Virulent

Chapter 16: Hell

One moment, she was faced down on the cold concrete floor, three subterranean levels below the Australian Outback; men ran around, yelling things that were garbled. Gunshots echoed. Sounds echoed. Echoes drowned by her blood loss; drowned by the darkness pulling her deep within. What was she saying a moment ago to Rai? 'Come back!'

It was a moment ago, no?

Then there were moments that followed, where she was floating above the ground, floating past bodies, floating, above it all... into the abyss.

Was she still alive? Or was this death? The movement of her soul out of her body? Had she died, waiting for Rai to come back for her? Did he ever make it to Tehreem? What if he was dead? Exterminated like the rest of them? What then? What would become of the world?

It was a long ordeal, this business of dying. So long, and Ezra felt tired. Can I just be done now? Her soul ached for release. The world was going to burn. She wanted no part in it. Even though she was the one who'd lit the match.

Sorry, Dad, Shaki... I tried. I tried so hard to fight this, to survive. To make it home; make it back to you. To save you...

But the world wasn't letting go. Part of her could laugh at the irony—a world she'd doomed was still holding onto her—as she lay bloodied on the floor, dying.

Maybe this is my penance. This is how I pay for what I've done—a slow death...

Hallucinations began then, she was sure, as those minutes and perhaps hours passed. Her hearing dulled and her breath became barely there, and everything she saw and experienced felt tinged with the surreal. The floating above the ground. The bright sunshine hitting her face. Frantic screams of someone to hurry up. But hurry up, to where?

Then the warm breeze whipped her hair into her face, in some open-topped vehicle. Who was driving? Not her. She didn't know how to drive... did she? Had Dad taught her? She couldn't remember anymore.

Blurred face snuck glances at her as they dodged muffled bullets?—like they were being chased. Vague words floated in the air, "Hand on, Ezra!" But who was that telling her to hang on? Hang onto something? Hang onto life? What? Was her subconscious telling her to hang on? Why though? Why hang on? The world was about to die, and so should she. Surely! She should be the first one to die for what she'd done...

The jostle of the vehicle hitting a ditch made her back and shoulder sear red hot. She screamed. At least she thought she screamed. Was this Yamraj's modern solution to reaping souls, instead of riding his black buffalo? Was the God of death and justice carting her across the realms towards the deepest layers of Dante's hell in some sort of a war vehicle? Did Dante's hell exist in narkalok, hell, or was that just a mortal man's vision?

Just let me die, she remembered thinking clearly. Just take me where you must already and let me die...

Instead, the rumble of the engine struggling to sputter back to life rang in her ears like the peel of laughter. No, the world wasn't done yet.

Someone, or something dragged her out of that vehicle roughly, in a hurry to dump her somewhere. An inscrutable pain shot through her clavicle, making her scream. Making her wonder just how many bullet holes she actually had. Had someone shot her some more after Rai left? To ensure she was dead? Perhaps. If she were one of them and she came across the doctor responsible for unleashing a new horror on the world, she would have shot them too, not once, but many, many times. They would have deserved it, no?

But snippets of the Outback continued for what felt like days. Dusty and dry, being pulled across the harsh land on some makeshift stretcher; hungry vultures circled the too-bright-to-look-at sky above. She wondered what it would feel like to have her flesh ripped into by their sharp beaks. Not pleasant, she supposed.