To Hell & Back
Chapter Thirteen

I don’t know how long I just lay there, utterly exhausted, before I realized I was conscious again. I took a deep breath and sat up. My exhaustion waned over the next few moments, leaving me feeling strangely refreshed as I took in the scenery. The tunnel I had gone through had spit me out into the weirdest-looking forest I had ever seen. The ground was extremely hilly, with trees sticking randomly out of the ground at odd angles, seemingly not affected by gravity or logic.

“What in the actual fuck?” I whispered, looking around at my surroundings.

It took me a moment to take in the size of the trees; they were huge. They towered above me, reaching well beyond a hundred feet, if not a hundred yards. They were light blue, brown, and red colored. I marveled at what had to be a several hundred yard tall tree. It stuck straight out of a twenty or so degree slope, halfway up the hill. The tree went straight out for a hundred feet, curved around like a ragged spiral, before straightening again back out to its original angle.

What kind of roots would keep that in the ground… and how does it not break on its own weight? I wondered, shaking my head in disbelief. I don’t know where this is, but this isn’t Earth.

The trees swayed in the wind, but they seemed to move in random directions and at random times. I started feeling unnerved as I got the odd feeling that they weren’t all moving just because of the wind. Leaves flew through the air and littered the ground, crinkling softly under my feet as I stood up.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, enjoying the fantastically crisp air. The feel of the air, of the whole forest in general, was indescribable. It was just so fresh. I stood there, just breathing and enjoying the feel of the place, until I was rudely interrupted by a loud groaning noise. It had come from behind me. Annoyed, I looked back to see what the noise was. I turned to see the gate from before. It was just a huge frame filled with naught but impenetrable darkness. Looking around, I noted the gate and I were at the top of a hill.

The gate made the same noise again, slightly harsher sounding this time, and that is when it started to change. A red speck appeared in the darkness. A lava-like substance began slowly edging outwards from the center of the darkness as I stared at it. The red fought the darkness, stretching and tearing it as it filled the space. When it had filled half of the frame, I realized I shouldn’t just sit there staring at it.

Something is going to come through it like I did. I need to be out of here, I realized. Right then, on the run again.

I began moving down the hill slowly and carefully. Looking back after getting a good ways down the hill, the red had filled three-fourths of the giant frame, so I decided to pick up my speed to a fast trot. My legs protested, but I kept going, forcing myself to move no matter how much I didn’t want to.

While my legs began feeling better rather quickly, and I wanted to think I was fairly well rested and healed, I knew they’d go back to protesting soon enough. The groaning noise sounded again, pushing me into a sprint. I got down the hill and up the next one before the gate finished filling up. Two large figures were spat out moments before the gate went back to darkness.

I caught my breath as I leaned against a tree, watching silently. The figures that had come through were dazed for a few moments, but they started looking around within a minute. When one got down and inspected the ground, I realized I hadn’t been careful about my trail. They began trotting down the hill in my direction, wary of the steep slope.

Where’s Victoria… Fuck it, it is time to run. She can catch up, I thought, nodding to myself. All that time spent in gyms and such wasn’t for nothing.

I rolled my shoulders and took several deep breaths before I set off. Deep bellows of triumph sounded from behind me. I kept going, ignoring the sounds, picking up my pace. I went down one hill and up the next, keeping my pace and breathing even. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, beating as hard and fast as my feet upon the ground, as I just ran. I focused on the space in front of me, ignoring everything else, as I slipped through the semi-dense woods, aiming for denser areas. The demons from the gate had been huge, both tall and wide, so I was fairly confident they couldn’t follow through thick forest very well.

I grinned as my heart raced. If nothing else, running for my life made me feel alive. Fear of death, especially when mixed with unrestrained motion, makes for an adrenaline cocktail that fuels a body like nothing else could. Back on Earth, I was always hiding. I hid my face from people and cameras, I used fake names, I never let people know anything about me, but here it was different. This was just me running from two beings that would kill me if they caught up. I didn’t have to hide how fast I could run, didn’t have to pretend I was some dumb, blonde, high school girl on vacation.

How many people have I told that? Just here visiting a friend, I thought with a laugh as I ducked between trees. How many times have I put my hair up and worn a jacket that covers my entire shirt so that I would have a quick costume change on the fly… How many jackets have I stolen and discarded? Think I lost count after fifty…

My vision started to narrow as I ran swiftly down a ravine between two particularly steep hills, but I couldn’t stop. I pushed on, catching myself when I stumbled, and just ran for all I had. I breathed hard, shoving lungfuls of air into me as my body cried out for oxygen. My father had taught me that I would likely face many situations that I couldn’t just fight my way through, so he insisted I learn to run far and fast. It was while running through snowy forests in Canada, or perhaps it was while running through downtown Dallas, Phoenix, and many other cities, that I learned to love running.

I powered up a hill, hoping the many trees and hills I had passed would be enough to slow down my pursuers more than it killed my legs. I got to the top of a hill and looked behind me just in time to see a huge spear slam into a tree within an arm’s length of me. I screamed and jerked backwards in my haste to get away from the spear. Another spear hit nearby, but I was already out of reach of it, falling down a long, steep hillside.

I fell, tumbling down the hillside sideways until I slammed bodily into a tree. I hit the tree with my right side and stopped instantly, causing pain to flare in my ribs, as well as knocking the wind out of me. My lungs burned for long seconds, fighting for breath. My lungs demanded air, while my bruised, if not broken, ribs demanded stillness. It was a frighteningly painful few moments. I couldn’t stop myself from shrieking in pain, wasting the precious oxygen I did finally take in.

When I finally got ahold of myself, I slowed my breathing to long, controlled breaths, and just lay there for a while in pain. After a minute, I turned my head to look down at my body, wanting to see what kind of mess I had gotten myself into, but my vision swam wildly and pain wracked my side for what felt like an eternity. When I could finally control myself again, I tried to extract myself from the tree. I screamed as pain flared up my side. Looking down, I saw what was wrong: a long, thin barb from the tree had pierced my body. I slowly ripped my shirt to expose everything. It entered my side at my lowest rib. The barb had gone in, hit the rib, bent, and followed my ribs up and around to my front before finally exiting my side just under my breast.

A victory for small breasts everywhere, I thought dimly as I looked at the damage and noted the barb had pierced my shirt and bra, but just barely didn’t reach far enough to pierce the skin underneath. I’ve got to get this thing out of me and get back to running.

I stared at the slowly bleeding wound for a while, realizing what I needed to do, but not wanting to do it. A loud roar from not very far away took me out of my thoughts and spurred me into action. Gritting my teeth, I twisted a fraction of an inch, easing the barb out the way it had gone in. The pain was immense but also somewhat dull.

I frowned and thought, This should hurt more… Am I in shock? Or… am I going into shock? It’s not bleeding too much… Why am I dizzy? I need to get this fucking thing out of me and start moving before I pass out again.

I twisted my body slowly to the side, screaming in pain all the while, but I refused to stop. I pushed my body into motion whenever I felt myself slow, clamping down on any thought of giving up. I watched my motion slowly pull the barb out. By the time I had turned mostly onto my stomach, the tip of the barb was back inside of me. It was slowly sliding out the way it came in, but I couldn’t get my body to turn any more.

I reached back, took hold of the barb a few inches from where it entered my side, and felt around it with my fingers.

Hard, not easily bendable… but it isn’t sharp. Shouldn’t tear too bad, I thought, panting and laughing. Yeah, won’t tear too—

A roar from the top of the hill interrupted my thoughts. I made up my mind on what to do. I gripped the barb firmly, took a deep breath, grit my teeth, and pulled it the rest of the way out of me in one quick jerk.

Come on, get up. Get up and keep going, you still have some time, I told myself. After I got to my knees, I looked down at myself, and I saw a surprisingly small amount of blood staining my shirt. Not too bloody… Hurray for dehydration? Isn’t that— Just get up and keep running.

I looked up to the top of the hill, trying to see if the demons from before were still following, but I couldn’t see anything. I heard at least two voices doing what sounded like arguing, but it was in an incredibly guttural language that I couldn’t understand. It was just a bunch of huffing and snarling as far as I could tell.

Up, a voice in my head commanded sharply. Get up…

I pushed myself gently away from the barbed tree before carefully sliding the rest of the way down the steep slope. Once at the bottom, I got to my feet and started walking. I tried to get into a jog, but the pain in my side flared far too much. If I stuck to walking, I couldn’t feel any pain from my side.

Probably a bad sign, I mused. Why’s the ground moving… I’m… ooh boy, dizzy, gonna puke…

A loud thunk sounded next to me, briefly jerking me out of the daze I was in. A huge spear, nearly twice my body length, had hit a tree branch that hung between me and the people chasing me. They were up at the top of the hill I had fallen down.

A wooden, groaning noise sounded, and I watched, still somewhat dazed, as another branch swooped down to hit the spear out of the first branch, making it drop it to the ground. Both tree branches then swooped up and away. Hearing another groaning noise, I turned to look back up the hill. I watched as a huge spear arced down towards me only to be deflected by a swinging tree branch. The spear hit the ground a dozen feet in front of me, clattering loudly as it slid to a stop near my feet.

Yeah, that just happened… I just saw that, I reassured myself. The one tree hit the spear out of the other tree… and the other spear was swatted down… and… and… I’m hallucinating.

“Thanks?” I murmured, confused and dizzy. “I’m… I’m just be going now… b-but thanks for… the save… or whatever…”

I blinked and shook my head, trying to clear my senses. I felt numb and foggy, and I couldn’t stop the ground from moving under me. I swayed for a moment before collapsing to the ground.

You need to run, get some pressure on that wound, get some water and food in you, and replace a safe place to rest, I told myself, but I couldn’t get my legs to do anything. You’ll need stitches and anti…

“Oh, n-no, the… the b-barb was poisonous, wasn’t it?” I whispered, laughing. I laughed hysterically for several moments before I fell face first into the leafy, grassy ground.

I turned my head to the side and just watched the grass and leaves blow around for a while. My senses expanded for a moment, leaving me to sense everything, before they contracted, leaving me unable to hear, feel or see. I was like this for a time, sensing nothing, before my vision came back.

I lay there, able to see but not hear. I couldn’t hear, but I could feel. I felt everything around me, the stoic trees, the sad leaves, the joyous wind. The grass gave off several feelings: sad, angry, and happy. More and more life connected with my senses, giving me a euphoric feeling of unification. I couldn’t move my body, but I didn’t care. I loved it. I loved everything. I laughed, feeling amazing. I laughed until I passed out.