Chapter Text
Once the hole was made, the twins and Elaine crawled through with varying difficulty. Jason managed easily. He turned to pull Michael through the shoulder-wide gap, and in his brother’s grip, he went limp, swearing only a little. Elaine, thinner than the twins yet hampered by her mangled, bleeding shoulder, struggled. She scraped against the stone, every movement pulling painfully at her torn skin. A new cry escaped with each movement. Once through, she knelt and doubled over in agony. Rayan and Fahtima waited—battered, bloodied, but in better shape. Rayan had three gashes on his face, scattered across his face as if wildly swung at. Still, he kept spirits up, gripping a rusted sword. “From one of the dead things,” he explained, boasting about pinning when they unwittingly stumbled into its cell. Fahtima nursed her bruised jaw, another wound she said was from their failed resistance as they were separated and dragged away.
“Where’s Chelsea? Where’s Veronica?” Jason demanded, tense. Fahtima’s expression soured. “They didn’t really give us a fucking map. I just keep hearing the mouth-breather over the intercoms, and he told us to get out.”
The intercom crackled overhead, the ancient electricity coming to life with a quiet hum. "Impressive," Heisenberg's voice echoed above, more matter-of-fact than before. "Mother Miranda will be interested to hear of your progress. She wanted me to provide encouragement to keep you moving forward."
Elaine finally sat up, pressing her functioning hand against the stone wall next to her. “Is it a new arm? A bath? Not being murdered?” Michael crooked a grin. “I’ll settle for an ankle that works.”
Heisenberg’s laugh was vicious. “Anything you want, if you make it out. Not far now, and you’ll find your precious women.” He paused, as if choosing his next words carefully. “Chelsea and Veronica were asked to abstain from the game, you see. Mother Miranda took personal interest in them, and who are we to deny our Mother from all that intrigues her?” As Heisenberg’s tone grew steely, Elaine felt the hair on her neck rise. She tried to stand, biting back a moan as she pushed herself up. Rayan quickly moved to her side, wrapping an arm around her waist from behind and steadying her as she rose, offering his support.
“Then let’s get out of here,” Fahtima said, stepping forward. She bent, gripping her long-handled hammer at the base. With effort, she hoisted it off the floor, raising it upright in both hands. The breach in the wall made her weapon’s formidable size obvious. It was almost overwhelming in her grasp. Fahtima shifted her weight to balance the hammer, the heavy head dropping to the ground with a large thump as she moved. She staggered, caught herself, and adjusted her grip. Suddenly, Heisenberg’s voice interrupted: “Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast, spitfire,” he taunted. “I haven’t given you my gift yet.”
They heard a chorus of metal clamor down the hall, a moan echoing in the distance. “You have two options, kids. Go down this hallway and meet more of Lady Dimetrscu’s hungry children. I know big sister enjoyed her time with one of them.” Elaine flinched, her shoulder burning at the reminder of being torn open. “Or, take the long route. I’m sure you're all tired, but you’ll figure it out. I wonder how much longer poor Chelsea has until she...” Heisenberg trailed off, and Jason pushed past Fahtima, his back ramrod-straight.
“Shut your fucking mouth. When I find my sister, she'd better be taken care of,” he yelled, glaring at nothing. Fahtima gripped his shoulder and shot Elaine a hard look. “She’s not going to make it through those things,” she whispered. Jason turned to Elaine. “You can do this. We’ll watch your back.” He reached a hand toward her. She exhaled, touched his fingers. “Yeah,” she said. Her voice was flat—no conviction. But anger flickered inside, fighting the fear down. “Is Veronica safe?” she shot upward. Silence. Her stomach twisted. She looked to the Rayan, standing behind her. He was staring at her shoulder. He couldn’t meet her gaze. She tried to look at it, flinching at the movement. It was gnarled and still bleeding, but slower than it had been before. The sight made her feel lightheaded. She let her gaze drift away, then back to him. He tried to raise his eyes, finally looking into hers and giving her a half-hearted smile. He stepped forward, placing a hand on her waist. “Veronica’s tough. I’ll get you to her.” She managed a weak smile back. “Hand me that?” she muttered. He grabbed the metal rod, helping her to her feet. He turned to Michael. “You’re with me, big boy,” he said, putting Michael’s shoulder over his for support. Michael was silent, staring at his twin’s profile. Jason looked to him, gaze drifting over their splintered group. “Let’s do this,” he said flatly.
They moved slowly, drawn toward the moans growing in fervor. Elaine tightened her grip on the metal rod. Her knuckles whitened. Her body trembled with fear. Nothing could be done—either die slowly or not at all. As they crept under the yellowed hallway lights, they noticed the lights ahead flicking on, one by one. To Elaine, it felt like a twisted reward for their bravery. Cells appeared on either side, set into weeping, moss-covered stone. Water pooled on the floor in small patches. It was tinged with what Elaine hoped was rust and rot. The inside of the cells looked familiar. Some held chains hanging from the ceiling. Others had small cots and boarded corners bound with metal. What was this place? Prison. Torturer’s lair. Or a gruesome blend of both? Elaine still couldn’t decide.
“Stop,” Fahtima whispered to them, holding her hand up.
They could see, as a final light flickered on, a metal door. It was set into the stone at the end of the hallway, and a blinding white light could be seen from between the cracks of its decaying frame. On either side of the metal were cell doors, unlocked and swung open. The moans were now loud, as if small armies hid just out of their view in the cages ahead. Jason looked at them, nodding. “Now or never,” he muttered, and they all nodded back in response. Now or never. Fahtima’s face turned grim, and she tightened her grip on her hammer, pulling back and slamming it into the metal bars next to them. The resounding clang rang through the air around them, and the moans stopped. They all held their breath, waiting to see what they attracted to them.
The moans gave way to feral roars as bodies began spilling from both cells, stumbling over each other in a slow, uncoordinated rush. Fahtima took the lead, raising her hammer over her head and smashing it down onto an approaching undead. The creature collapsed, oozing black blood, but its hand still reached out to them from the floor. Before it could rise, Rayan advanced, holding the battered sword with both hands, and stabbed the monster through its head. The creature hissed and shuddered, then fell still.
More of the undead shambled behind. At least half a dozen of them reached forward and around each other. Their jagged nails clawed with mindless intent. As Rayan struggled to pull the decaying sword from the monster’s skull, Fahtima raised her hammer again. She swung at the chest of another as it stumbled into reach. The blow sent it howling, stumbling into another fiend behind it. This opened space for a new monster to leap forward. It grabbed Fahtima’s hammer handle and gnashed its teeth at her. She screamed, stepped back instinctively, and released the hammer. As she moved away, she stumbled into Michael. They tumbled to the floor together.
One of the undead threw itself from behind the crowd, sensing Michael and Fahtima’s weakness. Its teeth chattered in an almost-smile. Fahtima screamed as it climbed atop her, pinning her down and gnashing its teeth too close to her throat. Michael flung himself on the creature’s back, wrapped his hands around its face, and tried to jerk it backward—to bend it in half. Above, Jason had snatched up Michael’s discarded weapon. He jabbed it forward, piercing another beast through its forehead and flinging it aside. The thing crawled forward, grabbing Rayan’s foot in bloody teeth. Rayan screamed and thrashed, trying desperately to stomp it away. Instead, he stumbled into the arms of two more fiends. They dragged him to the ground, not wasting a second before tearing into his arms. Elaine tensed up at the sight. For a moment, a terrified part of her wondered if this was how she looked when a monster had torn into her. Was there as much blood then? She shook the thought away. Lunging forward with her spear, she didn’t quite stab the monster but knocked it off Rayan with a powerful blow. She spotted Fahtima’s hammer beside her. Fahtima scrambled out from under the now neatly folded undead, launching shoulder-first into the fiend that had pinned her brother.
Elaine balanced the hammer between her barely functional hand and her wrist, her torso screaming at her with the movement. She knew she wouldn’t be able to swing it with any significant force, but she stepped forward nonetheless, holding the hammer in front of her and moving determinedly. Adrenaline propelled her, and the crowd before her parted, the undead knocking against the walls of the tight space as she forcefully pushed through them, making her way to the other side. The door was within reach—monsters were on the ground, and they just had to move.
“Come on!” Elaine screamed, looking between her friends and the door. There was a lever beside it. She dropped the hammer and tried to pull it; it groaned but did not budge. Michael was pulled up by Jason, who stabbed at one of the monsters that had dragged Rayan down. He stumbled past, over their reaching hands, and flung his twin to Elaine. Michael immediately helped her with the lever, their combined weight lowering it gradually. The door rose, streaks of light dancing across the floor. “Fahtima, move!” Jason yelled, stabbing at another monster. Fahtima stomped on the final monster clinging to Rayan and yanked him upwards. Rayan screamed, arms bleeding, clinging to her and barely moving his legs. Jason reached desperately for the siblings as they ran and threw themselves against the door. Fahtima leaned her brother into the wall, then grabbed her hammer where Elaine had dropped it.
The monsters were rising; only a few remained. They slowly lumbered forward, and Fahtima cocked her shoulders back, leaning into her swing. Two of the three did not rise again. Elaine and Michael were making little progress; the door now barely opened to above their ankles. Elaine lifted her feet, her hands and shoulders screaming as she did so, her adrenaline not enough to take away the searing pain that coursed through her. The door jerked up to knee height, and Rayan ducked down underneath, resting the door on his shoulder and rising shakily to his feet. Tears streamed down his face as he did so, his body quaking under the weight of the metal. “Fahtima, move!” he screamed, staring desperately at his sister. She looked back, throwing her hammer forward into another fiend that caught the full force of the metal on its chest, flinging it backwards. She ran, sliding to her knees and crawling under the door, into the outside.
Jason stabbed at another of the monsters that ambled forward, launching the pointed edge of the metal through its chest. It stumbled back, taking the rod from his grasp as it collapsed. He looked over his shoulder and gestured for Elaine and Michael to move through the opening. “Move, now.” He looked at Elaine as he said it, and she nodded, grabbing onto Michael’s shoulder and pulling him down. She scrambled past Rayan’s trembling frame, pulling herself onto the cold ground outside. Michael sat under the doorway frame, staring at his brother. Rayan screamed again, under the full weight of the door, and Michael rose to his knees to try to hold the weight. Jason looked at him for a moment, as another one of the monsters crept closer. Its mouth was gaping, its face was rotting and hanging loosely from its skull. It looks human, Elain thought. As if they weren’t the first to be locked in this ancient hellscape. Jason nodded at Michael and stepped forward, Michael moving out of the way of the frame to allow his brother to pass through. Rayan tried to raise himself higher, allowing for a more open space. As he moved, a fiend grabbed Jason by the back of his shirt, and Jason stumbled, looking back. The beast gnashed its teeth, its hand digging heavily into his shoulders. Jason swung his elbow back, knocking the fiend away. Another had stepped closer, grabbing onto his arm as he did so. The remaining monsters were closing in, and Elaine felt desperation crawling up into her throat, strangling her. “Jason, come on!” Michael cried out, holding his hand out for his brother. Jason smiled, looking past him and at Elaine. “Make sure Chelsea is okay,” he said simply, before kicking his leg and knocking Rayan out of the way. Rayan stumbled backwards, his weight thrown off-center by the shifting weight of the door above him. As he did, the door screamed and slammed shut, blocking their vision and sealing Jason within.
The outside world was silent. The air vibrated around the group. Rayan planted himself on the ground in front of the door, breathing heavily and staring into nothing. Michael sat on his knees before the door, his hands in his lap, eyes wide. “Jason,” he whispered. Then he flung himself forward, stumbling over his swollen ankle and into the door. “Jason!” he screamed, banging his fists into the door and trying to push upwards with the heels of his palms. They heard nothing from the other side. No scream of violence or gnashing of teeth. Just Michael’s desperate cries, giving way to pained sobs as he slammed his hands against the door. Elaine was shaking, her adrenaline fading and leaving her with a burning ache in her chest that begged her to collapse. Fahtima stood next to her, straight and tall, a hand pressed to her mouth. She muffled her whimpers, struggling to compose herself. Michael’s hands fell, and he slumped forward, head pressed against the door. Suddenly, he whipped his head around, pointing an accusatory finger at Rayan and crawling closer. “You could’ve held the fucking door!” he screamed, raising a fist as if to hit him. Fahtima flung herself between them, yanking Michael up by his shoulder. “Shut the fuck up,” she snapped, her gaze withering. Michael glared at her, eyes reddening with tears, his body shaking. “That’s my brother,” he whispered. She shoved her arm under his shoulder wordlessly. She flinched at the words; her tears didn’t stop. She looked at Rayan on the ground. “Get the fuck up,” she ordered. Rayan scrambled to his feet, swaying under the weight of all that had happened. Next, she looked to Elaine, who straightened her back and met her gaze, her body protesting with every movement.
“They said we could have whatever we wanted,” Fahtima said to the group, a hard determination setting on her face, “And we want our friends back. We saw him, and he isn’t going to just let those monsters get the best of him. We get to that awful fucking village, we get them to fix Chelsea up, and we get Jason the fuck out of there. Let’s move,” she snapped at them, before walking away from the door and down the hill. Elaine and Rayan were frozen in place, Michael silent and staring at the door as he was dragged away to a nearby worn-out path. Rayan looked down at the ground before looking up at Elaine, looking torn. “She may be right,” Elaine said to him, sounding unconvincing to even herself. Rayan looked over her shoulder again, and Elaine knew what he was thinking. “He may be able to get away from them,” she whispered, taking a step forward before stumbling into him and his gnarled arms. Rayan instinctively wrapped an arm around her and let out a wet sigh. “Maybe,” he said quietly, before turning both of them to Fahtima and Michael, following them slowly down the hill. As they all limped on, a dense forest around them unfolded. From somewhere within, something howled.