Through the Gates of Hell

Chapter Fourteen

Robert grabbed her good arm. “Come on,” he said urgently, “We have to go, now.”

He pulled her upright and she managed to get her legs under her. She kept her left arm held tightly against her side, grimacing against the pain and the wave of dizziness that swept over her. Her legs felt queasy and she leaned on Robert as they began to make their way out of the chamber.

From the glowing doorway emerged a figure that at first glance, almost looked human, but was clearly not. It was dressed in a shabby, tattered green shawl that covered its head and torso but left its limbs bare against the cold. Its skin was a pasty gray and showed lines of crude stitching, and strange metallic knobs and pieces fixed into the skin. It wore a black hood through which glowed a pair of yellow eyes. In its curled hands was a long metal pole with a sharp hooked end like a scythe.

And it was not alone. As soon as it came through the doorway, it was joined by two others, and they stumbled forward in jerky, uneven motions, as if first learning how to walk. From under the hood came a hissing, spitting noise that might have been an attempt at speech.

As Maggie and the others made it to the entrance of the chamber, Maggie looked back one more time to see a fourth figure materialize from the doorway. This one was a giant, towering over the others at more than eight feet tall, with chalky gray-blue skin, wearing a long greasy cloak. Its long-fingered hands both held gleaming metal weapons that looked like surgical tools, as it turned an oblong head in their direction, wearing a pair of gray goggles with demonic red eyes.

“Come on, come on,” Robert urged.

“I’m trying,” Maggie gasped. The pain of her broken arm was radiating across her entire body, overwhelming her with throbbing pain. Every clumsy step she took sent spikes of shooting pains up her spine. It blurred her vision and made her nauseous, and soon it was an all-consuming agony that burned until she felt delirious.

“We can get back to the mine,” Robert was saying. “Just stay with me and keep moving. Lean on me if you have to. We’ll get you to a doctor right quick when we make it back to town.”

He took Maggie’s right arm over his shoulders, and had his left around around her waist to keep her upright and moving. He was practically supporting her entire weight, and it was taking its toll. His breath came out in rapid white puffs in the freezing air. Maggie was in so much pain that she barely even felt the cold.

They crossed the large courtyard, fighting their way against the powerful wind, which pushed at them like a malevolent entity trying to force them back into the chamber. It was much darker now, although it was still light enough to see. Eleanor was several paces ahead of them, the lantern bobbing wildly in her hands while she also carried little Hannah, cradling her in her arms. The girl was barefoot and couldn’t walk on the freezing cold stones. Eleanor kept looking back to make sure Robert and Maggie were still there behind her.

Maggie wasn’t in a position to look, but Robert glanced back a few times to make sure they weren’t being followed. But the creatures that had come through the doorway had elected to remain in the chamber and not pursue them outside. Maggie couldn’t help but wonder where they had come from. Did that doorway lead to yet another strange world even more alien than this one? For all Maggie knew, those creatures weren’t any danger to them at all. Maybe they were just explorers on a personal mission of their own. Although somehow, Maggie doubted that.

Maggie was the one slowing them down, but they were hurrying with reasonable speed. They reached the next intersection and turned right, and then made their way down another long, winding passageway. Maggie wished there was snow on the ground so they could follow their own footsteps back, but the wind scoured the ground clean. Eleanor seemed to know that they were going the right way, but all these passages and twisting alleys looked the same, and it would be maddeningly easy to get turned around. What if they got lost and couldn’t find their way back to the doorway? Or even worse, what if they found their way back, but the doorway was no longer there?

Eleanor led them around a corner and Maggie saw that they were back at the other structure, the place where they had fought the strange mechanical spider things. It seemed like it had been hours ago. The sight of something familiar gave her a little bit of hope, reassuring her that they were going in the right direction, at least.

They quickly made their way through the structure, not slowing down. Soon, they were back outside again, finding themselves back in the other large courtyard with the collapsed statue.

“Not far now,” Robert grunted with exertion. “You still doing okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Maggie said, breathing hard.

She was about to say something else, when suddenly a bestial howl echoed across the whole courtyard, freezing them all in their tracks. The sound was an animal roar of fury and hatred, and it felt like a knife in Maggie’s heart.

“God, no ...” Robert gasped.

They all looked up in horror to see bulky white figures swarming up atop the uneven walls of the courtyard, jumping around and waving their arms. Maggie couldn’t believe her eyes. The creatures looked almost like huge gorillas with stiff white fur.

One of the creatures leaped down with a roar, landing on top of the main section of the ruined statue. Up close, it looked less like a gorilla and more like some kind of demon born in a world of ice and snow. It had a huge mouth lined with jagged yellow teeth, and glared at them with glowing red eyes. Steaming drool spewed from its mouth, and its long arms ended in huge black claws.

The gorilla turned towards Robert and Maggie first, but then spun and advanced on Eleanor, who was backing away in fright, holding Hannah’s face against her chest so the girl could not see.

Robert swung his shotgun up with one hand and pulled the trigger. The gun boomed and the gorilla’s back took the full force of the blast, erupting in blood and clumps of white fur. It screeched and collapsed forward, tumbling off the statue.

Maggie could barely stand from the pain, but she clumsily drew her pistol with her right hand. She took aim and fired just as the gorilla tried to stagger to its feet. Her shot struck it in the temple and exited through its eye, blowing out a splatter of blood onto the broken stone.

The other gorillas screeched and descended upon them, more than a dozen climbing and jumping down the walls like an avalanche.

“Eleanor!” Robert cried, trying to open up his shotgun to reload. “Run! Take Hannah and get out of here!”

“I can’t just leave you!” Eleanor called back, tears in her eyes.

“Go! Before it’s too late!”

He managed to drop two more shells in, and closed the shotgun, struggling with the effort of holding Maggie up against him. The gorillas closed in and he fired, his shot taking the first one directly in the face, blowing it off its feet. Maggie fired two more times, seeing the bullet as clearly as she ever had, her two bullets each hitting the gorillas right in their hearts. One of them was running straight at them, and it toppled to the ground, dead on its feet. Robert swung his gun up and fired at one of the creatures as it descended down the walls. At that distance, the buckshot didn’t kill the creature, but it was enough to jolt it loose from the rocks and it fell the rest of the way, landing hard on the stone tiles. But more were coming, at least twenty of the brutish creatures flooding into the area.

Eleanor hesitated one moment longer as the gorillas swarmed down the walls. She clutched Hannah tightly and made the sign of the cross. Maggie couldn’t hear her words over the sound of the gorillas shrieking, but her mouth moved, “God bless you both ...”

She turned and bolted around the statue to the next passageway, turned a corner, and was gone.

Maggie’s left side was numb, the pain covering her like a shroud, and it felt like she was trapped in slow motion while the rest of the world moved at full speed. With a flick of her wrist, she popped open the pistol’s chamber and tilted it back to eject the spent cartridges. She jammed the gun into her belt and fumbled in her pocket for more rounds. Her face was covered in a sheen of sweat from the pain and effort.

All the while, Robert was retreating backwards, bringing Maggie with him. He racked two more shells in and fired away at the gorillas. Somehow, all of them seemed focused entirely on Robert and Maggie. Not a single one of the creatures had chased after Eleanor. Maggie was certain that it was another miracle, another moment of God’s grace blessing his faithful servant.

Maggie managed to reload with one hand, but some of the bullets fell out of her hand and were lost on the ground. She snapped the chamber into place and drew the gun to fire at a gorilla just as it leaped right at them. Robert was struggling to reload and unable to get his own gun up in time. Maggie shot the creature in the forehead and it roared in pain, reeling back. Robert pointed his shotgun right in the center of the creature’s chest and blew it away.

The creatures screeched and waved their arms menacingly, but did not advance any further. Enough of them had been killed that the others were hesitant to continue. It gave Robert and Maggie time to retreat back into the structure. Maggie’s feet stumbled and Robert had to haul her upright, practically pulling her along with him with one hand, aiming his gun with the other.

As they made their way through the dark building for the third time, Maggie felt tears running down her cheeks. “Please,” she gasped. “Just go. Leave me here … I’m just slowing you down ...”

“Absolutely not!” Robert snapped. “Don’t talk that way! I came here to save people! I’m not leaving someone else behind in their place!”

The gorilla creatures, howling and snarling like mad, edged further into the doorway of the structure, following at a safe distance. There were more than ten of them, but Maggie was in no condition to count them all. It didn’t matter. There were too many of them to shoot.

“How many … shells do you … have left?”

Robert just shook his head. “Three, I think. Plus these two.”

“I dropped … some of the last bullets I had,” Maggie said miserably. “I don’t think … I have enough left … to reload again.”

They made their way back outside and Robert paused to catch his breath. He looked around in growing panic, hoping maybe there was some other way for them to go. But then he had to grab her tightly and keep them moving back, as the gorillas summoned the courage to pass through the building, snarling and shrieking at them, their eyes glowing with hatred and demonic hunger.

Against their will, Maggie and Robert were being herded back the way they had come. Hounded by the gorilla creatures the entire way, they returned all the way down the passageway to the next intersection. To their left was the path leading back to the huge chamber where they found Hannah and fought the goliath demon.

As soon as Maggie glanced in that direction, she saw a figure hobble into view. It was one of the creatures that came through the doorway. In the brighter light, it seemed even more misshapen and diseased, its limbs crooked and disfigured, like a human being who had been disassembled and put back together wrong. The creature studied them but did not come closer.

“Can’t go that way,” Robert grunted in understatement. He pulled Maggie up straighter and took a few breaths. “Ahead or right?”

“Ahead,” Maggie said weakly.

She was able to shuffle her feet clumsily forward, but without Robert to steady her, there was no way she could walk with any speed. The throbbing pain was like a heavy blanket draped over her. Moving at all felt like she trying to push her way through thick soup, and it drained what little strength she had left. Burning redness enveloped her vision, the pain so agonizing that she could barely see straight.

But she kept going, kept her feet moving, trying to reduce the strain on Robert as much as possible, even though she knew it was hopeless. They were never going to make it out of there alive. Both of them were nearly out of ammunition, and there was no chance they could get past all those creatures and return to the doorway.

Maggie prayed that Eleanor and Hannah made it back. Maybe Eleanor really was some kind of conduit for God’s power, and if so, Maggie hoped that there was enough power left for her to bring the girl home. But either way, Eleanor was long gone now, and Maggie and Robert didn’t have God’s power to protect them anymore. They were on their own. To make things even worse, it was growing even colder, and starting to snow. If the demons didn’t get them, the freezing cold would.

Time seemed to drag into one long terrifying, excruciating moment. Maggie’s world narrowed down to a sliver of vision to see the twisting passage in front of her, and the weight of unbearable pain crushing her like a vise. She could still hear the sounds of their pursuers close behind them. Robert’s arm was around her, and she could hear his voice telling her to keep going and not to give up. She didn’t have the strength to respond anymore, but she kept moving in defiance of the pain, in defiance of the world itself.

The passageway ended in a huge stone door carved with symbols. It was halfway open, leading to another dark interior chamber. Robert hesitated and panted heavily for breath. His reserves of inner strength and courage must have been endless.

He leaned close to her face and said, “There’s no other way. We have to go inside.”

“What if .. what if there’s something … there?” Maggie asked weakly.

“Well then, we’ll do what we have to do. But we can’t go back.”

“I’m sorry, Robert,” Maggie whispered, looking up at him. “God, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. We ain’t dead yet. Maybe we can close the door after us or something ...”

“You should have left me.”

Surprisingly, he gave her a smile. “Come on, now. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Maggie struggled up straighter on her feet to allow Robert a more secure grip around her waist, and together they limped through the door, entering another disorienting chamber full of moving shadows and eerie glowing red runes. It was obvious that there was no way to close the door behind them, it was too heavy to push and seemed to operate on gears or some other mechanism.

This chamber was larger than the other ones. The enormous size seemed to swallow them up, and without Eleanor’s lantern to light the way, the darkness seemed to creep in, reaching for them with hungry claws, flooding into their minds and drawing out their very worst fears. Maggie knew for certain that if they stayed in this darkness for too long, it would drive them both mad.

But the room was not entirely dark. There was a faint glimmering light coming from far in the distance, seemingly miles away. Without any other point of reference, Robert and Maggie made their way towards the light. All around them, the darkness closed in, and they heard strange noises from all sides, like whispers of insanity trying to find a way into their minds. They could not look back now, they had to keep going or else they would be lost. Maggie focused all of her thoughts on what was real. The only thing that mattered was the firm grip of Robert’s hands around her waist and gripping her arm. Together, they traversed the maddening darkness, even as the sounds of pursuit increased behind them, the clicking of claws, the growling of monstrous throats.

The light shone ahead of them, revealing its source. Incredibly, it was another glowing magical doorway, pulsing with blueish light. But before Maggie could even consider the risks of going through another doorway like that, something emerged from the shadows just off to their right and moved to block their path. Maggie was so tired and so overwhelmed by pain that she barely reacted, she simply tilted her head up and looked upon the visage of their final enemy.

It was a creature made of gleaming silver metal, standing ten feet tall, with four massive arms ending in mechanical hands and opened and closed with the sound of grinding metal. It had no head, but one burning orange orb right at the top of where its neck should have been. Dimly, Maggie recognized it as the same orb the mechanical spider creatures had. Was this huge metal titan a similar kind of machine? Had it been built by the same people who had built this deranged alien city? Maggie and Robert would never know.

They did not stop. Robert practically dragged Maggie toward the magical doorway, barely slowing his pace as the gigantic metal guardian stomped towards them. There was no point in trying to shoot at it, all they could do was run.

Then the guardian stopped unexpectedly and turned its body back in the direction they had come, and Maggie realized that the sounds behind them had not been figments of her imagination after all. Something had been following them, and now it had drawn the attention of the metal giant. The guardian turned away and began to stomp in that direction.

The entire chamber seemed to rumble with a sound that made Maggie’s blood run cold. It wasn’t the screams of the white gorillas, not the grinding of metal gears, not even the demonic roar of the tentacle beast that had killed Walt. It was a grunting sound, low at first and almost unidentifiable, until it started to rise in pitch, and increased in volume until it echoed in their ears.

Laughing, hideous inhuman laughing, like the demented cackle of a madman, but the voice could not have been from a man. It was the laughing of a violent alien intelligence, something beyond the understanding of human minds, something pulled from the void of insanity. Tortured, screaming laughter that dug into Maggie’s soul and threatened to drag her screaming down with it.

The magical doorway loomed ahead of them, swirling with light and energy, the only light in the all-consuming darkness. Maggie was nearly lost, on the brink of madness, but Robert was like an anchor holding her fast to reality.

He did not hesitate. With one final step, he pulled both of them through the doorway and into another world.

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