Deadly Passion, an Epiphany (13 page)

“I murdered three men.” It was the first time he’d ever admitted it to anyone.

“Are you sorry?”

“Yes. More now than ever. I think that’s why I ended up here. Somehow, my mind has blanked out a portion of my life, the part where the cops found the men and I went to jail and stood trial. I don’t remember any of that.”

“I think that might have happened to me, too,” Beth said. “My past finally caught up with me. Like you, I don’t remember anything beyond the accident and waking up here.”

“I wish there was a way we could find out how long our sentence is.”

“Probably life. Look how long I’ve been here.”

“True, but you don’t seem to have aged. That’s really strange. Especially since we’re so far below the surface.”

Beth sent him a lopsided grin. “Maybe that’s why we don’t age. No sun to damage our skin.”

“Hear that? It almost sounds like thunder,” Harry said, looking up at the rock ceiling.

“Hell no. That’s a rockslide. Look at those beams. They’re cracking. Run!”

He felt Beth grab his hand. Too late. The wooden supports gave way and the ceiling caved in on them. Helplessly he watched as huge boulders buried Beth. Another large chunk of rock face broke off. Harry tried to roll out of its way but his legs were pinned beneath a pile of rubble and rocks. He could hear men and women screaming, mingled with the roar of more tunnels caving in, just before the rock crashed down on his head and he knew no more.

Finding the others…

Groggily, Harry sat blinking at the bright sun blazing down on him. “What the hell?” he muttered.

“Harry? That you? Where are we? The tunnel caved in and we were—“

“Buried. Well, you were. I was partially buried and then a rock came straight for my head.” She sat not far from him. His vision cleared. Rubbing his eyes, he shook his head. Tall grass surrounded them. “Are you okay?”

“I seem to be, but I don’t get it.” She stood. “Harry, stand up. Look at this.”

He jumped up and gazed around. “I don’t believe this. It’s impossible. We’re still below ground and hallucinating.”

“We’re both having the same hallucination? Gimme a break,” Beth said, swiping at her clothes and sending clouds of dust and small rocks into the clean air.

“You don’t even look hurt. A ton of rock buried you, Beth, and I was buried up to the waist. How in God’s name did we end up here?”

“Maybe we were rescued and this is the surface?”

“Where are the rescuers? Hello! Anyone out here?” Harry shouted several times. He looked around wildly for any sign of life, but they seemed to be completely alone. He gazed around, turning slowly. Far in the distance he saw a forest and an endless sea of tall grass, verdant green mountains far away opposite the forest.

“What do we do now?” Beth asked.

“I’ll be damned if I know. We can head for those mountains or for the forest. What do you think?”

“The mountains. Who knows what lives in that forest, and we don’t have anything to defend ourselves with.”

“Okay. They’re very far away. We’ve got no water, nothing, and that sun is blazing hot.”

They started to wade through the waist deep grass, Harry leading. He stopped suddenly and pointed. “Looks like we’re not alone here. Someone or something has trampled the grass, and more than once by the looks of it.”

“What do you think, Harry? Animals?”

“Could be. Or natives. We seem to be in a tropical area. Let’s follow the path.”

They trekked for quite a while. Harry felt his mouth drying, his lips starting to crack, but he continued doggedly. Every now and then he glanced back at Beth who seemed just as determined to reach the mountains. If only they had some water. Something, anything to quench their thirst. A headache started and his tongue felt thick. He had no idea how long they’d been following the trampled grass but it had to be hours. If there was no water, how did the grass stay so green? He plucked a hand full and chewed on it but spit it out just as fast. It tasted bitter.

“I feel dizzy,” Beth said and stopped.

“Dehydration. We’ve had nothing since breakfast and we’ve been walking in this hot sun for hours.”

“So if we don’t find water soon, we’ll die anyway. At the same time, none of this makes sense. I’ve been thinking while we were walking. I’m not hurt. You’re not hurt. Yet a ton of mountain fell on us. If we were rescued, where is everyone?”

Harry nodded. “I can’t figure it out either. We can stop walking, sit down and wait to die, or we continue and hope to find some water. The grass is very green. There’s got to be water somewhere.”

“Maybe it rains at night.”

“Then there’s hope for us yet. Looking at the sun, it’s just after noon. I suggest we keep going for a bit until we get too tired and then wait for the night,” Harry said. “If anything, there’ll be dew on the grass in the morning.”

“Hey, isn’t it weird, I haven’t seen any birds and no insects.”

“Me either. No flies, no butterflies. Nothing. Maybe we should have headed for that forest instead,” Harry said.

“Too late now. Oh, my God! Look! Lightning from a blue sky?”

Harry looked up to where she was pointing. “I’ll be damned.” The lightning flashed across the sky then suddenly struck not far from them. It disappeared again. “Maybe some kind of electrical storm,” Harry suggested. Some smoke spiraled from the spot where the lightning had struck. “Let’s go and have a look.”

They waded through the grass until they came to a bare circle, the grass scorched. In its center lay a man. Harry and Beth stopped and stared at the man, who scrambled up and stood to face them.

“Harry Leigh? What is this? Where am I?”

Harry felt anger well within. “Dennis? How’s that possible? You’re dead. I buried you myself.” Once again the disgust and angry thoughts attacked him. This was one of the monsters that had defiled his daughter. “This time you’re going to pay for what you did, fuckhead! I don’t know how you survived, but soon as we get back to civilization, we’re going to the cops!”

Beth grabbed his arm and held him back. “Harry, listen to yourself. You killed this man, yet here he is. Yet another thing that doesn’t make sense.”

“Harry, man, I’m so sorry. I was drunker than hell. If I could turn the clock back—“

Harry tried to contain his anger, fought the urge to beat the living shit out of Dennis. After he’d calmed a bit, he said, “How did you get here, Dennis? Where have you been all this time?”

“I stood trial. They sentenced me to work in some kind of pit shoveling coal and looking after a monstrous furnace. I’ve been there a long time, plenty of time to sober up and think about my life.”

“You remember your trial? Strange that I don’t know anything about that. It was, after all, my daughter you raped.”

“I don’t know, man. I’m just telling you what I remember.”

“Do you remember me shooting you?”

“No. I remember drinking with the boys, taking a leak in the bush somewhere and next thing I was in a courtroom on the witness stand.”

“Where was this courtroom? Who was all there? This is nuts. I know you were dead and I buried you.”

“Are you sure, Harry?” Beth asked.

“I’m damn sure. I shot the three of them in the chest. It was a twelve-gauge shotgun. No one can survive that. And even if he was still alive, did he dig himself out?”

“How deep did you bury them?”

“A few feet. But if he survived, the whole town would have known about it. There was no trial. The man’s dreaming.”

“Damn, Harry. I’m telling you the truth! I paid for what I done wrong. The worst was what I did to your little girl. I can’t ever forgive myself for that!” Dennis shouted.

“Harry, there’s some alien force at work here. Think about it. Suddenly there’s lightning in a blue sky and this man appears in the spot where the lightning struck. Don’t you find that a little strange?” Beth said. “And how did we suddenly get here? I never believed in supernatural forces, but this is all too out-of-this-world.”

“If this even is our world,” Harry said. “You might be right.”

“Harry, can you forgive me?” Dennis asked. “Where is Megan? I want to apologize to her.”

“I’d love to know where Megan is and I doubt she can ever forgive you. I know I can’t.”

Dennis hung his head. “I can’t undo what happened, but I’ll do anything, anything at all for her.”

Beth took charge. “Well, we can’t stand here arguing. We need to keep going. Come on, Harry. I guess Dennis will have to tag along with us.”

Harry agreed, although with a reluctance that clearly showed. “We don’t know where we are, Dennis. There’s no water in sight. This is Beth and we’re both suffering dehydration.” He turned and headed back for the path without another word and plodded on in silence, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts on how one of his victims had fallen from the blue sky, alive and apparently well. He glanced back and for the first time it sank in that Dennis was bare chested and there was no scar on his chest.
Okay, I’m insane. We’re all insane and in a mental institution.
Beth had moved ahead of him and was at least twenty feet in front when she suddenly stopped.

“What’s up, Beth? Did you find something?”

“Yeah. Unless I’m imagining it, there are people down there.”

Harry hurried to join her at the edge of a cliff, a sheer drop to a beach and lake below. He spotted small figures far down below. “People. And water. Tons of it.”

“How do we get down there?” Dennis asked.

“Bit far to jump,” Beth said.

“Wait. I see ropes hanging down a bit further along,” Harry said, and hurried to the ropes. He tugged on one of them. It was fastened with a strong branch in the soil and it seemed sturdy enough. It was a rope made from vines. “I’ll go first to test it. There are quite a few, actually.”

“They must be strong enough. Obviously those people down below made them and use them,” Beth said, and promptly grabbed a rope and started down the cliff.

Harry did the same. He saw from the corner of his eye that Dennis was lowering himself, but he didn’t care at this point what the man did. All he could think about was water.

On the beach…

Cassie noticed suddenly that Georgia was gone. “Damn. She took off by herself.” Quickly, she started looking for her. When she didn’t see her among the people, she hurried to the stream. There was no sign of her there, either. She knew Georgia wouldn’t have climbed the ropes. She left that part for the younger generation. “Georgia, where are you? Georgia!” She knew Georgia wouldn’t go very far by herself. Like others among them, it looked like Georgia has disappeared.

Jonas waded out of the lake when he saw her waving frantically. “What’s the matter?”

“Georgia is gone. I can’t find her anywhere.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Geez, Jonas, not her. She and I have grown so close.” Tears threatened but she fought them.

“Don’t say anything to the others just yet. Maybe she’s just wandered farther than usual and she’ll show up.”

“I don’t think so. I know her well enough by now,” Cassie said in a defeated tone.

Shouts alerted them. People were running toward the cliff. Cassie looked up and saw three people descending on the ropes. “Jonas, look!”

“I see them. Wonder where they came from.”

“Maybe they landed the same time as us but in a different area.”

“That’s possible I guess. Let’s go and find out.”

They quickly joined the people at the base of the cliff, Jonas still carrying his net filled with fish. “That’s Megan’s father,” Cassie said, pointing to one of the climbers. “I don’t know the woman or the other man.”

The two men and woman landed on the beach and turned to face them. Jonas made his way through the crowd and stood before them. “What can I say, except welcome to our camp,” he said. “My name is Jonas. I know you’re Megan’s father. But who are you two? Where did you come from? Were you in the nightclub, too?”

“My name’s Beth Davis. I don’t know anything about a nightclub. I’m from the Gehenna Goldmine, same as Harry here. Didn’t you say you were in a club before you came to the mine, Harry?”

Harry nodded. “Yes. I remember you, Jonas, and you, Cassie. You’re Megan’s new friend. Is she here? Georgia?”

Cassie saw the hope on Harry’s face and felt her heart sinking. “Georgia was here up until a few hours ago. She seems to have disappeared. Megan was never here. I’m sorry. And you are?” she asked, looking at Dennis.

“My name is Dennis McCade. I worked in some kind of coal pit, shoveling coal into a blazing furnace. Before that, I lived in the same town as Harry.”

“I’m completely sure now this is the doing of aliens. First a man arrives who saw monsters and was then thrown in a dungeon and manacled, and now the three of you claiming to have come from some mine. What were you doing there? Any idea how you got there?” Jonas asked.

“Before we tell our story, can we have something to drink?”

“I’m so sorry. Your lips are all cracked. You’re dehydrated. Come with me,” Cassie said and led them to their camping spot. Several of the men had carved makeshift mugs and bowls out of wood. They’d also found large shells that served well for drinking. She handed them each a shell filled with water and cut up fruit in three bowls.

They waited for the three to drink and eat the fruit, the people gathered about, sitting on the sand, waiting for their story. Cassie could see how tired they were, but the need to know was great.

Beth told her story first, the car accident, her arrival in the mine, what it was like and how long she’d been there.

“How can you still look so young?” Cassie asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe because I haven’t seen sunlight in all these years? Watch me age in a hurry now.”

“Georgia? You said she disappeared? Was she okay? She didn’t get hurt in the explosion?” Harry asked.

“Georgia was here this morning. We had breakfast together. No, she wasn’t hurt. She missed you and her children of course, but she was fine. I just noticed her missing before we spotted you climbing down the cliff. I’ve looked everywhere, but she’s gone. It’s not the first time people have disappeared. It’s happened steadily since we’ve been here.”