First date - tell me more, tell me more - Black velvet dress - Cloudy mornings and sweet bareness - Kiss me, you fool - Waiting in the wings - You're only falling now? - Morning dew and dances - Cannibalypse now - Blood in the water - Silver lining
Summary: The group is headed to the cube, dragging feverish Kelvin along…
Kelvin had always been a clumsy but tough guy. Even in the face of danger, even if his own clumsiness was the cause of it, he never backed down. But today felt drastically different. His entire body was engulfed by the paralising fires of fever and he couldn't even lift his head off the pillow. Hunter tried to reassure him that everything would be alright, but Kelvin was too deep into the fever to register anything around him. Not even Tim's voice trying to talk him rang through the clouds of pain and his body slowly burning up from the inside. As the day went on, Kelvin's fever worsened despite the pills, and he felt like he became delirious. He started seeing things that couldn't possibly be there, like your beautiful figure lurking behind bushes, following along the way and pointing towards cannibals before they even appeared. Hunter and Tim tried their best to keep him calm, but Kelvin's mind was too far gone in the burning illusion to be reasoned with and he kept on groaning and mumbling words that were devoided of any sense. With great effort, Hunter and Tim managed to drag Kelvin out of their hideout the long way down towards the beach. The journey was arduous, hours passed like minutes and Kelvin could not help but noisily groan in constant pain. His fever was so high that he couldn't even lift a finger, an invisible weight pressed him down to the cot, like burning chains wrapping around his chest, tightening at every breath. As they made their way through the jungle, they encountered fewer cannibals than expected. Hunter and Tim fought them off with ease, but Kelvin's fever was beginning to take a toll on them too. They were tired, even though he lost a lot of weight during his time on the island, his body was still too heavy to carry around with ease, and the constant fear of being attacked at any given moment was draining the last out of them. Finally, after what felt like aeons, they reached the bunker. It was a small, dingy place since the people inhabitating it mutated beyond the worst possible imagination, but at least it also was the entrance to the caves of hell that led to their final destination, the golden cube. Hunter and Tim collapsed onto the ground, exhausted and grateful to be unscathed. Kelvin was still in the grip of his fever, but the worst was yet to come.
"I know you've seen a lot, but what lies behind the golden door will meddle with your sanity", Tim warned, a finger pointing at the broken wall in the bunker's bathroom.
"Just make sure that shotgun is loaded", Hunter retorted with a slight hint of optimism in his voice.
Timmy nodded confidentially, loading his shotgun before being the first to disappear into the mist that funnelled out of the broken bathroom pipes. As Hunter opened the massive golden door, they entered what the workers called the gates to hell before they all mutated. The caves were divided by rivers of magma, and the heat was almost unbearable. The sound of boiling lava echoed through the tunnels, making it challenging to hear anything else. As they ventured deeper into the caves, they encountered mutants that were unlike anything Hunter had ever seen before. These creatures were slender, humanoid figures coated in sickly pale white skin. They ran on all four limbs, back hunched severally, screeching and gnarling at them, threatening to tear them apart at any given moment. He could have sworn that these monster reminded him of...demons...for the lack of a better word, his mind connecting the dots to the cave paintings and the cross he found on their second day trapped on this island. Hunter and Tim knew they had to fight for their survival, they had to make it to the cube. The only thing Hunter desired even less than being eaten by anything in this hell was to mutate into on of those creatures. The battles were intense, and for a moment, it seemed as if all hope was lost. The mutants were fast and possessed an immane strength, and their weapons seemed to affect them not the slightest. Hunter pulled out the cross from his pocket, pointing it at the demon charging at Tim, causing it to flinch, hissing as if the sight alone would burn it alive. While Tim's mind was busy figuring out what was happening, his body reacted on its own, the hand that held the machete in a tight grip, lashing at the demon's head, chopping it off clean in one fell swoop. The sound of the fleshy dead head hitting the ground and the gurgle of the black blood gushing out it as it rolled in a curve to Hunter's feet, made him gag. The smell of the rotten clot of the monster that filled the air around him, coalescing with the sulphurous stench of the magma, abrogated his last volition to not vomit. He retched, spewing out what little food that was left in his stomach, gasping for air as tears of exhaustion gathered in his eyes. His will to fight quailed, his whole body was trembling until Kelvin's low rasps of agony rang to his ears. But Tim yelled at him from a few feet away before he could shape any thought around the desperate state of friend.
Tim ran, hands wrapping around the rope tied to the cot and pulled frantically. Hunter didn't waste a second and did the same, both of them panting as they dragged delirious Kelvin towards the golden cube. The door, which was one of the shining golden metallic walls, was already half way down as it continued to slowly slide, dangerously close to locking them out.
"GO GO GO!", both men screamed in unified panic, shifting their weight forward, picking up the pace. Tim crawled first into the cube, desperately trying to keep the door from sliding further. Hunter threw Kelvin off the cot in a mad rush, his hands pushing him half into the room where Tim took over pulling. Hunter threw himself flat on the floor and rolled inside the cube, barely avoiding being squished by the door hitting the floor, whirling up the dust that had gathered around. Suddenly the atmosphere in the cube began to shift. A portal appeared on one wall, showing a futuristic city in the dark of the night, and the Hunter and Tim were engulfed in intense pain as dimensional energy filled the room. They could feel alternate versions of themselves being pulled towards the portal before converging back into them. Kelvin in his weak state seemed to be affected differently, his upper body shot up and his pupils were blown wide in shock. He gazed at an elderly version of himself wrapped around a smaller woman. Though he couldn't see her face, a vague supposition deep inside his soul made him believe it had to be you. Kelvin felt ecstatic all over sudden, his heart beating violently in his chest as he didn't dare to believe his eyes. He reached out to touch you, hands trembling slightly, you vanished into thin air, and he realized it was just an illusion. Kelvin was left confused and heartbroken. What was the meaning of this? What happened and where was he? Was it just a trick of the mind, or was it something more? His eyes wandered around, registering the golden walls around him for the first time. His hand instinctively reached to his waist, wincing at the pain as he grazed the bandaged wound, his brain being flooded by images of his fight with the cannibal. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. Hunter smiled down at him, visibly relieved that his friend seemed to have gotten better.
"Let's get off this island for good", he helped him up, gently tapping his chest which earned him a faint smile.
Kelvin having an arm around Tim's and Hunter's shoulder as they stabilised him, walking slowly the long way back out of the bunker. Tim's father, Eric, awaited them at the helipad on the beach, pacing up and down nervously. As he spotted, he waved his hand at the pilot, who started the engine, while Eric opened the door and helped the two man to get the still weak Kelvin safely into the seat. They finally made it, or so they thought, but neither Hunter nor Kelvin were aware that their forced stay on an in island fraught with mutated horrors was only the first destination on their trip through hell.
Part 12 - From one hell to another
