Walk With Me In Hell

Chapter Ten

Louisa insisted on still walking in front, and she refused to let anyone else carry the lantern. Burt agreed to walk beside her, with Helen and Teshenah behind them. Burt honestly felt like Helen should be the one in front, since this whole thing was her idea, but he still possessed some old-fashioned notions about chivalry, so he took the lead even though every muscle in his body wanted him to go the other way. Burt was not a superstitious man, but this place utterly creeped him out. How in the world did any sane man work in a place like this? Now that he was actually down in one of the mines, he wondered how he could have been crazy enough to ever consider joining a mining crew.

And whatever tiny sliver of doubt he still had about the truthfulness of the miners’ stories was now long gone. Those flying lizard things were not beings of this world, they were from somewhere else. And now Burt and the others were going even farther down. Who knew what other nightmare creatures they might have to fight? He wished Louisa and Helen weren’t so stubborn.

The mine tunnel narrowed in places and widened in others, and some of the thick wooden braces were cracked or rotted. It was a miracle this mine hadn’t just collapsed on its own already. Every time the mine would veer to the left or right, Louisa would step forward and shine a pitifully weak beam of light up ahead.

If Burt had his way, they would have brought a dozen lanterns with them. The darkness was like a physical force pushing against them, fighting against the light, swallowing them whole. Teshenah carried a spare lamp they found in the first room, but without more lamp oil it was useless. And if the lamp Louisa carried ran out of oil, then they were truly doomed. Burt knew that if they were lost in the dark, then they were all as good as dead.

They thought they heard more strange noises up ahead, but after waiting for a minute or two, decided to continue on. The mine tunnel dipped down another slight incline, and then opened up into another chamber, this one slightly smaller than the previous two. More tools and equipment were scattered around, but nothing useful. However, this room had two branches heading farther into the mine, giving them a choice to make.

Helen looked at the two tunnel entrances and gestured forward with her rifle. “This one. Let’s go down this way.”

Teshenah was in the middle of the room, looking at the floor. Like he had done outside the mine, he inspected the dirt on the ground and then took a few steps toward each tunnel. He knelt down and touched the dirt leading into the tunnel Helen had selected.

“No,” he said quietly, shaking his head just a bit. “Not this way. This leads to a dead end. We should go the other way instead.”

Helen looked like she wanted to disagree with him, but Burt placed his hand on her arm. “He’s the scout, after all,” he said. “I think we should trust his judgment.”

She nodded and said, “Yes, you’re right. Okay, Teshenah, we’ll go that way.”

Burt gladly stood aside to let Teshenah walk in front of him. Now with Teshenah and Louisa taking the lead, they made their way down the second tunnel, which swerved back and forth a few times. Sections of the wall here were gouged and chopped up with piles of loose dirt everywhere, giving the tunnel a number of dark corners and alcoves.

Burt tried not to look into the dark spaces. He kept his gaze forward, at wherever Louisa was aiming their light. Every time he tried to look where the light was not shining, he felt cold shivers down his spine, and could swear he heard strange whispers in the back of his mind. The darkness clawed at them relentlessly, seeking gaps in their defenses, pushing against the feeble light of the lantern like water pushing against a dam, ready to flood and drown them all.

Louisa lifted her hand with the machete and pressed her forearm against her mouth. “Oh, do you smell that? It’s awful.”

“Yes,” Helen said in a strained voice, “I smell it too.”

Burt barely heard her. He couldn’t smell anything. All he could think about was the scratching voices just on the very edge of his perception.

The tunnel went forward and then it opening into yet another large room. As they crossed the threshold, the lantern’s light illuminated what appeared to be a group of figures standing near the opposite side of the chamber.

“My God!” Helen cried out, nearly dropping her rifle in surprise. “There’s survivors down here!”

She started to bolt forward, but Teshenah blocked her path and held her back. “No!” he shouted defiantly. “These are not men!”

Louisa screamed, and the sound was enough to shake Burt free from his distracted state. He raised his eyes to look at the group of people, and watched as they staggered closer into the light. They were men and women, nearly indistinguishable in ragged, filthy clothes, stained with mud and dark red blotches of dried blood. Their skin was a diseased greenish gray, and the putrid stink of rot and decay wafted off them like a wave.

Teshenah unslung his rifle and opened fire as the mob descended on them. Louisa screamed frantically and tried to get around them, while Helen gagged in disgust and raised her rifle as well and began to shoot.

Burt had seen men get shot before. It was never a pretty sight, even when the man getting shot was your enemy. There was always a reaction, a moment when the victim reeled back in shock, or their face fell as they realized they had been hit. When you pulled the trigger on a man, you could anticipate that moment, that brief flicker of recognition.

These people did not react. Bullets struck them right in the center of their chest and they didn’t blink, didn’t hesitate, didn’t even notice the shots ripping through their bodies. They just shuffled forward, arms outreached, mouths gaping wide in wordless cries of terror. Burt could not stand to look at their hideous, inhuman expressions, so he aimed higher and shot them right in the face.

Louisa and Teshenah got separated from Helen and Burt. Louisa was still screaming her head off, desperately trying to fend off the mob that swarmed around her. Helen got surrounded and suddenly flipped her rifle around and swung it like a club to make space around her. The heavy wood stock caved in the skull of a woman and she dropped to the ground. Helen spun around and swung the gun back around, racking in another bullet and shooting the closest man to her. The room flashed and burst with gunfire and screams.

Burt fired his sixth bullet and quickly flipped open the cylinder to shake out the empty shells. As he fumbled to replace them, a man with an unkempt beard and blood in his teeth surged forward and slipped through the mob to grab at him. Burt stumbled backwards, back into the tunnel, grabbing the man’s cold and greasy hands to keep him at bay. He slipped on loose dirt and fell over backwards, and the man toppled to the dirt beside him. The tunnel cut off the light, and Burt was marooned in the dark. The man scrabbled in the dirt and crawled towards him, snatching at his legs. Burt kicked him away and managed to get one bullet into his pistol. He snapped it closed, aimed at the shadow looming over him, and pulled the trigger. In the flash of light from the gunshot, Burt glimpsed the man keel over with a bullet hole between his eyes.

He could hear the others, but could not see them. The darkness was complete and overwhelming, like being lost at sea. The gun slipped from Burt’s hands as he clapped them over his ears to keep out the voices that were even now swarming around like icy tendrils, trying to pierce their way in. He kicked and screamed, but the voices kept coming, stabbing at him like knives.

Sarah was there. He saw her face, but not as it was when she was alive. She was like those people in the mine chamber, her skin a waxy gray and her eyes cloudy and white. She clawed at him with dirty hands, begging him to join her. The voices were numerous, like a crowd of shrieking banshees, but each one of them seemed to come from her mouth. And little Danny was there too, grabbing at his legs and calling his name. Burt sobbed and squeezed his eyes shut, but the voices would not leave him alone.

“Burt? Burt!” another voice, this one different than the others. Was it Sarah? Was she alive again? Burt had only the tiniest string to hold onto sanity, but he held on with all his might.

“Here! Grab him! Burt, drink this!” Something was forced between his teeth, and then whiskey poured into his mouth. He coughed and hacked, spitting it over himself, but the flash of fire down his throat was enough to shake him out of the depths of insanity. Coughing again, he grabbed the flask and drained the rest of the whiskey.

People were kneeling over him. Two women and a man. Burt remembered their names now, and realized where he was.

“Are you okay?” Louisa asked.

“Help me up,” he said, nodding. “Help me up.”

They got him back to his feet and Teshenah handed him his pistol, which he had tossed away in the throes of madness. He brushed dirt off it to hide the fact that his hands were still shaking.

“Are they all …?” he asked, looking around. “Did you get the rest of them?”

“Yes,” Teshenah answered. “Killed them, though they were already dead.”

Helen and Louisa looked sick, their faces pale and hollow. Burt figured he didn’t look much better himself. He steadied himself by reloading his pistol. They were all haunted by what they had just seen, but none of them were exactly ready to talk about it.

They walked back to the chamber, which was now a grisly scene with bodies sprawled all over the place. Burt looked across the corpses intently, wondering if any of them were going to get back up. The room stank of death and blood. It was more than enough to twist Burt’s stomach.

“Mine workers?” Burt asked no one in particular.

“Wendigo,” Teshenah said. “They are a legend among some of my people. They are like ghouls. These men were overcome by their greed, and now they are cursed to feed on the flesh of others.”

Helen was methodically walking among the corpses, looking at every one. She even checked the women, of which there were only a few. She made a circle around the room and then let out a breath, shaking her head.

“He’s not … he’s not here,” she said.

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