Beep... Beep... Beep...
Four pairs of nervous eyes glanced at the flashing red LED in a distance. A shaking hand, holding the detonator, slowly reached for the trigger.
"Let's do it."
Press.
Beep.
In an instant, the red LED stopped flashing, soon, a sudden rush of blinding white light flooded the narrow underground passage. Fragments of concrete, clouds of dust sprang towards the four heavily armoured men.
"Let's get moving."
The sharp beams of the torches reflected off the smooth surfaces of the silencers. The four dark figures manoeuvred silently through the mist.
Slowly, the first one squeezed through the narrow hole that was blasted on the thick concrete wall. He shined his flashlight around the room, all of sudden, light started to reflect towards him from different directions. What a miracle, a room full of the finest gold on the planet, the bricks of gold piled together neatly as if they were always prepared to be taken out. The man gasped at the sight, this was his first time to be chosen for "The Mission". Shaking violently, he reached for the nearest pile of gold...
O', the death in its purest form,
O', the endless screams of pain,
O', the faces of desperation,
O', the curse is upon.
It's time to say your prayers.
The man gazed at the figure in front of him, it was hardly anything that could be created by god. Its long arms swung loosely near its waist. Its face, or more precisely, its faces, were eye-less and remained in their permanent screams. It was a goo of pain, despair, and death.
The torch was dropped and light was gone.
"Hurry up kid!"
The man got back onto his foot, now, all he could see was gold. Meanwhile, his comrades, were busily helping themselves with whatever that could be fitted into their backpack.
"We must get the hell outta here before the security kicks in."
Bars and bars, he could feel the drag of his pack increasing simultaneous with every new share of greed he collected. He needed to stop soon, or the weight will drag him down, forever.
They must hurry. Back into the darkness, up the endlessly ascending staircase. The men held tightly to their weapons. They knew the hard bit is yet to come.
One of them kicked open the door, a sharp blinding light pierced into the men's eyes. They tried to blocked it by lifting up their arm. All of a sudden, they saw them, the dark holes of the barrels, pointing towards them.
"Fire!"
They felt nothing else.
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"Ummm..."
He slowly opened his eyes, he still remembered the light, and the deadly flash from the barrels. He tried to reach up, but his arm were firmly tied down.
"Aha, you are awake—" an acute female voice came into his ears. He tried his best to roll his eyes sideways towards the source of the voice.
Mary Jingo was in her usual uniform (not really an uniform since the company followed a policy of free dressing, but Mary liked to wear the same clothing all the time) a plain white dress that was very tight at her waist and around her shoulders, she had a weird looking, minimised top hat that stuck between her red horns. She smiled, the most evil smile ever, by showing her fangs, "Welcome to Hell, and hope you won't enjoy your time here.".
Mary poured some liquid onto the red stains over her dress, the liquid was one of the most interesting inventions in Hell: it was a type of specialised artificial enzyme that specifically targets any organic compounds, breaking them down without damaging the rest of the clothing. Skilfully, Mary threw her long electric blade across the room into a knife holder that was an electromagnet, "that was easy, this guy had a lot of stamina to be juice out.". She snapped her fingers, the red lights started to fade in the room, she gave one last look at the "Furnace", "goodbye, you are the last one today, now enjoy your time in the fusion reactor."
Hell. A highly modernised world. Humans imagined this place as the palace of fire, suffering and darkness, aside from the suffering part(for humans of course), Hell was exactly the opposite to a terrible place to live in. Well, over the generations, elites from the Infernal Institute of Technology had modified this world with the latest technologies and innovations. As all Hell members loves to bluff about, "Hell is the perfect place to test your new invention, its just a matter if you are able to surpass the current technologies". For space efficiency, Hell was constructed in layers. In the human society, layers often meant the separation of the population, resulted in isolationism, racism and discrimination. However, the Hell society had overcame this problem with technology: the settlements/houses/rooms in every layer/district shifts every day, allowing all aspects of the cultures, generations and ideas of the Hell society to mix together.
"Where I'm staying tonight?" Mary thought to herself, well, to the mini computer chip in her body, all Hell citizens have a computer chip implanted in their bodies, where they can always check essential details without doing any physical movements (however there was always this debate in the States House about the abilities of these chips), "Nice, Layer 6, District M.". Mary stopped, she turned around and lifted her head. The Hellstone, the grand States House--where all the government offices were placed, it ascended deep into the reddish clouds. On the surface of it was the Clock of Hell, an antique from the 21st Century, the dim red light of the Hell's sky reflected across its smooth brass surface, creating a fine golden colour. Mary loved this clock, it was always there since her creation, it was like a moral guide for her. It was 87:89 (time in Hell was measured in hundreds), she still had time for a drink.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Mary mentally called a cab, one of those driverless vehicles that can transport you anywhere between the layers via the electromagnetic roads, tunnels and sky lifts. The cab was simply a metallic ball, this design allowed it to roll around in the underground(or in between the layers) tunnels easily. "Welcome Ms Jingo," said the cab, "heading towards Layer 6, District M, Tunnel 16, Number 2/22.".
A tunnel was the same as a street, but its meters below the surface of the layer. Tunnel 16 was one of those early constructed tunnels back in the 25th Century, it still used the old but trusty nuclear lighting system, compared to the other areas, this place gave out a greenish light from the nuclear street lamps.
Mary got off the cab, singing quietly to herself, she hopped into the tunnel. Along the side of the tunnel, different rooms with their markings from number 1/22 all the way to 22/22. 2/22 had an unusual door, that was made of, not steel, not depleted uranium but WOOD, a substance that could only be acquired from the human world and required a lot of process to be brought into Hell. On the dark wooden door, a sign made of glowing liquid showed 'Open'. Mary pushed open the door and stepped in.
Tree Bar was especially famous for its position as one of the most visited bar by the students and faculties of the Infernal Institute of Technology. However, there weren't many people inside at the time, only a single person was sitting near the counter.
"Professor Rice," Mary sat down beside the person and tapped him on the shoulder, "you are so early today."
"Mary, why did you do it?" the person turned his face towards Mary. Professor Rice had a greyish skin tone due to his zombie bloodline. Although he had already gained the title as a professor, the half of his face seemed young, he's half of a large, round, iron rimmed glasses(or glass) was supported by his unusually sharp nose. The other half of his face down to his shoulder...was basically a chunk of soft looking substance that vibrates according to his heart beat. Metal tubes came in and out of that chunk of substance, providing it with nutrient and acting as nerves.
"I did what?" Mary bit her lips and gave the other a childish smile.
The professor reached up one of his arm, an arm consisted of coils of wires and pressure tubes. A dark metal box with smooth surfaces was attached to the end of his arm, then with a few light clicks, thin gaps formed along the surface of the box, causing it separate into individual fingers. Professor Rice rubbed the normal side of his chin, "well, what were you and Jelly doing in your boarding room on the last day?"
Mary blushed, she nervously played with her fingers, "who...told you this? Was it..."
"Yea," the professor smiled with one side of his face, then, he let out a soft giggle, "it was the vampire."
"Hang on!"
"What?"
The giggles of the professor turned into laughters. Mary's blushes faded, her cheeks turned red not because of embarrassment but of anger, "wow, how dare you Jelly!".
At the same time, the metallic body of the professor started to melt systematically. Soon enough, the large form of the professor was no longer there, a girl, about the same age as Mary remained at the seat, "Mary, don't be that cocky, you know me well enough for a little prank."Jelly Mushy's form became more and more defined as she talked, she had greenish golden long hair, two large watery green eyes and a small but cute nose. She was wearing a tight yellow suit around her slim body, as if she was naked.
"I should have guessed that its you," Mary relaxed and sat back in her chair that automatically forms a comfortable shape around her body.
Jelly said nothing more, she just a let out a quiet laugh and touched Mary's cheek, "you are still soft as before."
"Sorry for the wait girls," said a voice from the door. It was the real Professor Rice standing there on his robotic legs, he hanged a tiny rectangular suitcase on a hook in front of his chest plate. As the professor walked towards the girls, a rather small figure appeared from behind the professor.
"Hi Mary!" the figure walked up to Mary, it seemed to be a young girl with black uniformly cut hair. However, Mary whispered to Jelly, "I should have guessed he'll be with the professor.". Jessie Tumour fixed his large pink bowtie and sat down beside Mary, he was wearing a weird looking pair of glasses that seemed more like a piece armour rather than a pair of glasses. One of his large red eyes was hidden behind a narrow slit on the glasses while only a thin piece of red glass was in front of his other eye.
Jessie took a seat beside Mary, who tried to move away but stopped after realising that the professor was looking at her. The professor sat down heavily on his specially reinforced chair. Unlike Jelly's version, the real professor Rice was wearing half of a welly preserved white lab coat.
"How's going girls?" the professor pressed the button on the table and out came a waiter, or a 5th generation XM-1 robot with those old fashioned spherical head and a single round dusty visual sensor in the middle, "let's order our drinks first, Jelly, what do you want?"
"H two O please." Jelly told the robot who quickly checked her online licence as a Slime.
"I still don't understand how you live off that toxic liquid," said Mary.
"If I don't stay hydrated with hydrogen two oxygen," Jelly watched as the robot moved slowly to a machine that was used for the combustion process, "then my body will dry out and I can't conduct any transformation in that state."
"Fine," Mary turned to the vampire boy beside her, "still de-colourised blood plasma, kid?"
The vampire blushed instantly by Mary's words, "yea...yea...".
"When will you ever grow up to drink real blood like a REAL VAMPIRE!"
"Stop bullying him," laughed the professor, who ordered a bottle of pressured silicone gas for his mechanical body, "although it's quite uncommon for vampires to have blood-phobia."
Jessie looked down shyly. Mary order her favourite—the lava syrup, a type of sugary drink made with fine red glucose molecules.
"So how's your time at the company?" professor plugged his gas inlet pipe onto the can of silicone gas he ordered, "I heard the company's short of hands recently."
"Yea," Mary replied, "I have to work on 20 combustions today, although the quality of the souls are still quite good."
The professor's mechanical hand projected a few virtual documents in the air, "that's good, my colleague, Dr Canard just published a recent article about a more efficient energy generating technique called, 'soul complex fusion' which allows more emotional energy to be harvested from the humans souls.".
"I heard of it!" Jelly seemed to be excited by the topic, "by the way professor Rice, have you heard of the new Article 13 that's going to be passed in the senate soon?"
"Yes of course," professor Rice swapped his screen to a chart of popularity poll, "the majority, I mean 95% of the population had shown support in this new law."
Mary looked at the chart, the huge, obvious red column indicated the 'for' votes, "well, what is Article 13 really about.". Professor Rice adjusted his glasses, "how many times have I told you to be more aware of the news? As a Hell member, everyone's votes makes a huge different.".
"Article 13 is about the act of resources harvest," the vampire spoke up in his sharp voice, "since the previous Heaven-Hell treaty, line 1: no human life can be taken directly by any member of the Heaven nor Hell. Article 13 gives the possibility for us to hire humans to.... get more human souls.".
"Ohh," Mary nodded.
"By the way Mary," Jelly turned to Mary, " the Department of Resources is currently asking for more members, wanna join me?".
"Sure!" Mary replied happily. Meanwhile, professor Rice unplugged his empty gas can, "Mary, just try to not cause Jelly any trouble okay?"
"What do you mean professor?" Mary laughed, "Jelly is my best friend."
"Yea...a special... friend..." Jessie smirked, then suddenly his face saddened.