Chapter 29

Staring at her pale, and unnatural looking body, I lost what little sanity I had remaining from my ordeal. I began to laugh, and cry at the same time as I slammed my hands, and arms into her chest. Thump, thump, thump. Finally exhausted, I laid back down, and for the first time, I allowed my eyes to wander around the area. I looked to be in a series of square, pancake like tunnels, that were being illuminated by the random flashing of lightning, barely lighting up the area. Looking to the area the lightning was coming from I saw am area a few hundred feet ahead and to the right that was flashing with the lights of the sky. Looking back to the body of my love, I made a decision. We were going to get out of this together, or not at all!

I grabbed hold of Janet’s arm and pulled her stomach and chest on my shoulders, as I held onto her legs and arms, and pulled her into a fireman’s carry. Keeping her in this hold I began to carry her while bending my knees almost into a squat to walk down the short tunnel towards the light. Making my way towards the flashing light my legs were burning in pain and my lungs felt as if they were going to explode. Finally making my way to the section I was relieved to see it widening out in height as I finally was able to stand to my full height. However, this small happiness was crushed as I looked where the flashing light was coming from, only to see I was in another storm drain, and outside was surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of cultists chanting that same eerie melody in unison and wearing their masks.

They all seemed to be looking towards the center of the town and holding up torches. We must have been in the center of the storm because the outside was calm and there was no rain or flooding anywhere. Their torch’s seemed off though as they illuminated only their immediate area and then looked to be swallowed in the darkness. I noticed a single cultist who had dropped his torch and immediately looked to be lost in the dark. He held his hands out in front of him, not realizing his torch was immediately below his feet. He began to wander around aimlessly, and eventually wandered back into the storm. Ahead of the group of people was some kind of stage hidden in the darkness where I could hear the wailing and screaming of people and something else along with it. Looking back at Janet, I knew this might be our only chance out, and if not, at least we would know why we died. Looking up, I could see a metal ladder leading into the manhole cover above us. Looking at my hips I was not surprised to find all of my Molotov bottles were broken, but looking at Janet, I noticed two that were somehow still intact. She was still saving my ass, despite being gone now.

I lit one of the Molotov’s and used it as a light as I made our way out of the tunnel. Pushing open the lid cover I heard grinding of the lid cover across the cement and felt the air rushing around us as we crawled out of the top, but I could not see any of it. As soon as I opened the cover, a blanket of thick darkness surrounded me and I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Putting the flame from the bottle closer to my face I could see no farther than a foot before the flame was swallowed by the dark. I felt blind as I stumbled around still carrying Janet on top of me and attempting to use my memory of what I saw before I came out of the cover to move towards the stage. Listening I could hear almost nothing but the rhythmic eerie hymn that we had been hearing the entire night. I kept trying to block the hymn out and try and hear the wailing and pain. That was the area I needed to find. I do not know at what point but it had almost become an obsession. Walking in small, shuffled steps, I continued to fumble around until I finally heard the tiniest hint of a wail.

Stopping in my tracks I stayed and listened and finally hearing its direction began to make a b-line towards the direction. As I walked towards the sound I began to bump into people. However, thankfully, they could not see my face and could only vaguely make out my appearance and that I was carrying someone. After bumping into a few people, a cultist in with a golden metal mask grabbed me with his gauntlets, and said, “Offerings go to the center stage by the side entrance.” Waiting for my reply as my mind began to scramble for a believable answer, I finally responded, “My torch dropped, and I couldn’t find it until I stumbled into someone who gave me this.” As I held up my Molotov. Looking at me and my questionable, “Torch” the man thought for a moment until eventually pulling me in, and pushing me towards his left side. He continued pushing me until I began to see a line of torch lights lighting up into a line. Letting out a breath of relief I lined up in the back as more and more cultist lined up behind me. Each one was carrying or dragging a person in chains or knocked out. I was even able to recognize one of the victims. He was a teenager who lived not far from me, and used to play hockey with a friend of our son. He was being carried on the back of a cultist directly in front of me which allowed me to see his face as it was almost directly in front of me.

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The line began to move forward as more and more people were being sent through what I imagined was the stage. In front of the line I began to hear inhuman sounding screaming and begging mixed with sounds of anger and fear. Cutting through all of this was the terrifying sound of something, bigger, something not human, but all too human. I began to feel my heartbeat picking up, and I could feel every instinct I had urging me to turn around and run away! If I turned away now, and ran away, then Janet would never get her justice. Muttering to myself under my breath, I spoke, “Either we both leave, or we both die.” Mustering up my courage I continued to wait in that horrible line hearing the screams of humans and the destructiveness of demons. As I got closer to the stage I began to smell the rotting of meat and the putridness of old death. I began to see massive swarms of flies and maggots lining the floors as cockroaches fluttered about in the air and landed on everything including myself.

The small disgusting insects began to crawl into my armor and in between my clothing making me feel itchy all over. This wouldn’t have been so bad, but they found my wounds and began taking nibbles out of my punctured flesh and attempted to dig further into my body. This was met with a quick crushing and fortunately, the second Molotov bottle was alcohol. I quickly poured the bottle around my wounds, attempting to keep the bastards off of them.

Finally passing the waves of insects we had stepped into a new section, as the dim surroundings around me, faintly illuminating the area were extinguished. Holding the Molotov up to my hand, i quickly pulled it away feeling the flame burning m skin, but there was no illumination coming off of the fire. “How is this possible? What do I do now?” Standing for a moment I could feel a trembling under my feet, and something began to pull me towards it. Deciding not to resist in this endless world of darkness I finally felt something pulling me out of the sphere of darkness, and I appeared on top of a massive set of cages placed together to form a flat, circular stadium floor. There were dozens of construction cranes pulling smaller cages that perfectly fit human beings. In the bigger cages on the floor level I could see different people and monsters in each cage. Most of the monsters looked to have eaten a person alive, and there were some still in the act of devouring. However what puzzled me was I was able to notice quite a few unconscious, or dead humans, and some that were still tied up, in the cage with another human. The other humans were not tied up, and looked to be all from the same lineage. They looked like Native Americans, or perhaps tribesmen from farther up in Canada. Either way, they all appeared to be stick thin, emaciated, and were in a state of meditation.

Underneath the group of monsters and people I could see a beautiful elk like creature, covered in green moss with nature growing from its steps, and its tears producing streams. It was screaming in pain and crying while it stared at the people meditating above and crying for the monsters in the next cages over. The creature would recoil in pain and smoke and fire would be thrown on it, every time a piece of devoured human would fall onto its massive body. Looking all around the area, its eyes reeked of desperation, as it finally locked its eyes on me.