The sky was pink like candy-floss and clear of cloud. We meandered over a substantial path of dirt cutting through acres and acres of tall purple grass. An old wooden fence with a stainless coat of white paint followed our flanks, a barrier to anyone fancying a stroll through the grass.
A parched Eddinray frequently halted our progress, but his flamboyant bragging made up for the inconvenience; and after witnessing Kat deflecting a bullet with his sword, his boasting only increased.
"Once wrestled a crocodile,” he said, his hands throttling thin air. "The young child was inside its belly, you see, leaving me no choice but to dive into the reptile's mouth. The scene I can barely describe to you — women folk screaming and fainting — weaker men simply applauding the bravery on display. Goes without saying that I retrieved the child alive and well, then made a coat of the crocodile…"
From time to time, my thoughts wavered to the 9thFortress, somehow expecting it to sprout over the next horizon, or the one after that. I had the general description from Sir Isaac Newton, but what did it really look like? What feelings would the immoral tower inspire? What would be waiting for us at its gates? And what of prisoner 2020? Why did this soul deserve saving? With no answers, the questions would remain a vicious circle inside my head.
We were not alone on our path. Far from it, hundreds trudged in front and behind, and like the long departed cue on the stinking shore, each man, woman and thing was unique in dress, but wearing similar expressions of demoralization. They were zombies, an endless parade of the living dead.
"Do not wake these sleepwalkers,” Kat warned. "They will not…like it."
Several black angels blotted the peachy sky, their jelly-like bodies swooping past a small airplane. My father told me stories of my Grandpa, Sgt. Archie Fox, who died a hero for the allies in the battle of Britain. This aircraft was unmistakeably a hurricane, the likes he would have fought in. Its engine dying, flames ate her wings, and there followed that horrible sound of a blaring horn as she fell to the grass.
I grimaced away as that metal bird obliterated over land. Unfortunately, the sky was filled with similar disastrous images: burning blimps and 747s; exploding Concorde and even a space shuttle breaking up on re-entry. Weirder was the alien craft — the saucers and blobs of varying color floating like un-popped balloons. I couldn't say what the point of it all was, if these objects were real or ghosts of real events, but it was certainly the most bizarre display I've ever seen.
We continued our walk with the dead; but needing more clarity than Kat was giving, I decided to question the closest traveller on the road. "Excuse me,” I said, blocking one creature with my arm. "Do you know where this road leads?"
He was taller than all of us, with raisin like skin. His face was freakishly pressed into the centre of his chest, and a hairless hump grew emplace of a head. He moved to pass but I blocked again, and the creature responded by pushing me back to bash my head against the white fence. Surprisingly, my lights remained on as he loomed like an enormous desert date, his gummy mouth drooling as I cowered.
Suddenly, Harmony touched the man's thin wrist, and looking over her angelic form, the dribbling hulk did not pursue his attack on me. "Forgive our disruption monsieur." she said, calmly. "But do you know where our road leads?"
I expected the thing to move on, but instead he answered the question from a pitiful mouth where his heart should be. "All roads…lead to Hell."
"Please,” I said, cautiously standing with a rub at my head. "We have a destination, and this road is taking us no closer to the horizon. Can you help us?"
"Who are you sir?" pried Eddinray. "Haven't I seen you before? Yes, I never forget a mug, and yours is very familiar!"
"My name is Clay," he growled, with foul halitosis. "I passed you three hours ago on this road. I will pass you again in three hours time."
"A loop!" exclaimed Harmony, clicking her fingers. "How dull of me not to notice!"
"How do we escape?" Kat asked the raisin, wearily exhaling.
Clay directed his finger toward the wooden fence, this boundary before the breezing grass. "You will not find better,” his chest replied. "There are no monsters on this road — there is only the road, there is only the walk, and you will not find better."
"Thank you for your time,” said Harmony. "Godspeed kind creature."
Clay smiled at her, then returned to his loop and thoughts.
"The fence it is then!" announced Eddinray, slapping a fist into his palm and striding for the white wood.
Taking pleasure in our standoffish attitude, the knight casually ascended the barrier, and the second he reached the top, his sun catching self disappeared.
"Godwin!" cried Harmony, hurrying to the fence. "Where are you?"
Not visible on either side of the white wood, Sir Godwin Eddinray was somewhere else…
***
Last to climb the fence, the samurai broke my fall on the other side. Dusting myself off, I immediately experienced grains of sand burning through the soles of my boots. Eddinray hopped restlessly while we others got our bearings over this hot stove, this scarlet beach with assembled woe displayed over it.
Above, black angels discarded their damned cargo to the sands; and the longer we paused on it, the more the heat stung. "Move!" growled Kat. "Do not talk — do not stop!"
Feet feeling the fire, we advanced through the writhing and contorted abominations here. Harmony shrieked at the hand attempting to snatch her ankle. This individual had no ankles or legs himself, but pulled his weight forward with fingers alone, while a noose around his neck tugged on a cart of overflowing treasure — jewels of gold and silver, sceptres, plates and coins; not even an opportunistic Eddinray dared touch a doubloon of that tainted fortune.
A decrepit woman gagged on all fours, her hands and knees fastened to the sand, her face twisting as she brought up a perpetual supply of vomit from her stomach. A young man, in more agony than any here, had no trace of skin on his bones. He was inside out — and without the protective coat of flesh — a grainy gust scalded like vinegar on an open sore, his horrible screaming alerting us to the intricate inner workings of his vocal chords.
"Over there!" I said, pointing through the chaos to another far away white fence. "Common!"
Alongside the many black angels, three giggling cherubs made playful circles in the fierce sky. These cheery children, no more than six years old, passed rocks back and forth before throwing them at their chosen marks — smashing one man's mouth and cracking the skull of a grovelling female, who failed to hold in her dripping brains. "Remain calm,” muttered Harmony to herself. "You do not see it. You do not!"
The black angels were here for a purpose — to dispose of their garbage — but the winged children appeared to do nothing but idle in evil, dispensing pain to whomever they pleased. I felt sick watching them tear the hair from an older man before removing his testicles with a piece of flint. Giggling, they opened the stomach of one suffering creature, and then pulled the ropey red intestines as far as they could stretch. This was their playground, and these bullies picked on the weakest, those with "target" etched on their foreheads. But with strong personalities in our group, we ignored their carnage and their rocks ignored us.
***
Over the second fence brought relief from the burning sand, but no respite from the incessant grief. The land was burnt black, and over it was a startling yellow sky. Littering that crusted surface was a congestion of pikes standing twenty feet tall; each with an individual impaled and wincing down it.
"Abominable!" gasped Harmony, feverish. "No more of this!"
Eddinray mirrored his angel's repulsion while Kat and I shared hopeless expressions. Couching through the spears and the skewered, we criss-crossed toward the next white fence. Bloodied hands reached down for my hair causing me to bend even lower. Spears were stained red and those impaled were so ravaged that they could only choke at our passing them by. There was no order or obvious pattern here, but there was plenty of land, and many unoccupied spears left to fill.
"I shall never murder again,” uttered Eddinray. "Unless provoked of course."
Black angels threw young and old onto fresh pikes, followed by excruciating gargles as lances drilled through spine or neck or bellies. "Down!" exclaimed Kat, suddenly.
We three dropped terrified from a beast now jinxing its way through the vertical poles — a podgy, four-legged dog. "What now?" whispered Harmony.
This animal came to chew on the flesh of a man who had slid completely through his spear to touch the ground. Rottweilers like it joined in the feed and we peacefully passed as they gnawed on dead meat; no match for our weapons, dogs no match for a Kat.
The harrowing pits of erotic fire came next — thousands of open graves. Our threadbare route trailed between the pits, and we would have to pass over hundreds before the next white fence roughly three miles away. Already exhausted, I passed the remnants of my canteen for all but Harmony to drink — the angel content with her ordinary barrel water. "Watch steps here,” said Kat, taking the lead over this tightrope.
Arriving at the first pit, I gazed down and volcanic temperatures assaulted my eyes. Moaning and near blinded, I placed my hands on Kat's shoulders in front to keep me upright. That hole below squashed at least fifty souls standing, all ablaze from the chest down. Pit walls were also ensnared with climbing ripples of fire, making escape or rescue impossible.
To hold those miserable bodies intact, invincible starlight rained aplenty over this staggered torture field, but it could not disguise the vile stench of constantly cooking flesh. "If I fall," gasped Harmony, balancing before Eddinray; "then I want you to leave me knight. Do you understand?"
"I do not," he replied, perspiring; "and I will not!"
"It is my decision!” she said. “I am determined! I would leave you without a seconds thought! Do you hear? I would leave you Godwin! Do not sacrifice yourself here — it is worthless to lose two for one. That is my final — "
Suddenly, a fountain of flame flared up from one pit, drowning those below in a screaming vat.
"I pledge my soul to you angel," stuttered Eddinray, holding onto her wing clasp; "it is not whole without yours."
She reached back to thoughtfully squeeze his hand, then continued their uneasy course at my heels. To make things more difficult, those suffering watched us pass from their pits, and like the wall of tears, they pleaded and pleaded for our assistance.
"How can you ignore us? How can you?"
"Have pity!"
"Raise me! Raise me from this Hell!"
We could do nothing for them, so moved forever between pits with the screams, smells and heat getting under all our skins.
"You there! Help us! Lower me your hand!"
"God Almighty, save us!"