Gastric Hell

A Story by Ashley Benard

Maybe our fiction words, are descriptions of our non-fiction world.

This life is all in color, and on the outside it’s shattered and burned. We have no energy left on the inside to regain control over Hasbrou which is being destroyed by the demons. Soon our life will be an entrance to hell itself. These demons have traveled from an alternate universe that was destroyed by a meteorite. They decided to take over Hasbrou to make their new territory. Their main plan is to deceive us into becoming slaves to work for the dictator Motzy. I Doozy, was promptly converted into Motzy’s aristocrat and also his perpetrator. I was privileged with actual food, while others had to simply consume tree bark, left over bones, and dried out grains. I had to guard the main hall of Hasbrou International, and if anyone stepped out of line, fell asleep on the job, or just simply quit working, I was to kill them at once. So far, I have killed sixty-eight slaves, including my friends, Constance and Dottez.

I continuously swept the deck, picked up any rations left over, and made my way towards the Captains Dock, As I approached the Captains Dock, I had made count of how many slaves I just swung at because they were sleeping on the job; that made it twelve slaves slightly conscious, and three slaves dead. I graciously opened the rickety door to Captain Jerald’s office, and promptly scooted in without letting any prisoners sneak in as well.

“Oh, Doozy! Just the worker I was looking for! I have a new job for you. Dennace her has passed his exams, never slept on the job, and is a strong worker, and I would like you to train him for your job as the Main Hall Guard here at Hasbrou International.” Captain Jerald stated.

“Then where shall I presume to continue working?” I responded.

“You will be moving to the upper level of Hasbrou International to watch all the trainers, other guards, and of course the slaves. I feel this will be a good change for you.”

“Alright, c’mon Dennace! Let me show you to your cabin and to your new job training station.” I said to Dennace while motioning my hand in a ‘follow me’ direction.

As I was walking towards the elevator, I looked behind me, and Dennace was gone. I had no idea where he had ran off to, or if he was even still in Hasbrou International. I immediately ran to the surveillance room, slid my room key through the access slot, and ran to the monitor to locate Dennace. I stared at the monitor for a good twenty-five minutes, and I still had no sign of the b*****d. Where could he have gone? There aren’t cameras in the guard’s rooms...maybe he went into one of them. Or maybe he worked hard to get this job so he could flee Hasbrou and make his way to the New World. I must report the misplacement at once to Motzy. Now that I think about it, where is Motzy? Why didn’t he present Dennace to me, and Captain Jerald did? Were Dennace and Captain Jerald planning something? I am not sure, all these questions jumbled in my brain, and started giving me a headache.

I made my way to Motzy’s cabin, but when I opened the door, Motzy was gone. Motzy never left his cabin, unless it was to attend a killing or dinner. Yet, no one was guarding the main hall right now, so there were no killings present and it was morning, no dinner will be served at this time. I exited Motzy’s cabin and made my way to the main hall to presume my job, but when I got there, all the slaves were gone. There were three bloody axes laying around the hall, and the only thing I saw out of place was Dictator Motzy’s self portrait; it was upside down, and hanging about Captain Jerald’s office, instead of hanging on the main wall leading to the cafeteria. This confused me very much, my headache was getting worse, and everything was beginning to piss me off. I began to make my way to my cabin to lay down.

As I made my way towards my cabin, I saw many more bloody axes, a few bones from the chamber, and a lost key to ‘Cabin 432’. I looked at the key closely and noticed teeth marks on the edge as if someone had been gnawing on it. I looked around at the door numbers and I wasn’t anywhere close to the 400’s cabins, I was in the 150’s. It was strange to find someone’s key on Floor 1 to begin with, because that is where the captains, the dictator, the managers, and the watchers stay; none of the slaves ever come down here unless they are from the 200 cabins. I suspected that there were people escaping from floors, or worse, nobody was left in Hasbrou International.

“What would the captain say? What would Motzy say? What was I to do?” I thought as I walked towards the stairs that lead me to floors 2, 3, and 4. I approached the stairs with a deep concerned look on my face, and a twitch was forming in my eye when I noticed the missing stair rail, and a hand sprawling out from behind the wall of the second set of stairs. The hand was pasty white, with a large red splash of color dripping from the fingers. I immediately knew the red color was blood, but I wasn’t sure who it was. It could’ve been a slave or even worse Dictator Motzy, who was still no where to be found.

Pondering the multiple outcomes of what lies around this corner, my heart thumping right out my chest, and my feet shaking with every step taken, I made my way up the stairs with deep concern and high anxiety levels. I round the corner of the stair case and have a moment of relief, for the hand belonged to yet another slave. I continued up the stairs with a bit of regret that I was actually thankful that a random stranger was dead as opposed to my boss; it’s pretty fucked up now that I think about it.

Floors two and three were completely vacant of any source of life, just some more bloody axes, dead slaves, and the occasional twitching arms here and there. I was growing deeply concerned as I made my way for the top floor. The top floor outlooked the town of Hasbrou, which is about the size of my pinky, give or take a few inches, and also withheld the power source that kept this town alive and the demons in power. Without this significant power source, everybody could die within three days on normal health habits, except the demons whom are immortal. The top floor grew closer and I grew more angry than concerned. Where in the hell was Dictator Motzy, and why is Captain Jerald so f*****g sketchy? Who was this random Dennace kid who disappeared after two minutes of being outside the office? This job wasn’t paying me enough to deal with ignorant beasts and some lunatic kid that thought he could just wonder off. In fact, I’m not being paid at all, which is complete bullshit. Now that I think about it, why am I so concerned? Why have I not just took off on one of the fighter jets to the New World? I am definitely a new kind of stupid.