The Devil’s Peak II, page 13
“But that’s not what happened, was it?” Marco pressed. “You went somewhere. Somewhere else.”
Mack’s mouth turned down. “Somewhere else. Yes, yes, you might say that.”
Isabella decided to give him a push, perhaps to bring it all back. “You went to Hell, didn’t you, Colonel Mackenzie? The actual Hell, the place.”
His eyes lifted to her, and the gaze seemed as old as time itself. After a moment he nodded.
She reached out a hand and laid it on his forearm. “We believe you.”
His gaze lifted to her. “Why?”
She stared into his age-drooped eyes. “Because we’ve been there too.” Her mouth curved into a half smile. “And we need to go back.”
“Why would you…” He scoffed softly. “Of course. You left someone behind, didn’t you?”
She nodded.
“So you want to know how I went there and how I got back.” He shook his head. “Please don’t go there. It’s a bad place. If you went there before you would know that. I saw things that would drive you mad, and maybe it sent me mad, scrambled my brain, and I wandered around as a mad thing for seven years before regaining my senses.” He smiled ruefully. “Maybe it was all a dream. I mean, nightmare.”
“No dream, Mack.” She squeezed his arm. “This is as real as it gets.”
“Just making me think about it… I feel sick.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I can’t.”
“You must,” Marco pressed. “The Hell plague is out and already ravaging the land. While we search for a cure, we need all our warriors.”
“Captain Drake Stoker, US Special Forces, Reaper squad is trapped there. Help us get him home,” she pleaded.
“No one left behind.” His eyes slowly opened. “No one left behind.”
“That’s right,” she said. “Leave no one behind. We want him back.”
Marco closed in a little more. “Tell us, sir, tell us what happened. Take us back there to the night you disappeared.”
Mack sat looking shrunken in his chair for a moment, before reaching across to lift a cup of tea and sip from it. He seemed to draw strength from the milky brew and he straightened a little.
He clasped one papery-skinned hand over the other that was still a tight fist. “It was 1955, and I was on a standard test flight of the new F100 Super Sabre. Beautiful little silver plane that cut the air like a knife. They even put a little picture of Jayne Mansfield in a bikini on the side. She was the biggest blonde bombshell in the 50s. Beautiful,” He chuckled. “Noisy though. Like sitting on the front end of a damn rocket ship.
“The Vietnam War was just getting started and we knew we were going to be deployed there. I was cruising over the Atlantic…”
“The Devil’s Triangle?” Isabella inserted.
He nodded. “Florida, yeah. Some called it that. One minute I had clear sky, the next there were these swirling purple clouds. I’d never seen anything like it. I tried to turn around, but those damn clouds overtook me, swallowed me. Day became night, and there was thunder outside, even louder than my jet engine.”
He shut his eyes. “I remember I was so scared.”
“I know, I know,” Isabella said softly. “Go on.”
“My radio went dead, then all my instruments just went crazy. Nothing worked. Last thing I remember was the engine simply stopped, and I was falling out of the sky.” He shook his head. “I was only around a thousand feet in the air. I could sit there and wait to hit the water. Or eject. I ejected.
“The canopy burst open and I was shot out. Thank the lord the parachute opened and even though the wind threw me about like a leaf I floated down.
“The clouds cleared a little and I saw the ocean. I was worried about sharks.” He began to laugh sadly. “Was I ever wrong about that.”
“Did you splash down?” Marco asked.
“No, the ocean was gone. There was just a huge black hole. Like space, but with no stars in it. I fell into it.” He quavered. “I fell and fell and fell. There was no light, no up and down, no left or right. Nothing. But then I heard, something – a low moaning, deep, sad, and it made me feel sick to my stomach. It sounded, felt, so wrong.” He trailed off, wincing as if in pain.
Isabella gave him a few moments and then pressed him again. “And then…?”
“I landed on…shit. Dark and stinking. Miles and miles of it. Like a shore line, but I couldn’t see any water.” He shook his head.
“But you saw something?” Leonidas asked.
Mack nodded. “Things. Beasts. Some huge and others scurrying like rats. Everything was revoltingly deformed. I ran away.”
“But how did you know it was Hell?” Marco asked. “What made you think that?”
Mack stared off at nothing, his gaze unfocussed. “I saw… a man there. I knew him. He died when I was young. Jack Vaughn was his name. He was a bad man, a rapist. He lived close to us when I was a kid and my parents used to tell me to avoid him. They said he was one destined for hell.” He scoffed softly. “And then he died, beaten to death by persons unknown. Police never found out who did it. But I don’t think they really wanted to. The whole street was happy.”
“But you saw him?” Isabella asked.
After a few seconds Mack nodded, and his mouth turned down. “Yes. I saw him. Or some of him. I saw this thing that looked like a big crab or spider on the black shore eating the remnants of some rotting piece of flesh that was stuck in the sea of excrement. I went to walk around it, but it must have seen me and scuttled closer. I froze.”
He sobbed. “It was Jack Vaughn’s head with legs sticking out each side of it. Damn thing grinned at me and winked.” He looked up at her, his eyes watering. “Where else could I have been?”
He held his head in both hands and rocked forward. “I don’t know. Maybe I was wrong. When I was picked up I spent years talking to shrinks, and then eventually a priest. He told me I was just imagining everything as no one can come back from Hell.”
Mack looked up and saw each of the three people staring at him. “But they can, can’t they?”
“Your priest is wrong,” Isabella said. “It is true in our faith that escape from Hell is not possible after death. Because Hell is a permanent state of separation from God, and once a soul is there, there is no way to leave. But the key thing here is that the words after death, are important.” She smiled. “You never died, Mack. You were never meant to be there in the first place.”
Mack began to cry. “I knew I wasn’t imagining it.”
Isabella gave him a few moments to gather himself and he wiped his eyes with his pajama sleeve and sat back.
“So, why are you here?” He gave them a crumbing smile.
“I’ve also been to Hell, and escaped. But we went through another gateway,” Isabella said. “We closed it, but some of our people got left behind. I’d like to try and rescue them.”
Isabella reached out a hand again. “We know where you vanished, and when. But the important thing is for us to find out how you escaped.”
Mack began to nod. “Of course, of course.” His brows drew together. “So strange.” He looked at each of them. “I’ve spent years trying to forget. I’ve had dozens of people tell me I was wrong or just imagining things. And now, I have someone telling me it’s real and I need to remember it all again.”
“It’s important. Very important,” Marco said.
“Gather your thoughts,” Isabella said. “Every tiny detail will be important to us.”
“Oh god, you really want to go there.” Mack’s eyes widened.
“We have to,” Isabella said. “Help us.”
Mack drew in a deep breath and let it out as a long sigh. He clasped his hands together in front of himself and stared at them as he began to speak.
“When I was there, I couldn’t tell how long I was there – days, weeks, years, I had no idea. There is no night, day, sunrise or sunset. No moon or stars, nothing. I was always scurrying, always hiding, trying not to be seen by things. I saw some of them so big they were like battleships walking on stilt legs and sucking up things they found in the endless miles of shit-mud.” He rubbed his temples. “And others that were like waves of vermin, covering me, crawling in my nose, ears, and even my asshole.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “They tore at my sanity. I screamed for hours, and there were screams everywhere all the time. Even the damn rocks screamed, and when I looked down at them, they were people’s faces, heads, stuck in the shit mud to their chins.”
Isabella felt for the old man and was sorry they had to torture him by making him remember and relive what was the worst time in his life. But she had no choice – she had to know.
“But you found a way out?” she whispered to him.
Mack nodded.
“I saw a dot of light. Far away and high up.” He sat back wearily.
“Like a star?” Isabella asked.
“At first that’s what I thought,” Mack said. “It drew me towards it. Just looking at it made me feel a little less… despairing.” He swallowed noisily. “It took me so long, days…” He shrugged. “I have no idea about the passage of time, but soon, I could see the dot was blue colored, and it was floating in the sky. I kept going.”
He growled deep in his chest. “Things tried to stop me. Came outta the mud and grabbed my ankles, or dragged at my clothing. They scratched and bit me. I found a stick, or a piece of bone, and fought them. I figured the only way out of Hell, is to fight your way out.”
“Good man.” Marco smiled.
Mack had a coughing fit for a few seconds and they waited for him to get his breath back.
“Do you need some water?” Isabella asked.
He shook his head and took a big sip of his tea before going on.
“I followed the blue dot. And taking shape below it was a narrow peak, like a shard of stone or growth. It must have been a mile high.”
“You climbed it?” Marco said.
“I had to. I felt I had no choice. The color, the blue, it was so clean and attractive compared to the dismal stink and slime I had been living in for I don’t know how long.”
“Years,” Leonidas said.
“Yes, years,” Mack agreed.
“I’m not a rock climber. And I had nothing but my bare hands and feet. But I started up. It was easy at first. The first few hundred feet. But then it got steeper, and it was slimy, but nothing was going to stop me. I figured if I fell I would just keep trying. And if I fell and died, then so what? I had nothing to lose. I climbed forever, and with each foot I rose above the stinking plain I felt better and stronger. I began to hope.” He scoffed. “Until I got attacked.”
“Something, someone, attacked you?” Marco asked.
“Flew out of the darkness, like a giant bat. Look see here.” He unbuttoned his thick pajama shirt and leaned forward. He turned slightly as the shirt slid from his withered shoulder.
“I see,” Isabella said softly.
There was a raking scar on his old, withered skin, three lines of purple rent flesh.
“It fucking hurt.” He laughed darkly, pulled his shirt closed and sat back. “Do you know what the shrinks said when I showed it to them?” His mouth turned down momentarily. “They said I must have done that to myself when I ejected from the cockpit.”
“But you didn’t,” Isabella said. “What happened then?”
“I fought them. Kicked at them as I climbed. I couldn’t see them coming at me from the filthy darkness, but they could see me. I don’t know how as they didn’t have eyes. Or ears. Or a nose. Just a big mouth full of sharp teeth.”
“You kept going?” Marco said.
“Had to. No choice now as I was so far up I wasn’t about to give up.” Mack drew in a breath, swelling his chest and then let it out. “You see, I was getting stronger the higher I went. I don’t know why or what it was, but that light drew me on. And gave me strength.”
He smiled as he stared at something from his memory of over half a century ago. “Then as I started to reach the top of the peak, one of the weird bat things flew through the beam of light – saw it fully then – monster. But the thing was, when the light hit it, it sizzled, burned, like someone had thrown acid on it. The bastard screamed and flapped away like an old wet sail. They left me alone then. It was like they knew then they couldn’t come too close to the light.”
Mack rubbed his grizzled chin. “But I had a problem. The blue light was a hole, leading to something shimmering. But it was about five or six feet above the absolute top of the peak. I sat there looking at it for hours. I wished I had a rope, or a ladder, or I was damn taller.” He chuckled, and then began to wheeze and cough again.
Isabella knew he was winding down. “It’s okay, take it easy.” Isabella handed him his cold tea again. Mack sipped and winced.
“Bah.” He put it down.
Isabella, Leonidas, and Marco waited, and Isabella didn’t want to force him, but she felt they were so close to knowing now, she was never going to let him end it there.
“Please go on,” she urged.
He nodded. “I looked down. I knew I was high up, but strangely, where I could see up the giant peak, I couldn’t see down. It was like I was only a dozen or so feet up, but I know I had climbed at least a mile. But that made me less dizzy, and I climbed the last few feet, and began to stand. Yep, stand like those acrobats in the circus standing on the other guy’s shoulders. I reached up, swaying, and then got on my toes.
“I didn’t care if I fell, I was so close, I could almost reach it – it was beautiful – blue, shimmering and I knew the light was sunlight, cleansing, warm sunlight. There was nothing to grab onto, but something inside me told me that I had to touch it. So I stretched just that extra inch.
“And I did.”
“And as soon as my fingertips touched it I was falling. But upwards – the air got thick, cold, and then that thickness became wet. I sucked in a last huge breath and shut my mouth, because then it turned into water. I was underwater, and swimming upwards towards the blue light.
“All the shit was being washed from me. My back hurt like hell from the flying monsters’ scratches, but I didn’t care. I knew it was scouring all the bad shit out of the wounds.
“I knew I was deep as my ears hurt, but I’m a good swimmer and not afraid of the water. I swam upwards, and then in the next few seconds, my lungs being about to burst, I breached.”
Isabella saw the tears running down the old man’s cheeks.
“I can’t describe the feeling.” He sniffed wetly. “I knew I was miles from shore and probably in shark infested waters, but I didn’t care. I tilted my head back and let the sun warm my face. I knew I was free of the nightmare. I was free from Hell.”
“Where?” Marco pressed. “Where were you?”
“I floated all day, but the water was warm and turquoise, so I had guessed I was somewhere close to Florida. Just as the sun was starting to sink I saw a boat. And more importantly it saw me. Turns out I was close to Exuma – do you know where that is?” Mack asked.
The trio shook their heads.
“It’s part of The Bahamas, lots of little islands close together. The largest of them is Great Exuma. Beautiful place.” He scoffed softly. “But I would have thought anywhere was a beautiful place after what I’d endured and where I’d been.” He shrugged. “I was there in their little hospital for a week getting my strength. And then the army came and got me.”
He looked up with a crooked smile. “No one believed me. They thought I was mad. So, they gave me backpay for all those years I was missing. A small fortune. Plus an honorary promotion to Colonel, and then they quietly pushed me out the door.”
“Do you remember anything, any landmarks when you surfaced?” Marco asked.
Mack thought for a moment. “I remember the reef, it was breaking waves, and was too dangerous to approach. I didn’t want to cut myself being out there alone. Sharks love blood in the water.”
“I know.” Isabella smiled. “Thank you, Mack. You’ve been very helpful.”
Leonidas and Marco bowed slightly and left. Mack watched them go for a moment and then turned to Isabella.
“So who are you guys?” Mack’s brows had drawn together as he scrutinized her. “You said you’re not FEDs, and I don’t think you’re military, at least not ours. And not police. So who?”
She smiled. “We’re from an ancient order dispatched by the Vatican. We’re known as Templar Knights, and have been in existence fighting evil for thousands of years.” She held out a hand. “And evil is coming, Colonel Mackenzie. And we intend to stop it.”
He took her hand and held it for a moment. Finally he opened his other hand, the clenched fist, and she saw what he had been holding tight the entire time – it was rosary beads, with a tiny silver cross on the end. He had held it so long, there was a permanent shape of a cross in his flesh.
He gave her a crumbling smile. “I never used to be a religious man,” he said. “But I now know there’s a Hell and a Devil. And I think it was the other guy that showed me the way and pulled me out of there.” Mack let her hand go. “Good luck. I don’t envy you. But I guess it is your duty.”
Isabella nodded. “It is what I was made for.”
She bowed and left the old man in the sunshine. The sparrows immediately returned to sit at his feet.
CHAPTER 20
Somewhere, sometime, at the seventh Circle of Hell
There was no wind on the Black Sea. There might have been tides, but Drake couldn’t tell as there was no shoreline to gauge it by now. There were also no stars, no sun or moon, and with zero landmarks, therefore no navigation points.
With no working engines, and no wind for the sails, he and Benson were on either side of the boat, on their knees, and bending to use the paddles from one of the dinghies to stroke forward, perhaps moving a few feet with each stroke.
They travelled in a direction they just felt was right without any logic behind it. From time to time they bumped up over things in the water, or unseen things bumped up at them. Once Drake felt the oar be tugged hard and he nearly lost his grip on it.
“What the fuck?” He stared down into the primordial ink and saw rising up the side of the boat a long tentacle, but at its end was a human-like hand with long rubbery fingers, and he could see suckers on the palms.
