Chapter Five

The rules are simple; but not simple enough. Dante wondered if there was something he was missing. Life with Alan wasn’t as bad as Dante thought at first, especially when you didn’t think of the fact that you’re practically existing nowhere, just living for the hell of it.

“How did you get here?” Dante asked Alan, who looked a little better than the week before. Dante still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he’d been in The Graveyard for a week, it felt like an eternity. Also, time flowed differently there, he could tell. And so, he used the pocket watch he somehow came with to tell the time. It was a handy device to have.

“I don’t know. I was offered gold and well, I took it. Isn’t that the same with you?” Alan spoke, his tone devoid of emotion. It was the same way he spoke when Dante did a little burial for Liz, Alan showed no sign of being in the moment. He didn’t care, and it was evident in everything he said or did.

“But that can’t be all, can it? We are thrown here on purpose. Someone sees us as liabilities and casts us away. I can’t accept that, I don’t want to.” Alan looked at Dante, his eyebrow raised. “So, what do you want to do? You didn’t forget, did you? We can’t leave here. No matter what we do, we can’t escape. So, get used to it. Maybe in a year or two, you’d have come to terms with all of this then.” Alan spoke like it was commonplace, like death wasn’t something to be wary of.

“I can’t accept that.” Dante grumbled, his eyes two balls of fire, defiance shining through. “I’ve never been a smart one, but I’ve always survived. Even when the odds were stacked to the heavens, I survived by the skin of my teeth. This won’t kill me, this won’t break me. And I’d be damned if I let something like this define my existence.”

Alan didn’t reply, and when Dante was done ranting, he left the workshop and stood outside, eyes trained on the blood red sky. There was no way to sustain life, the silence was as loud as lions. Every single sound amplified to an alarming degree. It wasn’t a joke anymore, there was nothing to signify that Dante could survive such a world.

But he survived the catastrophe, even if he wasn’t meant to.

“I will make my way up there. Are you listening? I will pull you down from your throne and tear down everything you’ve ever built. My name will be like thunderstorms in your ears, you’ll jerk whenever I show my face. I won’t die here. And I’ll find you, Zero.” Dante spoke to himself, while pointing at the sky, a promise between him and the barren world he found himself in.

Suddenly, there was a loud revving sound and Dante turned abruptly, his eyes trained on the distance. A cloud of dust was fast approaching, at breakneck speed. He squinted to see what exactly he was staring at. And the dust storm picked up speed, already close enough for him to inhale its toxic fumes. Or that’s what it was meant to be, he didn’t know.

He coughed, and the revving stopped, just a few meters away from him. It was… a girl?

She removed her helmet, her silky black hair flying in the wind. She was decked in all black, and driving a black bike. Her eyes were the most intense he’d ever seen.

“Who are you?” Dante asked, dumbstruck by the beauty in front of him. It was unlike anything he expected. She was stunning. He wondered how her hair still had a sheen to it in such a despair filled world.

“It shouldn’t matter to you. But.. Liz was my sister.” Dante’s mouth was agape when the lady spoke, suddenly overcome with an overpowering sense of guilt. He was the one who was to blame for Liz.

“I—I didn’t mean to. I was new here and—” Dante tried to explain but she stopped him in his tracks by placing a slender finger on his lips.

“What’s done is done. She couldn’t survive, she was weak. At least she’s out of her misery.” Dante’s blood went cold at that. She was talking about her sister like a common stranger.

“What?” Dante asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.

“Here, the weak die. The strong survive. Are you going to survive, or will you die like the fodder my sister was?” Dante choked on air. He couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth.

“Tell me your name.” He managed to say, getting his emotions under control.

“Crystal. Now, hop on.” She handed him a helmet. He wasn’t one to look at gift horse at the mouth so he took it.

“Where are we going to?” Dante asked, wondering about Alan.

“Are you worried about the deadweight with you? What’s his name?” Her words were piercing, even though she had a velvety voice.

“Alan.” Dante replied.

“See? You know he’s dead weight. Come with me. You need to survive, do you not?” She provided a sound argument, but Dante considered Alan a friend. Or not. He couldn’t be sure, Alan never showed emotions.

He looked back and saw Alan cowering behind a large block of steel, hiding from Crystal. Dante wanted to call out to him but the fear in his eyes made Dante decide against it. It was a rabid kind of fear, the type that couldn’t be reasoned with.

And Dante respected that. So, he turned away.

“Let’s go. But first, won’t my prosthetics slow you down?” Dante said, asking the question that’d been bugging him.

“I can carry at least 20 tons. One little piece of equipment isn’t enough to shake my baby,” Crystal said, caressing her bike lovingly. Dante had never heard of a hike that could take such a weight in his life.

“You think too much. The laws of this world are different from everything you’ve ever experienced. Cast your knowledge away. You want to survive? Unlearn everything.”

Crystal looked straight at Dante and he felt his heart race. He’d almost forgotten he had one. He nodded in agreement, not trusting himself to say anything.

And he got behind Crystal on the bike. This was a brand new adventure.

And he was going to unlearn as long as it helped him survive.