The stakes are raised
1.
Ford Dry Lake, Arizona
Kruger stepped off the old
vintage Army truck from the foreign war that ended thirty years ago but they
come cheap to the local pastor. He gunned up the truck to go over the dry gully
as directed by the Pastor. Miles who was reading the maps in the rear of the
truck gave out an expletive which the pastor choose to ignore. They been
driving for over three hour and the pastor had a old parchment in his hand.
"We should be there
soon."Pastor Martin Linear was the third generations of the missionary
family who came to this land to show the heathen then the right path to God.
The generations of the Linear have lost almost all of the first generation
before the only surviving one found his works was to keep the other settlers
with a parish to go to on Sundays. He built a church there and began the
service for the settlers Since then, his family have continue on the services.
He was told by higher authorities to be meet the two out of town guests. Father
Ricken told him to take the guests to the 'Hole'.
"Father Ricken, I don't
care what the higher authorities tell you. I am not taking anyone there."
Pastor Linear pushed the other priest away. They were in his church; a wooden
structure with living accommodations to the rear. The church sits a hundred
people during mass, but today its empty except the the four of them.
"My father died out
there and was never found. I am not taking you there." Pastor Linear was
very defiant in his words.
"Linear, stop the
hysterics. Your father was never found; only this parchment that he once owned.
Its does not say he died there." Father Ricken grabbed the arms of the
other priest. "This could be your chance to find him."
That was the line that
convince the pastor to bring the two here while Father Ricken had to go
elsewhere. Kruger took over the last hour of driving and figured that driving
in the jungle was not the same on dry lakes. Once they cleared the gully, the
pastor asked Kruger to stop.
"There is the tall dead
tree that was there for over a hundred years, and to the right at a hundred
paces would be the fallen obelisk." There was a long shaped stone carving
that fallen over. "The stone would point to the next clue; a dried red
gully."
Miles looked through this
binoculars and saw the gully a thousand metres away. Its river banks were
covered with red soil. He told the others he found the gully. They parked at
the river bank and got off. Kruger stooped down to feel the soil and noticed it
was very dry and harsh to the touch. Kruger then had to dropped the soil as it
was burning on his fingers.
"That's hot. It actually
burned past my leather gloves." Kruger keep on patting the soil off his
gloves. "It felt like ....Hell."
The pastor looked at the
parchment and then told the others to pack up. They are going for a walk along
the gully. The pastor was dressed in jeans and a checkered shirt, but now he
pulls out a high powered rifle with a scope. He also pull out a belt with a
revolver in its holster.
"Its was my father's
father and he was a gunfighter." Pastor put on the gun belt and checked
the bullets. He also carried on a leather knapsack on his back. "Silver
ones, crafted in his time. I used two before to down a vampire. Works
well."
Kruger put on the greaves and
grabbed hold of his sword while Miles checked his bow. He count his bolts and
took some extra ones in the extra quiver on her back. Pastor Linear lead the
way and walked along the gully. As he walked he looked for landmarks according
to the parchment. When he saw the final landmark, he stopped and reached for
the parchment. He read the words on the parchment and the dried red river bed
opened up in the middle to reveal a path that leads to under the ground. The
path was dusty and low in gradient going down. They keep on walking until the river
bed was leveled to their heads. They proceed on until the sunlight was shielded
from the path. Then the walls glow in red on the path ahead. It ended up in
cavern that resemble a scene from the underworld.
There are caves and mini
steam vents in the cavern, with slaves working the walls. The figures are of
man and women of all ages toiling at the walls while being guarded by ugly and
fiendish looking short creatures with over length upper limbs; they are given
the name as trolls.
"Who are you?"
Kruger turned his body to look at the hideous troll asking them. Kruger stopped
short of replying with his swinging sword taking the troll's head off. But the
alarm was raised by another troll who was standing a distance away. The other
trolls stopped their guarding and reached for their weapons. Pastor Linear was
fast to react with his precision shooting on the rifle. He took the frist troll
at a distance of two hundred metres with a head shot. Then he moved his rifle
to a charging Troll and shot the creature off its charge falling back by three
metres.
Kruger had joined in with a
leap towards a Troll standing a level below him. He landed on the creature's
back and thrust the sword into the chest with a downward move. Another troll
swung the mace it was holding but Miles had dropped the creature with a bolt
from his cross bow. Kruger showed his thanks with a nod and side step to swing
his sword to stopped another approaching troll.
Meanwhile Pastor Linear have
emptied his rifle, and reached for his revolver. He has been practicing for a
long time on empty cans and bottles but now he was drawing on real targets; the
dreaded trolls. Once that was emptied, he took out the sawn off shotgun and
emptied as he walked around the cavern. He moved in between the slaves and
shoot any approaching trolls. He emptied his guns and stopped to reload his
guns. A troll was approaching from the rear of the pastor and raised its mace
when Kruger run his blade into the troll.
"Pastor, I think we done
all of them." Mile was still holding his bow. He did fire only two bolts
while he was calming the slaves; the pastor took care of the last one of the
trolls. Miles went around and checked on the slaves that was not rounded up
before.
But it was the pastor who
shouted in joy; he found his father.
"Father, its me,
Martin." The pastor approached the older man who was covered in rags.
"Can you not recognise me?"
"Martin-n-n? It can't
be." The one confronted by the pastor shook his head. "You can't be
here. You are not dead. I am already dead. I was killed by the ghouls. Please
leave."
"No, father. We can
leave here together. Please come with me, father." Pastor Linear begged of
his father. "I been traveling this gully so many times, but this is the
first time I can see the landmarks."
"No, this not
right." The older man told his son. "You got to leave me here. But
you can do us right. Please perform the last rites for us."
The slave all stood before
the pastor and looked at him. The pastor nodded to the request. He did the last
rites and the slaves started disappearing. Then one of them walked up the the
Pastor.
"My name is Patricia
Welts. I am a Crusader. Please tell the priests this. Asmodeus is only the
fool. Lucifer is the master. The answer is in the Passage in the Alps."
Patricia Welt soon began to
disappear when Miles asked of her.
"What are you digging
here?"
"We are making a new
passage like the one in the Alps. Its to Hell." Then she was gone.
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