toilet. He changed in an instant from being openly sceptical to utterly terrified. Dane now wished Bradley had kept his silence. At least in the former state, Nelson carried on walking.

  “You can’t stay there, man.”

  Nelson had sat himself down on a small boulder.

  “Sulking is only going to you killed.”

  “I’m not sulking,” he spat. “I’m just resting, while trying to work out a way out of here.”

  “We already have one of those,” replied Dane.

  “Oh yeah? I guess this involves walking through this stupid woodland until it gets too dark to see before we all lie down and wait to get eaten by the wildlife? Come on, admit it, Dane. We’re lost, and we’ve all been walking around in circles for the last two bloody hours. Oh wait. No, scratch the wildlife option. Trooper Joe here has just informed us that the giants are back on our tail so perhaps we’re all going to spend a lovely night getting nailed to a wall?”

  “Have you quite finished?”

  Nelson shrugged. “Look, just go. Go on, leave here like you did with our large friend.”

  “Fine by me,” said Bradley. “Your whining was beginning to get on my tits anyway.” The bodyguard nodded at Dane before turning around and walking away.

  Dane gave Nelson a smart salute. “Look on the bright side. As we’re going around in a circle, we’ll probably see you again in about ten minutes. Unless the giants don’t get you first. If that does happen, we’ll send a commiseration card to your family. We’ll punch a few holes in it with a pencil first, just to make it realistic.” Dane spun around. “Be seeing you.”

  “You evil bastard,” whispered Bradley, once he’d caught up.

  “Yeah, well, he deserved it. The old man needs to come to his senses and to stop acting like a child.”

  “Perhaps. I think there’s something else, something that can’t be attributed to his frequent hissy fits.”

 
Dane stopped. “What do you mean by that?”

  He responded with his infuriating shrug. “I’m just saying that he would benefit from professional medical help.”

  “Fine, once we’re clear of this, we’ll get the old man checked.” He glanced up and saw the man in question had started to come to his senses.

  “Keep this to yourself,” whispered Bradley. “He’s unstable enough already.”

  “I’m not saying anything. It would break the poor man.”

  “That’s what I mean.”

  “You misunderstand, Bradley. It would break the daft bastard to learn that you really care about him.”

  Dane shook his head. He waited for Nelson to reach them before setting off again. True to form, Nelson still said they were probably going around in circles. Privately, Dane did have the same fear, as the path he followed certainly did not follow a straight line. He slowed down before stopping. Dane crouched and ran his fingers other the plants in front of him. Someone had been here in the last few days. “Bradley, here’s a question. If you walked backwards down a beach until you reached the sea, then retraced your steps coming back, how would it look like to someone else?”

  It took his a few seconds to answer. “That someone just came out of the water?”

  Dane grinned. “Exactly right!” He turned to the old man. “Nelson, you’re a genius! Come on, chaps,” he said, purposely stepping off the path. Instead of following the path, he kept in a straight line, aiming for what felt like the most unlikely direction to take.

  To his left, he watched the path wind up and down, like a huge snake. Dane ensured he stayed with his own shadow on the right of him. After a few more minutes, the path vanished from view. Dane also noticed that the light had started to fade. He knew from last night, it wouldn’t take long to get dark.

  “I think I see a change,” said Bradley.

  “It’s just the path.”

  Bradley shook his head. “That’s on the other side, Nelson. There,” he said. Pointing between two large trees. “The air is shimmering.”

  Dane pushed past the bodyguard, entranced by the vision. “I can see it too. It’s like looking through a curtain of hot air.” He walked right up to it, paused, then slowly pushed his right arm through the shimmering curtain of air. He counted to five. No excruciating pain savaged his arm so he took that as a good sign. Dane gave Nelson another mock salute before taking a deep breath and stepping forward.

  “You have got to be joking!” he gasped, staring in wonder at what the screen hid from view. “The stairway to heaven,” he whispered before turning his head. The others were running towards him, but it was obvious that they still couldn’t see beyond that screen.

  “It’s a pyramid!” said Nelson. “A great big, sodding pyramid in the middle of the woods.” He began to laugh. “Now why does this not shock me?”

  “The steps are not that high. It won’t be that difficult to reach the top.”

  Dane silently agreed with Bradley and this worried him. It seemed a little too easy. He walked a little closer and examined the stones. It wasn’t the most ornate pyramid he had examined, but he guessed it wasn’t put here to be admired. The style looked more like the structures in Egypt rather than anything constructed on this continent. He then reminded himself that he stood inside the earth rather on it.

  There wasn’t any sign of weathering. Odd considering how long he believed this thing had been here. Then again, as far as he knew, the giants upstairs might have made this shortly before committing mass suicide. Dane had no way of checking. The only change to the grey stones was right at the top where he saw several red trees clinging to the surface. Ingenious. From the outside of the woods, it would look like an extension of this woodland. The perfect camouflage.

  Despite his eagerness to get out of this vile place, Dane couldn’t bring himself to take another step towards the structure. His cynicism had just demanded to know why none of the giants living here had tried to leave. Even his earlier story of them having everything they needed down here failed to wash. It’s not like this place was all that difficult to find either. Hell, if they could locate a hundred foot stone structure in the middle of woodland, he was sure that at least one of those giants must have stumbled across it in all those thousands of years. In fact, one of them had done it. The female giant obviously knew of its existence.

  He took another step closer to the base.

  “Oh, that’s not great,” said Bradley. “It looks like our friends have entered the woods.”

  “So? They won’t know where we are. We’re surrounded by an invisible screen, remember?”

  “Doesn’t mean they won’t be able to home in on your big gob, Nelson.” Bradley watched them move towards a large tree then stop. He looked at Dane. “Their presence concerns me. Thousands of years have passed, and yet none of those giants have left this place. Why do you think that is?”

  “Not sure. It’s what I’ve been asking myself as well. It boils down to two answers. They can’t leave or they won’t.” He took another step and almost lost his balance as the ground shifted. “What the hell?” He lifted his leg and saw that he’d just stood on some bones. Dane crouched and carefully pushed away the loose vegetation.

  There were thousands of bones under the leaf litter. Looking at the type of plant growing over this stuff, he imagined that these bones went all the way to the base of the structure. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise him if the bone bed surrounded the pyramid. Now that he was closer, he could pick out a few tiny pieces resting on the stones.

  “So, now we know,” murmured Nelson.

  He had realised that the older archaeologist had joined him. Then again, why was he even surprised? Nelson could smell bones from a mile away. He now knelt on the floor with both his hands picking up pieces of bone, dropping them then picking up a few more.

  “What do we know, Nelson?” It did please Dane to see that Nelson had relaxed slightly. The old man was in his element. He also had a captive audience. Why wouldn’t he relax? This is what Nelson lived for.

  “Notice how there’s no scratch marks on any of the bones? Also, they’re all whole. No splinters.” He picked up a large tibia. “This is remarkable. A quite recent specimen, perhaps less than a few months. I’d also suggest that the rest of the skeleton will be in that lot.”

  “The only thing I knew that could do that are piranhas, and I severely doubt that they’re responsible.”

  Nelson chuckled. “You’re not that far from the mark there. Not a bad guess for a meathead.”

  “Insects?”

  “That’s my guess.”

  “So, if we start climbing, there’s a chance we might get eaten alive by a swarm of flesh-eating beetles?”

  “Nelson, are you sure about this? I know some forensic scientists use beetles to strip the flesh from bodies, but they have to be dead already and the process can take days. From the distance these bones have fallen, the victims have died in seconds.”

  “The bones don’t lie, Dane. You know that.”

  “We have no other choice,” replied Bradley. “It looks like the giants have found their courage and…” he growled. “Branch is with them, and so is Marlon. Shit, why can’t that bastard do the decent thing and die already?”

  “Now we know why all the bones are covered up. This must be how Branch leaves this world.” Dane walked across the pit, cringing at the sound his boots made when they crunched down on the bones. He reached the base and climbed up onto the first step. “If Nelson is right, then we should all keep our eyes peeled once we get about halfway up.” He continued to climb, painfully aware that the other two were right behind him, doing their hardest to climb faster than he was. He turned around and saw the reason for their haste. The others were now stood at the edge of the bone pit, all watching their progress in silence. It felt like they were simply waiting for one of them to release the beetles, or spiders, or whatever lay hidden behind one of these stones.

  That illusion was shattered
when Marlon pulled out a pistol. “Shit.” Dane climbed a lot faster, not really caring where he put his hands anymore. A round smacked into a stone just above his head.

  “Come back down here right now or I’ll shoot you off.” The man at the base of the pyramid chuckled. “It makes no difference to me. Hell, forget what I just said, you three keep climbing. I’ll just carry on shooting, it’s all fine by me.”

  “What are we going to do now?” Nelson looked at Dane. “We can’t go back down. They’ll eat us. I don’t want to be eaten!”

  Dane looked behind him and saw Marlon getting ready to take another shot. The giants that towered over the fat man obviously thought this was hysterical. Even Branch was grinning like a loon. He looked over at Bradley, then paused. “Push the stone beside your left hand. See if moves.”

  “Have you gone mad?” cried Nelson. “What if the beetles come out?”

  “Rock and a hard place,” muttered Bradley.

  “Then we die. At least it’ll be over in seconds instead of days.” He watched the bodyguard try to push the stone with no effect. Bradley then climbed up another metre and jumped on it.

  The stone sank into the surrounding area. Dane felt a vibration followed by the noise of scratching. Nelson cried out when swarms of black bugs rushed from the hole and spread in all directions across the stones. “Put your hands over your ears!” he shouted. “Close your mouth and your ears.” He did the same then leaned his body against the stone, and when he felt their tiny legs and bodies reach his legs and started to crawl up his clothing, Dane did the one thing that he promised himself he’d never do again.

  He prayed.

  The prayer lasted precisely three seconds before he started to scream inside as the vile creatures scurried through his hair, over his eyelids, and along the back of his neck. The torment felt like it was lasting hours until, finally, the creatures all dropped off his body. Dane counted to five before he dared to open his eyes. The bugs were now moving as one towards the base of the structure. The giants, as well as their guests, had already fled.