Paintshark (34 page)

Hammersmith’s tail swung at the boulders again and two smaller rocks split from the strike and sailed gloriously overhead crashing down on to the earth, this time there were no casualties. Apollo yelled, “LET OBLIVION RAIN DOWN ON THE FOOLS OF GOMMERSTALL…THIS JOB IS SOO HANDSOME.”

Hammersmith roared like thunder and swung again, faster this time with smaller rocks, which spun in the air and hummed a tune as they went. More men were killed as they cowered for safety at the foot of the rock face, the Cyclops even struck at some red crabs passing through or still emerging from the ground, with crabs or rocks they still had the same devastating effect, people were dying all too quickly.

“YOUR MEN’S DEATHS MEAN NOTHING TO ME, GLAUCAS, DON’T YOU GET IT?…IT’S ALL FUN AND GAMES, YOU’RE STILL IN THE GAME SHOW TO ME, BABY.”

Apollo revelled in the death and destruction and as he looked up at the rocks soaring high above his head, he let out a jet of fire from his flamethrower, engulfing the rocks with flame, as the debris from the mountain rained down on the men they were stuck between a furnace of rocks and the parade of giant red crabs, more men were being crushed and burnt with each new aerial bombardment.

Faris and Jago stuck close to Elias, Faris’s voice for the first time was devoid of humour and sarcasm.

“Well we almost made it, we almost made it home.”

“We’re not dead yet, young man,” was the sombre reply from Jago.

The flaming rocks crashed hard all-around them as they huddled hard together.

Elias watched as he heard all the men who had shared the prisons with him, shared the arena with him, and shared their stories with him were now dying near his feet, he could not tolerate this anymore.

“WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE A BREAK FOR THE GANTRY, WE HAVE TO GET UP THAT ROCK NOW.”

“WE’LL BE KILLED IN AN INSTANT,” screamed Faris.

Elias turned and grabbed him by the shoulders and without realising it started to shake them. “LOOK AROUND YOU, IF WE STAY HERE WE ARE DEAD ANYWAY, WE’RE ALL DEAD, WE MUST MAKE A MOVE NOW.”

As soon as Elias saw the tears starting to form in Faris’s eyes, and the fact that he may have had been a little too hard on him, he pulled his hands away.

“I don’t want to die, Elias, I want to go home, I’m a comedian, I don’t deserve to die here, and I’M NOT GOING TO DIE HERE.”

Faris stood up and was about to walk out from their shelter towards Hammersmith, until Elias dragged him back down again.

“What did you do that for?” demanded Faris. “I was going to tell him some gags, see if that would work.”

Elias forced a smile. “We’d be dead ten minutes ago if you had gone into your routine.”

Faris ground his teeth.

“Well we’re going to have to make a break for it sooner or later if we want to climb up to that gantry.” Elias surveyed all around him, he saw the quivering forms of prisoners Welch, and Jago, and there were more men as well, scattered about, mourning the losses of friends, with huge eyes staring back at him, wanting, expecting a reply to the comedian’s statement. He yelled back, “I’VE BEEN THROUGH HELL AND BACK TO MAKE IT THIS FAR AND I’M NOT GIVING UP NOW.”

“WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE,” wailed Welch.

“NO,” said Faris firmly, looking at and believing in Elias. “Elias is right, we’re going to live.” He smiled and spoke softly. “All we need is a miracle.”

Suddenly the rock face they had been leaning against started to shake, the men instantly jumped up to their feet and spun around to see what was happening, keeping an eye on the boulder onslaught still in progress, the rock face began to crack and it was obvious something was trying to make itself through to the other side,
their side.

“What now?” moaned Faris.

“Any last words, gentlemen?” puffed old Jago.

“Yeah, we are not dying today,” said Elias.

There was a little tapping coming from within the rock and as the cracks grew, the tapping got louder and louder until they were replaced with loud banging noise.

“SCATTER!” yelled Elias as finally the rocks exploded skywards as the men turned away at the last moment, shielding their heads; the explosion didn’t go unnoticed as Apollo stopped the flying rocks from Hammersmith.

“What’s going on?” he whispered to his mount. “Let us hide behind this mountain and view from a distance.”

Hammersmith backed away until it was out of sight.

Elias and the others looked to the gaping hole in the rock and a big figure hesitantly emerged and looked around before giving a nervous wave. “Um hello.” It was Cassandra that made prisoners stand with mouths wide open. “What’s everybody looking at?” she asked.

Kimberley pulled her to one side and started pointing frantically at her bottom. “Tail, tail, tail.”

Cassandra’s dragon tail had re-sprouted and hung just on the base of her back. She gasped embarrassedly at what she had unwittingly done. “Shit.”

She closed her eyes and concentrated and the tail shrank again into her back. “Sorry.”

From the hole behind them stepped Felcey, Ansell and Aubrey. They made their way out cautiously and then the few other remaining prisoners also stepped through.

Kimberley saw that Elias Glaucas was alive and ran over to hug him. “SIRRRRR,” she squealed. “YOU’RE ALIVE, YOU’RE SAFE.”

She ran over and hugged him and acknowledged every one of the other prisoners, which was another reason why she was protected in the tunnel…she was a genuinely nice person, who also noticed the giant crabs and fire strewn rocks.

“Sir, why are there giant crabs coming from out of the ground and why are these rocks on fire?”

Elias took a few steps and looked around the corner to check but Apollo and Hammersmith were nowhere to be seen, only the crabs were visible, continuing their trek to the beaches. He pondered, but not for too long.

“You don’t have to call me ‘sir’ anymore, Kimberley,” smiled Elias. “Class was dismissed a long time ago.”

He finally acknowledged Cassandra with a grin on his sand-battered face. “CASSANDRA? CASSANDRA PAINTSHARK, MY GOD IT IS YOU!” He hugged her with a long silence between them; he broke the hold first.

“So what happened with you? Where were you? How have you been?”

“A dragon…for a year, and you?”

“Asleep…for a year.”

“Groovy!”

Elias frowned and stared at her. “So you have the power to turn into a dragon, powers granted to you from a night out at a rave apparently.”

Cassandra blinked and nodded.

“Besides having the remarkable ability to transform into a dragon, why were you a dragon for a year?”

Cassandra pulled Ansell’s top closer on her. “I don’t know, sir, they beat me, I can remember the guards here beating me until I got mad…and when I get mad…I turn. I must have turned into a dragon. Because the beatings stopped.”

“So you stayed in your dragon form because it was safe?”

Cassandra shrugged her tiny shoulders. “I guess so, being the dragon was probably safer, even though I can’t remember it.”

“So you feel safer in your dragon form?”

Cassandra nodded again. Elias put his finger in his mouth and chewed the nail quizzically. “Interesting.”

Kimberley stood on tiptoe and eagerly looked over everybody’s heads to find somebody else, but he wasn’t there and she panicked.

“HE’S NOT HERE, WHERE IS NAYAN? IS HE DEAD?”

Elias shook his fingernail. “Kimberley calm down, Nayan should be safe, he’s rescuing the other prisoners and securing the supply ship for us.”

The young girl chuckled nervously. “Good.”

Now.” Cassandra paused. “Now is someone going to explain about these super powers properly?”

Elias went first and explained his entire story to Cassandra and from what she could remember, she did the same, whilst Elias nodded and interrupted only once to tell her of their plans to escape via the supply ship, Cassandra missed out on her part in Elias’s incarceration, her memory was still broken in places, she remembered bits about the kidnapping and the ordeal in the cannibals’ house.

Welch stepped forward from the cover of rocks and looked at Cassandra.

“You don’t remember who you are? Unlike the others I wasn’t given the easy option of being put into stasis at Gommerstall, I was serving my time like a man and I saw things whilst some of my brothers slept.”

He pointed at her. “She was a gladiator; for months she fought at the pleasure of Apollo, prisoners were given the option of fighting for their freedom or risk having a longer sentence…no one bested her, it would have been useless though as to truly escape, you must get past the vines and this guardian.”

Cassandra shook her head in defiance. “NO, I didn’t, I wouldn’t do that.”

“Yes you did, but in the little defence you have, you weren’t to know of your actions, you were…oddly enough a big red dragon…I’m not sure, but I know you defeated some good men, my friends…ate them in that prison court just for the entertainment of Apollo.”

“I can’t remember anything. I don’t know what I’ve done.”

Welch’s anger flowed from his lips. “YOU WILL KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE, YOUR MEMORIES WILL RETURN AND YOU WILL HAVE TO LIVE WITH WHAT YOU DID FOR THE REST OF YOUR DAYS.”

Elias stepped in. “Hey, take it easy, Welch; she wasn’t to know what she was doing.”

“I’ll hope you remember those words my friend if you ever find out your life was affected by her.”

Elias paused for a thought, which was rudely interrupted by the sound of a boulder crashing against the mountain face above them.

“WHAT WAS THAT?” shouted Felcey.

“Apollo’s back,” moaned Faris.

“APOLLO’S HERE?”

“Of course he’s here,” snorted Welch. “We’ve escaped from the prison and it’s his job along with the guardian to bring us back or kill us.”

Kimberley peered around the corner of the mountain and let out a momentous cry of terror with what she saw. Cassandra followed her, but didn’t scream, just looked up in awe at the tremendous frame of Hammersmith and the man sat on the creature’s shoulder, Apollo’s voice boomed across the plains.

“MY LITTLE SLAVE GIRL, WHY DON’T YOU SMASH THOSE WHO STAND BESIDE YOU?”

Cassandra tilted her head and swore under her breath. “I WILL NOT SMASH THEM.”

She turned to look at the gathering of prisoners, especially Welch. “THEY’RE MY FRIENDS.”

Apollo realised that the crimson skinned slave was free from his control after all these years. “YOU’RE NO LONGER ENTERTAINMENT HERE, ARE YOU? PITY, YOU WERE A GREAT SLAYER OF USELESS PRISONERS.”

Cassandra took a step forward, unafraid of the giant Hammersmith. “YOU TRICKED ME, YOU KEPT ME HERE AGAINST MY WILL.”

Apollo rocked on the top of the ever-moving Hammersmith. “BUT OF COURSE I DID YOU SILLY GIRL, AFTER OUR ENCOUNTER AT BIG MAN’S COMPLEX, THERE WAS NO WAY I WAS GOING TO LET A SPLENDID SPECIMAN OF A CREATURE LIKE YOU SLIP THROUGH MY FINGERS, SO INSTEAD OF MY GUARDS KILLING YOU, YOU WERE DRUGGED AND SHIPPED OFF TO GOMERSTALL WITH ME…AND LET ME SAY I’M A VERY BIG FAN OF YOUR WORK, YOU’RE THE BIGGEST SLAYER OF WASTERS SINCE THEY INTRODUCED THAT TIME BOMB DIARY ROOM IN ‘BIG BROTHER’.”

Cassandra walked forward and stopped as more crabs scuttled across her path, they didn’t even faze her.

“YOU WON’T GET AWAY WITH THIS.”

“I THINK I ALREADY HAVE, DON’T YOU? AND NOW IT SEEMS A TERRIBLE SHAME THAT I’M GOING TO HAVE TO KILL YOU, YOU WERE MAGNIFICENT, BUT ENOUGH OF THIS SILLY CHIT-CHAT AND LET’S GET THIS STARTED, SHALL WE?”

Hammersmith too began to edge closer, Cassandra’s eyes focused deeply on him.

“FINE BY ME.”

Apollo threw back his head and laughed. “YOU REALLY ARE A STUPID MONSTER, YOUNG LADY AND UNFORTUNATELY YOUR FATE IS SEALED.”

Cassandra yawned, unimpressed.

“YOU REALLY THINK YOU’RE SOME SORT OF GOD, DON’T YOU, APOLLO”?

Apollo patted Hammersmith on the head as it moved steadily towards them. “BUT OF COURSE I DO.”

Cassandra clicked her knuckles. “GOOD, IT’S NOT EVERY DAY YOU GET TO BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF A GOD.”

Hammersmith let out a roar which even made Apollo wince. It reared up and began to run at Cassandra, kicking aside the giant crabs still trying to reach the beach, Cassandra picked up her pace too and also started charging like a bull towards Hammersmith, and before the two could collide the giant lizard swung its clubbed tail at the oncoming Cassandra.

Ansell’s shirt was torn away as dragon’s wings sprouted from her back, spinning below the tail as it swung harmlessly above her, changing back to her human form as she hit the ground and rolled.

“CHEAP PARLOUR TRICKS WON’T SAVE YOU, GIRL,” growled Apollo and he let loose a jet flame from his canister. Cassandra with her wings ready to fly took to the air, narrowly missing the fire.

Cassandra soared over Hammersmith’s head and changed forms again and into the larger dragon, her hind legs drove down on his chest, sending the Cyclops reeling backwards, Cassandra landed heavily to the ground and started clawing at his chest; her height just about reached his abdominal area. Hammersmith kicked out and sent her flying, as she crashed to the ground Cassandra looked up on all fours, charged again and flashed her razor-sharp teeth, her eyes focused hard on Hammersmith as she picked up speed again. Apollo let loose his flame on her and Cassandra bellowed but kept her head as the flames licked around her head, the fire seemed to enrage her more and she struck Hammersmith with all her might and the incredible giant toppled with Apollo still strapped to his shoulders. Her battered and old horns barely pierced the strong hide of Hammersmith but the sheer force of the blow was enough to send him on his back.

The dragon panted beside the fallen body of the Cyclops, Cassandra dare not fully return to her human form, as she knew it was far too dangerous in battle. She slowly changed into a dragon girl, just about humanoid in appearance, but her skin was covered in scales. She crouched on here knees and rubbed her aching head.

Slowly rising to her feet she looked over to Hammersmith, still flat on his back, and then she looked over to where her comrades were hiding. Kimberley had shouted something to her but she couldn’t hear, Cassandra cupped her hand to her ear and waited for Kimberley to repeat what she had just said, Kimberley was frantically pointing to Cassandra’s left and as she turned around slowly she was struck by the fist of Hammersmith who had spun around on his back and it was the clenching of the fist that Kimberley had seen happening from a distance.