Chapter Four

They called it The Graveyard. A place for discarded junk. Dante couldn’t tell what it was that he had to do. It was a pretty rundown place at the end of well, everything. Dante couldn’t recognize the sight, there was nothing to suggest that it was a place normal people knew about.

“What is this place?” He said aloud without realizing it. Alan hobbled closer to him, his eyes showing a pained expression.

“We don’t know. So many of us have died, more than you know. Survival here, it’s harder than it looks. Don’t worry, you’ll see for yourself,” Alan ended his statement vaguely and Dante wondered what that was about. The boy with a mop of brown hair huddled forward, and Dante took the time to inspect himself.

He looked.. different. First, his body didn’t always respond whenever he tried to do something. His legs felt heavier and looking down, he could understand why. The latter part of his body had been sawed in half from his thighs downward and replaced with a mechanical contraption of sorts. He felt like puking again, but held it back through sheer will. There was nothing he could do in the present situation.

His new legs were made of a material he couldn’t recognize, and his body felt heavier, with some parts out of sync with the rest of him. Even taking a walk felt like a hassle due to the constraints his new body placed on him.

But he followed Alan though, since he was new there. There were a lot of automobiles in The Graveyard, it felt like a junkyard instead. The only difference was the smatterings of humans all over the place. Just like Liz, it was easy to end a life in The Graveyard.

“How do you survive this?” He asked Alan, almost turning his nose at a foul smell coming from a closed off section of the Graveyard.

“We don’t. Also, I can see where you are staring at. Don’t think about it. If something is hellbent on killing you here, you’d die. There’s no two ways about it. Everything dies here.” Alan’s words sent a chill down Dante’s spine. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard those words, but Alan’s had a tone of finality to it that brokered no room for argument.

“Okay. Do you have rules?” Dante was still looking around when Alan stopped in his tracks. He turned back and gave Dante a look filled with malice, and a darkness lurking somewhere deep within.

“One rule. Never ever try to leave here. That’s all.”

It felt stupid to Dante, because who’d want to stay in a place where death clung to the air like a second skin?

“Why can’t we leave?” Dante asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Try.” That’s all Alan said and continued walking. Dante didn’t have anything to respond to that. The automobiles were pretty much useless, and there were a lot of discarded parts of various technologies people deemed useless.

“Where exactly is this place in the city? Are we still in Selene?” Dante asked a question that’d been bugging him for a while. The alien feel of the place, it was clear that something was amiss.

“Well, I guess you don’t know. This isn’t Selene. Actually, it isn’t anywhere. Suffice it to say, we don’t exist anymore.” Alan’s explanation made no sense to Dante because it was clear that he was still breathing.

“Are we dead? An afterlife sort of situation? I don’t really feel dead,” Dante said, touching his chest. The coins he was given was practically useless, but he kept it just in case. Because he couldn’t let someone else decide his fate, not even if that person had all the power in the world.

“Not the afterlife, that’s a little too convenient. Do you understand pocket dimensions?” Alan asked, taking a seat as soon as he led Dante to what seemed like a workshop.

“I do. Only the most powerful mages can do something like that. It’s a space that doesn’t exist in the physical world, until the creator decides to do something about it. So, we are in a pocket world?” It didn’t feel like it to Dante. It felt real, even the stale air was testament to that fact.

“Yes. And we can’t leave. Don’t bother to try. The only way to leave, is to get the permission of who created this pocket dimension. After that.. I don’t know. I haven’t been here too long myself. But others have.” Dante’s ears perked up at that.

“Others? I thought that we were the only ones alive.” Dante spoke hesitantly, still staring at the world he found himself in.

“No, we aren’t. But… they’re a little hard to get ahold of. You can say they are elusive. But if you want to survive, you need them.” Alan explained. Although Dante was still confused, and maybe a little elated, he didn’t show it.

“Who are they?” He asked, curiosity getting the better of him. He couldn’t tell if Alan was trolling or not, but since Alan had survived that long, maybe there was hope for him too.

“Nobody knows. They stay apart from us, and make sure that we don’t cross over to their side of the boundary. They take things like that very seriously.” Dante was conflicted. He was listening to Alan, but certain things didn’t add up.

“Do they have names at least? Something I can go with?” Dante was becoming impatient and who could blame him? The world he found himself in was one that he’d never imagined in his entire life. But it didn’t matter.

He was going to survive, no matter what it took.

“No names. You’ll understand when you meet them.” Alan said, adding to the air of mystery surrounding the entire thing. Dante didn’t like to be kept in the dark, but there was no helping if, he couldn’t do anything without Alan’s help. And he knew it.

“Okay.” Dante replied, going off on his own to think.

The sky was blood red, and there was no single sound of life. No animals, no insects, nothing. It was a lifeless world, and Dante knew that if he didn’t do something about it, he’d end up lifeless like Alan.

He couldn’t let that ever happen. Whatever it took, he was going to crawl his way out and take apart those who dared to use him and toss him away.

But first… survive.