Strange Medicine by Jim Stein

Author:Jim Stein [Stein, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781733562928
Publisher: Jagged Sky Books
Published: 2019-05-29T22:00:00+00:00

18. Abide the Dark

“Y

OU SONS of bitches!” Manny’s scream brought me awake with a jerk.

He charged the circle of Ant People, fire blazing in each hand, eyes wild. No one else had moved so I couldn’t have been out long. He smashed into a pair of the bug-like creatures. These beings were incredibly strong, but Manny swept them aside with brute strength and fire that left our captors staggering back and batting at their burning clothes.

“You killed them all!” His hands blazed white hot as he reached for the elaborately dressed leader.

I had a vague notion of trying to prevent what unfolded, of keeping him from starting an all-out war we couldn’t win. But whatever had set Manny off opened an opportunity. We surged forward, following our unstoppable companion as he bore down on the creature standing between me and my staff.

The leader raised his left hand and leveled the narrowest of those oddly padded fingers at the enraged man bearing down on him. The gesture was casual, as if pointing out an interesting bird, but the fire raging in Manny’s hands winked out.

Manny stumbled to a stop, staring at his hands in confusion, and the rest of us damned near plowed him over. Before we knew what was happening, a hooked staff circled each of our necks. The leader shook his head, turned, and walked into the entrance.

From then on, our treatment was none too gentle. We were pressed into the entrance behind their leader, forced to keep up a grueling pace through the tunnels thanks to the ants pulling us along by our necks. When the dirt walls and dripping roots widened to stone, we walked three abreast with an ant to each side and two hooks to keep us from making a run for it.

The push and pull had my neck aching. We’d all be bruised from chin to shoulder, but Manny had it worst. He screamed and fought every inch of the way at first—either due to the madness that had overtaken him or from the touch of what must have been cold iron on his skin. We’d all be bruised, but Manny’s skin blistered and burned. Not long into the trek, he collapsed in spite of our captors trying to keep him walking. They trussed him into another litter and we kept moving.

It was a long, uncomfortable walk. After a time, we funneled back into a narrow stretch only to pop back out on the surface. The trees had thinned, replaced by rock outcroppings and hard-packed dirt.

Rather than offering the opportunity to escape, we emerged in the midst of another legion of monsters marching—I presumed—toward the vortex. It looked like the groups would ignore each other, but a troop of trolls vectored out to block our path, forcing the Ant shaman into a discussion with one of the sand-wielding demons. The creature pointed back at where we huddled among the ants. The demon grew agitated when the rumble of engines ripped the air and our four-wheelers careened toward us—each under the expert guidance of an ant.

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