3- Down the Hole

3

Down The Hole

There are things in this universe that are beyond understanding or comprehension. When something like this happens to a human without the ability to comprehend the information that is being shown to him or her, the brain has very peculiar and very human response.

It guesses.

So, when Cathleen, the tattooed Celtic warrior woman, grabbed Zachariah and used her robin tattoo to teleport the two of them across miles of earth in the span of a second, Zachariah’s brain had to deal with moving through time and space in a way that was incomprehensible.

So for that second, Zach felt like he was taking a shower.

This feeling quickly ended as he hit the ground with a thud and rolled a couple of feet before coming to a stop, breathless.

His chest hurt, his head pounded, and he felt like he should dry off for some reason.

“The headache passes.”  The voice of the Celtic woman snapped Zachariah out of his pained daze.

Zachariah scrambled to his feet in a panicked rush trying to get his bearings.  He did a quick spin and then saw her and stopped.  Zachariah was standing in a clearing of knee high grass, surrounded by heavy forest.  In the distance, Zachariah could see rocky, rolling mountain-like terrain.  The landscape had completely changed.

He wasn’t in Ohio.  Nowhere near.

The Celtic warrior stood four feet in front of him.  Her tattoos had stopped glowing.  “Calm yourself, we are safe for a time.”

Zachariah raised his eyebrow.  “Oh, so we are safe?”

“Yes.”  She said.

“From the ninjas?”  Zachariah asked.

She didn’t catch on to his sarcasm. “Yes, they can’t follow that fast.”

It was at this point that Zachariah’s mind was flooded with the million, very important questions that had arisen from the events of the last five minutes.  Due to the stress however, his thinking organ was unable to rationally regulate the order in which Zachariah asked all these questions, so instead he tried to ask them all at the same time.

“ What, to me you, how and, how did they with that no, no, I think, could you, I mean, can you, why would she do that, where are, who are….nope.”  Zachariah finally stopped in order to not hyperventilate.

There was a thirty second confused pause.

Cathleen shook her head.  “I didn’t catch any of that,”

Zachariah shook his head.  “Didn’t expect you to.”

“My name is Cathleen.”  The Celtic woman took a passive and warming voice that didn’t suit her.  “I am here to guarantee your safety”

Zachariah did a double take.  “Do you even know what the word ‘safety’ means?!”

Cathleen frowned again.  “Well, you’re alive, aren’t you?”

Zachariah threw his hands up.  “Honestly, I have no idea!  I don’t think I have gathered enough information on the subject to know!  Where are we?”

“The Canadian wilderness,” She answered.  “You are the Roghnaithe, and you have to be here.  It is your destiny.”

Zachariah felt the wind exit him as if he had been punched.  “The Canadian wilderness? Are you fucking kidding me?!”

Cathleen seemed to take a deep breath.  “Look… Help me help you.”

Zachariah stopped and stared.  “Jerry Maguire.”

Cathleen looked confused.  “Who?”

“Oh come on!  It’s the movie that quote is from!”  Zachariah yelled, angrily.

Cathleen frowned.  “I don’t watch movies!”

“Screw it, I’m outta here!”  Zachariah said, giving up.

Cathleen shook her head.  “To where?  You need to come with me.  I’m-”

Zachariah cut her off.  “Why should I trust you?  The Ninja told me you were trying to kill me!”

Cathleen looked surprised.  “You trust the Ninja?”

Zachariah stopped and shrugged.  “You have a point.”

Cathleen took a step forward.  “Come now, we have to go.”

Zachariah shutter-stepped backwards.  “Not a chance.  Fuck that and fuck you, pirate hooker!”

Cathleen’s eyes narrowed.  “I AM NOT A PIRATE!”

“‘Pirate’ was the part of that you found offensive?” Zachariah asked.

Cathleen huffed and took a step forward and Zachariah turned and bolted into the trees.  Cathleen took a deep breath and shook her head, then began to walk after him.

****

She called out to him.  “I just fought three Ninjas.  What makes you think you can out run me?”

“I’m wily!”  He screamed back as he trampled through the trees like a bull.

Zachariah knew he couldn’t outrun her.  He wasn’t stupid.  What he needed was time. Time to devise a plan.  Time to think.  Time to understand what the hell was going on.

James Garner had left this part out.

Suddenly, Zachariah’s priorities changed as his right foot failed to find ground, and in the next instant he fell forward through the loose shrubs that covered a large hole in the ground.

He toppled into darkness and the light of day vanished as he fell.

Zach was falling.

He quickly tried to find a way to stop this by reaching out in all directions.  His right hand caught the wall, but he was moving so fast that the wall almost ripped his arm off and sent his full body spinning.

Zach was falling and spinning.

Awesome.

Something caught him and snapped under his weight, like a vine of some sort.  Then it happened again over and over as if he was falling through a web of vines, each slowing his fall into he hit the bottom with a thud and an ‘oof’.

Every part of his body was sore.  He slowly coughed trying to get the air back in his lungs.  As he did, he inhaled some kind of wretched smell, which seemed to make him cough more.  His headache had not dissipated, contrary to what Cathleen had said.

Most would still consider themselves lucky to be alive.

Zachariah was not one of those people.

“Man did you pick the wrong hole to fall down.”  A voice rang through the darkness.  It was male but a slightly higher tone.

Zachariah recoiled and narrowed his eyes trying to see through the blackness.  Abruptly, a blue light illuminated the dark and standing before Zachariah was a man of extremely short stature who was obviously afflicted with dwarfism.  He was wearing blue jeans and a polo shirt, both custom made for his size.  He had long brown hair tied in a loose pony tail.

Zachariah stared in bewilderment.  “Who are you?”

“My name’s Mel.”  He said and extended his hand.

Zachariah looked surprised and shook his hand.  “Wow, I was expecting your name to be something strange like Frodo, or Mxyzptlk”

Mel frowned and snatched his hand away.  “We’re in Canada, asshole, not Lord of The Rings.”

Zachariah felt bad.  “Sorry man, this day has been rather crazy.”

Mel shrugged and seemed to relax.  “No worries.  After all, we are about to be eaten by a rock troll.”

****

He was gone.

How had he done it?  Just vanished into thin air?  Was there something the elders had left out?

Cathleen felt a desperation clutch her mind.  Zersch’s awakening was a mere forty eight hours away and she had lost the Roghniathe.  She was bordering on the first to fail.

She was coming close to allowing the end of the world.

That was when she felt them, the world bending around them as they followed the ethereal trail she had made when she teleported.

The Ninjas.

Cathleen became quiet and hid in the shadow of a huge tree while watching the clearing.  Kahn was the first to appear out of thin air.  The lady Ninja took a look around then calmed.  Ninjas began to appear behind her.

Cathleen frowned, not believing Kahn to have the ability to follow Cathleen’s teleport exactly.  Ninjas continued to come out of the portal and she realized that Kahn had brought nearly her entire clan.

Cathleen decided it had to be done and reached deep inside herself.  Her abdomen began to glow and her wolf tattoo began to come to life.

She could now smell and hear like that of the wolf.  She caught Zachariah’s scent immediately and began her quiet stealth move into the trees.

She had to find him before the Ninjas.

Next week:  Zachariah’s mysterious journey has only just begun.  As Cathleen and the Ninja struggle to find him first, Zachariah must decide if his new friend Mel is an ally or another enemy.  All this, while trying to escape the Rock Troll!

It all continues next week!

Stranger things

TO BE CONTINUED….