CH 21 - Hell Explained

Alan announced his arrival by tapping against the rock as he drew near. “Hello,” he said as he walked into their light.

“I appreciate the warning,” Logan smiled.

“I appreciate you not pointing a sword at me,” Alan replied. “Are you ready to meet your neighbors?”

“Yes.” Logan looked at Karen. “You want to come?”

“Every chance I get,” she said with dancing eyes. “Oh, you mean to travel with you?”

“Yes,” Logan grinned. “I mean travel with me. It couldn’t hurt for these other damned souls to see me in the company of one of their own.”

“Happy to. Let’s go.”

The deep stillness and thick darkness of an underground world was an unnerving sensation as they fell into step behind Alan. They reached the other cavern in less than an hour of travel. The others were already gathered on the porch of the partial ruin and waiting anxiously.

Logan raised a hand in greeting. “Hello. I ... come in peace?”

An older woman with short-cropped, graying hair and sad eyes looked him up and down, especially the blades hanging on his belt. “Why then do you wear the weapons and armor of our tormentors?”

Logan looked to Alan for guidance. Alan just nodded.

“To do to them what they would try to do to me first. To defend myself as I search for a way to escape out of Hell. My name is Logan and this is Karen. Karen is one of you, a damned soul.”

“Like us?” Sad Eyes came closer, staring at Karin. “Look at you, young lady. So vibrant and beautiful! How have you managed this?”

Alan blinked in surprise, immediately picking up on what Logan had not said. “Are you saying you are not a damned soul?”

“To the best of my understanding, no, I don’t think I am.” Logan shrugged. “It’s a long story.”

Alan smiled. “We have nothing but time.”

“Let’s table that discussion for another day.” Logan gestured at the ruin. “What is that?”

“Our salvation, I suspect,” Alan replied. “Come, sit. Make yourselves comfortable and I will explain.”

The others split off into smaller groups, draping on and around each other with casual intimacy, and settled nearby to listen. Logan and Karen looked for someplace to sit. Here, there was not even the modest comfort of a bed of moss. Logan settled for dropping onto his haunches, just in case a quick response was required. Just in case.

“Look there.” Alan pointed at an image engraved at the top of the peaked roof in the exact center. “What do you see?”

Logan looked and saw a figure of a man, dressed in a toga that hung from one shoulder. In one hand was a spear. At his other side sat a three-headed dog.

“That is Hades, the Greek god of the underworld,” Alan explained.

“A temple to Hades ... in Christian Hell.” Logan shook his head in bafflement. “How? Why? I mean, I finally see some evidence of civilization in the wasteland and it’s...”

“Not what you expected?” Alan almost smiled.

“Yeah,” Logan replied. “Let’s go with that.”

Alan nodded. “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” Revelations 20:14.”

Logan stared at the ruin. “A Bible quote ... about the Greek god Hades...”

“The very same.” Alan nodded and gestured at the broken temple. “We are looking at the equivalent of dinosaur bones, the bones of a dead world, my friend. A fading echo of another reality and, I suspect, our sanctuary from the infernal influence above. One that is being slowly and inevitably consumed by the very walls of this cavern.”

Logan blinked at him. “Consumed?”

“Consumed, eaten, assimilated, the word doesn’t matter.”

“That’s...” Logan stopped short of saying “crazy”. After all, this was Hell, and there was no shortage of crazy in this place. “That makes no sense,” he offered instead.

“Doesn’t it?” Alan asked. “Tell me, how much do you know about Christian teachings on the subject of Hell?”

“Not much,” Logan admitted. “I was never the religious type.”

“I was,” Alan replied. “That is to say, as much as I had to be to convince people to throw their money at me. I was famous once, you see. Preaching “the word of God” on TV to millions, promising endless bounty in exchange for their donations.”

His smile was bitter. “We called it the “Prosperity Gospel”. Give me a dollar and God will give you three in return. Amen. Praise the Lord. Of course, the only ones who truly prospered were me and those I chose to include in my lucrative business.”

“You were a TV evangelist?” Logan wrinkled his nose. Disgust drove impulsive words out of his mouth he would never have imagined saying to a stranger. “Holy shit. You might be the first person I have met who truly belongs in Hell, and in the realm of Lust no less. What did you do? Diddle one too many young believers?”

If Logan’s harsh accusations angered or offended him, Alan’s expression did not show it. The bitter smile remained fixed in place. His eyes were haunted with knowledge but did not waver beneath the burden of guilt long since weighed and measured.

“Yes, it has occurred to me that perhaps I do belong here, but no. Lust was not my sin. Nor was it my punishment. I was brought to this circle of Hell by ship for the amusement of my demonic Master until he grew bored of me and I managed to escape into the wastelands, and eventually, to these caves.”

Logan stared at him. “There is a lot there that you are not saying, I think.”

Seeing the look on his face, Alan smiled and shook his head. “Let’s table that discussion for another day. For now, we were speaking about Hell, and how it does not actually exist.”

“You said that before. My eyes tell me you are still wrong.”

Alan leaned forward and held up a finger. “I mean to say that it should not exist. Not, and this is the important part, according to the Bible. Which, as I hope I have established, I was something of an expert on and sufficiently jaded to question its inconsistencies. Do you recall what I said about the word Hell?”