She stared sightlessly up at the moon that had risen overhead to light his way, and he wondered if that had been a purposed favor by whatever was running this madhouse, or just another part of the illusion that seemed to mask the entire place. He was just approaching her when he looked up at the sounds of splashing near the shore, and saw over a dozen of those thick, black tentacles rising up as if seeking prey again.
“Not tonight, you bastards,” he hissed as he easily flung the limp woman over his shoulder, keeping his spear at the ready as he hurried back toward the tree line as fast as he could move with her burdening him.
He heard several of the fat, heavy limbs smash into the sand behind him, but he ignored them as he entered the jungle, and kept going. He remembered the place where that puddle had fallen from Jessica’s flesh, and paused to look down, and saw it was indeed gone.
Dana had probably blundered right into it without realizing what was happening to her. He could just imagine her terror and dread jus now if what Jessica had told him she experienced was any guide. The problem he faced now, however, was whether Allen’s commands had faded with him, or if she were still going to be bound by that selfish man’s careless words.
He couldn’t condemn her for killing him, if they could be killed in this place. She had been reacting. Helplessly obeying the role he had crafted for her with his blind lusts. He walked deeper into the forest, and paused, feeling he was safe for the moment. He set her down, and she went back to the ground, landing limp, and sprawled out as before, and looking all the world as if she were ready for more sex.
To his astonishment, he did feel a faint surge of the earlier desire he had experienced with her when they first reached the island, and took their solace in one another’s arms. He ruthlessly shoved the sensation back, feeling it was not only the wrong feeling just now, but not even natural. Dana was a victim here, and needed help. Not another abusive master.
He glanced back toward the beach, but heard nothing. The waves sounded quiet, and peaceful again, but that didn’t appease him. He had better stress the women stay away from that beach until he could figure out just what that thing was, and what it wanted.
“Dana, can you hear me,” he asked as he turned to kneel beside her.
“Yes, Jon,” she replied in that same unnerving tone Jessica had used earlier that day.
Only part of his mind now insisted that had been over two months ago.
He let the feeling pass, and tried to deal with the here and now.
“Do you remember Allen,” he asked deliberately.
“No, Jon.”
That gave him some hope.
“Dana, listen carefully. Can you still…..think for yourself in this….thing?” “Yes, Jon.”
“Do you know how you got inside this thing,” he asked.
“I…..was grabbed….by something in the water while swimming,” she told him. “It seemed to strangle me, I thought, then I was washed up on the beach, and left.”
He frowned. Hardly the way Jessica had been possessed, he knew. Of course, she had not been in the water.
“Dana, do you feel the need to obey others?” “Yes, Jon,” came the instant reply.
He wondered what it was that made this….sheath so hypnotic. Something in the alien flesh itself? Or was it part of the cruel wish Allen had made before he made himself a victim of his own selfish needs? Just then, he didn’t care. He just wanted it off the woman. Whatever she had done, she didn’t deserve this kind of life.
Or afterlife, if it came to that.
“All right, listen to me carefully, Dana. I am going to give you an order. The only order you will obey from now on. Do you understand me,” he asked to ensure she was focused on him as Jessica had been.
“Yes, Jon.”
“Good. Then, listen carefully.
“From now on, Dana, I want you to obey only your own will and wishes. You are to decide which orders you will accept, or reject. In short, you are to act as you wish to act without regard to anyone else’s orders around you.
“Will you do that, Dana,” he asked, looking down at her as she lay sprawled on the ground, staring up at him with those blank orbs.
“Yes, Jon,” she said almost inaudibly, and continued to lay still.
There was no shuddering. No reaction at all. The black cocoon encasing her continued to remain intact around her shapely body.
“You will obey that order,” he pressed.
“Yes, Jon,” she replied evenly again.
“Then why are you still laying down here,” he asked, not wanting to say anything else that might worry her.
“I rather like looking up at the stars,” she said wistfully, her voice taking on a more lifelike tone as she spoke this time.
“How do you feel?” “Fine, Jon,” she said, and her hidden lips stretched into a pseudo smile beneath the blackness covering her.
Unable to help testing her true reaction, he rose to his feet, and said, “Well, get up. We should be getting back to the cavern. The others will be worrying about us.”
“Yes, Jon,” she said, and rose to her feet with a smooth, easy grace.
“Are you obeying me, or just coming along because you want to,” he asked with a frown.
“I want to obey you,” she told him with that masked smile.
He closed his eyes briefly at that, and sighed. “Well, let’s get back to the others. We likely have another early morning ahead of us,” he reminded her, thinking of how busy they remained even though their primary concerns were being met so far. Plenty of food, water, and shelter was a given, which was remarkable considering their circumstances.
Or apparent circumstances.
Leading the woman who was now virtually a human robot through the jungle, he tried to think of how to undo the damage wrought by that selfish man’s careless wish. He forced himself not to look back, knowing she was right behind him, hearing every soft footfall, and the controlled breathing of the woman who once bulled her way noisily through the thick wood even on a clear trail.
Reaching the cavern, he found his own pallet, and noticed she was just stood at the opening, not moving, nor making any effort to do anything except stand there unmoving.
“Lay down, and go to sleep, Dana,” he told her with an exasperated sigh as he noted Jessica’s eyes watching him before she relaxed on her own pallet, and closed her eyes again. Since her confrontation with that alien creature, she had been almost…..
He shook his head as he saw Dana had laid down right in the mouth of the cavern, and as far as he could tell, had gone right to sleep. He sighed again, rolled over and sought sleep himself. It took a long time coming, and even then his dreams remained dark and restless.
Only as he lay there wide awake once more as dawn approached did he consider that if he had bypassed the need for food or water, then he might also have lost the need for sleep. That he was only still doing so out of habit. If that were true, what about the rest of his humanity? Was his knowledge of this bizarre purgatory somehow wiping away all that he knew as normal, or human?
He frowned thoughtfully as he stared at nothing, considering the twisted, desiccated corpse of Allen Hart that had been judged in spite of his apparent death in a place he had started thinking of as an afterlife of some sort.
He considered that things seemed to be speeding up, too. That every judgment came swifter than the last despite the apparent time frames that filled in the blanks in his mind as his memories were sifted to make it seem longer than it had been since he had last seen the enigmatic being that apparently had no name.
Just rules, he snorted in frustration. Rules he liked to keep to himself.
He glowered, and looked over at the sleeping women, and considered their options. He could not condemn any of them as he had the men. They truly had seemed to revel in their darker natures, and couldn’t seem to leave them behind. The women, Dana aside, had banded together, and as he came to understand them, he could not truly see that darkness in any o them.
Samantha acted on behalf of her child. While Jessica had been reacting to an old hurt she was loathe to admit to herself, let alone anyone else. Mitigating circumstances, a court of law might consider them. The same with the twins. Although he was still confused about Tammy, who seemed the only true victim, and innocent among them. He still supposed it had something to do with her bond with her sister, but he wasn’t sure.
Then there was Dana. She might have been a thief, but she hardly showed a dark nature on the island. She had been courageous, kind, and even helpful as she served as a kind of second-in-command while he was out foraging, or hunting, or…….being used to judge others.
He drew in a deep breath, held it, and wondered inanely if he even truly needed to breathe anymore. Everything else that made him human, made him mortal, seemed to be sloughing away as he focused on it, almost like the flesh that liquefied, and flowed from the men’s bodies the moment they were judged, and flung out into the ocean.
Ocean.
He sat up, something nagging at the back of his mind as he considered that fact.
They all came from the ocean. Even he had been adrift, at least twice, he supposed, considering the refurbished memories that had him reaching the shore with Dana and the twins, and then later, clambering onto the beach after all the others had already been marooned.
Something about the ocean made no sense.
Or maybe it was something he just wasn’t seeing.
Like the faint, dark shapes of things around him in that hellish underworld that was revealed only when he was atop the plateau. Atop that singular peak. He prided himself on his logical mind, and analytical approach to missions that had brought him through fourteen years in the Corps. He had been reacting instinctively to this place since he had arrived.
Jerked one way, then another.
He narrowed his dark eyes on greater darkness inside the cavern, and for a moment, just a moment, saw a glimpse of crimson rock on the verge of melting into a greater pool of simmering, liquid magma. He could sense the heat, but did not feel it. As if he were…..somehow insensate to the world around him.
Something else was going on here. He was sure of it.
Rising quietly, he left both spear and knife behind as he walked out into the jungle, following the path that led to the beach. He reached the shore just as the sun peaked on the distant horizon. The ocean reflecting the light in crimson shades that defied description. He stared into that sun, but felt nothing of its heat, or the usual blindness that came with such an act. He simply stared at the sun as it rose, and kept staring until a faint splashing of something large sounded to his left. He turned to see the long, thick tentacles that had attacked both Dana and Jessica rising up out of the water.
Black, sucking flesh that covered and controlled their bodies.
Ugly, tendrils of……..
“Evil,” he murmured, and walked boldly toward the hidden thing in the water before him.
The tentacles continued to wave at his approach, and several slashed through the air when he paused at the very edge of the surf, but not one touched it. It was as if whatever it was could not bear to touch him. Or was unable to do so.
Yet they had sought out the women with ease.
He stared at the pulsing, fleshy tubes for a moment, and saw in them one of the amorphic shades that had been just barely visible while he had been atop that distant peak. He did not bother looking back. He only looked down.
At the water that wasn’t.
At the shape of……
“Guilt. Guilt, shame, and…..evil.
“Sin,” he murmured.
“Dragging us back into the sea. Yet casting us back when……”
He frowned, then his eyes widened as he began to see a pattern.
“Samantha White is innocent,” he told the ocean, the rock, the mountains, the everything about him. “You cannot have her.”
The tentacles seemed to waver a moment. Did they really father at his impulsive statement?
He considered Jessica.
“Jessica Parker is innocent. She is as much a victim as any other.”
The hidden creature spasmed violently beneath the waves, churning the water now, and making it seem to boil with an monstrous fury.
“Tammy and Pamela Carter are innocent,” he all but shouted now. “They have no need of guilt, for they only protected themselves from a greater evil.”
The waving tubes of flesh writhed now. He wasn’t sure how, or what it was, but was now convinced there was a connection.
“Dana Shelby, whatever else she might be, is also a good woman. She has been helpful, and caring, and shown no sign of the darkness you seem to relish.
“Go from here. Go now,” he barked, and the water seemed to explode, and then he was standing atop the plateau surrounded by all four women, and above them all, stood the being.
He glowed with light so bright this time that polished silver couldn’t begin to describe the radiant colors that emanated from the huge winged creature before him. He looked down, and seemed to smile as he gestured, and the fiery sky was rent before him.
Jon gaped as he stared into the even more blinding whiteness that was somehow purer than any light he had ever seen.
“I believe you have judged your companions well,” the being said in his voice that rumbled like thunder across the fiery plain. “Behold their transition.”
He stared back at the women, the twins clinging to one another, their eyes wide as tears flowed from their bright eyes. Their expressions could not be easily described, but he knew it was a kind of joy that he had never known before, and neither had they.
He looked over at Samantha, and the usually pale, fragile brunette glowed with the same ecstatic glee that filled the twins. Jessica, too, was staring into that dazzling rent in the sky with the same ruptured expression, and he couldn’t help but wonder what they saw.
Dana, he noted, was looking away. She was weeping, but he noted her features held none of the joy the others were experiencing. Her features seemed taut, the black sheath gone from her flesh, but her body still stiff, and filled with some vague tension as she refused to look at anything save the ground at her feet.
“You have judged this soul pure, and so it is agreed.
“They are free to find their greater destiny beyond this plane,” the being stated as a flash of living lightning struck the twins, wrapped them in warmth, and carried them up, and into the shimmering rent that seemed to pulse with their passage as if filled with its own happiness at being crossed.
“You have judged this soul pure, and so it is agreed,” the being stated, and pointed at Samantha this time.
Again, the living light blazed and stretched out to take her into its embrace, and the woman simply vanished with the twins into that light.
“You have judged this soul pure, and so it is agreed,” the being echoed yet again, and again the light claimed its offering as Jessica gave a soft cry of wonder just before she was taken up into the luminous fissure in the otherwise ugly sky.
Then the being paused, and in that brief pause, the torn sky began to heal as the light faded, and left him and Dana standing before the being. Or rather, he stood, and she knelt before him, weeping tears that shook her bodily as she refused to look up.
He looked down at her, frowning. Then with a flash of insight, he turned to face the creature.
“You cannot condemn her,” he shouted at the creature that was loosing its own brilliance as its great wings began to fold back down and around its massive body. “Whatever she’s done, she has been proving herself……”
“She has been judged, and so it is agreed.
“She shall be offered another chance to redeem herself,” the being cut him off as if already knowing his thoughts.
He didn’t find it all that surprising just now.
He looked around anxiously, but rather than one of those hideous, flying beasts, the being himself reached down and lifted Dana’s relatively small form into his great hand, and looked down at her as she refused to look up, still kneeling, and weeping as she hid her face from him, and all else around her.
“She shall have that chance,” he said, and with a soft blowing wind that came from his lips, Dana was simply propelled high into the air, and far out over the boiling ocean.
Jon turned to stare after her.
It made sense now. It was monstrous, but it made sense.
You either sank into the fires of this place, or you rose above them. Their trials truly were some kind of purgatory. A last chance for them to get things right. To rise above the ugliness of their former lives.
He looked back up at the being, and demanded, “What will happen to her now?” “She is no longer your concern,” the being told him somberly. “With the last judgment, you have redeemed yourself.
“For every life you took, you helped restore. You have led five thousand souls into redemption they might not otherwise have found alone.
“Now, only your judgment remains.”
“I asked you before who would bring me,” he spoke half aloud.
“And so you have once again brought yourself.
“Your time is now spent. Your destiny awaits.”
He glanced up at the sky where the being gestured, and saw the start of a fissure of light tearing its way back into the world. He felt the warmth and joy emanating from beyond that fissure, but found himself tearing his gaze from it, and feeling all the more empty for it.
“What of Dana,” he asked again, torn by the need to look back into that brilliant shaft of light, and the need to ensure that the woman he had come to care for was also safe.
“She shall seek her own redemption once more.”
“And if she cannot find it,” he asked sharply.
“Perhaps she will find a guide. Perhaps not. I cannot say.”
“Your rules,” he spat.
“No,” the being smiled that sad smile. “I simply cannot say.
“Human destiny belongs to humans. I am but an observer. One of many final arbitrators who helps lead the redeemed into making the transition from this plane, to the next.”
“What is that,” he asked curtly. “What is in that light?” “I cannot say.”
Jon cursed.
“I do not toy with you, Jon Walker. Or Nightwalker, as you prefer.
“It is just that the light is different for every one that enters. Your destiny, as each of those who find their way here, is different.
“As with all creatures in the vast cosmos around us, we are unique, and so our destinies are unique.”
Jon looked back out over the flaming, boiling cauldron that was supposed to be an ocean. “And if I want to stay a little longer? If I want to ensure that Dana makes it?” “That is your choice. No one can force you to accept your ultimate destiny, human. That is a choice every soul must make on its own.
“Now, the choice is before you,” the being informed him, gesturing to the rift that was pulsing in anticipation as it radiated a sparkling purity that almost sucked at his very being. His soul.
“No,” he said curtly, tearing his gaze away again. “I promised them, all of them, that I’d help them. That I would not leave them.
“I won’t leave Dana behind. Whatever happens, I want to help her. She deserves that.”
The being smiled as he gestured, and the rift closed so abruptly it was as if it had never been.
“That is your final decision, Jon Walker?” Jon felt the tension, the schism in his heart and mind, but he fought it. He had not had anything until he found the Corps, and through it learned honor, and discipline. Duty. He had a duty to that woman. He had given her his word, and he would not go back on it.
“It is,” he nodded grimly.
“So be it,” the being drawled, and his wings fluttered only briefly, his silvery eyes gleaming with incandescent colors, and Jon found himself blown off the plateau, and flung far out over the ocean.
Then he knew nothing at all.
The boat scraped over something as it rode the tide toward the sandy beach just ahead of them. The big man in the rear swore, and one of the two women shrieked. “It’s okay, another of the five men in the boat calmed them as his dark eyes studied the corral just beneath them even as the lifeboat began to leak air.
“It’s just a corral reef. It must surround this island, offering some kind of protection.
“I think we’ll have to swim if we don’t get the paddles going faster, though,” he told the other man who was helping guide the boat as he pushed hard with his own paddle to help the small raft clear the reef.
“I can’t swim,” the thin, gaunt man known as Adam whimpered.
“You’re wearing a life jacket, moron,” the big man spat. His name was Simon, and he had been abrasive the moment they had first found themselves taking shelter in the raft after a storm had sank the cruise liner they had been on.
“Don’t worry,” the lean, young blond named Allen told him. “We’ll make it. After all, we survived that hurricane, didn’t we?” “Yeah,” Tom, a short, but burly man grumbled as he eyed the water doubtfully. “Not to mention nine days at sea with you jerks,” he added.
“That’s enough,” Henry Johnson spoke up as Allen and Jon paddled furiously for shore even as the shape of their raft began to soften and sag as the air leaked from the tears in the thick vinyl that had carried them safely this far. “We won’t last long if we don’t cooperate, and stick together.”
“That’s for certain,” Dana Shelby, an attractive Hollywood starlet agreed. “I’ve seen enough disaster films to know you have to cooperate if you want to survive.
“You mean you made disaster films,” Simon Larson sniggered as he sat near a small, locked chest he refused to let anyone touch. “Talk about ‘B’ movies. Ugh. It’s a wonder you ever made a living at all with the schlock you starred in, babe.”
Dana shot him a dark look, but said nothing as Allen and Jon jumped out, and finding purchase on the sand beneath their feet, tugged the raft up onto the shore. “Safe and sound,” Jon drawled, wearing only his fatigue pants, and a green tee. He had discarded his boots long since, using the boot strings to make a fishing line to try to catch fish.
“What is it,” Henry asked as the older man clambered out of the boat as Jon stopped, and looked around the strip of sand around the high, thick forest. In the near distance, he could see a towering peak, perhaps volcanic, and wondered if this island was even on any of the main shipping lanes. That storm had blown their ship, and then their raft around, for what felt like an eternity.
“I don’t know,” Jon murmured, studying the landscape. “Something about this seems….familiar.”
“Hell,” Simon grunted, shoving the others out of the way as he climbed out of the raft, tugging the chest he held after him. “You’re the soljer boy, sarge. Why don’t you do some of that survival crap you do, and figure us a way out of here.
“Cuz it sure don’t look like this is one of those inhabited islands.”
Jon frowned as he glanced back at the abrasive man who seemed to be most unlikable at best.
“First things first,” he said, looking back at the now nearly flattened raft as his fellow castaways stood around him as if seeking a leader, and none of them knowing who it should be. “We need food, water, and shelter.
“We have a few stores left in the raft, and we can likely find shellfish, or fish in this lagoon.
“We are going to need fresh water, though, and a place to shelter from any new storms, or just the sun,” he added, looking up into the sky that was finally clear after days of dreary weather.
“Well, sergeant,” Henry spoke up. “You seem to know what you’re about, so I suggest you lead us, and we’ll do what we must.”
Jon looked around at the others as they stood staring at him in expectation.
“All right. First, pull that raft up here, and someone start gathering wood.”
“For what,” Allen asked with a frown.
“Aside from the possibility of keeping back any native wildlife,” Jon told him, “A signal fire in case of a passing ship, or aircraft might be needed,” he told them as he turned to study the jungle before him. “All the same, stick close together, stay on the shore, and I’ll do the inland scouting.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he turned to tell the women who smiled a bit uneasily. “And don’t worry,” he told them all. “I’m sure on an island of this size, we’ll find plenty of food and water.
“It doesn’t hurt to get the lay of the land, though,” he added as he turned, and started toward the trees.
“Wait,” Dana cried out and ran after him, her torn, ragged gown revealing far more than it covered by now.
“What is it,” he turned to ask her as he saw Beth close behind.
“We…..Well…..thanks. We’d have never made it without you,” Dana stammered as she seemed to blush darkly, though he couldn’t quite tell with her dark coloring. “You really saved our butts when I thought for sure we had had it.
“So, uhm…..be careful,” she said, glancing uneasily toward the jungle.
“Don’t worry, Dana,” he told her, “I’ve been in worse places,” he assured her. “And I’ve always come back.
“We’ll all be fine,” he assured her as he turned back to the trees again as he noted the men eyeing the women with cold eyes. “You have my word,” he said, and shaking off the eerie feeling of having been here before, he walked into the jungle and was soon lost from sight.
Dana turned back to the others, and nodded at them. “Well, I guess we start collecting firewood,” she said.
“Speak for yourself, gal,” Simon drawled as he sank down in the sand in a spot of shade, and relaxed, his mysterious chest close beside him. “I’m not a boy scout.”
“That goes without saying,” Henry murmured.
“What was that, old man,” the tall man growled.
“I say we should get to looking for that wood,” the old man smiled easily. “Ladies, we’ll take care of that, if you two will bring up what remains in the raft so it doesn’t float away.”
“All right,” Dana nodded, and led the more shy, and quiet Beth back to the raft still half setting in the water, riding the gentle tide in spite of the loss of air now since the only weight left in it were a few nearly empty cases of survival rations, and a half empty canteen.
As they tugged the deflated raft higher on the beach, Dana looked up, and saw the towering peak in the distance. “You know, I think Jon was right. Something about this place does seem…..kind of familiar.”
“Ah, you’re being nuts,” Simon scowled.
No one else disagreed with him. The big man had a bad temper, and they knew it. Only the Marine’s presence had kept him in control at all, and they all felt a little uneasy without him around now. Still, he was their one hope for survival. He seemed to know what he was doing, and made everything seem better than it was. Or so they hoped.
A few miles inland, Jon had found a small creek with fresh, running water. He took a moment to quench his own thirst, and as he knelt to cup water in his hands, noted the tracks and spoor of some kind of boar. That meant meat. That relaxed him, and as he stood, finding himself looking in the direction of the possibly volcanic peak to his east, he wondered why everything felt so familiar.
He shrugged off the feeling as he continued his search while heading back toward the others to let them know about the water. He supposed he had been on so many islands, and in so many jungles, he was bound to get that feeling of déjŕ vu sometimes.
It was hardly important.
Right now, he had to focus on survival. And possibly finding a way off this island if they couldn’t somehow signal someone. He had the feeling they were blown far from any shipping lanes, though. That wouldn’t help their chances. He wasn’t sure, but he knew he could figure it out once the stars came out. After all, in his own crude manner, Simon was right.
He was very good at survival. His own life was a very good example of how good he was at surviving. So if there was a way off this rock, and back to where they belonged, he had no doubt he would find it.
No doubt at all.