Avernus: Book One

by Steven Webb

  Captain Somers was the first to move. She struggled to stand but made every effort to look strong while she did. Her body wavered despite her best efforts. “Let’s go everyone. We can relax once we get there.” The horde of Zombies shambled behind Rocco on their way to the new shelter, their thirst soon to be satisfied.

  During their journey the crew ran into the little creatures Rocco had been following earlier. They appeared to be waiting for Rocco’s arrival into the orange forest. This time they didn’t scatter, rather they trekked along like little guides. Once the entrance to the cave drew closer the creatures scattered.

  Rocco led the group through the throne room and down the dark passage using his flash light to guide them. The ground was slick with moisture. Trent suddenly lost his balance and fell to the ground, sliding into Nova and Diego knocking them down inside the narrow passage. The flashlight was making it too difficult to take care of the fallen, so with his flashlight held between his teeth, Rocco cut a strip off of Trent’s shirt. Trent tried to argue but was too weak to have any effect. A new makeshift torch was in order. A flick from the lighter set the cloth aflame atop the shovel, filling the empty void around them with light. The waterfall room lay just ahead. The three fallen companions made their way to their feet and continued on. The grand room opened before them with it’s purple roof and white sand beach lining the river. No one seemed to even notice the brilliance of what was around them. They ran straight to the waterfall, pushing each other aside trying to get water except for Zea, Rocco, and Addison who all stood back waiting for their turn.

  Joseph climbed his way down the small ledge and tested the water. “Wow, that’s cold.” This didn’t appear to slow him down as he waded in. He found himself suddenly waist deep. “Oh God! Huuu. Okay it’s getting better.”

  “Did you just pee in the water?” Sophie said absolutely disgusted.

  “Come take a sip and find out.”

  “Fuck that. I’d rather die of dehydration.”

  He waded further upstream and into the lake and dove into the water. “Man that’s refreshing,” He said floating in the water shivering.

  Rocco stood with the others, staring at his pal in the water acting like an idiot. “Zea I think he may have hit his head harder than we thought.”

  “Sssscrew …you,” he stammered. Joseph Slowly made his way back out and attempted to climb up the ledge out of the water. His hands struggled to grip the rock sending him back down into the water. “IIIIII…got this.”

  Feeling some pity for him Rocco walked over and offered him a lift up. The sight of Joseph completely soaked through, hair dripping wet was enough to make Rocco erupt with laughter. “”You know you’re a dumbass right?”

  “Wwwwwhat are…you tttalking about. IIII feel…Great.”

  “Tell me that when your still stuck in those wet close tonight.”

  “Shit!”

  “Let’s get you warmed up.” Rocco walked him back to the front of the cave. Addison built up a small fire in the middle of the room for Joseph to huddle by while attempting to dry off. A strange sweet scent drifted off the smoke. The shadows outside spread across the ground with the setting sun.

  The rest of the group took their places around the fire. Nova began to hum a soft tune to herself. The others around her caught on and soon everyone was singing along. Their voices filled the cave stirring tiny brown creatures from the cracks in the walls. Their tiny bodies lept into the air and large golden wings emerged from their sides. The group fell silent unsure of what to make of this new scene. The creatures circled the cave. Light from the fire reflecting off their wings looked like dancing flames above them. It’s beauty was astounding. The floating flame flew out the cave on silent wings and into the coming dusk.

  ADDISON

  Days passed by slowly for the crew. The discovery of a dead battery inside the distress beacon was stirring unease. Their last hope of rescue was gone. Addison was trying everything she could to keep the crew from giving up hope, which was easier said than done. At the moment everything was calm.

  Zea was attempting to clean Diego’s festering arm wound. It’s stench grew unbearable whenever it was left unattended for more than half the day. “This ones going to hurt. Just try and stay still.” She pressed the edge of Rocco’s knife against one of the rotting pustules. It sliced into the soft skin releasing a flow of rancid goo.

  “Ahhhhhh!” the scream of pain from Diego echoed through the cave’s chambers.

  Sophie grabbed ahold of Zea’s arm preventing progress. “Please, you have to stop. I can’t handle seeing him hurt.”

  Wincing through the pain and holding back the screams Diego pushed her away. “Back off.” With tears in his eyes he looked at Zea. “Keep going.”

  Zea handed a wet cloth to Sophie. “Put this on his head to help with the fever, otherwise fuck off.”

  Sophie jerked the towel away from Zea and pressed it against Diego’s head. The water dripped down his face and into his ragged red beard.

  The tension was palpable. Addison only wanted to keep the peace. She walked over to Sophie and placed her arm around her. “I’ll take over, you just go get some fresh air.”

  Sophie didn’t budge.

  “Go on, I’ve got this.”

  Sophie slowly walked away looking back over her shoulder as she wandered off.

  “Thank you,” Zea said returning to the wound. “I was never going to get this done with her around.”

  “You’re good. Now let’s get this finished.” Heat from Diego’s forehead was pouring through the wet cloth. The screams started up again even more agonizing than before. Diego’s remaining hand gripped onto Addison’s arm and his untrimmed nails dug in.

  A chunk of rotting flesh fell to the ground. Zea poured a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol onto the wound. “Diego you rest for a bit. We’ll do some more later.”

  Addison and Zea wandered off, leaving Diego to sit in silence.

  Zea’s face was worn from a week of caring for everyone’s injuries. Her once beautiful brown hair was now a mud-caked knotted mess. The weight of her body seemed to have doubled judging by the way she dragged herself along.

  Addison figured a couple of snacks would do Zea some good. The pile had dwindled down to the final few packets consisting of freeze dried ice cream and cheese. She grabbed two packets of ice cream and followed Zea outside. “Here get some food in you.” She threw the packet.

  Without a word, the packets got ripped open and Zea devoured their contents. Their empty shells got cast aside.

  Seeing their shiny foil sitting on the ground Addison realized she had not really seen any empty packets lying around the camp. Her mind wandered imagining where they could have been thrown away at. All of hers had just been scattered in the cave as she ate but now she couldn’t recall seeing even those. It was almost like when her and Daniel went camping and she would just throw corn cobs and fish bones on the ground but come morning he had picked them all up up and hung them from a tree inside a bag. Living outdoors was his forte but Addison preferred a nice hotel unless the two of them were together. If only he could see her now. Her eyes welled with tears. No matter what she had to survive to get back to him and feel his embrace one more time. Seeing Zea sitting there mouth full of food she knew that the first thing she would tell Daniel was that she was finally ready. Ready to move to Europe. Ready to put their Lives ahead of her work. Ready to finally have kids.

  “Feeling a bit better with all that sugar?” Addison inquired.

  Zea swallowed her last mouthful. “Not really but at least it’s something. Captain… Did you ever imagine something like this place?”

  “Not in my wildest dreams. It’s like something out of Doctor Seuss.”

  “How are you managing to stay so calm through all of this? I mean this place terrifies me.”

  “I just know that Daniel will find a way to get me out of here, and as long as I’m around nothing will ever happen to you.” Despite her best effort even she
wasn’t fully convinced they would make it out of this. “Let’s change the topic a bit. Tell me about your fondest memory.”

  “Oh mine. Well…I don’t really have many.”

  “Come on you’ve got to have a few. What about that ring you always wear.”

  “What my mom’s ring? When I was a kid I would always sneak into my mom’s room to play. Sometimes I would walkout covered in makeup. Other times I would try on her clothes and leave them lying all over the floor. My favorite though was when I would get her jewelry box open.” Zea began fidgeting with the ring as if out of habit. “Anyway, this one time I was covered in jewelry and I found this ring with a large red gem on it. My mother’s birthstone. So I put it on and started running around the house acting like I was a witch with a magic ring from the Warneg Heroes. I would summon my pet veglot and ride around the kingdom. As I waved my hand around the ring flew off and landed in the sink. I tried to catch it but it went down the drain. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get it out. I was so embarrassed that I left it in there. That night my mom ran the disposal with the ring in there. I thought I was going to be in so much trouble that I ran away. Being little I only made it into the tree at the neighbor’s house where my mom found me crying. Rather than getting mad she climbed into the tree with me and just sat there. It was a half an hour before I was finally ready to climb down. After that she got it fixed and would let me play with it as long as I asked her first.”

  “She sounds amazing.”

  “She was the best person I’ve ever known. Kind of like you.”

  The beautiful moment came to an abrupt end as Taylor came barreling out of the cave and tripped over Addison. “What the hell,” she yelled grabbing her side. Suddenly a rock whizzed past her head.

  “You cheated you bastard.” Trent’s voice carried out of the cave.

  “What are you talking about? You can’t cheat at Tic-tac-toe.” Another rock hurtled through the air. “Are you kidding me. It was just a game.”

  “Get back in here you bastard.”

  Two more rocks came flying out of the cave. “That’s it!” Addison got to her feet. “Trent I swear if you throw one more rock I’m going to lay you out. Taylor you’re coming with me.”

  His voice filled with hesitancy, Taylor asked, “Where are we going?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Let’s go. She grabbed his arm and dragged him away from Trent and Zea. Addison refused to let go of Taylor until the cave was out of sight. “Now that we’re out here you’re going to help me look for food. We’re running low.”

  “You know I don’t recognize anything out here, right?”

  “I figured, but we’ve only got a short time before we’re all too weak to do anything about it.”

  “Our best bet would be to follow one of the creatures around here and try a small sample of what they eat.”

  “That’ll work. You head that way and I’ll go this way but don’t wander off too far. If you find a creature let me know.” she split off making sure to keep Taylor within eyesight. A tall beautiful specimen appeared in front of her. It had three beautiful jade eyes on each side of a horseshoe shaped head with a long snout squarely in the middle. The skin was cracked like tree bark all along the body. Four legs branched off the flattened core and split into two pairs that stood upon four kidney shaped masses.

  “Taylor Get over here,” Addison spoke softly, trying to get Taylor’s attention without startling the beast before her. He didn’t seem to react. She slowly reached down and picked up a rock never taking her eyes off the beast. She lobbed it towards Taylor, realizing the irony as it flew from her hand. He immediately turned. Silently, Addison gestured for him to join her.

  Taylor crept towards Addison, staring at the ground to ensure each step fell silently. Once he reached her, they waited for the beast to move. It wandered gently through the forest, lowering its snout and sifting through the soft dirt. Small jerks pulsated through the creature’s body.

  Addison was entirely fascinated by the scene. “What’s the bark beast doing?”

  Taylor attempted to whisper back, “Bark Beast? I kind of like that. I was going with horseshoe head but yours is definitely better. Anyway I have no idea.”

  The dirt seemed to be breathing around the creatures snout, moving in sync with the beasts movements. The dirt mound opened it’s gaping mouth releasing the hidden treasure inside. The Snout bore a large white root like mass in its grip. A pouch opened on the bark beasts neck and in went the mass.

  Taylor was lost to the world, taken aback by what he was witnessing. Addison couldn’t blame him. For him this must have been like a dream come true. They sat and watched the beast repeat this cycle two more times.

  Once seemingly satisfied that there were no more roots worth pulling up the Bark Beast continued its journey through the forest and into a field covered in tiny red branching growths. Up to this point they had only appeared in tiny patches. In the middle of the field sat strange structures made of what looked like boulders jammed into the dirt by a giant. One large boulder stood tall with five rows of boulders radiating from it. Each successive boulder appeared to be smaller than the one before it. Their gray surface was covered in pock marks and holes. Overhead, strange winged creatures flew as if guarding the boulders. The Bark Beast made its way towards the formation, and struck the surface with one of its feet, knocking a chunk free from the boulder. A shiny black meat lay inside the hole created by the Bark beast. The snout reached inside and consumed part of the boulder.

  Addison and Taylor had assumed they were far enough back to remain unseen but a loud shriek from one of the creatures above caused the Bark Beast to leave its snacking and stare directly at the two stalkers. Addison’s heart leapt into her throat. She had no experience with situations like this. If it were a bear she would know what to do but here the rules were different. All she could do was hope the Bark Beast was docile. Her hopes came true as it sprinted off.

  Addison and Taylor emerged from the forest and into the field. Addison walked over to the hole that the beast had knocked open and reached inside. The meat was moist and warm in her grip.

  The next thing Addison knew, she was sitting in a rocking chair surrounded by Christmas decorations. Daniel was playing his guitar singing to her. Snow was falling outside coating the world in white. The red ribbon trees and tentacle plants were beautiful this time of year. Wrapping paper was strewn about the floor, and boxes were piled haphazardly in the corner of the room. Suddenly a warm coffee mug sat in her hand and three children were eating breakfast in front of the TV watching the Parade. It felt like her time in space had been so long ago. As if it almost hadn’t happened. She checked her body but all the scars from the crash were gone. Why couldn’t she remember anything else. “Cory would you like to help me with Breakfast?” she asked the oldest daughter.

  “Of course mom. Can I make the biscuits? They’re my favorite.”

  “I think I can let you do that.”

  “I want to help too,” the youngest of the three said running up to Addison. Her hair was a mess. It appeared to have been cut by one of the other kids with a pair of scissors, missing random chunks.

  “Okay but you need to change out of those pajamas first.”

  “But mom I love my princess pajamas. Please can I wear them. I promise I won’t get them dirty.”

  “Okay, fine but you have to try your hardest to stay clean.” Addison patted her on the head.

  “Yeay!” She disappeared into the kitchen.

  “How about you Jake? Would you like to help too?”

  “No thanks I want to play my new video game with dad.”

  “I like that idea.” Daniel got up from his chair.

  “Have fun boys.”

  “Yeah have fun boys,” the girls voices rang out in unison.

  The kids started growing before her eyes. The room morphed around her. A chandelier was hanging from the ceiling above a dining room table. The family was sitting around the table d
iscussing their days at school.

  “What did you learn today Cindy?” Daniel asked the youngest daughter.

  “We studied multiplication. I learned that twelve times twelve is one hundred twenty one.” her face filled with pride.

  “Don’t you mean one hundred forty four?”

  “Yeah that’s it.”

  “And how about you Cory?”

  Cory struggled to speak with her mouth full of food. She gestured for Daniel to give her a second to swallow. “We’re studying the Aeneid today. The teacher had us discussing the entrance to the underworld called Avernus. Apparently it’s a real place. “It’s a volcano with a lake inside it. They say that any bird that flies over it dies.”

  On cue, loud shrieks filled the air, and the ceiling fell away, but the conversation continued on around addison as if nothing had changed.

  “Well what about the Phoenix.” Jake jumped in “I bet it could survive.”

  No it couldn’t. The phoenix is a bird. That means it would die too.”

  “Come on guys stop fighting.” Addison told them. “And what did you learn Jake?”

  “I learned about world war two. Mom were the wars you fought in like world war two? Did you get to drive a tank or drop bombs?”

  “Not quite I…” The room changed again. She now found herself sitting in a chair outside in a field covered in red branching growths surrounded by her extended family. Her husband was sitting next to her, his hair now mostly gray. In front of them Cory was draped in the most beautiful white dress Addison had ever seen. A strange man dressed in a tux stood facing Cory.