Demonworld (5 page)

Wodi examined the white stick. No doubt the thing had been used to beat the poor animal. It was smooth, a little longer than he was tall, sharp on one end with a hook near the point, and it was just heavy enough to feel dangerous. He claimed the torturer’s spear as his own, then decided that in a worst-case scenario he could always jam the point through his own eye and into his brain in order to escape an inescapable situation.

Disaster struck just when Wodi began to let his attention wander. One moment he was stumbling along, gently waving the spear of the torturer before him so as not to bump into anything, and then suddenly a harsh purple light flickered on and he found himself staring down at something like a crumpled mound of gray-white flesh. Wodi’s senses jolted in horror as the thing shifted its weight - he saw something like a large skull turn and look in his direction, then it opened its mouth and seemed to retch on its own tongue, and then Wodi’s legs carried him away from the awful thing.

Demon
. The thing was a flesh demon - he did not have to see it in detail to know.

The purple light waved and bounced behind him, throwing white tree trunks in sharp detail. For the first time Wodi saw the pale trees stretching into the distance, forever and endless, marble columns holding up the black roof of the world. Wodi’s terror was so great that only a small part of his conscious mind was aware of what was going on around him; he knew only that he had to run faster than he’d ever run before, faster than any human had ever run. He heard the thing loping heavily behind him, the clatter of hooves punctuated by inhuman grunting.

A fallen tree lay ahead, black leaves shivering in the hellish light. Wodi made straight for the tangled treetop, leaped over and flew under branches, then at once the earth disappeared beneath him and he was rolling through slime, mud, decaying leaves. There was no pain, nor any emotion at all, only the hammer and anvil in his chest, the need for safety, and so when he stopped rolling he immediately crawled to his knees, saw the hollowed-out base of another fallen tree, and crawled inside. Just then he heard the beast crash through the same fallen treetop he had. He could not see it, but the thing fell down the same edge as he, though with a great deal more violence. The thing grunted and gagged like a choking pig. The light swung violently, then dimmed.

Wodi sat perfectly still, straining to hold his breath in the stifling dark. He had retained the spear of the torturer, and clutched it fiercely even though it seemed completely inadequate.

He heard the demon rise and moan, an awful sound like a human throat, only bent and changed into something perverse. The purple light swayed left and right. He heard the thing loping about the lowlands. It knew that he was hiding nearby. Time dragged on, stretched out by the horror of the thing and its hunger, and finally the fear bore into Wodi. He saw his own life, only it wasn’t the life he had lived but the life he wanted to live - the desperate fantasy of a dying man. Wodi saw himself return to Haven. He entered a mansion, he saw a faceless man and knew it was the bastard who had exiled him. Some rich sociopath who preyed on the weak. Wodi went up to him, shook his hand, let a concealed hammer drop through his sleeve and into his hand, then swung the thing into the man’s mouth.

Wodi tore himself away from the unbelievable fantasy and saw the demon loping along the hillside. As strange as it seemed, the hellish light seemed to be coming from the thing’s chest or belly. Wodi saw the thing’s black profile. It was shaped like a man, but bent over, with legs that were too long. It might have been eight or nine feet tall if standing straight. It had a grotesque bulbous head, and might have had long sharp ears. The thing was circling around, and would tighten its circle as it went. Wodi saw the misshapen beast lift its head to smell the air.

Wodi knew that he would never escape, would never be able to kill the evil person responsible for this nightmare, so he summoned up his resolve and stood from his hiding place. His legs shook terribly and he had to lean against the fallen trunk. He was plainly out in the open. He planned to shout at the thing but his mouth was completely dry. Now that he was ready for the thing to put him out of his misery, the demon seemed to content to shift its head about aimlessly, with its back turned to him.

On a whim Wodi picked up a stone, cradled it in his hand, then chucked it in the distance. It landed with a dull thud and the demon’s head immediately whipped around. It tore across the lowlands, throwing up a tide of dead black leaves. Without waiting for it to get far, Wodi turned and walked away. His legs soon found their strength again and he broke into a jog. The light grew dim. When he found himself in darkness, he ran with the spear waving in front of him.

The demon moaned long and pitiful, again sounding like a perversion of a human in agony, and Wodi redoubled his speed. The idea of running into a tree was not so terrible. He thought of large knuckles on his legs, his knees breaking, he thought of teeth stabbing into his stomach, he thought of the awful moan in his ears, and he ran harder.

But his spear did smack into the trunks of white trees, and the sound of wood against wood was like a siren through the deathly calm forest. Just when Wodi began to feel his legs and lungs burning their last, the purple light returned once again. Then the moaning redoubled, a grunting, sexual sound, a monster in love with its own hunger.

There was a terrible cry. Wodi thought thunder had struck; he leaped and fell and rolled onto his back. Behind him, two beasts fought, clawing and snapping their jaws at one another, one shrieking desperately, the other hissing and spitting. In the flashing purple light, Wodi saw the demon fighting with some kind of reptilian horror. The second creature could not have been a demon, for demons did not fight one another - it was simply another of Mother Nature’s abominations, an aborted child left to fend for itself in this nightmare world.

The reptilian creature was shorter than the demon, but bulkier, and covered in black scales. The fight moved so quickly that Wodi could not tell who was causing greater pain. He forced himself up and ran. The violent cries receded into the darkness far behind. He ran and ran until his mind turned to jelly. Eventually he came upon one clearing, then another, then he no longer had to rely on the torturer’s spear to find his way.

Wodi broke through the darkest region of the forest and entered a clearing lit by violent white light. The sun was directly overhead, and was baking hot, and Wodi fell on his back and the scent of the grass was heavenly and sweet.

Wodi continued on. He stuck to the shade as much as possible, for the clearings were stifling hot in the noontime sun. The cries of insects were incessant. Eventually he found a pile of flat stones with a trickle of water running over them. The trickle descended into a shallow, green-topped, stinking pool. Wodi got near the opening and drank up the water near its source. It tasted like licking a dirty coin, but it was a great relief. It sharpened his mind more than anything that ever came out of a faucet back home.

He rarely let his attention wander, ever fearful of how he had practically walked on top of a demon earlier. The cries of insects, the slope of the land, moving shadows, the nagging thought of when he would break and eat some of the strange fruit - that was his world now.

The cries of the insects broke and shifted momentarily, and Wodi heard snapping twigs and a groan nearby. He froze perfectly still, then quickly whirled and knelt behind a tree. He gripped the torturer’s spear in both hands. The entire world was frozen and still.

A shrill voice said, “Is someone there?”

Now Wodi’s heart pounded and he took in a long, quiet breath. His hands were shaking, and he prepared to stab something, to stab it until it was dead.

“
I know someone’s there!” came the cry. “Please come out!” A long pause, then, “I’m not from here!”

Wodi felt the panic in the cry and great relief washed over him. He rose and stepped out. Every leaf stood out in sharp detail, crisp and green, because of all the adrenaline that was washing through his system.

Wodi rounded a tree and saw a young man about his age, with long red hair and clothes that were undeniably made in Haven. Wodi raised his hands and the youth relaxed. He was taller than Wodi, but seemed a little softer - no doubt from Central Haven. In fact...

“
I recognize you,” said Wodi.

The youth nodded, then said, “University. We take modern lit together.” The youth showed his teeth in imitation of a smile, then said, “I’m Saul. Saul Hargis.”

“
Wodi Kyner.” Wodi approached and extended his hand to shake, and immediately realized that the gesture was a very “labor class” thing to do. Saul laughed a little, then placed his limp hand in Wodi’s, no doubt thinking the greeting was absurdly old-fashioned. In fact, Wodi caught Saul’s eyes narrowing, saw his jaw tightening, and he knew that Saul did not trust him.

Neither had any idea where to begin. “Did you wake up here as well?” said Wodi.

“
I never really went to sleep,” said Saul. “I -”

“
How did you carve that spear?” Wodi cut him off. He had just realized that Saul was holding a spear much like his own, except the thing was freshly cut. Its tip was a series of beveled planes with the occasional deep groove from a misplaced cut.

“
Oh...” said Saul. “The thing is... when they left me here, they gave me this.”

Saul reached behind his back and pulled out a large, jagged combat knife. Wodi stepped back; it was the kind of blade that a professional soldier might keep, or even a civilian if he was into morbid knick-knacks and revenge fantasies.

Saul started to put the thing behind his back once more, but Wodi said, “Can I look at the knife?”

Saul looked him up and down, paused for a long time, then smiled and said, “Of course.” Saul held the knife forward, his palm open but his thumb against the hilt, ready to grasp the thing if Wodi made a move for it.

Wodi looked closely at the precious gleaming steel, and he wanted it badly. No doubt it was hard enough to hack wood, but also sharp enough to open flesh. The thing was fashioned with wicked grooves near its base and a curved black handle such that the sight alone might be intimidating enough to scare off any attacker who valued his life. Wodi saw his own green eyes staring back at him through the mirror of the blade’s surface.

But if there was one thing that Wodi truly despised, it was bickering over small things. In his youth he had seen his peers throw all dignity out the window over fights concerning the smallest things. He knew of two thick-headed simpletons who had not spoken in years because of the outcome of a sports game that neither one had even attended. He remembered shrinking into himself as a child when his parents would fight, doors slamming, words running in circles. What if Wodi had had the knife earlier in the day? Would he have stood his ground against the great demon, wrestled it to the ground, and stabbed it through the forehead? Not likely.

He had a decent spear now. It was given to him completely by accident, and it would do fine in all kinds of situations. “What a blade!” said Wodi, nodding and backing away.

The effect was instantaneous. Saul’s face opened into a wide grin, for he had finally encountered a potential ally in this hostile world. “It looks dangerous,” said Saul. “Fortunately I haven’t had to use it yet.”

“
And you say it was on you when you woke?”

“
That’s the thing,” said Saul. “I was never unconscious like the others. Maybe my tolerance to the drug was higher, or maybe-”

“
Woah, wait!” said Wodi, mind reeling. “Do you know how we got here?”

“
I do,” said Saul. “Guardians brought us here by airship.”

Wodi sat down heavily.
Guardians!
he thought.
Our protectors!

Saul sat beside him and continued. “I was out on the town, and I remember feeling like I’d been stung by something. I got weak and groggy, and I remember someone helping me - except he wasn’t helping me. I was being kidnapped. I passed out, but I don’t think it was for very long. When I woke up, I was tied up and gagged in a van. There were others tied up as well. I saw Guardians bringing more people, all of them unconscious. They never spoke, and they kept their masks and helms on the entire time. When there were seven of us, they drove us to an airship. It was in the middle of the night. You guys were all out cold, and since there was nothing I could do anyway... I just pretended to be unconscious.”

“
So they flew us out here...?”

“
And dumped us out, one by one.”