Through the Gates of Hell

Chapter Seven

Walt had seen some wild things in his time, but he’d never seen someone heal the sick by praying to God. Lots of preachers said they could do stuff like that, but it always turned out to be some kind of fake or scam. Boom towns like Peaceful Valley always drew charlatans and con men hoping to squeeze some money from gullible rubes, and Walt had run into plenty of those. What Eleanor had done was something very different.

The strange thing was that she didn’t do anything different than what all those other preachers did. She said the same religious mumbo-jumbo they always said. So why did it work that time? Was Eleanor somehow more devout than the others? Walt doubted that. Eleanor was surely sincere about her beliefs, but Walt had known plenty of folks who were just as religious as she was, folks who believed in God right down to their bones. None of them could have done what she did.

A question nagged at him, a question he didn’t want to ask and truly did not want to know the answer to. Even thinking of the question felt obscene, it was so blatantly self-serving. But Walt thought it just the same.

Could Eleanor heal him as well? Could she call out to God and Jesus and Heaven, and have their divine power cleanse his body of the sickness that had taken hold? Was it even possible to heal such corruption? Walt’s entire body was saturated with dark stone, it was in his blood, it was in his nerves, it had a death grip on his brain. If God removed the corruption of dark stone, Walt felt like there wouldn’t be much left afterwards, and he would be nothing but a hollow shell. Maybe God could heal Robert of a simple spider bite, but Walt was suffering from much more than that.

Besides, Walt didn’t deserve it. He realized that was the real reason that Eleanor was able to heal Robert. It wasn’t just Eleanor’s purity of faith, it was Robert’s selfless bravery and heroism that made him a deserving recipient of Eleanor’s healing powers. Eleanor wouldn’t be able to heal Walt even if she wanted to, because Walt wasn’t worthy of God’s blessing.

That’s what he chose to believe. To believe otherwise might drive him mad.

He walked in the back of the group as they continued farther into the mine. The tunnel swerved to the left and right, then down at an angle before rising back up at a slight incline. Despite all the twists and turns, under normal circumstances, Walt’s sense of direction would be flawless. He usually knew exactly where he was in relation to the rest of the mine. If there was a vertical shaft straight to the surface from any point in the mine, he could tell you almost exactly where it would lead. But these were not normal circumstances, and this was anything but a normal mine.

Even an experienced miner like Walt had to admit that the deeper they went, the less confident he was about their location. The presence of dark stone distorted the surroundings, sometimes subtly but other times in extreme ways. Sometimes the mine shafts played tricks on people. Certain tunnels seemed much longer or shorter than they really were, rooms and chambers seemed to switch back and pass through previous tunnels in impossible ways, and tunnels seemed to change direction each time you traveled down them. In large enough quantities, dark stone warped the dimensions of the mine and made it impossible to tell what direction you were facing or how far you were from the surface.

And in this particular mine, there were large quantities of dark stone. Even if Walt had not known it ahead of time, he would have sensed it. At this point, he could practically smell the dark stone in the air. It was just ahead now, in the very next chamber. It was the entire reason Walt had come along on this ridiculous mission, but he felt strangely at ease. The burning and itching in his blood seemed to have calmed down now that he was so close to the source of his addiction. Despite the creatures they had already faced on their way down here, Walt felt completely safe and secure. He felt like he was coming home.

The tunnel leveled out and continued straight for about twenty yards. Robert paused and peered into the gloom, and then asked in a low voice, “Walt, is that another chamber ahead?”

“Yeah,” Walt replied.

“Okay, everyone be careful. Who knows what we might run into this time.”

They crept forward until they reached the entrance to the next chamber. Robert and Maggie held their guns ready, aiming into the darkness and squinting to see if there was anything there. Eleanor kept the lantern glowing bright, revealing a little of the chamber ahead.

Walt didn’t need to see, because he already knew. The chamber was in the shape of an L with the short end faced the entrance, and the long end turning sharply to the left, out of the reach of the lantern’s light. The center of the room had a thick wooden brace built up at the corner, which showed another dark passage going off to the right. Robert and Maggie carefully entered the room, but for the moment it seemed like nothing was there to threaten them.

There were some abandoned tools and pieces of equipment piled up against the wall. And lying right in the middle of the dirt floor was a faded brown leather satchel. The satchel was on its side, the top flap unfastened to reveal some items had partially spilled out. As the light from the lantern played across it, something glinted from the folds.

“What is that …?” Maggie started to say.

Wordlessly, Walt walked past the others as they hesitated in the entrance. He simply walked around them and entered the room, moving as if in a dream. He casually knelt down by the satchel and with his free hand, scooped the loose items back inside before closing the flap. With a long, uneven sigh, he gripped the strap and rose to his feet. He lifted the strap over his head to his other shoulder, so the strap went diagonally across his chest and the satchel rested on his opposite hip. He brushed some dirt away and patted the satchel with something that almost seemed like affection.

Robert was the first to speak. “Is that was I think it is?” he said, an edge to his voice.

Walt looked down at the satchel. It seemed to glow with an aura that only he could see, and it felt hot against his side. “I reckon so.”

“There’s dark stone in that bag, isn’t there?”

“Yeah.”

“I should have known. Is this what you brought us down here for?” Robert asked accusingly. “Did we really come all this way just so you could get your hands on your damned dark stone?”

Walt didn’t really care much what Robert thought. Robert was a good man, but even he didn’t really understand the lure of dark stone. He probably figured Walt was just being greedy, but greed had nothing to do with it.

“No,” he said calmly, still admiring the satchel at his side. “You came here to find some kidnapped folks. But this is my property. I came to get it back.”

Robert clenched his teeth and seemed on the verge of raising his voice. He was clearly furious, and only barely holding it in check. “And you brought us down here with you. Tell me the truth, Walt. Is this really the mine where those creatures came from?”

“’Course it is. We found old Elijah already,” Walt replied.

“We found someone,” Robert admitted. “You said you weren’t sure it was him.”

Eleanor stepped between them. “Robert, please calm down. That poor man we found had only passed away recently. He must have been one of the victims from last night. And the beasts and demons we have already faced are proof enough that this is the correct place. This is where we need to be, I’m sure of it.”

“He lied to us,” Robert said, as if that was all that needed to be said.

Walt shook his head. “I didn’t tell no lies. I told you I knew where those folks got taken, and I could take you there. And that was the truth.”

“You came here to get dark stone!”

“Robert, it doesn’t matter now,” Eleanor said. “Walt has been at our side this whole time, fighting the servants of evil right with us. Maybe he should have been more forthcoming, but I don’t believe it changes anything about our current situation.”

“He should have told us about the dark stone.”

Walt shrugged in response. “Maybe. Wouldn’t have changed nothing.”

“Yes, it does change things,” Robert insisted. “I need to know that all of us are here for the same reason. What if we find the victims and we need your help, but you decide to run off on your own to grab more dark stone?”

“I came to get this,” Walt said, patting the satchel. “That’s all.”

Robert looked at him forcefully. “Well, now you have it. The question is, are you going to stick around now that you have what you came for?”

“I can’t leave,” Walt said in a low voice, as if speaking to himself. “Besides, we’re almost at the bottom of the mine, anyhow. Might as well keep going to the end.”

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