A Thousand Fiendish Angels: Stories Inspired By Dante's Inferno (4 page)

He heard Gest's snort of derision at his actions, but then the chamber started to tremble, as if giants were shaking their limbs to free themselves from the ice. A hail of rock fell from the ceiling and the brothers covered their heads. A chunk knocked Simon over and he landed heavily on his side, his skull smacking against the ground as his vision darkened and then cleared again.
 

As he sat up and rubbed his head, he saw that the altar had split down the centre of the rock beneath the book. An icy vapor started to ooze out of the newly-formed crack, dissipating into the air. Afraid that the book would be damaged, Simon reached for it, breathing in the tainted air as he did so. It smelled metallic and he tasted blood in his mouth, but within seconds he felt his senses sharpening and he could hear a terrible howling, pouring from the abyss below, accompanied by the beating of demonic wings.
 

"We'd better hurry," Gest said, as if he couldn't hear the frenzied clamor or see the cloudy haze. "Clearly this cave isn't stable. We need to get as many jewels out as we can in case it comes down before we can retrieve more."
 

As he forced another chunk of gemstone into his pack, it glinted in the torchlight and Gest's face seemed to shift. Simon rubbed his eyes again to check what he saw. His brother's handsome face was turning into that of a hideous lizard and behind him, a curved scorpion's tail emerged from his ripped snowsuit. Simon fell back against the wall, watching as his brother's face morphed from the Gest he knew into a sinister visage of reptilian scales, forked tongue flickering in the air. He understood that this was his brother's true nature, revealed by the truth of the book, and he knew that this unholy demon must be slaughtered.
 

Simon felt his strength amplified from within and he pushed his brother to the floor. He raised his pick axe and as Gest screamed in terror, he brought it down in a terrific blow. Simon felt a kind of euphoria possess him and he became the avenger, the destroyer. He hacked relentlessly at his brother's body as words from the book of skin ran through his mind and images from the precious tome appeared in visions before him. Simon's breath was ragged as he cleaved the head from the mutilated torso, the ice slippery with gore as what remained of Gest's body began to harden with ice crystals. Simon felt another tremor and knew that he had little time before the cave collapsed, concealing both riches and the murder within.
 

The two outer jackets still lay side by side away from the bloody mess, and Simon stood for a moment, thinking of the divergent lives that he and Gest had experienced. In that moment he saw a possible future, where earthly pleasure and power could be his as well as fulfilling the Great Work, and he smiled with delicious excitement. He removed the bloody top he wore, his chest exposed to the chill air for a moment, exposing his black tattoo of an orb cupped in a bowl on top of an inverted cross. He tugged a fresh merino sweater from his pack, pulling it on and putting Gest's jacket on over the top. He zipped it tight, straightening his back, affecting his brother's proud posture, then he picked up the two heavy packs. It was time to tell the crew that his brother Simon had perished within the caves as they had collapsed, despite his own desperate attempts at rescue.
 

##

Sins of Violence

An explosion rocked the air, raining chunks of masonry and glass down from the building above them. Ari and Sibyl dived behind the hulk of a ruined truck, rolling underneath to shelter from the hail of debris.
 

"It's getting closer," Sibyl said, her voice tinged with the longing for battle, and Ari knew she wanted to be back there, fighting deep in Sector 35. The Corps was the only family they had now, a renegade team trying to restore order to one corner of the desolate planet.
 

"I promise you the war won't end while we take a few hours off," Ari said, rolling out from under the vehicle once the dust had settled. Her lithe body was fast as a wild cat and she sprang to her feet, weapon ready, scanning for any danger.

"Time off?" Sibyl laughed as she brushed herself down. "I haven't heard that expression since before the Contagion."
 

"We need to get moving," Ari said, acutely aware of her surroundings, for they were off their patch, deep into Untamed territory. But she had to risk running this gauntlet now, because it was almost too late.
 

She had received the message a few days before, passed through the networks that still kept communications alive on this forsaken continent. Elyse was about to be Blessed and Ari couldn't let that happen. Even though she hadn't seen her sister for fifteen years, she remembered the little girl's blonde curls and her laugh, the way her skin had smelled after a bath, back in the days when those were still possible. It was the innocent giggle that had stuck most in her mind, the last thing she had heard before she was led away for her own Blessing. She would not let that happen to Elyse, especially as the message had reported what else was going on in the city, the violent hold he had on the population after years of rule.
 

"You've never told me what happened back then," Sibyl said, as they darted between the ruined buildings of the Empty Quarter, eyes drawn to every shadow. The area was only designated empty so that it could be written out of any rescue plan, but Ferals lurked here among the Untamed and plague victims still eked out a pitiful existence in its shattered world. Ari turned briefly, her hand reaching out to squeeze Sibyl's tense arm.
 

"I'll tell you when I come out again," she said.
If I make it back out.
"It's a long story, but I can't do this alone. Thanks for coming with me."

Sibyl shook her head, dismissing the gratitude. "Just don't expect me to shut up about wanting some answers."
 

The Empty Quarter had once been a business hub, with high-rise office buildings, boutique shops and restaurants. It had been a centre of commerce in the days when people still had First World concerns such as whether they could afford private education for their children, or which new car would get them the most kudos at work. Those were the days when people didn't have to learn practical skills like how to grow crops or fix equipment, or how to fight and defend themselves and their families. The end of that life had come before Ari had been born, but she had seen its reflection in her mother's eyes as she stumbled to draw water daily from the public well. Her mother's naivety in the face of disaster had resulted in her own birth, a child of rape in the days when defense of the country became more important than protecting the innocent within it.
 

Ari's mother Beatrice had told her stories of that time, and how the days of plenty had been ended by the Contagion. The mysterious illness had spread from the icy far north, at first considered a wave of extreme violence endemic only to isolated communities. But when ordinary families were slaughtered by soccer Moms and children were found hacking at the disfigured bodies of their school friends, the brutality was examined in more detail by the authorities. It was found to be a virus, a strain unseen before, turning those infected into savage, uninhibited killers.
 

Found to be airborne, the virus soon reached the larger urban populations of the Northern Hemisphere and it spread quickly, taking millions in its bloody wake. International disputes had erupted in the panic, with blame being heaped on whichever nation was considered a sworn enemy, for humanity has only ever been a splinter away from chaos. It didn't take long before the first nuclear warhead had been fired, millions more people atomized, wiping out the major cities where most of the infrastructure and knowledge resided. The world had been split apart and now humanity dwelled in the ashes.
 

Ari and Sibyl walked quickly along the edge of the road, where the buckling and cracking was less pronounced and it was easier to pick their way carefully through the streets, using the crenelated buildings as cover.
 

"Is that his Mark?" Sibyl asked, pointing to a graffitied wall, where a symbol was painted in pitch, its edges dripping like black blood. It was an orb cupped in a bowl on top of an inverted cross, representing the God of the Underworld who had stolen the hope of summer from the earth. Ari looked up and couldn't help the memories flooding back from the night of her Blessing when that symbol had been seared into her brain. The Fallen Ones had held her down as she writhed, while the sound of a thousand fiendish angels cursed and screamed for her corruption.
 

"It is," Ari said, her voice hollow. "He calls this place the city of Dis, supposedly guarded by fallen angels, punished by God for their disobedience, and this Mark encircles his domain."
 

The Contagion had separated the remnant of humanity into those who turned from any idea of deity, and those who believed it was God's judgment for the sins of the world. Perhaps it was strange that the end of organized religion and the so-called death of God had resulted in so many cults flourishing in the aftermath, but Ari knew the reality. There was no God here, only one man's brutality, and the shadows were ever deepening.
 

"We need to get moving," Ari said, "because the Blessing will begin as the sun dips below the horizon."

The pair started a slow jog towards the walls that loomed in the distance, where fires burning on the ramparts proclaimed the city's dominion over the scarred land. Sibyl ran beside Ari, their even breath creating a rhythm born from years together in the Corps. When Ari had escaped and stumbled out of the city, just a child covered in the blood of sacrifice, it had been Sibyl who had found her. The Goddess brought them together and they had joined the Corps, their need to fight for the innocent overwhelming any desire to be free in what was left of the world.
 

The city of Dis had grown like a cancer inside the walls of an old power station that had once been luxurious flats back in the days Before. In the chaos of the last generation, factions had sprung up and people had aligned themselves with warlords who had fought for dominance. The man who now ruled Dis had a name back then, but now he was known only as The Minotaur, his neck as thick as a bull's and his propensity for violence extreme. He echoed his name by living at the centre of the labyrinth that the city had become, and he called the prettiest girls to its heart for the Blessing.
 

As they jogged, Ari glanced up at the trees growing along this stretch of road, emerging roots thrusting through the concrete, for Nature had thrived as humanity was all but destroyed. These trees had been their refuge most nights, and their home on many a Corps mission. Ari craved the security of those branches now but she forced herself onwards.
 

"What's that?" Sibyl said, pointing at thorny bushes ahead. They were too far away to see clearly, but the bushes seemed to be hung with scraps of material.
 

As they drew closer, Ari let out a groan, her face crumpling as she realized what they were. Corpses were hung on the barbs, hooking into skin that had been cut and maimed, now in various stages of decomposition. They hung along the main road towards the city, traitors or blasphemers against the perverted laws of the Minotaur.
 

Sibyl reached for Ari's hand as they stood, surveying the ruined bodies, and tears gathered in her eyes. Those of the Goddess considered life to be more precious after the Contagion but within the boundaries of Dis, life was still expendable. As they walked past hand in hand, gaining strength from each other's presence, Ari felt both a resolve to honor these dead as well as a deep sense of guilt at leaving them behind to their brutal fate.
 

"You were a child when you escaped," Sibyl said quietly, as if knowing her thoughts. "If you had not left, you would have ended up bearing the monster's children, or dead out here with words of defiance carved into your flesh."
 

Ari nodded slowly and then noticed a glimmer of color in the shadows. Even here could be found a glimpse of the Goddess, for at the base of one of the bushes was a single rose, its petals stained red with the blood of martyrs. Ari bent to stroke its petals and breathe in the faint scent, a hope of new life in this dark valley of the dead.
 

Walking on within the shadow of the protective trees, they soon came within sight of the guard tower at the gates. They ducked into one of the ruined buildings and Ari took off her pack. Inside was a dress she had found only days before, slightly stained with blood but still cut well enough to make the guards open the door for a closer look. She stripped off the camouflage uniform and pulled on the dress. There was no point trying to get weapons past the guard, so Ari was relying on her Corps training to find suitable arms within.
 

"That's hideous," Sibyl said, her rough hands stuffed deep in her pockets. "And I hate you doing this alone."

"The only guaranteed way into Dis is as breeding stock," Ari said, untying her hair from its scarf and letting the dark curls hang loose. "I know how it works in there and I need them to take me to him immediately."
 

 
Ari pulled her dog-tags, inscribed with the symbol of the Corps, from around her neck and held them out.

"I've got enough of these from sisters lost, Ari." Sibyl took the dog-tags with reluctance, her face darkening. "Please don't go. It's not safe. What if you don't come out again?"

Ari pulled Sibyl into an embrace, overwhelmed with what she wanted to tell her friend, but these feelings were not to be spoken aloud, not now. After a few moments, they broke apart and Ari knew she must act now or she would give into her fears and leave this place behind forever.
 

"I'm coming back," she said, "and I'll be bringing Elyse with me, so I need you outside to cover our retreat and help me get away. I need you, Sibyl, and inside you'll be a liability because they'll split us up. I'm sorry."