James was the first to stand he walked over to me and formed a bloody knife. With which he cut his palm and my own. We slid our hands across each other and locked fingers. James nodded and grabbed my shoulder.
“Bro, you know I am always with you; I told you when we first started this that I would always back you up, and I will,” said James. Agatha ran her fingers through her long hair and picked up a sword from the floor and slipped it into a sheath on her back.
“Catalyst, I know you're trying to do the right thing here, I have to agree with Zadok. We have to do whatever it takes to get home, and I feel like he is not afraid to do whatever it takes, “said Agatha.
She turned around and walked over to Zadok. Dragging her fingers through the pool of elements from the table and dragging the black liquid across Zadok’s face and beard as if it were war paint.
Gabriel lifted himself off the ground and said, “Catalyst as always, you are wrong. I see no reason not to use this resource that arose when we needed it most. It is a gift from the Gods, I’ve been here for years and years, and finally there is a means of escape. I see no reason to pass it up.”
He floated over to where Agatha stood and landed next to her. He looked over at Zadok with a sideways glare and sighed until he turned away from Agatha.
One at a time, everyone picked aside; I couldn’t help think that was one of those defining moments of my life. You know one of those moments that changes the course of your whole story and shapes events yet to come.
Annabelle took one last look back at Zadok, and of course, Agatha, she turned and stood behind James.
“Catalyst, I’m sorry I sided with Zadok earlier. I shouldn’t have left you and James; we still need to talk later,” said Annabelle.
Before she finished speaking, Toni had grabbed his bone sword and slammed it into the ground at Zadok’s feet. I am splitting stone into two.
“I’m sorry Catalyst I have to do what’s best for Reuben and what’s best for Reuben is to get home as soon as possible and if that means sacrificing animals who don’t even feel anything and waste away to nothing when they could be used to get us home,” said Toni.
After he had joined Zadok, Reuben was not far behind him. He had become Toni’s shadows as well as Toni’s strive. Zadok and the other turned to walk out of the room. Toni dragged his bone blade through the dirt. Zadok stopped and turned toward me running a hand through his thick beard. “Catalyst, I know you want to be this hero, do what is right. That it will make amends for every bad thing you have ever done, it will not. I don’t think there is such thing as heroes and villains. People who do what they think needs to be done. So, you say a hero would not use these dead bodies. Well I am no hero. Agatha Hugged Annabelle and James goodbye. Toni shook my hand; it was weird though. I had not gotten used to my left hand as my dominant hand. I glanced down at the burned and charred remnants of my right hand.
“Catalyst, we are going to collect the bodies I know you don’t like it. It’s what we are going to do. We’ll be back in the morning, and then we will head back to the Mach infinity, and we will get them home, said Toni” he walked out the door, followed by Reuben, Zadok, Agatha, and Gabriel.
For the first time since we had been on this planet, I had no idea what to do next. I looked at James and Agatha. “I think I will keep watch Incase anything happens, or we get any visitors, “James said as he made a set of daggers from the blood. He shuffled out the door.
It was only Annabelle and I then. The first time we had been alone since Agatha’s bone fortress all the time ago. Before the fermenters, The demons, The Duchess. Ehud and the torture. It felt like a lifetime ago.
Annabelle sat down next to me and handed me a glass of purple water. For a little while, we sat in silence taking slow and thoughtful sips.
“Annabelle, I would apologize I did what I thought I had to do to save you and James. It worked, and we are free. Zadok is alright, and he understood it is what had to be done. I know that what I did was messed up, I only did it because I care about you,” I said
I was distracted by Annabelle’s beautiful brown eyes. She looked at me and scrunched up her lips to one side and then the other. Mulling over ideas as to not say the wrong thing.
“Catalyst, I appreciate you rescuing me and everyone else. Again. I’m sorry that I was with Zadok, he is not a good man, and now I know this. Ever since I saw you, I have been drawn to; you drive your loyalty to your friends, your never-ending passion for doing what is right against everything else. As much as I could see us being together, I don’t know if we can be as much as I want someone to stand by and be with until the end of time. I have always been worried that if I get close to someone, they will leave me, or I will lose you I mean them”, said Annabelle. She looked away.
“Everyone is afraid to lose people they care about, look at all the things I did to keep myself from losing you though, I don’t think it will be that easy to get rid of me. I think we should at least try,”, I said.
I paused before Continuing. Annabelle curled her thin fingers around mine. She tilted her head and pressed her lips against mine. I slid my hand onto the side of her face, and we kissed soft and slow.
I heard a sudden scurrying of dozens of tiny feet, the shifting of dirt and debris. The hair on the back of my neck stood up.
“AAAH WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!” Annabelle screamed. Gigantic dog-sized cockroach filled the room. They slurped the black goo that formerly as dinosaur man. Five. Ten. Twenty. They filled the room. They covered the floors and then the walls and the ceiling. They ate everything. A large black one began to bite my shoe. I placed my hand on his big oily gross body. I attempted to poison him with cobra venom, but the oil he was secreting would not let the venom penetrate his thick hull. The cockroaches began swarming around us and closing in. I reached for a sword; they had used their string teeth to devour it to the hilt.
I tried to stand to my feet; I felt the cockroaches crawling up my legs and pushing down on my torso. They began to eat my suit. Starting with my shoe. I wriggled and tried to break free; the bugs began to bite their razor-sharp teeth into my toes.
Their teeth were sinking into the bones of my smaller toes. They start to be ripped off and bitten clean off.
“AAAAA HOLY FUCK,” I screamed as the pain shot up my leg, and my screams echoing through my ears.
SHWUCK all at once, the creatures stopped biting my toes, and his head fell into my lap. I looked up to see Annabelle’s chakram. She had thrown it hastily across the room. Her face filled with as much surprise as my own. Annabelle and I stood back to back. Slashing and tearing open roach after roach they kept coming and coming. Our arms grew tired, and we grew weak.
“You guys need a hand?”
James’s massive frame pushed through the door. He brushes a pair of Cockroach feet off his shoulder. He plowed through the roaches. Swinging a massive blood sword through the air and cutting the roaches in half. He held both sides of the sword, and it split in two, each with half a cross guard. He fell to the ground from the amount of blood he lost creating his blood weapons. Annabelle patted his head off with a piece of his shirt and tended to him while I killed the last roach while he tried to chew through the blade.
“James, JAMES, wake up dude wake up!” I said as I tried to shake James awake. “we can’t stay here man they are going to keep coming. We are going to get back to the Mach infinity, that’s where the other is headed with the dead bodies, we’ll try to think of ways to fuel the ship on the way.
I grabbed some planks of wood and used one of the Chakram to chop down a pillar. Annabelle grabbed the other blood blade and drove it through the center of the wooden cylinder. We rigged up a wooden gurney type device. Annabelle helped me rock James up and onto it. We pushed him out into the hallway and killed any stray roaches we came across. The hallway was dark, and the only source of light came from a chimney-like shaft stretching up the center of the room from the top of the building to the ground floor. We pushed James into a
wooden platform. I looked around for a mechanism to take us to the ground floor. All I saw was a large metal chain. I have it a slow tug, and the platform tilted, and James rolled forward. Annabelle leaped to the opposite side from me and adjusted the parallel chains. We eased the platform down the shaft. It descended into an abyss of darkness.
All sudden, there was a bright blinding light, and I realized it was the first time I had seen natural light on weeks. No wonder Zadok went nuts after not having any light for years. We walked along pushing James. Our weapons poised and ready. Agatha had one of her chakras. The other was around James' wrist. I clenched James' blood sword in my hands and gently ran my fingers over the blades. I worked up a wad of saliva in my mouth and spat cobra venom onto the blade.
In the dirt laid several divots. I looked at Annabelle, and she said, “I’m guessing that’s where the cosmic carriage was and they already headed back towards the Mach infinity without us,” said Annabelle
She looked at me, and for the first time her eyes were filled with fear. She squeezed my arm and looked to the grey horizon. Once again, we had been let down. I knew there was a chance they would head to the ship without us what would they do? Leave without us? I looked at the horizon were the valley lay. The valley we had fought so hard to get out of. The trials we endured and the Villains we defeated. Through all that at least I could rely on the others. I could not even defeat some stupid roaches. The only reason we made it through is because of James and Annabelle. He is in comatose, and Annabelle is tired and beat. How are we going to possibly walk across the valley and the rivers and the acid lagoon? Let alone find a way off this planet.
I slid my way down to the floor and rested my hand on Annabelle’s. She curled her fingers around mine and rested her head on my shoulder. Annabelle lifted the cover of her tattered and torn book and jotted a few sentences inside.
Chapter Eleven
Nighttime fell, we had to start on the day-long trip. We had no food, No water and no shelter from the elements. It was either take a chance at dying in a building with no supplies or die on our feet at least attempting to go somewhere where we might survive. I took off my outer space suit and placed it over James’s face and arms to shield him from the razor wind if it were to pick up.
We walked and made small talk, as we tried to stay awake and alert. At least we did for a while; however after several hours of walking we were low on energy. The black dust kicked up and into our faces with every step. Every time I lifted my leg to walk, they seemed to get heavier and heavier. WHOSSSSSSSSH. I heard the razor wind picking up in the distance before the wind could reach us Annabelle and I pulled James to the floor, and we tucked our heads and chest under the wooden gurney. Using our suits to cover the sides of our makeshift shelter.
With each gust the wind came closer. SSSSRIP. The wind pulled and tore at the spacesuits. Then the wind stopped, and there was nothing. We began to leave the shelter when thunder CRASHED, and the sky opened, and rain came pouring down. I ran a tongue over my dried and chapped lips. Hair was matter to my sweaty forehead, and my tongue lay limp and dry. I was panting from exhaustion, and I would do anything for a drink. I slid out from the shelter and stood to my feet.
Annabelle tugged at my shirt and shouted something; I could not make out what. I stuck out my tongue and realized what Annabelle said. I felt the drops of acid hit my tongue and started to burn it. I dove under the gurney, not before several drops of the rain rolled down my back. I scooped the black dirt into my mouth until the burning stopped. We sat in silence and crowded around James’s large frame; our feet and part of our legs extended beyond the edges of the gurney. A low hissing as the acid tried to burn through our space suits. I smelt the melting plastics and metals and was waiting for it to burn my skin until the rain turned off instantly as if it were in a switch.
“Do you think it’s safe to go out? The acid water should have recited by now, don’t you think?” Asked Annabelle. I peered out of the second-rate shelter. The black dust and soot had begun to settle, and the sky cleared.
“We better get moving again, or we’ll never have a chance to get back to the ship or the others,” I said. It took us a while, we finally managed to get James back on top of the gurney. We set out once again into the valley which was once the home of the Duchess of death. The wind picked up once again, and I could swear in the mighty gust I heard a familiar laugh.
Alas, we had to move on. We had to keep going. We walked for miles. Our pace slowed, and our steps grew less and less frequent. Annabelle collapsed from exhaustion. I pulled her into my arms and held her close to my chest. I grabbed our space suits and wrapped the arms around the gurney and the other around my chest. pulling the gurney forward. One step at a time. With each passing moment they seemed to get heavier and heavier. The straps dug deep into my shoulders. The gurney tugged against the ground. It felt as if I were pulling an anchor. I took one more step, and I fell to my knees. I tried to keep moving, carrying Annabelle and scooting forward on my knees. I pulled my dried and cracked lips apart. Running my tongue over the itching and burning cuts. When I collapsed and the last thing, I saw was Annabelle’s blond hair and colorful outline pop against the black and white foreground of the planet.
“Are they going to be ok? Why would they come out here, I told them to stay there and that we would be back,” said Toni. I barely opened my eyes. I recognized Toni’s voice; I wanted to make out who he was talking to. I faintly made out Zadok and Gabriel. I tightly closed my eyes and pretended to be sleeping. When I was little, I use to pretend to sleep whenever my uncle would come in. He would let me stay asleep if I was sleeping if he walked in and I was awake when I didn't suppose to, he would hit me and do test on me. He would always catch me because I would close my eyes to tight. That hunk of garbage taught me a lesson after all. Don’t try so hard sometimes; things require less effort. I loosened my eyelids and barely closed them.
“We need to get the ship fully functional. Because we can hover does not mean it could fly. Let us restrain them. Catalyst does not give up easily. I say we restrain them. Fix the ship make the fuel and then leave this planet,” Zadok said as he paced the room running a rope through his hands.
Toni stroked his goatee, and he formed his thoughts carefully before he spoke.
“We can’t do that! He saved us; they saved us. We would not be here if not for them, and I will never turn my back on them. We need to band together not divide us. We have a better chance of surviving if we all work together. No army has ever succeeded by being divided.” Said Toni. Zadok walked over to where I laid and bent down to wrap the rope around my wrist.
“You want us to play nice? Catalyst was the leader, and now I am. You do not think he will try to take it back? Lead things the way he wants to. The best defense is a swift offense.” Said Zadok. Gabriel hovered above the ground and flew over to me. He dropped a bead of acid on the onto the rope in Zadok’s hand. Gabriel Said “I am not Catalyst’s best friend, and he did get my friends is killed. I would take you’re approach Zadok. I truly would if Catalyst could beat Ehud and his army of Dinosaur men after weeks of torture. Us tying him up with rope along with his best friends would be the worst and probably last thing we would ever do. Wake him up.”
I bolted up in bed and pushed aside the rope that was laying on my chest. I stood to my feet and walked over to Zadok. Stared into his eyes and said, “you don’t have to like me, you don’t have to follow me, and you have to work with me to get home. If you get anyone hurt, I promise you will pay.” I turned and walked to where James and Annabelle we’re lying. Agatha and Reuben had been taking care of them while I was asleep.
Toni flipped a switch, and a corner of the room lit up. The light reflected off the blades of a couple handmade swords. Toni walked over and threw one to me and one to Gabriel.
“What brings a group together more than sparing, fight each other, fuel each other train each other. Now while the computer runs a test of the exact formula we need for fuel and a
damage report, I say we practice fight no holds bar when we get back to Earth, they will throw everything they can at us. They will show no mercy, so maybe we shouldn’t either “, said Toni. When he said the last words, he looked at me for the disappointment on my face. Ssshhs, the sword slid across the floor, and I stopped it with my foot. I reached down and picked up the crudely made blade, wrapping my fingers around clunky hilt.
“Let it begin!” Shouted Toni.
I moved the blade of the sword through the air, feeling the weight and adapting to the bend of the blade. Gabriel lunged, and A loud CLAG rang through the air as our blades collided. I twisted my wrist, and his blade slid off the end of my sword. I kicked his chest, and Gabriel hit the floor.
“Oh, you want to fight like that, watch this” Said Gabriel. He flew up into the air and cocked his sword back ready to strike. I raised my blade to block his sword. I rolled out of the way before our blades connected. I jumped to my feet, and Gabriel shot into the air once more. I grabbed his ankle and slammed him to the floor. His blade hit the floor and shattered — the tip of my sword connected with Gabriel’s neck.
“Gabriel, you have lost, good fight not good enough” I said sarcastically. Schuck. I heard his claws extend. It was too late. His claws cut my blade into metal chunks, and they fell to the floor. I swung at Gabriel and my first connected to his face. We rolled around on the floor until we started laughing.
“well, I guess that’s the end of sparing since we broke both swords,” I said in between laughs. Gabriel had started to laugh before his face turned dark and serious.
“You know you’re not half bad at fighting, you weren’t half as crappy as I thought you were,” said Gabriel. I turned to respond when I heard Annabelle shout from the other room.
“Catalyst! Where are you, what happened?” Said Annabelle. Her knuckles locked tight around her chakram. I heard the chakram cut through the air as it embedded itself behind my head. It barely cleared my ear. She began to hyperventilate, scream, and panic. She flung her arms wildly, and body bounced off the table. I pressed her shoulders against the metal.
Journey to a darker world Page 9