The Ruins of Pandemonia

The following minutes were filled with nothing but pure fear. The slide reflected no light at all, letting her feel the cold iron press against her back. The cold air soon reeked of excrement, slowly becoming even more unbearable.

For a few seconds she felt as she floated in the air and suddenly landed on really soft ground. She placed her hands on the ground, accidentally taking in a deep breath of the putrid atmosphere. Her eyes watered, almost to the point of crying, despite the fact that she couldn’t see anything.made it even worse. On the distance she could see an orange dot, the only color her eyes could see for kilometers. She lifted her feet, trying her best to avoid sinking back into the putrid quagmire.

“How do you like the smell?” Eris’s cool voice rang throughout.

“It’s horrible!” Fluttershy replied, or at least she tried. The stench was too strong, for her to even open her mouth without choking.

“Don’t bother talking, the air here in Cankerville is almost deadly. If you breathe in too much your lungs will begin to grow at least three types of fungi. You’ll be dead in ten minutes.”

The new silence was swiftly broken by a large splash. As Fluttershy turned her head to look at the darkness what was supposed to be the source. Her eyes were suddenly blinded by an incredibly bright light. With a hand shielding her eyes, she managed to recognize the purple armor of Iron Cross.

“Ma’am, are you alright?” he asked before chocking violently. She approached him, placing a hand on his shoulder. The lamp tilted to illuminate the backpack, letting the soldier pull out a pair of plastic masks. He handed her one and quickly strapped one over his mouth and nose. “Better.” he replied. “So, do we know where the hell we are?” he turned to face her. But she never got a chance to answer, focusing instead on the tremors and growls that were looking to sink her.

Iron lifted his guns and scanned the surroundings.  Behind them, a geyser of mud exploded, releasing a titanic shockwave that echoed throughout the wastes. Fluttershy’s heart prepared to crack as her eyes turned to look at a monstrous neck.

The thing stood at least three stories tall, with popped blisters dripping pus at an unnatural rate. Its maw lashed out a purple tongue, lashing at the soldier with blinding speed. Iron was immediately caught, stunned by the development, he pulled out his knife and swung hard. The monster cried in pain and retracted its extremity with warrior in tow.

“Iron, no!” was all the pink-haired woman could say before he disappeared with the tongue. The worm swallowed him, thrashing violently as Iron stabbed the limb.

Once again, she was in complete darkness. “Huh.” Eris sighed, approaching Fluttershy without a worry or concern about the titanic maggot that had burst from the ground. “I thought that there weren’t any plague maws left in the wild.”

The worm began shrieking loudly,letting its thorax glow. A second later, a large flash of light preluded another quake. The shower of blood and guts forced the pink-haired woman to cover her head, although she was lucky not to feel any of the wet gore crashing against her. Her eyes turned to face the source of the explosion, setting her eyes on an Iron Cross bathed in orange light.

His shoulder light was still working, illuminating everything around them like a dying star. He was nearly swallowed by the ground, having been buried knee deep in the quagmire. “Shit!” he exclaimed, “I’m pretty sure that’s what we’re stepping on!” he began squirming around as he tried to free himself from the trap. He turned his eyes toward Eris. “Listen you little furball I’m running out of patience, so I’ll make you a deal: Tell me how the hell do we get back to the surface now and I promise I won’t kill you this very second.”

The feline jumped onto Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I will ignore your insolence merely because it amuses me grunt.” she replied cooly, letting a sly smile decorate her face. “As of this moment you are in Cankerville, at the very bottom of the world. And if that does nothing to dampen your enthusiasm, know that there are worst monsters lurking about.” she spoke while staring at the halves of the plague worm. “So as long as you step of this quagmire of wastes there will be no rest. And each breath you take will take you ever closer to your doom.”

“Listen here you little furball.” Iron replied. “I’ve seen some really messed up shit in my five years of service. And while that thing sure jumped into the small list, I’m still not ready to give up.”

The bengal snarled. “Fine, then I believe you will no longer need me.”

“Wait!” Fluttershy cried, rushing through the mud to grab the cat. “Please don’t leave us!” she held out her hand to caress her tail, but her hand clasped air. The feline did not even respond, simply giving her a toss of her head. The woman stepped forward, only to be stopped by the soldier’s armored hand.

“Leave her.” he said, his voice muffled by the cover. “Witches only know how to make things difficult.” he pulled out his pistols and began walking away from the slide. “Hopefully there’s some way to get back to the surface. But for now we should focus on getting out of this place.”

The trek was uncomfortable for her, between the fear that a new worm would pop from the ground and the air being enough to make her eyes water constantly. And on top of that, she felt as though there was a cloud over her shoulders that was weighing her down.

The soldier seemed kept his guard up, scanning the space around them as if he expected something to pop out. His eyes kept darting to the sides and behind, always keeping a gun pointed in front and the other behind.

“Well, I thought about a lot of things when I woke up this morning. Finding an underground world beneath the Everfree Forest was not on it. What did you think of this morning ma’am?” the soldier asked, keeping his vigil.

“Oh.” she sighed. “I’m not sure. I just wanted to get some supplies and get back home.”

“Don’t worry, with me at your side there’s no danger that’ll come your-” he was interrupted by a sudden howl, a high-pitched scream that would break glass, and the appearance of five bloated humanoid figures clad in loincloths. One of them swung a putrid club at them, heaving as the massive piece of rotten wood flew through the air to smash the soft ground.

Iron tackled Fluttershy out of harm's way, letting the full force of the club slam him to the ground. The woman could do nothing but watch as the others closed in on him, testing their weapons on their arms.

She saw the purple body roll out of the next two pommels, jumping off as the soft ground launched him like a ragdoll on a trampoline. “Well, I guess it’s time to-” and immediately he was rammed by another club, sending him rocketing back. This time, he stood up and fired several bullets. Each round of magical fire tore through the rotten flesh, spilling blighted skin and gore.

Fluttershy began stepping back, making sure to walk as silently as possible. She stopped when the howl echoed through the field, but this time it was behind her. She turned around, hoping that whatever had made that noise was too far away to worry about. What she found was a new kind of terror.

It was a short creature, with leech teeth and inflated bulbs of flesh. The pair of stick-thin legs that moved it around broke into a sprint, leaping off the ground as the maw aimed right at her. The sharp stab of pain made by the bite to her left shoulder was nothing short of unbearable. She could feel as the beast sucked the blood out of her.

She pushed it with what little strength she could muster, but it seemed as though the man-leech had fused with her skin. “Cross!” she cried, taking a peek at the situation. She could see the five barbarians with their clubs and tooth necklaces looking around in apparent confusion. With a new shot of adrenaline on her body, she punched the leech in the gut, freeing her shoulder from the drain and kicked it away. A large snap later and the monster was writhing in pain on the floor.

“Incoming!” the soldier yelled, landing face first on the quagmire. He got up and immeditely fired another round of pistol fire. One of the brutes fell down, letting its skull be crushed by the foot of a comrade. “Well, at least we now know that they can die.” he said with a nervous chuckle. “Those bastards really are made to take some punishment. And sadly, without my rifle there’s no way we will kill them. We need to get away. You start running, I’ll be right behind yo-” his eyes focused on her shoulder. “What the fuck happened?” he yelled, before shaking his head and grabbing her arm. “Y’know what, you can tell me later. Right now we have to run.” and run they did.

They could still hear the growls of the monsters behind them, getting weaker with each step they took. They stopped once they saw torches perched on a rotten paliside. As they stopped to recover their breath, they took a peek at a small metal plaque. It may have displayed a message some time ago, but now it was nothing but rusted metal.

“Sure hope that wasn’t a keep out sign.” Iron murmured, “I’d hate to face anything worse than those monsters.” his walk had now degraded into a limp, and she could now see several dents and cuts throughout his armor. With a large huff he sat on the new ground. Regular, sturdy soil that did not look like the toxic mud before.

“My goodness!” she exclaimed rushing to his side. “Are you alright?”

“This?” he snapped. “This is nothing! I-” his bravado was cut short by a mouthful of blood. He quickly spit it out, wiping off the excess on his right arm guard. “Maybe I need a dose…” He sighed, undoing the straps of his breastplate. Once his armor was set on the ground he examined the back part. His gloved hand caressed a cracked topaz and a small quartz underneath it.

“Is that a gem?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“Yup. This little piece of earth is what made sure I wasn’t turned into puree before.” he sighed. “Now that it’s busted the barriers are gonna be even weaker than before. Fortunately the inner barriers are still good, so maybe I’ll survive another beating.” He threw his arms into the air in celebration, before wincing in pain. “Maybe  we should rest for a while. That thing on your shoulder is not sitting well with me.” With a nod, she sat next to him. He pulled out a large medical kit from under his bag, setting it in front of them and opening it.

The kit revealed several syringes, knives, forceps and other medical tools that it looked like he was about to open a small clinic. He grabbed a small box with a pistol grip and pointed it at her. “Stand still, this thing will scan for anything wrong in your body.” A few short beeps later and he put the scanner down. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but you’ve got something so weird in your body that this thingamajig can’t even recognize it. B-b-ut don’t worry, I’ve got just the thing.” he blundered, pulling out a tiny syringe from the kit. “I’ll give you this shot and after a short nap you’ll be good as new.”

“But..” she stammered. “what about you?”

Iron blew a raspberry “Please, I’ve had worse before. Now, let me get my bedroll ready and I’ll give you this antidote.” he rolled his eyes at the look of Fluttershy’s confusion. “All Right mother, I’ll take a shot of combat stims. That’ll fix me right up.”

With the sleeping bag ready, Fluttershy received her shot and was immediately overcome by sleep.