Episode Five

The tall tunnel I had passed though quickly opened up into a wide plain. The world lit up in a fiery glow and noise came from every direction. My ears filled with the crackling of fire and the moans of far too many people to count. I stood in shock as my eyes passed over millions of faces, covered with black soot and wide eyes. Across my vision from left to right was a fiery river. It seemed like most of the people were shoving into most others to gain access to the shore line.

            Scrawny shoulders banged against others. Everyone looked alike. Half naked and charred bodies banged into me and forced me forward. With every step I could feel the heat rising off of the fire in front of. I choked back a sob as I was crushed against the wall of bodies in front of me. We stood feet from the edge of the river of fire and flamed licked out to touch the legs of others who were closer then me.

            I felt a shove from behind and my arms came out to brace myself. My shrieks were lost in the chorus of screams as the body in front of me tumbled into the fire. I could smell the rancid sweet stench of skin melting with fire as the face quickly descended under the flames. I was inches from the edge now and I feared that one more shove would send me toppling over the edge as well.

            I pointedly looked from one edge of the river to the other. It seemed to be about twenty foot across and the flames easily jumped ten feet above the floor level. I could not jump across and the wall of bodies behind me was too solid to try to break through.

            It was then that the volume of moans and shouts of pain increased quit noticeably. Bodies behind me collided and clawed at one another. I saw that from my left on the river a small boat seemed to float easily across. A tall thin man, shrouded in thick black garments held a staff that he swung wide and dipped the tip into the river to push his way towards us. All around me claw like hands reached out towards the boat. The mass of bodies crammed together even more tightly and I felt me toes slip off the edge of the river. Flames licked up towards me like arms and I cursed as I pushed back against the mob to try to stay on land.

            The boat was now feet from me and all around me bodies were being shoved into the flames by other desperate people. Bodies bobbed in the flames before sinking below the flames. You could see hands protruding from the orange tongues of fire as the tried to climb their way out but the only thing their fist closed around was air.

            Just as the boat was directly n front of me the mass pushed outwards. I could feel myself toppling forward with nothing to hold me. Another great shove came down upon my back; my feet flew from the ground and were suspended above the fire for milliseconds before the wave of bodies crashed over me. People had crawled on top of each other, crating a suspended bridge to the boat.

            Bodies crashed on top of me as I fell to the deck of the boat. Feet trampled against my body as they frantically piled into the boat. The ferryman stood motionless for a few moments as the boat filled up before using his staff to shove away from the shoreline. A few were able to jump to the mass of bodies aboard and a few more fell short and sizzled as they sank into the fire.

            I sat up from the fetal position and threw a pair of legs off of me. Moans and screams floated to us from the land as we began to float down river away from the masses. I looked around the boat of the small group that had made it aboard with me. Their faces painted black with charred soot. The white of their eyes stood out in ghastly contrast to the inky blackness of their skin. I realized then that finding Emily would be a much bigger task then I had originally thought.

            Even if I would be able to find where she is, how would I be able to distinguish her from all the other pain stricken faces?

Reviews

[gombeggar]

well done visualization...i look forward to yer continuation now...keep writing no matter what

[Craig2591]

Wow! Such agony. Very suspenseful. Good description of a very bad place.