City Infernal (13 page)
Authors: Edward Lee
Cassie didn’t even pretend to understand.
They traversed the dark, silent house, Via and Xeke leading the way. Hush had clearly formed a bond with Cassie, touching her and holding her hand whenever possible. The contact was not erotic or sexual in the least but something sisterly, as though Hush regarded Cassie as an elder sibling. The younger girl’s hand felt hot, which struck Cassie as odd. Hush was dead. Shouldn’t her hand be cold?
But then Cassie reminded herself that her new colleagues weren’t really dead at all. Dead was a subjectivity. In their own plane of existence, they were very much alive. They were as alive as Cassie was in her own world, the Living World.
“God, your aura’s really strong,” Via told her.
“I can feel it,” Xeke added.
“It’s lighting up the whole downstairs!”
Again, Cassie was mystified. On the first floor, she saw nothing in the way of luminescence, felt nothing that could be described as an emanation of her lifeforce.
Guess I’ll just have to take their word for it.
“Oh,” she said. “And I got the birthstones.”
Guess I’ll just have to take their word for it.
“Oh,” she said. “And I got the birthstones.”
They stopped on their way through the kitchen, and Via, Xeke, and Hush’s faces did indeed seem to light up when they saw the pro-offered handful of stone-set jewelry.
“Outstanding!” Xeke said.
“Look at it all!” Via beamed. “And she got an onyx! That’s terrific!”
“Here, you better take it,” Cassie said to Xeke and made to hand it to him. “I don’t even know what it’s for.”
“I
can’t
take it,” Xeke told her. “None of us can.”
can’t
take it,” Xeke told her. “None of us can.”
“Not here,” Via added. She held out her palm. “Drop one of those earrings in my hand.”
Cassie did so, a sapphire.
The gem fell straight through Via’s hand.
“See? We won’t be able to touch them until we go through the Rive and exit the Deadpass.”
Cassie got the point—at least as best she could, and picked up the stone, put it all in her pocket. “The bones are in the garage,” she said. She took them out there, and they all seemed just as elated to see the bag of fish spines and ground bone meal. Cassie, however, recoiled when she opened the bag. The bones stunk worse than they had when she’d pulled them out of the trash bin in the kitchen.
“We could probably travel the entire city from one end to the other with all of that,” Xeke approved.
Cassie closed the bag, frowning after the odor. “But it’s just garbage.”
“Where we’re going,” Via told her, “it’s better than cash.”
“Bones are how the upper Hierarchals amass their wealth,” Xeke went on. “The only way to get bones from the Living World into the city is by the power of the Ossifists.”
Cassie’s confusion was beginning to make her irritable. “Hierarchals? Ossifists? I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
Xeke grinned in the dark. “You will.”
They left the garage through the side door, stepping out into the sultry night. The chirrups of crickets throbbed loudly. Moonlight made the woods fluoresce. They wound around to the front of the house, which faced south. “You said we’re going to the city,” Cassie stopped them. “This ... Mephistopolis.”
“That’s right,” Via replied.
“You’re talking about Hell, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” Xeke answered. “Home, sweet home.”
“Sort of,” Via amended. “See, we don’t live there any more—we can’t. We’re XR’s—ex-residents.”
“Same as fugitives,” Xeke explained. “In the city, there are two social castes: Plebes and Hierarchals. We’re Plebes, commoners, and as XR’s we’re not allowed to reside in the city anymore. We’re considered criminals because we haven’t conformed. That’s why we have to live in a Deadpass, like your house, or the Deadpasses in the other three Outer Sectors. It’s a bitch, but if we stay in the city too long, the Constabularies get wise to us. We wouldn’t last very long if we tried to stay in the city limits.”
Via could read the confusion on Cassie’s face. “Believe me, it’s easier to just learn as you go. You still do want to go, don’t you? Remember, you don’t have to.”
“I still want to go,” Cassie said testily. “I just want to know exactly where it is we’re going. Hell? Hell isn’t supposed to be a city. It’s supposed to be a sulphur pit, a lake of fire, stuff like that.”
Xeke chuckled. “It used to be—several thousand years ago when Lucifer was cast out of Heaven. But just use your common sense. Take New York City, for example. What was New York City several thousand years ago?”
“Woods, I guess,” Cassie said, still not getting the point. “Just ... land.”
“Right, undeveloped land. So was Hell when Lucifer first arrived; it was just a hot plain, a wasteland.”
Then Via put it this way: “Just as human civilization has evolved over the past three or four thousand years ... so has Hell.”
Xeke: “And just as God’s creatures have developed here on Earth, Lucifer and his dominion have developed equally. Progress and technology don’t just happen in your world, Cassie. They happen in ours as well. That sulphur pit is now the biggest city to ever exist.”
The information quelled Cassie’s irritation; she was growing fascinated again.
“Just wait till you see it,” Via said and then began leading them down the hill.
Cassie thought about that. “Wait a minute. I have seen it. From the oculus window.”
“Um-hmm,” Via casually responded. “And I’ll bet you’ve had dreams about it too. Living in a Deadpass, and you being an Etheress, it’s inevitable.”
She was right.
Cassie remembered the awful dream she’d had just last night. She’d dreamed of a city raging in chaos and atrocity. And now something else confused her. They were heading down the wooded trail where she and Via had first met. This trail led down the south side of the hill, the front of Blackwell Hall behind them. “Last night, when I looked out the oculus window, I saw it. I saw the city. It was south of the house, and we’re walking south now.” She peered down the trail. Beyond her gaze, where the city
should
be, she only saw the expected rolling farmland and woods. “How come I’m not seeing it now?”
should
be, she only saw the expected rolling farmland and woods. “How come I’m not seeing it now?”
Hush pulled her along by the hand, pointing. Xeke said, “Here’s the Pass. Just walk a few more steps....”
Cassie walked out ahead of them now, her flipflops crunching over the trail’s carpet of twigs and fallen leaves. But as she progressed, she felt something strange, something that could only be described as variants of pressure and temperature. Vertical layers of hot and cold, an annoying strain in her ears. Then came a sensation like dragging her hand through dry beach sand, only the sensation encompassed her entire body, through her clothes right to her skin.
For a moment, all she saw was utter blackness.
Then—
“My God,” she muttered, looking out.
(III)Just wait till you see it,
Via had told her moments ago, just a few yards up the hill. Now, a few moments and a few yards later, Cassie stood at the foot of another world.
Via had told her moments ago, just a few yards up the hill. Now, a few moments and a few yards later, Cassie stood at the foot of another world.
She couldn’t talk, she could scarcely even think.
All she could do was
see.
see.
Overhead the sky churned in gradients of scarlet. An exotic, sweet-smelling heat caressed her. A sickle-shaped moon hung in the horizon: a moon that was black and whose black light impossibly lit her face. Indeed, a scrub, smoking wasteland extended from her feet over what had to be the next fifty or even a hundred miles. She could see everything, every detail in a crisp macrovision. And beyond this intricate wasteland stood the Mephistopolis.
The scape of the city—with its buildings, skyscrapers, and towers—seemed forged against the scarlet horizon. It truly was immense. When Cassie looked to the left, the city’s face extended further than she could see, and the same to the right.
Smoke—more like black mist—rose from the city into the sky, and so did myriad spears of multicolored lights, which she could only equate to spotlights. Birds—or winged
things
—could be seen sailing away in the distance.
things
—could be seen sailing away in the distance.
The sight of it all stole her breath.
The others had stepped through the threshold and now stood behind her. They seemed to marvel at Cassie’s speechless awe.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Via bid.
“Kind of makes Chicago look like a pup tent.”
“I couldn’t believe it, either, the first time I saw it. Couldn’t believe it’s where I’d be spending eternity.”
Finally Cassie was able to speak. She glanced again to the left and right. “It ... never ends.”
“Actually it does,” Xeke explained. “Ever read the Book of Revelation? In Chapter Twenty-One, St. John reveals the actual physical dimensions of Heaven, so Lucifer deliberately used the same dimensions when he produced the original blueprints for Hell. Twelve thousand furlongs square. That’s, like, 1500 miles long and 1500 miles deep—the surface area is over two million square miles. If you took every major city on Earth and put them together ...
this
is still bigger.”
this
is still bigger.”
Cassie couldn’t really even envision these dimensions. “So, since Lucifer fell from God’s grace, he’s been building this city?”
“That’s right. Or, we should say his
minions
have. Most entrants into Hell become part of the work force in some way. And in a sense, the Mephistopolis is just like any other city. It’s got stores and parks and office buildings, transportation systems and police and hospitals, taverns, concert halls, apartment complexes where people live, court houses where criminals are tried for crimes, government buildings where politicians rule. Just like any city, er, well ... almost.”
minions
have. Most entrants into Hell become part of the work force in some way. And in a sense, the Mephistopolis is just like any other city. It’s got stores and parks and office buildings, transportation systems and police and hospitals, taverns, concert halls, apartment complexes where people live, court houses where criminals are tried for crimes, government buildings where politicians rule. Just like any city, er, well ... almost.”
Via explained further. “In the Mephistopolis, people aren’t born—they arrive. And they live forever. And where the social order on Earth is the pursuit of peace and harmony amongst the inhabitants—”
“The social order in Hell is chaos,” Xeke informed.
“You have Democracy, we have
Demonocracy.
You have physics and science, we have black magic. You have charity and good will, we have systematized horror. That’s the difference here. Lucifer’s social design must function to exist in a complete opposite of God’s. Lucifer has built all of this to offend the entity that banished him here.”
Demonocracy.
You have physics and science, we have black magic. You have charity and good will, we have systematized horror. That’s the difference here. Lucifer’s social design must function to exist in a complete opposite of God’s. Lucifer has built all of this to offend the entity that banished him here.”
“So ... it’s not underground like in the legends?” Cassie asked. “It’s not on Earth someplace?”
“It’s on a
different
Earth that occupies the same space,” Xeke informed her. “It’s just on another plane of existence that God created. So is Heaven.”
different
Earth that occupies the same space,” Xeke informed her. “It’s just on another plane of existence that God created. So is Heaven.”
“So,” Cassie began, “when you die—”
“You either go to Heaven, or you come here. Just like is says in the Holy Bible. Just like it says in most religious systems.” Xeke cocked a brow. “Not really much of a surprise when you think about it.”
As Cassie continued to stare at the distant cityscape, her mind turned over a thousand questions. How could she ask them all?
“Let’s just go,” Via said, as if deciphering her thoughts. “Your questions will all be answered.”
They started to march ahead, Hush pulling on Cassie’s arm. But Cassie was dismayed. “Wait! You mean we’re going to walk? It’s miles and miles away!”
Xeke tossed his head, flipping his black ponytail back. “Of course we’re not going to walk. We’re gonna take the train.”
Cassie faltered. “The ... train?”
“Yeah. But it sure as shit ain’t Amtrak, I can tell you that.”
Chapter Six
(I)The trail descended like a dark slalom. It was nighttime, Cassie was told—it was always nighttime here—but the murky scarlet tinge from the sky seemed more like the beginnings of dusk in a strange, alien terrain. The hill they descended seemed identical in dimension to the hill before Blackwell Hall, but that was it. Nothing else remained identical. “The forests,” she questioned, “the farmland and pastures? Where are they?”
“In the plane of existence you just left,” Via said. “There were forests a long time ago, but they were all cut down.” She pointed distantly. “And if you want to call that farmland ... go ahead.”
Beyond, Cassie saw thin figures laboring in the smoke-misted fields. Plump, hairless beasts dragged plows through reddish-black soil; more thin figures trailed behind, picking twisted roots and noxious vegetables from the dirt. The sight of the laborers shocked her.
They’re so
Like people in a death camp.
“It’s an Emaciation Detail,” Xeke said. “Hell’s criminals are brought out here by the Constabulary. They’re forced to work until nothing’s left on their bones.”
“They’re starved to death?” Cassie asked.
“They’re starved until their Spirit Bodies die. When you die in the Living World and come here, you get a physical body just like you had when you were alive—that’s your Spirit Body. But when it dies—if you’re mutilated, crushed, dismembered, stuff like that—your soul gets transferred to another life form—something born here. Say the Capnomancers burn your body completely down to ash.... Your soul—your consciousness—doesn’ t die; it never does—it
can’t
die.”
can’t
die.”
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