Shangrila?

I looked back at the trail of my descent; it had been steep and slippery the surface, with the dark slimy walls on both sides. I had discarded my back pack and tools to slide through some of the narrow openings; leaving me only with my climbing suit and torchlight on my cap. I looked back to the way forward and saw the shimmering light ahead. It could be my last stretch to my objective. I sighed as at that moment, I was sandwiched in between the walls, with hardly any space to move. Its only an inch away to the wide space. I knew I can do it.

Yes, I would.

And I did. I heave out my breath and squeezed hard through. I popped out on the other end, with a bruised chest while gasping for lungful of air. It was not an easy task and looking back, I knew it was going to tough to go back. So the only way was ahead. I pushed on with my weary body and soon saw the final exit from my two hours of descending climb down on the tunnel. I stepped up and looked at the scene that laid before me.

"Is that it?"

I was shattered. My ideal sight of Shangrila was actually a bill board of 10 high x35 across, that covered the actual scene behind it which was a large cavern with slimy walls but it had a large hole on the roofing for the sunlight to come in. On the cavern floor were rows of tables with gambling chips seated by enthusiastic patrons in the nude. I saw a number was called up when the patron lost all his chips.

"One to go back." The croupier was a twin horned demon with red flesh working the playing cards off the shoe box. The player was a man in his middle age, and protested that he was cheated. He was led away by two burly looking demon like creatures which grabbed the gambler's arms before flying off to the walls. They looked like they were going to slammed into it but actually went in seamlessly. Another gambler sat in, and displayed the chips. The game went on as usual.

"Where am I?" I shouted.

"In Hell, mate." I turned to looked at the voice who spoke to me. It was a man in a torn climbing suit with a wider girth and was hung upside down by the wall. He was not shackled or binded but seems to be plastered there.

"Hi, my name is Ernie. I did not gamble. I paid my chips to be dried out. I was waiting for you." The upside down man smiled at me.

"For me?" I looked at him.

"Yeah, people like you and me are suckers for the image of Shangrila. We thought it really exist. So we searched for it passionately, dying to out last breath, penniless to our last wealth and foolishly to our dream. I was like you, and came here. I was offered to dried out my dream but only get the pardon when someone else comes."

Whoosh! I found myself on the wall; upside down. I saw the other guy standing before me.

"Time for me to get real again." He showed me the case of gold he held in his hands. It was given to him by the twin horned demon who was to lead him out. "This is my redeeming gift."

"Hey, when is the next guy coming through?" I asked the twin horned demon, who may had been the Guardian.

"How would I know? They made a new movie named World War Z. It over shot Shangrila in the popularity index." The twin headed demon leaned over. "You might have a longer wait. Perhaps when they do the sequel of 'Shangrila 2: the Zombies invasion' in 2019."

It sounded like a long wait.

 

Footnote:

Hanging upside do helped to relieved stress. I do but its mostly lying on my bed.