Julia Sarcos

  The tunnel continued to lazily curve ahead of them. By her count, the shieldmaiden was fairly sure they had marched half the same distance from Vile Fields to the battle with the Dead Things. Still, the tunnel went on in a long spiral outwards. So far there hadn’t even been a junction nor alcove to break up the monotony. Just stone walls on either side, one way up and another one going down. The Ratsins had also left them be. Not a single sighting, living or dead.

  Some took this as a good sign. Relaxing their guards and chatting with those around them. Assuming that lightning wouldn’t strike twice. The rest saw it as an omen of doom. Their postures were stiffer and the eyes ever vigilant. Knowing that lightning can, and did, strike twice, Julia was with this group. The quiet was very unnerving to her. Not that it was silent. From ahead the constant cacophony was growing louder and more distinct. It was becoming clear that there was some kind of struggle up ahead. One without end or pause.

  They kept moving like that. No change in the details. Only the rising volume in the foreground. When Malachi began to discuss the possibility of having to camp out in the future, something changed. The bend in the tunnel revealed a hard turn ahead. An abrupt shift upwards was disturbing as it broke the illusion of natural formation. There was a screaming feeling of intelligent design to it. Still, the Sixty grew excited at the sight of it. Here was finally something of note and unspoken promise of an end.

  Anticipation lent speed to their pace despite a few efforts to maintain caution. They needn’t have bothered. Though everyone almost skipped getting to the bend, they all stopped at the foot of the ramp. In the azure gloom, they stared up at an oculus of an even deeper blue light. There was little to see, the illumination was too bright for details. Worst of all, the noise. Screams and shrieks. Impacts and tearing. Scrabbling and stomps. All of this thundered down through the opening above.

  It sounds… like a frenzy, whispered Julia to herself. Rampaging hordes of demons just tearing into each other. What terrible thing is waiting for us up there?

  Malachi looked around at them, seeing the frozen stares. He squeezed her arm with a comforting smile before moving up the ramp. She followed. Behind her, the rest of Sixty took a collective breath then shifted to keep up with their leader. Louder and brighter it became with each step. If you closed your eyes you could also imagine yourself exiting a building into the city. Julia thought of sunshine and the hubbub of traffic. It made the sight after reaching the top all the worst.

  “Madness,” gasped Malachi. Cries of surprise and horror rippled outwards as the Sixty came into view of what was beyond the upper tunnels. Several dashed to the side or to the rear to vomit. Some messily and others discreetly. Julia felt outside herself. Unable to give any response. The shieldmaiden’s jaw and throat twisted in useless efforts. A high-pitched scream passed through her mind, blanketing all thoughts. Wordless horror.

  Ratsin fought Ratsin. Hundreds upon hundreds massing in the center of a large chamber. Furious blow after blow hurled at anything that came close. Roars of triumph mixing with death cries in a nonsensical racket. Azure light flared harshly like dying stars as the rat things called upon their power to slay. The fighting and light grew thicker at the center of the mass of violence. Bulky monsters pressing forward, slaughtering or slaughtered at every step. All the while, gluttonously devouring the ever-growing blue fungus. That vile growth seemed to expand before their eyes. Thickening steadily like a heartbeat. Regrowth quick fill holes.

  The muscular beasts of the tunnels had come to their final form. Hulking forms that strutted more like humans than rats. Rippling muscles swelled grotesquely so that many of the monsters looked like caricatures of strongmen. Blue goop trickled between azure fangs as fauna was overstuffed in their mouths between fights. Great meaty fits that were gnarled with glowing protrusions. Like irradiated crystals, the jagged formation sprouted across the whole body. Sharp and azure.

  Everywhere the brutish Ratsins challenged each other. Fists snapped necks or knocked away foes. Undaunted opponents were pummeled into the ground. Left broken sacks of flesh. Mashed under the feet of new challengers as the struggle continued. Jaws locked onto necks as the monstrous rats thrashed each other over every inch of azure mush. Here and there the rats tangled their limbs together. Desperate to kill each other, but stomped to death as the raging war continued.

  Corpses mounted up and layered into a thick charnel soup. Archons of the bloated rats feasted lavishly. Tearing into flesh right on the spot or dragging it off to the darkened sides of the great cavernous area. Those that tried for lively flesh were quickly dispatched, but those that were patient for the dead were left alone. Messily they feed, bulging bigger and bigger. They became rotund gloops of flesh groping for any morsel in reach. The constant gorging eventually led them to be unable to move. Just blobs that oozed in place. Cocooning themselves in the waste of their fluids.

  A maelstrom of savagery. Monstrous acts were performed by abominable rats against their own. All of them battered through, seeking the center. Ferocious bloodshed was unrelenting even for a single beat. Mercy was not just forgotten, but never known in this hollow of stone.

  Julia gazed at this scene of perdition and couldn’t turn away. It was horrible and bloody, something she took not a single bit of pleasure from it. Even if those were rats eliminating themselves, this was too much for her. A roil of disgust and dread building up inside. Ready to overwhelm her senses. She clutched at her sword and shield-like lifelines. Holding onto the promise to not let fear rule. Slow breaths to calm her heart and closed her eyes to be free of horror for a moment.

  In the dark of her thoughts, the shieldmaiden strengthened herself. The blare of butchery still rang in her ears, but with a little effort, she dulled them. Those sounds became watery and distant. From there it was easy for Julia to place herself on the beach. Ocean waves played out the hours of the day. Recalling the sensations of a perfect beach day under an imaginary sun and sky. She took strength in that dream, both in remembering that there were good days and the promise to herself.

  She put faith in herself and the Sixty.

  Opening her eyes, Julia looked to Malachi. Seeking some comfort in the gloom, but he was smiling. That reaction was quick to raise disgust. A wave of revulsion burning through the shieldmaiden. Her thoughts stacked upon each other asking how such a kind man could look at such an atrocity and smile. She must have made some noise as the bearded leader turned to her. His face puzzled at the sight.

  “What?” blinked Malachi.

  Julia wasn’t afraid anymore. That emotion had burned up in a transformation of anger and disgust. “How can you smile at that? I know… they're our enemy… and monsters, but it’s just too horrible! Makes me sick! All of it!”

  “O’ uh, did you not see the door?” asked Malachi with a flush.

  Her mouth was left agape as several emotions battled for supremacy again. Julia had a feeling of emotional whiplash as her rage drowned. Embarrassment and excitement rising to the top. She turned her head following Malachi’s pointing finger to the object of hope. On the other side of the self-devouring war, there it was. Exactly across from them was a golden circle. It was behind a translucent sheen that made the door both harder and easier to see. An illusion just like the one on the entrance to the lower tunnels.

  “A door… O’ dear please let it be a door!” said Julia breathlessly.

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  “I can’t imagine what else it could be… frankly, don’t want to,” agreed Malachi with a soft smile. “There’s a sense of certainty when I look at it. Something that says to me “This is the end of the first floor!” Similar to how we knew there were sixty of us before counting.”

  The shieldmaiden reached into her thoughts while studying the golden door. She felt what Malachi was describing. An aspect of knowledge, like knowing the sky was blue. This was a fact too. That the door to go through to go further up.

  “Huh, been a while since the mental whammy felt so obvious,” considered Julia out loud. Then a horrible realization hit her unexpectedly. Just a few blips of thought that coalesced into something dreadful. “Fuck… if that’s the door to the next level… then all of this one floor…”

  “Yeah, that occurred to me too, but I was never hopeful it was otherwise,” admitted the sword acolyte. “That theory always seemed too easy to me, and not enough fanfare. There is a sense of drama to how everything has been designed. Including, keeping so many of the why’s from us.”

  “That makes a frightful amount of sense,” pouted Julia. “I don’t like it.”

  “Not a fan myself. Though, it is what it is.”

  “Alright, now what?” she asked. “There’s the door, but all of that is in the way.” They both observed the revolting melee with grimaces. Unending warfare caused Discordian rhythms to bounce off the cave walls. The idea of attempting to pass through made Julia’s stomach tumble. “Well… there is space on the edges. There’s plenty of room to use…”

  Their attention turned to the outer edges of the expanse. Azure light was sparse there, lines of the blue fauna only faintly glowing along the cracks of the wall. It was definitely easier terrain to transverse. Just flat stone from the wall to the center depression. The Ratsins were fewer too. Only the fouler variety to deal with.

  “If done carefully, we could likely get the whole group around,” said Julia. “Most of the rats are immobile too…”

  “We’d be cut off from our exit though,” pointed out Malachi. “That worries me.”

   “They don’t notice us now, but if we stepped in?” added Julia. “It’s such a risk with so many of them.”

  “I’m inclined to let them keep fighting it out before we try it,” shrugged Malachi.

  Unsure of his meaning, the shieldmaiden asked, “Like… we stay here and let them duke it out?”

  “Well not here, but basically.”

  “Ahh, we turn around and keep any more rats from rising up!”

  “Exactly!” grinned Malachi. “The Ratsins are running through their own numbers almost as fast as we could. I say, let’s head back and set up a rotating guard in the Vile FIelds. We let a couple of days pass and then sweep up the remainder. Much as I would like to go to the door now… we can wait.”

  “Better to be safe,” nodded Julia understanding.

  “Always,” agreed her bearded leader.

  He was about to announce the plan when something roared. It was like the trumpet to end the world. All thoughts and conversations were lost in the blare. A guttural sound that rolled louder and louder until it cracked like thunder. The Sixty went absolutely still, like prey fearing they were caught. In the cavern, the Ratsin did the very same. Their war pausing mid-punch or at the latched jaw. Each turned their all-too-human eyes towards the gargantuan opening on the left. A deep blue hole in the gloomy darkness.

  As the titanic roar faded, the thumps of feet echoed from the dark void that the rat things stared at intently. The ground rumbled with steady drumming of feet, too many feet. The shieldmaiden’s imagination summoned a monstrosity to explain the sounds, a mixture of rat and centipede. As she cringed at that specter of thought, the origin of the clatter. A herd of gigantic Ratsins pulsing with muscles strolled into the cavern. Their azure eyes scanned the area before screaming lustily in challenge. A chorus of mad rage. It was loud, but not quite thunderous. These new monsters stood twice as high as those rats mighty enough to have claimed the center, but they weren't the source of the silencing roar.

  It had to be something bigger, thought Julia. She didn’t deny that these dozen giants were a terror on their own, but their scream, even together, couldn’t measure up. Not in raw strength, much less the effect.

  The newcomers strolled forward, evil grins focused on the frozen battlezone. As they moved closer, the growls and hisses rose from those that fought over the blue fauna. These Ratsins forgot their previous fights. Jaws unlatched and clenched grips went loose. All attention locked onto the invading giants. The gargantuan rat things barely seemed to notice, the hateful glares went unnoticed.

  When the first of the newcomers stepped onto the patch of azure fungi, a wave of rats pounced territorially. In unplanned unity, their blue light burned sharply and meaty fists were raised ready to devastate. The lead giant swiped one great hand and azure light flashed where the claws passed. A whole wave was splattered. Other giants Ratsins dove in as move waves charged to defend the hollow. A slaughter began.

  Once again Julia looked in on a horror that inspired an uncomfortable pity. The giant Ratsins never slowed a step. Their arms swished back and forth, cutting down the monsters that were in the way. They were piercing to the center steadily. Slowed more by piled bodies than resistance. She saw that a few of the giants had dispersed, drifting off to a different task. The Bloated Ratsins cocooned in their own filth had gained their attention for some reason. Those massive beasts each picked up a wriggling ball of foulness and tossed them over a shoulder. Ignoring the bloodshed in the middle, the hauling beasts took the bundle through their entryway. Seconds passed and they returned to the cavern empty-handed.

  Turning back to the struggle in the center, Julia saw that things had changed. The forward momentum of the invaders had stalled. At first, she thought that the bigger rats of the center were more effective, but that wasn’t so. Her experience from training others allowed the shieldmaiden to notice that the giants seemed to be running the smaller cousins through their paces. Or at least as close to that as a monster’s cruelty would allow. Whenever the one in the forward center finished with a rat, it bashed them away to allow another to take the front. She noticed this one had a strange formation of protrusions on its head. Vaguely shaped like a ring of devil’s horns.

  The horned Ratsin tested all of those in the center in quick succession. Then it switched gears. No longer holding back, the rat dove into the press of bodies and began to knock out a selection. For the rest, the lead beast, slaughtered with joyful ease. Those that were forced to go limp got picked up by the other giants and passed along to those that would transport them through to the great opening. Once the selected Ratsins were collected the giants backed off. Azure light began to collect at their throats. Their beady eyes blazing with ill intent and burning in the same glow. Mad blue fire first poured, then streamed from the invaders. The monsters of the azure field burned.

  Everyone had been caught up in the scene. Mesmerized by this new savagery and bizarre actions of the monsters. The Sixty were caught off guard when a Ratsin’s face suddenly filled up their tunnel opening. Greedy eyes peered at them over gluttonous jaw gnawing. Blue drool dripped sizzling onto the stone floor before them. Mana ignited in many forms as the Sixty prepared to defend themselves. They were surprised, but took comfort that the rat couldn’t fit into the tunnel. To their further surprise, the beast shifted away and crowed over its shoulder. The monster waited expectantly and the Sixty allowed the silence as they slowly backed downwards.

  The titanic roar before came as the answer the Ratsin was waiting for. This bellow warbled and the beast cocked its head to listen. A loud snarl ripped from the monster and a giant clawed hand twitched towards them. Its whole body snapped away from them when the titan’s voice rumbled gutturally again. The rat thing glared and growled as it jogged away. Cautiously, Julia sneaked up with Malachi and others to watch the spurned creature race over to a nearby cocoon. Ignoring them, the Ratsin took the swaddled filth to where it came from.

  Julia could see she wasn’t the only one trying to work through the meaning of everything. Just when they had come to understand the landscape, it had changed entirely. The giant stormed in, reaping the maelstrom, and abducted several rat things. Whisked away the stronger monsters of the hollow melee before taking every pupating rat. Just a remnant was left. Less than a tenth in the center, but most of the mobile Bloated Ratsins were untouched.

  Left to ripen, thought Julia with disgust.

  Not that the sight of those in hollow inspired any less repulsion. They didn’t quite return to fighting, but only because of the open real estate. The Ratsins voraciously turned on the blue fauna at their feet. That insatiable appetite kept the beast focused on eating everything azure in sight. Their bodies rippled as muscles swelled over a continuously enlarging frame.

  Everything was slowly reverting back to the same savagery as before. Spined Ratsins began to eye better patches and Bloated Ratsins frenzied for the corpses left in the aftermath. The shieldmaiden looked at the gaping hole to their left and wondered about what waited in there.