Once Upon a Time in Hell by Guy Adams

Author:Guy Adams [Adams, Guy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Westerns
ISBN: 9781781081563
Google: KvGUmQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 17571735
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 2013-10-04T11:00:00+00:00

2.

SOLDIER JOE DIDN'T know what he was running from. Soldier Joe didn't know very much at all.

He just knew that he had to shake off the feelings that were piling in on him, one after the other, before they buried him so deeply he'd never see the light of day again.

As he ran, drops of blood fell from his wrists and pattered into the dust behind him, nourishment to the soil of this impossible place.

He was by no means certain if the things he saw were in his head or tangible presences around him. How could he ever say? Did it even matter? He'd lived in dreams for longer than he'd lived in the real world, he was by no means certain whether one could be said to be more important than the other.

"Praise the Lord!" shouted a fat man stood on the boardwalk next to him, "for he is the bringer of all delights!"

The man vanished, reappearing on the roof of a building to his right. "Can I hear a ho sanna?" he cried.

The preacher , Soldier Joe, thought. Obeisance Hicks. As he ran, he remembered the feel of Hicks' leather belt. When the preacher had been too drunk to successfully lash with his tongue he had used his belt instead. Soldier Joe felt ashamed to have been so weak as to let him. To have lain there taking blow after blow.

He wished he could have the preacher here in front of him now, he would have merrily repaid him for every single indignity.

But the girl had said he was dead. So the man that kept appearing out of the corner of his eye must be an illusion, just one more amongst many.

The girl.

She would be panicking now, of course. It was obvious that he was important to her. She wanted to mother him, to keep him under her wing.

Where was his real mother now? His father? Everyone he had known before he had gone off to fight? So many people lost their lives in war, he knew, but most of them didn't go on to truly appreciate the fact.

"Yea though I walk through the valley of death!" shouted Hicks, standing in the dirt just ahead of him, a Bible in one hand and a mug of whisky in the other.

The valley of death.

He stopped running and looked at his wrists. They had stopped bleeding.

"This is the blood of Christ," Hicks told him, taking a sip of his whisky, "given for you."

Soldier Joe reached out to him, meaning to force that tin mug into his mouth. Hicks was no more substantial than his religious promises.

Wormwood, Soldier Joe thought. What was so important about Wormwood?

The valley of death.

Yea though I walk... He remembered taking tea with a man on a battlefield. A dream. But important. The man had been called... Had been called...

He had told Soldier Joe he would meet God. That was why he was to come to Wormwood. To meet God.

Alonzo, the man's name had been Alonzo.

Where was

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