“Well, let’s head downward,” Erik said. He had to almost shout to be heard. It was like talking into a vacuum. “There’s nowhere else to go.”
The Indian nodded.
They made their way down the rocky slope as quickly as they could. It was steep enough to be treacherous if they were not careful, but not steep enough to slow them down very much.
“This is going to be difficult when we come back up,” Erik said.
Dovecrest forced a laugh. “Somehow I doubt that we’ll be coming back this way again.”
Erik wished Pastor Mark was here right now. The preacher might be able to give him some insights into what he was seeing and experiencing. To him this was nothing but a vast wasteland, completely devoid of life, love, and hope. The pastor might understand all this better. But for now he had just one goal-to find his wife and son and get them out of this place and back home where they belonged.
The heat increased as they approached the portal. It was like the opening in the bottom of a funnel, with red, glowing embers all around it that lit up the entire world, or whatever it was, Erik thought. He wondered if they’d get burned going through the opening. It was large enough to drive a tank thorough, at least.
As they approached the opening the ground beneath them curved upward to form a tunnel, or sorts, which led through the opening.
“So these are the gates of hell,” Erik said.
“Abandon hope…,” Dovecrest said.
“If I didn’t have hope, I wouldn’t be here,” Erik replied.
Dovecrest nodded. “We must remember that whatever this place is, we are just visitors. If there is hell, there is also heaven. We are not of this place. We belong with the other. He has given us strength and power to come here and do what must be done. Then we return to our own place.”
With trepidation, they went through the opening and stepped into another vast wasteland, this one even larger than the first. An endless plain of black sand and volcanic outcroppings stretched out into the distance for as far as the eye could see. It was empty, completely empty. Erik couldn’t believe the vastness and the emptiness of this place. How would he ever find them, he thought. This went on forever. How could he even be sure they came this way, though this opening. For all he knew there could be hundreds more like it.
Dovecrest knelt down and examined the sand. Erik wondered what he was up to.
“Someone passed this way,” the Indian said. “It looks like the demon stopped here. See the marks. They’re deep into the sand. It may have landed here and then flew on.”
“Was this recent? Or is it a thousand years old?”
Dovecrest took his hand and placed it on the sand. “Feel,” he said. “It’s hot.”
“Right.”
Then he placed his hand over the mark he had indicated.
“It’s cool,” Erik said.
“That’s right. This was made very recently. And look here.”
He moved ahead a little and pointed to the ground. “This looks like the footprint of your little boy.”