The Brimstone Series by Robert McKinney

Author:Robert McKinney [McKinney, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McKinney Can't Press
Published: 2019-04-11T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Even when you’re used to them, drops can still be fucking scary. I’ve heard skydivers describe a weightless sensation after hopping from a plane. I don’t think they’re lying, it’s just hard to describe what happens downstairs with anything close to words that peaceful.

To start with, there’s no way of confusing the sensation with floating. You’re falling, and the sound and sensation of all the wind flying by leaves your brain with no doubt of what’s happening.

There’s also nothing visible to land on once you enter downstairs. No ground. No ocean. Just an endless, throbbing miasma of cloud and burning ash. There are colors, mostly red, and a whole lot of sulfurous smoke - so much of it that it’s best to hold your breath if you don’t want to end up choking.

Last but not least is the heat - it is Hell, after all. Most of my drops, no matter how short, tend to flash dry whatever sweat is covering my skin before bearing down on my flesh, with a nagging little sting that wastes no time in unfolding into naked agony. My clothes, quite often, will even start to smolder as well. For some reason, though, this isn’t one of those times.

I’ve barely had enough time to register what’s off about this drop when my fall changes abruptly. It’s an odd sensation, one that I’ve never experienced before. The closest thing to it that I can think of is the whole-body feeling of being jerked back in a seatbelt after smashing into something. I feel my legs go sideways and my inner ear lose its mind, followed by the feeling of slamming hard into gravel.

I blink the shock from my eyes and look around to see that I’m splayed out, not on a roadway, but the gravel parking lot of the diner I’d just left behind. The car is still burning a few feet from me, and when the light of it starts to dazzle my eyes, I realize that out here, where almost everything else is surrounded by growing darkness, I’m probably by far the easiest thing to see.

Tiiiiiiime to start moving. Being easy to see is a good way to get shot in a gunfight, so I claw my way to my feet and start sprinting before anyone can start shooting at me. Sure enough, about two seconds after I start pounding the pavement, I hear a gunshot, then another, not too far from me.

I still have the lighter clutched in my hand, and as abrupt and unexpected as my landing had been, I figure that trying a second time beats the prospect of being riddled with lead.

I flick the lighter again while running and start another drop. The sensation of falling down is even shorter this time, because I’m interrupted by another strange jerk, which throws me into another unplanned landing.

My knees slam into the ground again, the impact sending a wide spray of gravel. My eyes had already adjusted to the light from the car fire before, and as a result, I’m half blind in the relative darkness now around me.

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