THE JOURNEY OF EVIL

Chapter 3

“Hey, Hey, are you awake?” A man's voice called to Cyrus within the darkness of a small little room, it smelt of hay with the source of light entering the room from the keyhole at the door.

Cyrus groaned and rolled on the cold, hard floor, his head banging and the board beneath him creaking like it would snap any moment.

“Where am I?” He asked as he stood up from the ground, he rubbed at his eyes trying to get adjusted to the darkness. He saw three people with him, two were hurdled in one corner, a man and a woman both holding each other. The other guy who had woken him up was at the other end of the room and he was crawling forward toward the sound of his own voice.

 Cyrus noticed the other two cringing and pulled back into themselves. He was still trying to understand their reaction when he saw the face of the man that called out to him with the light from the keyhole of the locked door. It formed a keyhole shape on his face. 

 “Stop right there!” Cyrus ordered the man, his voice cracked and his pitch heightened. Whatever he was looking at had no face, it was human but the facial skin was all melted away. Cyrus was staring at pure face muscles.

The face was dripping blood but the man spoke like he did not feel it “We cannot harm you. My name is Matthew and I've been here for eight days according to the number of times we've been giving a meal. The two at the other corner are Kyle and Jessica , we arrived here to confirm if the story the villagers passed on to us were true and we're -”

“I know where you're from but what I want to know is what you've gathered?” Cyrus stated, his vision in the dark was getting better and he could see patches of melted or falling skin on the guy's body, but that did not help the twisting in his stomach. 

The man called Matthew was actively peeling it away with no idea he was doing just that. Cyrus's body shook as he staggered back with legs that felt like jelly - he took four extra steps back. This village was wrong and he wanted to leave at that moment, to hell with Anderson's order.  

“And what's happening to you?”He swallowed and added.

“Nothing,” Matthew said with a very big grin, like the one the kid he tried to pick up had. “In fact I've never felt better.”

A sob from the other corner, coming from the girl named Jessica broke through Cyrus' shocked expression. “My elder brother says he's never been better, he says that while he peels layers after layers off his own skin.” She shrieked and sobbed at the same time.

“It's okay, we still have our guns with us, if anything happens we'll be able to handle ourselves. He'll want us to be able to move forward and together. Be strong for him!” Kyle, the guy she held tight for support said. Jessica buried her face into his chest and wailed.

“I need to know what happened and if it's contagious,” Cyrus asked. Jessica shook her head at him.

 “Buddy,” Matthew called to Kyle right as he pulled off the skin of his lips from his face. Blood dripped to the ground but he was smiling as he discarded the strip of skin like it was waste. “You and Jessica are overreacting, it stung me but I'm telling you I feel fine. In fact I'm filled with so much energy.” He added.

Jessica wailed with a deeper pain etched in the high notes of her voice, Kyle curled and shivered from the sound of her voice. “ Matthew, my brother, has not slept for the past eight days. How's that normal?” she asked no-one in particular with her shoulder shaking against Kyle.  

Cyrus, shaking but glad it was dark, removed the gun from his belt, clocked it and pointed it at Matthew . “ Tell me exactly what happened or he dies on the spot.”

Matthew chuckled as he stared at the gun, he turned and retreated to his side of the room “You should save your strength for when that old bitch comes back. You'll need all of it.” Cyrus mirrored his smile and pulled the safety from the weapon. They heard it click in the dark.

“I'll tell you, just don't shoot,” Kyle said. Jessica was staring in horror at her brother on the other end. Cyrus felt whatever was human in her brother was long gone and for safety measures its best to tag him dangerous and hostile. Cyrus nodded at Kyle to continue his tale but he never took the gun back to his pocket.

“We arrived and found out the village was deserted but when we were moving through the building we realized that nothing was packed, the houses were still intact like they went for a village stroll and would return soon enough. It was while me and Jessica were in one of the rooms that we heard Matthew scream, we rushed towards him and -” Jessica shivered and glanced at Matthew. “ There was this monster that stood on crab-like legs with a pincer that had a black sting, it had red eyes and it was looking down at Matthew who was holding the sting. From where I stood I saw little worms moving up and down the length of its sting. The creature drew its tail back and stung him in his abdomen. By that time we had gone wild shooting it with bullets that bounced off its skin. When it turned to us and was rushing to pounce we heard the tap of an old cane, it froze in its tracks and we turned to see a very old lady behind us. It was the last thing we saw before we collapsed. When we woke up we were here in this cell.”

Cyrus' eyes met Jessica who nodded and Matthew gave him a nod too. “I know what we'll do, we'll -” Cyrus was saying, his mind thinking of all possible routes when the door swung open on its own breaking its hinges. Villagers poured into the room, all mostly young men and women.

The villagers flooding into the room in a neat order were all dripping blood; the ladies and the guys were naked but their skins were not falling off. Cyrus held his breath as he stared at them for moments. There were markings and symbols carved into their heads and skin. The marks were deep and blood flowed freely from the cut, yet they marched forward.

“Stop where you're!” Cyrus shouted and fired when they refused to bulge. Four went down from his gunshots but the rest just ignored their members and walked over them. Matthew started laughing, two were standing beside him. He stood up and they escorted him out. Cyrus was throwing punches and resisting, he noticed daggers passed among them toward the couple that were struggling to free themselves from the grip of twelve strong natives. Like him their gun was exhausted. The daggers got to them and four people in the crowd raised it high and started stabbing the two of them, their scream were loud and long because these guys did not do the act fast with quick in and out movement of the daggers; they took time in penetrating the weapons because fellow tribe member laid on the floor with their mouth opened to receive the blood dripping from them.

Once they died, the men discarded their bodies to the side, like a piece of discarded furniture. The two of them landed at the corner of the room among dirt and dried-up vomit. All the tribe members faced his direction; he could hear the sound of his heartbeat in his ear and taste the dryness of his tongue where he was backed against a wall. He had only snapped four people's necks while the couple screamed in an effort to save himself. He waited for them to rush him but nothing happened; they just stood staring at him. After what felt like hours to him, they parted ways for him to pass a straight middle line with natives of the village on both sides.

Cyrus's heart ramped louder against his chest; the dryness in his throat made him swallow, combined with the empty stares of the natives; each step was like walking on eggshells that must not crumble. He made his way forward through the path made for him.