Encounter

Chapter Sixteen

An intense burning sensation woke Sarah with a start. It felt as if someone had placed her inside a hot baking oven, beads of sweat forming on her body like little pools on her skin. She sat up to look at what she thought was her bedroom. However, what she was greeted with, took the wind from her lungs, causing her to choke. She was not in her room.

She had woken up inside some form of a prison cell. The walls made from distorted black stone. The ground was made up with black coals which glowed amber like small orange eggs radiating heat. Sarah felt the coals pinching the skin on her back and her legs. She cried in pain, getting quickly to her feet. She cried again, as her feet were now taking the full brunt of the scalding heat below her, causing her soles to blister painfully.

Sarah quickly scanned the cell, looking for a way to escape. On one side of the room was a large window with no glass. No bars were guarding it. How strange, not very hard for people to escape from here, she thought to herself. She tip-toed across the cell toward the window. Below the window, was a small rock crafted bench. She climbed on top of it and peeked her head out of the window, looking out into the vast land below.

Sarah held her hand to her mouth in horror. Massive black mountains rose high into the dark skies. The surface of the mountain covered in ash, with thin pencil lines of burning red. They encircled a monstrous mountain. However, it was no ordinary one. It was a super volcano, at least ten times bigger than Yellowstone Park. The volcano was emitting large amounts of black smoke into the atmosphere, causing darkness to spread over the land like an inky black poison.

Sarah looked straight down and sighed; there was no wonder there were no bars on the window. If a person was to try and climb down from the window, they were either crazy or stupid. The window opened out to a two-hundred-foot drop. If you were incredibly lucky to survive such a fall, you would be eaten by the lava-filled river snaking its way toward the shockingly large volcano. Sarah felt like someone had forced a brick down her throat, landing hard in the pit of her stomach. To her amazement, she saw bodies floating on the surface of the river. However, these bodies were not of dead people; they were alive. An old mixture of men and woman screamed as their bodies were carried down the scolding fiery serpent, unable to break free. Sarah shuddered, as the bone-chilling shrieks rang in her ears.

I need to get out of here, she thought. She looked on to the other side of the room. Guarding the room was a large iron bar door. Sarah dropped herself from the window and ran over to the door, the soles of her feet searing away like meat in a pan. The gate appeared to be locked. She placed her hands on the iron bars. However, she instantly jumped away, rubbing her hands in pain. The iron was boiling.

"Let me out!" Sarah screamed, kicking the gate hard. Soon, she wished she hadn't because the sheer strength of the door thundered pain to her toes. The gate shook slightly. However, it did not budge. She screamed louder, this time she was given a reply.

"Shut up, you stupid whore," A filthily deep voice screeched from the blackness. Then from the side of the door, came into view, a giant creature, one that would haunt Sarah for the rest of her life.

"Oh my god," Sarah whispered in terror.

"Ha God will not save you here," the creature hissed. She had never seen anything like it before. The creature was a large wasp-type life form. The wasp had a large lime green abdomen with thick wisps of yellow spikes rising from its back. It had a six-foot stinger hanging from below the abdomen, it was sharp, appearing to be lubricated with some form of venom. The arms were thin, six in total with three sharp talons at the end of each. Its wings were thin and large, as big as Sarah. The monster stared at her through its red wasp-like eyes, the size of small planets. Flowing from its face, was a long bony tentacle. Sarah gasped as she noticed that the wasp had a large chain around its neck, within each link was a human skull.