THIRST IN HELL

CHAPTER 11

"Six, five, four ......."

Suddenly, his hand left the guillotine's handle as his dead body fell down beside me, a locally made spear protruding from the depth of his heart. Immediately, flying arrows dropped the other executioners.

Then they appeared.

From the position I had been laid, things appeared upside down. It was hard to recognize them at first, but eventually I did. I saw them coming at an alarming speed, attacking the natives along their way. The natives were caught completely off guard.

Human beings who had been until then called slaves. Led by Miss Wanton and coming to my rescue. If riddles are knots, then this one was an entanglement and if they are a dilemma, this was a quagmire.

By the time the officers realised what was going on, a good number of them were down. Their party ruined at its climax and a massive fight taking over.

The slaves fought in unity,  giving their rivals no chance.

I couldn't believe my eyes, even as one human beings untied me, how had I just cheated death by an inch? He handed me a sword as I pulled the spear from the dead executioner. For the first time in my life, I fought.

I confronted the King's daughter and sliced her head off from behind with the sharp sword. It flew in a trajectory and landed on the ground, then rolled away still screaming.

When the king saw this. He was so furious and rushed to attack me. He flew his sword, targeting my neck. I bent in time to avoid it and cast my spear toward his belly. I missed. I threw him a side kick and it caught him properly by surprise.

He moaned and twisted in air, finally throwing a skillfully fist and knocking my face hard. I turned away slightly, which gave him a chance to quickly thrust a dagger into my belly. I had not seen that coming, I staggered in pain and sunk down. He had raised his sword now.

He was about to cut across my skull when his back got a deep cut from behind by the human being who untied me. The king tried to turn swiftly but failed and instead fell to his knees.

By then I had slightly regained my stamina and I sunk my spear into his shoulder. He groaned. Just then, the other human stabbed him again in the chest. He fell down, blood squinting from the deep wound and his soul abandoning his body quickly.

His corpse was such a disgusting sight, which made me to recall a blaspheme ritual I once saw somewhere. A dead king spread flat on a table. The sensibly living beings were taking their turns to bow and worship it. All of it in a mistaken fallacy of last respect.

With their king dead, panic struck the rivals. Most of them met their death and a few fled. The human slaves were triumphant over the natives.

Victorious mood took over. People sang and danced of liberty, embracing each other while shedding tears of joy.  I tasted the flavour of freedom then. Freedom tastes sweet, very delicious.

Ever tasted it yourself.... freedom.... or you are just there, being your own slave, busy switching from one type of slavery to another, maybe cheating yourself that you are free? Or even worse, waiting for some miraculous freedom to come without really investing anything on it.

Freedom is not doing everything you just feel like without being questioned. Freedom is choosing and doing the right things that will give you or the other persons the peace of heart with no regret.

Nearby, was Miss Wanton talking to me with pride.

"Mr. Teacher. We started to plan the attack from when you escaped. Having decided and agreed to change our ways for better. Then, your  death verdict came and it only gave us a golden opportunity. I was the spy all along, so I stayed close to the king."

I could have paid full attention to her words, but the pain on my belly was spreading all over the body, shouting louder inside of me and dwarfing the voice reaching me. I knew I was on the verge of collapsing. Even so, I noted that the other human beings had shifted from calling her Miss Wanton. They now called her Miss Wanted. So why not me?

"Miss Wanted!" 
I managed to call her urgently, just before I collapsed. 

                      ***************

When I stirred, I found myself laid on a soft mattress. I did not need to be told that I was in the King's high cabin.

Miss Wanted was standing next to my bed, looking at me. A feminine stare, with worry, concern and regret written all over her facial expression.

The wound on my belly had worsened and my body was only growing weaker every minute.

" The knife that the King stabbed you with had been .. deadly poisoned. How I wish there.. is.. something.. I.. or anybody else on pX.... planet X can do" Miss Wanted stammered a confession and exhaled desperately,

That made me to realise that the place was now not the hell, if it ever was.  Planet X... pX. Where did I hear the word 'pX time' before?

But I also realised that her words likewise meant that my chances of surviving from the wound were at their minimal, if any.

I needed to act, and to do it very fast. My only hope was now on the rune stone.  So, ignoring the sharp pain, I removed the stone carefully from my pocket. Then, I slightly injured my right thumb to make it bleed, and placed it on the huge strange engraved rune , just as I had read.

Not long time after that. I started to feel warmth, rising from my toe and at every body part it passed, uncomfortable numbness followed. I tried to stretch out my legs to keep off the awkward numb feeling, but it only came out as kicks. I was dying.

The overwhelming feeling continued to take over my body up to my hands, I sensed a tickling sensation on the thumb laid on the rune.

"Way Home After Mission"  this were the last words I managed to say. The abbreviated message on the rune stone.

Everything drifted to became mysterious white and very calm, but only for a fraction of a second. Almost immediately, somewhere else in an old dumb woman's hut, the very same woman who had visited me when I was being cast into the dark pit, there was  heard the cry of a neonate.

The end