38. Terror Unleashed

The creature which came out of water seemed curious as well as angry. It kept looking at Noah and Jack while making attempts to follow them. It was huge and had a tail which it used to hold on to a tree on the side of the rocks whenever it lost balance. There seemed to be a lot more of it under water. It also kept making a strange sound all the time and spit a green liquid. A group of mutated crows welcomed that noise from the top, right out of the wastelands.

“It is dragon terror. This is not good at all. We are lucky to have started climbing early enough to avoid this one” Jack shouted.

“What on this planet is that? I have never seen this particular creature. It is one scary thing. It has huge horns with long and sharp fangs” Noah yelled as he looked down.

“It was one of those animals created by the scientists during one of their special experiments to make the perfect creature which could be used as the expendable assets during the last war. There were unconfirmed reports that some of them were captured and kept in special prisons until feeding them became a problem and they were released to some forests” Jack made it clear.

“Isn’t it the thing which was called the demons of war because they could stand almost all weapons held by the soldiers? Didn’t they also call it the dark death because the creature attacked mostly at night; midnight to be more specific?” Noah asked.

“Yes, the same; it preferred darkness, a cloudy day also served the creature. Most of the civilian casualities of war were also caused by these creatures because they couldn’t be controlled that well. But they could be unleashed on people because the basic program was like that only” Jack confirmed.

“So, why is one of them here? Did the authorities send them here? I don’t see why they are wandering around” Noah wondered.

“Well, this was not exactly where these things were to be sent. But you know the government; the only thing which they do better than anything else is to keep lying to us. It is like a special skill that they possess. I do feel that this had a lot to do with the wildlife being in trouble, not just the floods. It is an almost impossible task to survive when a creature so terrifying and strong is unleashed against the balance of nature” Jack sighed.

“It does seem to thrive in water too. The creature is really skilled to do more than one thing. Can it get to us?” Noah asked.

“I don’t think that it can get to us from there. Thankfully, they had agreed on not giving these creatures human arms. It was actually on the list of things to do earlier, and we can be really glad that they didn’t in the end” Jack said with a sigh of relief.

“It does seem to be trying though. It really wants to get to us it seems. There is fire in its eyes” Noah said while looking down.

“Yes, it is a programmed predator and wishes to unleash chaos and destruction. It has to kill all the time, and I am sure that it hasn’t got somebody to attack for quite some time. The basic needs are not satisfied here. I do feel sorry for it due to the programming, but lets keep climbing up so that we don’t give this one a chance” said Jack as he kept climbing.

“Those mutated crows seems to be waiting for our death. I have known them during one my journeys through the graveyards” remarked Noah.

“Yes, they are the products of the wastelands. These birds are another reason why we should try not to get injured or murdered. Don’t stop or slip. Also try not to make them interested in us by looking at them in the eyes” said Jack.

Noah and Jack reached the top to face the wastelands which seemed to extend with no end at all. They looked down to see the dragon terror making one final attempt to get on the rocks before turning back and diving into water. They were relieved as they continued through the wastelands which had so much of abandoned buildings and remains of war as well as failed scientific discoveries. There were skeletons of humans as well as animals which were not buried. Most of the human remains seemed to be in cages or had parts of them in chains seemingly making it that of prisoners. The soil was red in colour and the vegetation was only somewhat there.

“I have heard people saying that the soil here tasted like blood, and I surely don’t want to test that” Noah said.

“I can confirm that. I know people who did” Jack replied.

The rain had stopped, and it seemed that there has been no rain in the wastelands for a long time. The clouds seemed to stop outside the boundaries of the wastelands for some reason. But a river coloured dark red was going right through, flowing into what seemed to be a well with a sign which said “Please make sure that you do not come near the well”. The soil was wet and at some places, it was rather too sticky. Noah and Jack went near the well and looked down only to see the darkness and nothing else. Jack thought about having a look by going down through the ladder placed on the right side, but Noah reminded him that they have kilometres to travel and they had to do it quick.

To be continued…

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19. Adapt or Die

“Need tea?” she asked.

“May be later” tea wasn’t his preference at that moment.

“Curiosity is too powerful there, right? There was that saying – We can be destroyed, but cannot be defeated. I remember how that quote came to us, for The Old Man and the Sea was the only book I was able to read in the experimentation camp. They taught us to read and write, but only what they wanted. I actually stole the book from the prison warden. You can’t really get away with doing such a thing, but it was worth the pain. There is nothing that substitutes knowledge and wisdom”.

“You should have been a revolutionary who could change the world if not for the imprisonment and exile. There is the need for such a person…”

“This is a revolution going on here; it is just that we are too weak a force to succeed. Listen to the rest of my story. We were taken out of the basement and literally kicked out of the ship to an alien atmosphere. The only clothes we had were the chips which were stitched to our thighs with camera and locator which we have removed now. Some of us wandered around in the caves and died by starvation or poisoned food, and only three hundred and twenty one of us remained. We stood together and found the right food and finally found shelter in those buildings which we strived to build. We were injected with their experimental medicines which could make our body quickly adapt to the circumstances, and we did. We became the creatures of the Titan wilderness. But our adaptation still left us with the need for exposure to the Titan’s underground atmosphere to survive. We have found enough creatures and plants here in the underground to make food. We are still hunted by them, and my death would have taken our number of two hundred and ninety nine, but as that didn’t happen, we are three hundred to their eight thousand – clearly outnumbered, and also weaker in strength but not in endurance”.

“From what you are talking about, it sounds as if those creatures are indeed human. But I guessed that they are humane only in their body’s basic structure. Where is the humanity in their words, action or even their head? The biggest surprise is that they look so advanced and modern”.

“There is nothing that makes me laugh more than the word ‘humanity’. It happened after we built our homes. The people in the ship knew that we were perfectly okay and having good life, with any more waiting spoiling their chance to locate us. The wished to have us back as slaves, for which their troops entered our homes again, beat us up brutally, stripped us and put us back into chains, as if it was how we were supposed to live and die. But our group of hunters who were out looking for food made an ambush in the machine room of the ship which made the ship act strange, and to its distress signal, the troops went back, but the ship locked them inside. They were already injected with the medication for adaptation and their bodies adapted to the ship. They became stronger and hostile, with a mechanical mind to torture and feed, still retaining their allegiance to their superiors of the Northern Bloc. They are provided fresh meat by the Bloc through space ships which serve not their settlements, but this giant ship.”

“You mean to say that they are better than us. They might be the best in what they do. Then how do you hold this point? Don’t they come down all at once and take over your world with all their advanced weapons which keep getting better and better with the Northerns’ scientific inventions”?

“The small tunnels save us; and so does the traps which we set. We have also managed to steal enough weapons from the ship to make us feel secure enough to defend our point. We have now shifted to this more easily defendable area, and beyond this point there is food. They haven’t been able to penetrate beyond this area which we defend. The underground is rich with its flora and fauna, and they wouldn’t use deadly forces. We are using the available resources of this world to enforce our protection further. But one can’t be sure how much time is left before they find another way to enter this shadow world.”

“With all these planning and brilliant ideas, how come they still take you and four others hostage? I would feel that you were quite close to death, and their ritual seemed too weird for mutants”.

“We were caught during a big firefight which they actually used a distraction to capture me, and they were just collateral damage. We have been tortured continuously for thirteen days and this was the last stage before death. As expected, they came up with their brutal physical and mental torture methods, but there was nothing that I hadn’t gone through or was not prepared for. To add to that, you know that we are adapted to endurance. None of us gave them any information, and they went back after giving the orders of execution. They were instantly flayed alive, and I was kept for the last moment, as they finally had the leader whom they always wanted to capture, torture, murder and eat. In your case, there was no point in torture, as there was no information to be extracted. You were to be killed directly by bleeding. They go on to drink that blood and then they go for flesh – they enjoy it immensely. Their methods is no longer includes anything other than inflicting the maximum pain. What they have injected you with, only increases the amount of pain creating a further illusion of pain within pain which can actually leave your mind caught within nowhere”.

“I never knew my future was so bleak; so much for the modern, civilized world” Christian murmured, shocked and staring at her.

To be continued…

18. Death by Fear

“Its been a month and no news about the revolution yet. Did we make tea the rightful heir to the dreaded capitalist coffee rather than creating that much needed tea revolution?” wondered Noah.

“Or may be it is because we are living in this secluded area which carves for that name ‘the vampire island’. There is no possible contact with the Imperial Firmament or any civilized or semi-civilized world. Thats what makes us safe her from both Acheron and Bella. As this is not the vampirism she wants, and this is not the revolution that he can afford, we are good. We don’t sparkle, and we don’t drink coffee, both are not acceptable things for them, or are rather quite loathed” replied Jack.

“I forgot that you are a vampire zombie. May be we should tell a few of them to get us some newspapers”.

“They are not my people, and most of them are beyond help. You can go to them if you don’t value your blood not your brains, for they might drink the tasty liquid and eat the awesome food. You don’t need a newspaper unless you wish to make contact with Acheron giving him your exact location, and one day he may nuke this place”.

They stopped suddenly. There were sounds of screeching and screaming around, and it was getting louder.

“And what would that be?” enquired Noah.

“It should be some prank. The people believe that this house was home to spirits, as the building rests over a graveyard which had quite a history. But that surely is the result of some anti-social elements trying to make sure that people don’t stay here. As long as I am concerned, I have lost the belief in anything beyond the material existence.

“So much for the rational man. You never really believe in most of the things, right? But you don’t see the space, but can believe that Earth revolves around the sun and moon is a satellite. You have no problems about scientists making you believe about the planets and the solar system. That is good hypocrisy. You didn’t follow that journal after that didn’t you”?

“What journal? That guy Christian’s journal? You found more from it? Did he even know what he was writing when he was writing them down?

“Yes, I was just left without reading the ending, and I would not mind that because there was nothing positive to come out of it. But now I know that we have a purpose, and the divine hand is always there to lead us towards the same – what we lose here, we shall gain in the other world”.

“So these spirits, you think that they are real? Do you believe in these stories more than these ignorant people manage? Do they inspire you”?

“No, they don’t inspire me yet. But I believe that they exist for a reason, just like the sun, moon, the tides and the woods. Their existence is as mandatory as the presence of any living creature which was created by God. If they are real, I believe they shall not bother us unless they are extremely evil, and even if they do, I have this crucifix to protect me”.

“So where does that keep me? I guess I am a vampire, a creature from the devil? Where in the food chain and where in the material existence does that fit me into”?

“No, absolutely not. You were created human, and the thing that you have is just a disease, and it is the result of venturing out of path and believing in science and technology beyond the limits. You would have been a perfect creation if you could have lived with nature, but what is left of mother nature now? The science has taken it all, and the destruction that it has brought on us is equalled only by the ignorance of God that it has rained upon us and hurt our chances of redemption deeply. The devil is different and he shall come in many forms, but a vampire is not one of them, and a zombie inherits none of his cunning and cruel nature. Your existing humanity which fights against the disease as well as the sin is a sound proof for it. The demons might cross over to this plane though, and about the material existence, I would guess that they are just the minions of the devil himself, coming down to Earth with lesser power as the sons of eternal damnation as they are expected to be, but still being extremely tormented in pseudo-happiness”.

“If there is hell, I should still be worthy of it, and it should be better if I don’t believe. There is no hope about me that I am aware of. There is only that descent into that darkness of a possible zombie vampirism which can create that eternal fog before my eyes which could make sure that I won’t even recognize you enough to keep me from making a brain fried rice or blood shake out of you”.

“No, nobody is worthy of hell. I would still wonder about Acheron and Bella though. There is rarely such pure evil in this world. There is evil in abundance, and the amount of it should be incredibly shocking to any angel who has come down to Earth, but none of them worhy of eternal hell unless God judges them. We cannot decide on the same, as there is lot of hope for us, and we have to believe until the end of the world, the finishing line for this old world which they have lied to us as being modern”.

“So, can you try and talk these spirits, demons or whatever creatures which you seem to believe in”?

The sounds had reached a level which made talking amost impossible, as they could hardly hear each other. A shadow moved past them, which they didn’t notice, but they could see that the lights of the hall were blinking eyes as if tired of being lighted all day in a land of darkness.

To be continued…

17. Circeei’s Day

Christian slid along the bed until he fell from it. He immediately stood up on his legs and looked through the window to see total darkness outside. But there was enough light inside for him to notice that there were many inscriptions inside the room and also a symbol of cross. The walls seemed to be made of some variety of mud and the colours were all brownish and silver. There was the smell of spicy food around, and a few books were around, but none of them were made of paper.

“So you are finally awake” a voice from the darkness inquired.

Christian turned to the door to see the lady who was on his right side in the torture chamber. She was wrapped up with so many white bandages on her body that the very little silver clothing made her look like an Egyptian mummy covered in silver. She was moving with the help of two walking sticks and from the way she looked, there seemed to be some trouble with her eyes.

“You are alive. It didn’t seem so at that time. There was so much of blood loss and your whole body looked mutilated. The thought of the pain which each part of your body might have endured made me wish that I was dead rather than go through all of those” he said.

“Of course, I am alive. They never really had enough to kill me – it is not that they never had the power, but they wouldn’t make death easy for me, and that helped me in bailing out more than once. As you can see, I am still standing”.

“Who are you? What is this place and what kind of demons from hell are those creatures? Or on scientific terms, what kind of miserable sadistic aliens are they?”

“You can call me Circeei. It is not my real name though. To be frank, I never really had a name. Throughout my life, I have been known by code names, and they have slowly developed into Circeei replacing those 2s with Es and the 1s with Is, and as you might already know, it stands for the Goddess of Magic, for that spell which I have to cast for these people to save them. I was just born when myself and my parents were taken prisoners of war from the beginning of the third world war when the Northern Bloc became the most powerful of the superpowers. We were separated and we children were put in their experimentation cells. The plan was to create super-soldiers to change the direction of the war, but unfortunately for them, the war ended too early. But, they came up with a better plan later to increase our endurance to hostile environments and make us the first creatures on Titan. There were nine hundred of us, forced to run around under different test environments. As our survivor skills were tested, only three hundred and fourty eight of us remained”.

“But all the concentration camps in the Northern Bloc were decommissioned. The human rights groups checked each and every corner of the globe for anything that remained. The Northerns were even applauded for being the first Bloc do so and in the most efficient manner”.

“There lies the irony in it. They were the greatest champions of human rights on Earth, but on the Moon and later on Mars, they brutalized us with no mercy. One has to wonder what they call humans on another planet – aliens? After we were declared the slave champions who were to test the underground of Titan which could support human life, we were chained and taken into one of the largest space ships ever built, and were sandwiched between their code-signalling machines in the basement so that they eight thousand men and women from the Northern Bloc could use the vast world inside the ship and see us live in that underground and learn” said Circeei showing the writings on her body. “Some of the faded signs do go a long way back though, and I don’t want to talk about it” she added.

“These are codes? The secret transmissions which the Northern Bloc denied existence? So they planned this throughout. No wonder they were so hostile in claiming most of Titan. They must have always knew there was scope for pure life in the underground of Titan”.

“Unfortunately for us, they could hide all of these from the media. They literally own Titan. They could even hide this big a spaceship with the help of signals from Titan. They could also jam any signs of life here. What you entered was actually the entrance to this giant ship which covers the original entrance to the underground. It is not just a ship, it is big enough to be called one of the districts of the Imperial Bloc. I am actually surprised that they allowed your Bloc to exist here. I feel that you might slowly disappear from the map sooner or later. This symbol seen on your clothes of your Bloc on this planet might slowly be erased like our very existence were erased from the world, and there are so many things they can blame it on, including a little human negligence or a natural disaster of high level”.

“I should go and warn the others of my camp then. Some of mates have also gone to a Northern Settlement. From what I hear from you, none of them might survive”.

“You can’t go out right now. They might be outside. They are incredibly powerful in the darkness. We are effectively trapped out here. Lets see if we can work out a plan. We are going through desperate times even as I have seen worse. Even the concept of hell has remained just a word for me, as I have gone through most of it in reality, in this life itself”.

There were strange screams outside, but none of them seemed to bother Circeei. Despite of her lack of steadiness and the bandages, she didn’t seem to be in a mood to sit or take rest. There was a strange determination of the highest quality on her face. Christian was never this much affected by a revelation before, and he was keen to hear more about this new world of terror.

To be continued…

16. Ark of the Tea

Noah was sure that this plan was going to work. It was not really about his belief in his own ability or the skills of Jack, but it was more about the dumbness of Bella who was the weaker or may be the only weak link they could exploit. Jack was also confident, but still extremely careful about his moves.

“I have never met a willing parner before. The people of this city are so mean. They don’t even come close to realizing what big mistake they are making. They are such horrible creatures who don’t deserve to live under my father’s extraordinary leadership and incredible shelter. But I won’t give a damn and I don’t need to. I know exactly how my world needs to work and I can make it work, and the bottomline of the same is decided by myself” exclaimed Bella.

“I am quite surprised about the same. One has to wonder why it is so with such a lovely lady, and I am not even flattering – I haven’t started that process yet. Why would I need to use flattery anyway when there is so much of beautiful truth involved with you which cannot be avoided?” said Jack.

It was not that Bella was not used to flattery, but for sometime, she had the need to hear more of it. She had a shortage of people who praised her, as she stuffed most of them alive. It surely was fun for her, but she fell short of men due to the same. So, this was something that hit where it had to hit. The first impression was made, and it was the best and the most suited for the time.

“So, is there any place where you wish for us to go? I would leave that option to you and I am not even going to make you choose from my places this time. You seem to know how to treat a honourable lady and so why don’t you tell me what you want?” asked an impressed Bella.

“Why don’t we go to AchCo Pipelines? Won’t you like that?”

There was a few moments of silence. It was not exactly what Bella was hoping to hear – not even close to what he had expected. Any normal person would have wished to go to one of her grand cottages and enjoy the luxuries there. That would leave her baffled, but still happy enough, yet not without questions.

“Why would we want to go there? There are only rusty pipelines there and a lot of people who are quite disrespectful towards the honourable people like us”.

“Just for the sake of being alone. We can have some good time there, just you and me. I have heard that there is more to that place than what meets the eye. You can just send the employees home if you want to”.
“Not a bad idea. Let me make a few calls”.

As Bella goes on phone to make a call to give the employees an early holiday, Jack alerts Noah who doesn’t exit his workplace even after recording his exit. The whole place becomes empty very quickly as the order reaches there. But Noah waits there for the arrival of Jack and Bella and on their arrival, uses chloroform on Bella.
“Our time is now” said Noah.

They moved deeper into the inner sections of the building until they reached the ladder which lead to the lower side of the coffee vents. Noah manages to stop the flow and open one side of the vent while Jack places tea leaves inside it.

“Lets leave a message with it” said Noah

“A man can be destroyed but not defeated” said the message cards which were sent with the tea leaves through the vents.

Noah and Jack took the exit on the back side so that they could be sure that they don’t come across Bella if she awakens early. They were sure that they would be hunted on the next day as Bella would recognize Jack and the cameras would identify Noah as his partner in crime who had come up with this idea. They could be doomed; they were to be hunted, tortured and brutally murdered by Acheron’s men, not only for disrupting his money flow and power, but also for playing with and knocking out his daughter.

Bella’s response was surely going to be even more fatal. She is known for being dumb and strange, and certainly not for being the forgiving type. Her fury and the love for stuffed people might tell a greater story for the future generations. She would have some weird plans for her, and it is a twisted procedure that would start in her mind from the very moment she gets up. There would be no more games, and no more of being the nice person – there would be torment.

The only better thing other than self-satisfaction was that they had started a revolution, something which is clearly against the norms of a corrupt dictatorship. Their life might end and the revolution might begin with tea, something about which they were more sure than most of the other things of tomorrow. They might be destroyed, but not defeated on an eventful day. They might be executed publicly to a jeering or cheering crowd, and a lot of people would be there to see it. But they might have already made the difference by then, for there would be many acts of brutality and there should be excruciating pain and suffering, but there shall be revolution and there is going to be change, which used to be them, to be carried over.

To be continued…

13. Not the End

Dion and his wife were to be publicly judged and most probably executed, as they could know from their prisonmates. The concentration camps were for the lesser creatures who posed no threat to the government. It was a necessity if the Northerns were to keep their control over the Southern Bloc at least for enough time to earn money and resources for another war. A scene of public shame was to be created in order to make the king and the queen subject to humiliation in front of millions of their own citizens before their execution so that the last memory of the most powerful figures of the nation would be that of misery and complete helplessness.

It was time. Both of them were taken from their respective cells, stripped and hung from the top, stretched to the full. They were to have the signs of shame on every part of their bodies and those were to be their clothing during their public humiliation. As this was done using the latest laser technologies, they were to stay on the bodies forever, until it decomposes. It was a painful procedure, and it is that pain with which death had to be called upon.

They were then strapped to the front and the back of a car which slowly moved through the streets so that everyone could see. The bare bodies exposed to a light which burned the writings caused excruciating pain. The judgement panel was ready and the two were taken to the stage, gagged, stretched and bound to an “X” sign which stood for eX-terminate, and were turned towards the crowd for their full view. The chief judge removed his helmet, and it was the leader of the Northern Bloc, Laga.

“For the people of the Northern Bloc and the Southern Bloc, I start this totally fair and unprejudiced procedure of ultimate justice. The two people you see on the stage, wearing nothing, but the signs of deserving public shame, are those who are responsible for all the destruction and the loss of life which has happened to us. One of them is referred to as ‘the protector of the weak’ while all the time, he has protected and served nobody, but himself and his family, and now he has surrendered his people and has put them to slavery just so that his daughter would have a life of luxury. He has had his own time of luxury – see how much weight he has gained during the last few months when he sat in his office and ordered deaths. He has sold you all to us, but we will make sure that he pays for it, and you all shall get your due. On his side, she is the first lady to wear these symbols of shame, and it is a shame that all such beauty had to be torn with these letters. It is not about who she is, as her crime is the big lie that is more of a fact. Their child is not their own, and due to your new Act of Legacy, her illegitimate daughter was to inherit this man and rule you all for the next five years. She has not only cheated her husband, but also your supreme leader and the nation as a whole. She is also the reason for his misbehavior, as Lady Macbeth did for her husband, and she has to bear double the shame, but it is obvious that she cannot take it any more”.

As the whip came down on her, she hardly made a move. She was separated from the “X” sign and as she fell down, a rope was tied to her neck and she was slowly lifted as her legs searched for land to ensure her survival, which was not there. The first execution was complete. Dion couldn’t look as he was turned to the other side.

“We both know that the first thing I said is not true. But the second thing is actually truth of partial nature. The child you have is not your daughter. To be frank, your wife was never pregnant, and all the time she spent to have that child was more of the time which was needed for her to help her sister give birth to an illegitimate child. She took the baby back with her after her sister’s death and you took her as your own. How do I know all these? I know the father of the child, and I might have let that little one live a great life, but as the people are already given an impression that she is your wife’s illegitimate daughter which I can easily prove, it shall bring more dishonour to you and your family if she lives a life of shame. Your type should end there, and nobody should jump in the way of the Northern Bloc in the name of saving the innocents, protecting weaker nations, safeguarding the human rights and all the similar stuff which makes me sick. It is your time to follow your wife, but in a different way”.

There was a countdown going on. When it reached zero, Dion was without his head which had flown towards the body of his wife after a scythe had moved through his neck. There was blood all over, and there was silence among the crowd. They had removed the plackards supporting Dion, and even as they were shocked by the public humiliation and the bloody execution, they were certain that Dion had sold them to the Northern Bloc, and the defeat was more of a created result rather than fought. They wanted their revenge, and as Dion and his wife had met the end, they needed to show their anger on someone, and the only candidate for that was the illegitimate daughter of Dion’s wife who had the blood of the partner in crime, and for that they had to wait, but they were ready. Laga had his own proof which were mostly fabricated, but rooted in the truth that the child was not Dion’s, and the treaty that he had signed, which had more additions to it than he had read. The child was the new enemy of the Southern Bloc, and Laga was its new protector, who could bring in anyone as his man to rule his new territory.

To be continued…

12. Alien Suffering

“What are they? Aliens from beyond the galaxy or demons from hell?” Christian wondered. He tried to take his arms out of the chains, but it was perfectly bound. “Listen to me, you have got the wrong person in chains” he tried to reason with them. But none of the creatures seemed to care even a bit.

Many hours passed. For Christian, even the seconds were as long as the hours, if they were not days which had passed. The humanoids were still busy and there was no sign of movement from the girl on the right side. Two of the creatures took off her chains and she fell down like a petal of a flower. Whatever clothes or rags which were left on her body had turned red with her own blood. They tried to lift her up and make her stand on her feet. All of a sudden, she jumped on one of the creatures, and almost bit its neck off. The humanoids gathered around her to pull her back, and they grabbed her hair and clothes but there was no use, as she held on to the creature with her teeth. The attacked creature finally threw her off itself to reveal that its blood is blue in colour. As she fell on her back, she seemed to be in pain as she dragged herself slowly towards nowhere in her blinded state. The creatures seemed unaffected by the attack as they pulled her away into the next room.

They then took her back to the same position, and after giving her an injection, she was hung upside down with blood dripping even faster from so many wounds on her body almost as if there is no area in her body that has not been tortured. He felt depressed and sad about the girl who made such a valiant attempt, something which he is unable to do. He guessed that the four people on his left side might have been skinned alive. Even wind seemed to be afraid to go towards that direction. One of the humanoids came to Christian with a syringe full of a layered liquid and injected him with it. He felt a horrible feeling of burning throughout his body and sensed blood coming up his eyes and mouth. He screamed in his full voice, but they made a wound on his each hand and looked at the drops of blood dripping from it. He had hallucinations of battles involving advanced weapons of mass destruction and chaos on Earth and the ultimate devastation of both Mars and Titan. He was slowly losing consciousness when he heard a sound of something huge breaking and a bigger noise of some big explosion with a powerful light which almost blinded him. There was something going on around him and this time it was not torture. He was able to see nothing more than a little bit of smoke, a few masked men with unfamiliar weapons and the girl moving a bit and falling into the arms of a woman with a gun before he lost consciousness.

“What is is that you seek? Is it death, life or the narrow bridge between them? Is it hell, paradise or the purgatory where you need to end? Or did you just cease to believe in all of them?” whispered the voice.
“What shall my death bring? Is it the better of the three?” asked Christian.

“Why do you think about what is brought when your opportunity to bring one of the three upon yourself has not come yet? Why do you think about your spirit life when you still exist in the material life with so much to do? Why do you bother when God’s providence which your rational world call luck and your cynics call fate has brought you to such a situation from which your knowledge of the real truth shall make you free from the burdens of science and technology which has forced all these questions on you? Doesn’t it bother you enough to take you out of this illusion of a reality with the mask of progress and development? Is this modern world that you come across really not an extention of the ancient world which has used a visage of extreme vanity to go back far beyond the darkest of ages when the Original Sin had forced a depressing choice out of divinity?”

“What shall I seek then? Am I powerful enough? I lived all my life among the people who never understood me and still live with myself who is that much ignorant about my being me as much as anybody else. How do you define reality? And how do you describe this modernity that has lived beyond the evil of the earliest worlds?”

“You don’t exist. It is your essence that exists. As a whole, humanity survives, even as the question remains – for how long and where? But they exist, but without their essence. They are just random creatures brainwashed with ideas of science as truth, when human life was never supposed to be a result of theories. It was to be dependent on the essence that exists, but what we see now is the existence that exists. But you are different. You have the essence still active, which is why you are able to feel this will to strive, this desire to seek and find, and not give in to those theories of absurdity. You will not give in to human control which is just an optical illusion caused by those random people who claim that they have the final say. Look at the wars, the bloodshed, the torment – they are all the result of this development of technology which has made a bigger cannibal out of man than ever. They have all lost their essence; the divine essence which has been replaced by the inherent evil”.

“It is such a shame” remarked Christian.

To be continued…

11. Fate of Zeus

Asgard, the capital of Northern Bloc. In the year of our Lord: 2110.

“Sir, the world is staring at the Seventh World War. We have been a strong force in the Third, Fourth, Fifth and the Sixth World Wars, or I would rather say that we started them. But then, we were ready, not this time. This would be a war of the equals, and considering the alliances which have sprung up, we are the comparatively weaker alliance. I suggest we keep out of it” begged the army commander.

“I have been named Zeus for one reason only – to rule over the other gods. I shall be the ruler of this extended world of Mount Olympus. The Northern Bloc has never retreated from any battle without gaining something. We are the new Sparta; and I am the great warrior king of this legendary phalanx”.

“But a warrior king would lead from the front. From what you are doing, it is pure massacre of your own people. You are making the same mistake as Dion made for the Southern Bloc which benefited us. The only difference is that they did it for others and you do it for yourself. You think you can continue in power for long if you order this invasion? Or do you feel that this is your last chance on glory? Whatever be the thoughts, this is one of the worst decisions the Northern Bloc might ever witness. You shall be recorded in history as the most incompetent and terrible leader who lost everything which has been built by your predecessors on the sweat and blood of millions of our citizens and captured slaves alike. It is not that we are historically against war, for it has been a part of our life for long. But this is suicide, and for certain, this is madness of the highest degree to which any leader of a nation can commit to”.

“Well, unfortunately for you, this is not going to work. I don’t think that you can ever realize this, that I am a God King, a legend in the making. I am the new Constantine, who shall defeat the forces of the enemy despite being outnumbered, and shall be given the title, the great”.

“Constantine had his visions and the symbol of Chi-Rho. What do you have? Are you considering going back to religion at this point of time? Can you defy the Northern policy of irreligion till death and make that Constantinean shift in religion?”

“Religion? Why should I follow a religion or a God? I am the divine power for I own the most advanced scientific inventions, and I am the Lord of this world. To be honest, there is no omnipotent force looking after this world punishing the evil and rewarding the good. I shall do that instead, but I shall punish the ones who fail to bow down to me, and reward the ones who make me happy. Look at the world map. See how much land I own, and how much worshippers I have. This is not really the Northern Bloc. It is the land of Zeus, and I shall rename it once we win this battle. I will keep most of our enemies alive, and make an example out of them. They shall live a life in chains from which they shall beg for a rescue which can only be death and that is one thing that I won’t give them. They shall be dishonoured, humiliated, and tormented to the extremes. They shall know who the greatest of all humans is, and once they realize that, I shall provide them with their ultimate reward, which is death by decapitation”.

“We shall follow the orders, sir. But the result of this aggression is completely upon you, and nobody else”.

“Let it fall on me, the master tactician and your king of wisdom. Trust me or not, do as you are ordered. Mobilize the troops not only from Earth, but also from our other colonies and be prepared for a night attack on our neighbours. Lets start with them and make an example out of them. A day attack might be too predictable, and it would not be easy to murder civilians and collect them as slaves when there is too much light”.

“As you wish, sir” the commander exited after a salute.

“I should have been Genghis Khan” he murmured. “Constantine was too much of a hero. I am the hero only to myself, and for others, I shall be the villain; there shall be mass destruction and chaos shall rain upon everyone outside Northern Bloc. We need no allies; I take them all for myself. I shall improve on what small achievement we had during the Third World War. The concept of super-soldiers are still with me. The key to all of these might be in Titan. I need to send an army of special forces there, and I shall find one lady and her daughter and bring them to Earth. They shall suffer for what dishonour that lady brought upon my father. I have waited for so long and I am now very close to achieving that. We shall win the war for sure, and in the mean time, this is a battle which I shall personally win for my family. Her daughter shall head our army of super-soldiers, not as a girl, but as the thing. As for her mother, I have bigger plans. In her broadcast to the other blocs, she had come up with a big speech about suffering. She talks about pain, agony, dishonour, humiliation all that like she is the walking encyclopedia of all of them. May be she has suffered, and may be like most of the other humans have not yet, but she has not yet suffered in my hands, and she has no idea what fate awaits her.

To be continued…

9. Lone Wanderer

The world he knew was in chaos and it was time for him to take charge. The confusion was only getting worse. The hope was diminishing, and the faith was already gone. It was only in a little shade of belief that the whole thing was going forward. Hell might have had many names, but there was the need to make the world better than the infernal environment.

“It is time I make the difference” Christian told himself.

It was a wonderful evening if he was a photographer despite of the human sufferings. He walked and walked until he reached a cave. The machine had pointed towards the South as the right path which had more probability of survival. He believed in the machines and the signs. But the question remained how far the science had lead the humanity, and what other than chaos and destruction did it bring. The signs had become the better guide for him. It gave him hope which technology had taken away from him. He rested there for a day.

The new dawn had arrived and there was a strange music in the wind. He reached the side of what seems to be a frozen river, which was filled with a strange liquid in its frozen state. There was absolutely no contact with any life form yet. The light was high over the horizon. He decided to sleep near a tree-like structure. The silence had defeated the music and it didn’t take him much time to fall asleep.

The next day arrived and there was a lot of dust flying around for reasons unknown. He walked towards what seemed like a naturally created building. There was some movement around it, and he couldn’t figure out what it was. He felt that he could have a look and find out by himself. There was nothing else to be done.

Inside the structure, he found a path which lead downwards, and he was no longer guided by the machines, but by faith alone. He chose to go down rather than move straight towards nothingness which he encountered again and again. He went down the stairs which seemed never-ending. He could heard voices from inside the walls, but that didn’t stop him. Getting help was his only aim.

It took him about five hours to reach the bottom. There were a number of round mounds which seemed like houses of sand. There was an entrance to each one of them. None of them seemed to have life forms in them, but each of them had some pot-like things on the floor and seat-like projections extending from the walls. There were also some strange inscriptions on the walls which extended even to the tiny ventilations on the top. The whole thing seemed like a total mess.

He exited to pitch black darkness outside. There was nothing to be seen. But there were sounds of movements and there was something moving around for sure. The sounds had become incredibly creepy and as a sharp object touched his shoulders, he decided to run. His legs stopped only when his legs felt no ground, and he started falling a long way down until his body felt surrounded by water. There was something about the water that he couldn’t move at all. He was slowly losing consciousness.

He woke up the very next day, with chains on hands and legs, and he ended up staring at a humanoid with big green eyes and a small mouth from which fangs dropped out, and they were entirely without nose and the ears. It was wearing a black robe which covered its whole body which didn’t looked any less human except for the fact that they seemed to have just three fingers and the nails looked as sharp as the claws of a wild animal. It didn’t take its eyes off Christian. It was surrounded by many more similar creatures which were wearing almost the same type of dress and looking the same, the only difference being in the height. They were busy working on some kind of keypads which manipulated some strange signs on a huge black screen. There were also some creepy sounds around, none of them which were already heard on Earth or even on the surface of this moon.

When Christian looked on the right, he saw a beautiful girl who looked entirely human, also in chains, destitute of clothing except for the area around the waist and the chest. Her clothing was purely silver, and the eyes were tied up with a thin layer of white clothing. There was blood dripping from inside the white layer. Her skin was more brownish than anything else and her abdomen, lower back and tighs had the same writing as what was seen in the mounds earlier. The lower abdomen had a small cross-like symbol. The blood was flowing through these small carvings on her body until they reached a small bowl of blood which was almost full. She seemed to have no life left in her. He was shocked to find a bowl with just a single drop of blood just in front of him, which was slightly bigger in size.

On the left side, there were three male figures and a female figure who were completely bloody, and except for their heads, their bodies were completely covered in a white cloth which was almost red with the blood. There were holes instead of their eyes. The blood bowl in front of them was full and closed with a lid. Christian could feel the smell of death all around, and he could sense the strong presence of grimm reaper very close to him.

“Hell exists and so does the eternal torture and damnation, that is for sure. But what would I call this?” He asked himself.

To be continued…