“Shall we just take the belts? Or shall we try and take the whole sled?” Shorty asked quietly.
Jeff considered. If they slunk up from behind and took out the bag with the belts, they stood a better chance of going unnoticed than if they tried to take the whole sled.
“We won’t take any risks,” he decided. “We’ll grab the belts and get out of here.”
“OK,” Mac nodded.
They had almost reached the sled. The men and women in front of them were still busy building the pyres and took no notice of them.
Jeff dropped to his knees and crawled the last few feet. The bag with the belts was now right in front of him. He stretched out a hand, easily pulled it out from under the straps and hung it around his neck. They’d done it. Now all they had to do was get out of here.
Jeff lifted his head to take a last look at the men and women.
His eyes fell on a thin man who was helping pile up the pyre. The man turned and looked in his direction.
“Dad!” Jeff screamed.
The men and women turned round to look at him.
Shit, what had he done?
But it was too late. They’d seen him.
“Seize them!” his father said sternly.
Jeff jumped up and wanted to run away. But a powerful hand had grabbed him by the shoulder. Mac cursed and fired his pistol. A slender woman fell whimpering to the ground. Then a man with a broad back knocked the pistol out of Mac’s hand.
Another woman pulled Jeff’s weapon out of his holster and tossed it away in a high arc. Two muscular men in loincloths grabbed Jeff by the arms and dragged him toward the pyre—directly in front of his father, who stood, straight-backed, in front of him.
“You were dead! I saw you burn!”
“I told you. We’re already dead. We can’t die anymore,” his father said tonelessly.
Jeff looked him in the eyes. Yesterday they had been clear and focused. Today his pupils were dilated and his eyes glazed.
“What happened to you?” Jeff asked quietly.
“I’ve been born again,” his father replied icily. “Just as everyone here is born again and again to contribute to the eternal cycle of punishing and being punished. And this time I’ve been born again to punish.” He leaned his face forward until his nose touched Jeff’s. “And today you will be punished. Because you have done something forbidden, and are therefore a sinner in the eyes of Him.”
“Him?” Jeff asked in desperation.
“The Prince of Darkness, who watches over us from the center of hell, commanding us to punish and suffer, as is his right and his task.”
Jeff felt a shiver run down his spine. “Dad! Please!”
His father took a step back and pointed at Mac and Shorty. “Bind them to the free stakes,” he ordered the surrounding men and women. “So that they are exposed to the purifying fire.”
Shorty screamed as they dragged him to the nearest stake and tied him to it.
“Fucking bastards!” Mac cursed, as he was tied to the stake next to it. “I’ll kill you all!”
Jeff’s father picked up a burning torch from the ground. The throng of people cheered as he set light to the pile of logs.
Jeff tried to break free, to help his shipmates, but there were too many hands holding him back. “You can’t do this, you pigs!”
As if someone had dumped accelerant on the piles of wood, they immediately caught fire and Jeff’s shipmates were quickly engulfed by flames. Shorty’s hair burned like tinder. Jeff closed his eyes, but he couldn’t block out their shrill screams of pain. And it got worse. In the end, the sounds they made sounded almost inhuman. Finally they fell silent and the only thing Jeff felt was the burning heat of the fire on his skin.
When Jeff opened his eyes again, Shorty’s body had collapsed onto the pyre. Mac, however, was still tied to the post with his feet on the pyre; a human torch. Jeff would be next.
As Mac collapsed, too, the guards around him hollered and raised their fists in the air.
At that moment, Jeff broke free. He almost stumbled, but he was free, and he ran.
“You will not escape your punishment,” his father shouted from behind him. “You will be back, and together we will punish ourselves for all our sins.”
Jeff bit his tongue and ran. He ran like he had never run before in his life. He looked around and saw that some men had taken up the chase, but they soon gave up and turned back. The last thing he heard was the maniacal laughter of his father.
He stormed up the steps, through the antechamber and into the corridor, where he closed the hatch that led back into the cavity. Then he slumped on the ground and closed his eyes, overwhelmed by fits of sobbing. He tore the bag with the levitators from his shoulders and threw it on the ground.
30.
Jeff stumbled back down the corridor. He had to stop several times to wipe the tears from his face. He knew he was close to collapsing. He had no more energy left.
He had no idea how long he had sat in the corridor, howling.
Now Shorty and Mac!
Their death screams echoed through his head, and every echo pierced his very being like a hot, glowing knife.
Now only Green and Joanne were left. And who knew if she would ever recover from her fit. Would any of them reach the center of the ship? Jeff had his doubts.
He dragged himself, one foot at a time, down the dark corridor, when he saw a faint light. Hastily he switched off his headlamp.
He wasn’t mistaken. In front of him, not far away, was one of the light aliens. And it was coming closer. It was hard to tell how fast. Jeff wanted to turn around and run back, but he didn’t stand a chance of reaching the cavity before it reached him. And what would be the point?
The creature was now close enough that Jeff could see without his headlamp. A little way back down the corridor there had been a turnoff. Maybe he could hide himself there somehow. It was his last chance. He ran.
He raced down the corridor that branched off from the main one and which, a little further on, turned a corner. He looked back. The corridor was illuminated by the pale light of the alien being. It must be just past the fork.
Jeff slipped through an open door into a room. He briefly flicked on his headlamp to get his bearings. The place looked like it had once been a lab or a workshop. There were several tables and various large implements attached to the walls. In the back wall was another door. As quietly as he could, Jeff slipped over to it. Once through, he briefly switched on his headlamp. He was frightened almost to death when he realized it wasn’t a way out, but a small chamber without any further doors. He had fled into a dead end.
He swiveled round in a panic. A shaft of white light fell from the hallway into the lab. Any moment now, the light alien would float through the door. He looked around frantically but there was no other way out. Nowhere to hide. It was over. Once and for all. Now he was going to die.
He resigned himself to his fate. Maybe it was for the best. Then this nightmare would finally come to an end.
The light alien had already entered the room. It stopped in the doorway and turned around slowly, as if it were searching for him. It must have seen him, because it remained motionless just a few feet away from him.
As with the light alien he had encountered before, this one had no discernable eyes. And yet it seemed to be looking straight into his soul.
Jeff’s hands automatically reached down to his holster, but of course it was empty. He didn’t have a weapon anymore. And in any case, a gun would have been pointless. Trembling all over, he surrendered himself to his fate.
The light alien was moving closer. It came toward him slowly but inexorably. Finally it was right opposite him. If he stretched out his arm, he could have touched it.