Chapter 43

There has to be some other way into this damned thing, Vince thought as he looked around. He didn’t know what he was looking for – a rabbit hole, maybe – but he swore he would know it if he saw it.

Chris was wondering where the army of Dreamkillers had gone as she kept glancing over her shoulder. And the last thirteen of their army had decided to sit down and rest as much as they could before they had to fight again.

“There!”

Vince turned and saw that Chris was pointing at something. He followed her finger and saw that a hole was dug just beneath a downed tree – a tree large enough for someone to walk through.

He had no memory of crawling out through that hole when he followed Agnes to safety. What he did remember – was it really just a memory of scent? – was the horrible smell of human waste. And as he thought about this, it all came back to him. He had waded through the sewers to safety. He’d be damned if he was going to go that way again – even if he could find it, which he couldn’t. The hole by the tree looked more inviting.

He began walking toward it without telling Chris. At this point he knew that she would follow him wherever he went; and there was a small part of him that didn’t care either. He knew that she loved Mykella as much as he did, but it was a different kind of love. He was her father, if not biologically, and that bond Chris could never have.

He crouched down when he got to the tree and put his foot into the hole to judge the size and depth. He didn’t know why he was being so damned cautious; he knew that he was going to go in anyway. At that thought, he sighed and began his descent into the darkness.

He fell about eight feet when his feet landed on the ground and he was quick to spin around to scan the immediate area for any danger. He jumped to one side when he heard a scraping sound and he glanced up and was relieved when he saw that it was Chris who was climbing down to meet him.

She dropped down and fell to the ground and grabbed her ankle with a curse wanting to pour from her lips. She bit back the urge and just massaged her ankle as best she could.

Vince went over to her and took it in his hands and looked down at her ankle which had already begun to turn purple. He looked up into her eyes with regret on his own.

“You don’t need to say the words; I know it’s broken,” she said. She was disgusted with herself right now. She had come all this way only to break her ankle not in war, but from an eight-foot drop.

“Chris, I’m sorry,” he tried and found it more difficult to put into words how he felt. “I didn’t want you to get hurt coming after me. It’s my fault.”

Chris laughed which made her ankle throb. “Don’t be ridiculous, Vincent. I’ve made my journey with you until the end. I would die for you,” she said and he blushed. “And I’d expect you to do the same for me if the time came.”

He looked into her eyes and he damned himself for letting her go so long ago. Maybe if he hadn't broken up with her way back when, she would be his wife today. And as he looked into her tear-filled eyes, he thought of Karl as the luckiest man who had ever lived.

Vince loved Samantha with an endless heart – which was what ultimately caused his decision to break it off with Chris (Samantha was having a terrible time in her relationship with Donnie that he thought that maybe, just maybe he might have a chance with her) – but he was forced to see the world at face value.

The world had caused Samantha to slip into her coma-like illness, making her withdrawn from everyone for nearly seventeen years. Chris was with him the entire time and during that time he found that he was still in love with Chris. He beat himself up over it, telling himself that he was evil for even thinking about abandoning Samantha. But then he knew that he would have to face reality. Chris was here in the flesh and was able to listen to his thoughts; Samantha wasn’t in a conscious mind.

At least Karl was man enough to ask her to marry him. He envied Karl. Now Karl was dead and Chris was with him with a broken ankle.

He looked at Chris and fell in love with her all over again as he watched the tears well in her eyes. He knew that it was just a broken ankle but there would be nothing she could do to defend herself if the Dreamkillers find her here.

And there was that small hope that if they were victorious over Orion, perhaps things would change back to the way they were before and there would be doctors who could help her.

But then a saying his father used to say came to his mind: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. He never understood what that meant until his late teenage years when all he wished for was a mother to love him.

“Go, Vince,” she pleaded, which startled him. He looked up from his thoughts and saw that everyone had come down to meet them and were silently watching Chris, their honorary leader, cradling what was most likely a broken ankle.

He turned back to her and shook his head. “No; I’ve gotta find you a safe place,” he said and looked around with agitation. He knew there was really nowhere for her to hide, but he was trying to find some excuse to stay with her.

She reached up and took hold of his cheek and he stopped with tears in his eyes. “You need to go. If I die, then I’ll be with Karl again. But damnit, Vince, don’t let me die for nothing. Your procrastination isn’t helping anyone – me or them,” she glanced around the room at their army. “And it isn’t helping Mykella either. She needs you more than I do right now.”

“I’m coming back for you,” he said finally.

She wanted to tell him not to bother – she won’t be alive when he does. But she smiled nevertheless. “All right,” she said and then released his cheek.

He let go of her leg with reluctance and stood back up. He glanced around and saw a ladder at the other end of the tunnel they were standing in. This ladder did look vaguely familiar to him.

“Let’s go,” he called back to the others and then made for the ladder. He took one last look back at Chris, knowing in his heart that this would be the last time he would ever see her. He didn’t want to leave her but he knew that she was right: Mykella needed him. He turned back around and began climbing up the ladder with trembling hands and legs as heavy as iron.

He stopped about half way up and he closed his eyes as a sudden memory caught him off guard and he had to stop before he fell to the ground, possibly breaking his neck in the process.

He was following Agnes and when he watched her climb down the ladder, he was laughing inside his head in sarcasm. “How the hell am I going to climb down carrying a baby?” It wasn’t the idea of climbing one-handed that bothered him; it was the idea of climbing one-handed carrying a wriggling baby who could begin wailing at any moment. He first thought of handing Mykella to her mother so Samantha could let her feed on the way down to pacify her mouth, but he knew that Mykella was too old now to be feeding from the breast. He looked down into Mykella’s tiny green eyes as she looked into his and they smiled at one another. “Hold on, Honey, Daddy’s got to hold you tight, okay,” he whispered and she gave him a smiling nod. And then he wrapped his good arm around her – the arm he had been branded was still too weak – and began climbing down the long ladder into more darkness.

Vince opened his eyes and looked up and realized that he was going up the ladder instead of down. He had been rescued from this damnable fortress and here he was now trying to get back in. Dear God, what would Agnes have to say to me now?

He shuddered and began climbing again. When he had reached the top he was soaked in a cold sweat. He was trying to rationalize going back into Orion’s lair rather than run away, far away, from it as he could. He didn’t care if he died, but was it worth it going to Orion to meet his death?

But then he saw the cells he and the other humans were kept in. There were three cells and, looking at them empty, they were very large. But when they were kept in them, the cells weren’t really all that big. Everyone was cramped most of the time. They slept leaning on one another. When they ate, they could almost taste the food from the person next to them.

He walked up to the middle cell and wrapped his hand around one of the iron bars. He didn’t care that his sleeve fell back, revealing his branded number. He bent his head and rested it against the bars and he couldn’t fight the tears that exploded forth.

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He looked over into the next cell and saw that Karl was laughing and talking to Chris. How they were keeping optimistic, he really didn’t know. There was something in the way that they were sitting together and laughing that raised suspicion in his mind. What were they doing over there? They were supposed to be Watchers for Christ's sake. And then he looked over at Samantha as she lay sleeping with Mykella in her arms. There was a tremendous amount of anger he felt toward Karl and Chris as he watched Samantha and Mykella sleeping. Here they were laughing and carrying on while he and Samantha were trapped in a hell of isolation as they tried their damnedest to protect Mykella, the future savior of mankind. And then everything fell silent – even Karl’s laughter. There was a hush that was issued from the first cell and Vince made his way to the bars separating them and saw a woman he remembered as Sister Agnes who had, at one time, lived in Grendel Keep. She made her way to Vince and then (he was shocked to see that she was inside the cell) she showed him a hole that was made between the two cells and then she gestured to another hole that was between the other two cells. One by one they crawled out of their cells and made their way to the hole in the floor – Vince couldn’t understand how Orion had missed all these tiny details. He looked down and saw the ladder as Agnes climbed down.

Vince sighed and lifted his head. He didn’t realize that he was carrying around that much emotion. He always tried to keep his feelings under control in front of Mykella because he didn’t want her to know what had really happened to them during those horrid couple of days.

He let go of the bar and began walking up the cell block, wondering where the Dreamkiller on duty was. The guard station was at the entrance of the cell block at a tall desk. The area was small (almost like an alcove or even a foyer of a nice house he might have lived in had Orion not taken control of reality) which branched off in two directions. A door on the left opened to the torture room where they had been branded. A door on their right most likely went somewhere else in the fortress – he had never been anywhere else except the cell block and torture room.

Fearing that Mykella might be in danger, Vince forced himself to open the door on his left. The stench of death and decay rolled out of this room as he opened the door. He really didn’t want to go in; if he were having some repressed memories, he didn’t want any that had dealt with this room. The burning flesh as arms were branded and the heat of the poker on your own arm was bad enough, but,

He was carrying Mykella as close to him as he could without smothering her. They were being led into a different room. As they neared the door, they could feel smoldering heat coming from the corridor. They could see steam rolling out from beneath the door. And on top of all that, they could hear screams of people coming from inside the room where they could not see. And when the creatures opened the door, the humans in the front of their line had to be forced into the room. He couldn’t see what it was, but he knew it must have been bad. And when it was their turn he caught a small glimpse of the dark room and he wanted to go back just as the others had tried. But he knew it wouldn’t work; there were too many Dreamkillers and, even though they were fed, they were all too weak to fight.

The room consisted of a large fireplace, a roaring fire as hot as hell blazed within, and pokers sticking out from the fire. And he saw a large stone table, circular with shackles which were bloodied.

He saw a woman with her wrists chained in the shackles, arm propped up on the table and a Dreamkiller holding her and her arm steady. One Dreamkiller went to the fire and grabbed a poker. Vince could see the orange glow and see the smoke rolling off the tip. And then he saw the numbers that glowed at the hot end.

He never expected what happened when it was his turn. They held out their claws and Vince realized that they wanted him to hand over Mykella. Terrified, he shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said. “No one touches her but me and her mother.”

And that was what horrified him the most; his act of rebellion. He should have expected to have been struck dead, but they seemed to have had other plans. One of them had pushed its way to Vince and forced his arms behind him, freeing his arms of the baby.

He screamed as the Dreamkiller caught Mykella and he kept screaming and trying to fight back, but it was just no use.

He went limp in the creature’s arms and dropped to his knees as he watched them hold Mykella (he wondered if they knew who they were holding). Another Dreamkiller came around, carrying a hot poker and laid it down on her arm without the least amount of sympathy.

Mykella screamed louder than Vince had ever heard before and he turned around and saw that Samantha had vomited.

When it was over, Vince quickly snatched the crying child into his arms. Her arm was a bloody mess. He looked back up with fire in his eyes. He had never wanted to kill anyone so badly, but he knew it would have to wait.

It was his turn. In a final act of defiance, Vince walked over and placed his arm down on the table without shackles. He shoved the Dreamkiller aside who had tried to hold him steady. He held Mykella in his other arm. Now he would have something else to connect himself with Mykella.

Vince looked around and was surprised to see that the room was void of fire. There had been no fire, he guessed, in at least ten years.

The fire…

He had to force himself to let go of that particular moment in his past. Mykella had survived the atrocious branding ritual – that much he had to thank God for. She lost some blood, but only a little. They were rescued that night, too. So really, there was a lot to thank God for; he, and the rest of them, could still be in this hell hole. He vowed to strike back at Orion, but he had Mykella to raise in the meantime. And besides, the moment never presented itself – he has never seen Orion since that day at the gate of Eden.

How he often wished he could go back and change the events of his past. Even if he did kill Orion, there was no way he could bring Karl back to life. And Chris was most likely dead – if not now, then she will be soon enough.

He shook his head clear of any more thoughts of altering the past twenty years; it would be no good. Mykella wasn’t in this room, no one was, and so he turned and looked at the others who had come to follow him.

“Listen,” he addressed the others with a sickened feeling in his stomach. “There’s nothing here but bad memories. You should count yourselves the lucky ones for never being here.” He didn’t know where to go or what to do now.

“We need to go up,” said someone from close to the doorway.

Vince just realized that he had gone into the heart of the room, standing next to the circular table. He began walking back to the door, where the man stood – who was darting his eyes in and out of the room nervously.

“I hear a lot of footsteps coming this way,” the man almost whispered.

Vince placed a hand on the young man’s shoulder (he didn’t look much older than eighteen) and could hear the thunderous footfalls as well. This room must have great sound barriers, he thought. Something was different about the sound of the footfalls, though. They didn’t sound heavy or loud enough to be those of Dreamkillers.

“They’re human,” Vince whispered, half-believing in what he had just said. “But that’s impossible – we’re the last.”

Curiosity overtook his senses and Vince poked his head out into the corridor. What he saw almost made him pass out. He blinked his eyes several times and wanted to pinch his arm to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

Like he had said (and like he half-believed), he saw a line of humans – men, women, and children – walking in single file – the line kept moving, he could see no end to it – tip-toeing as if in fear of being detected.. He saw that their eyes had that glaze of just being awakened from a deep sleep.

He kept telling his mind that there was no way in hell this could be happening; that they were the last survivors of the human race.

There was a part of him that wanted to run over to them and try to get them on his side – the more humans; the better their odds were in the battle. And there was also that part of him that wondered if either his eyes were playing tricks on him or else this was some kind of trick by Orion.

But if this was a trick, then why were they tip-toeing in fear of being discovered? No; these people were real. Vince shook his head in disbelief and wondered where they had come from.

Maybe he should follow the line back to wherever they had come.

What about Mykella? Isn’t she the reason he snuck back into the fortress?

He watched the line move on a little more and came to the conclusion that he didn’t need to know their little secret right now – it wouldn’t help him anyway. He had to find Mykella.

He turned and looked at the young man and smiled. “You know what I think?”

The young man shook his head and shrugged.

“I think you all have been very brave. You have put your life on the line for a girl you don’t even know. You will be rewarded.” He didn’t care how crazy his speech sounded. “Now, I think you all should follow these people to wherever they’re going.” He turned and watched them some more. “If there’s a fight, you’ll have more people fighting by your side.”

One of the other men came up to Vince with concern in his eyes. “Where will you be going?”

Vince turned and saw a staircase at the end of the corridor and then turned back to the others. “I need to find my daughter. I’m going upstairs.”

The others knew that their journey with Vince was over. He had brought them to other humans – survivors or not – and, even if he didn’t know it, this is what they really wanted in the end. None of them cared any for Mykella Brown and the idea that she may or may not save mankind and bring the end of the Dreamkillers. They wanted to have a normal life again and the sight of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of humans promised something.

Vince shook hands with them, wished them well, and then sprinted from the room to the staircase without any sign of a Dreamkiller.

Where was everyone?

He took to the stairs two at a time and by the time he was at the top landing (he figured this was most likely the main level) he was gasping for breath. How any of these hideous monstrosities were able to do that day in and day out was beyond him. Of course, a lot of the Dreamkillers were three feet taller than he was.

He looked and saw that there was a corridor heading off in three directions. He stared at all three, wondering which one would take him to Mykella. And then he wrinkled his nose when a peculiar odor hit his nose. It was a familiar odor, but he couldn’t put his finger on where he had smelled it before.