THE FIRST FORAY OUT

Janice Pettibon boards the ferry to cross the same bloody terrifying Callugo Sea she'd fallen into not five hours before. In that time she had seen things that would have caused her to heave and run screaming while she was alive. Life, on Terra, seemed like a hazy foreign land for Hell was so full of dark illuminations and clear answers to mysterious questions. This time she sat fully clothed with a snack freshly purchased from the galley her first taste of Hellac fare, a bulb of screamfruit juice and diced leepoo wrapped in kelava leaf. It was almost as traditional as the speech given to each new entrant. Leepoo, akin to chicken in practically every sense of the meat and totally unlike the Terran staple in appearance is so familiar in taste and texture that many who munch this snack find themselves weeping in short order. Janice Pettibon was just that sort of human. Her belly full and her thirst slaked for the mean time, Janice wandered the deck of the Hellac Imperial Ferry Dustcloud meeting people and talking to the ones that would meet her gaze. More than once she was frightened by someone who scowled and their eyes seem to glow. Several people were being held close by those just as unscrupulous in Hell as they had been on Terra seeking to appear helpful to share in the new found wealth of their friend.

A man from Michigan, a woman from the Czech Republic, two children from Baghdad. Lots of people from Baghdad actually. Curiously Janice noticed that none of them harbored any resentment for her as an American. All of that at least within this group she thought as she walked up the ladder to the weather deck was gone. In a small room with no door to block its entryway were several wooden seat arranged before what looked like an altar. A podium stood in each corner and two of them were occupied by people who she had seen earlier. Janice went to the wooden podium to her right and watched as the other people sat on the benches looking toward the pictures on the far pale blue wall she couldn't quite make out in the ripple of the humid air. The entire surface of the podium was a computer screen and as soon as Janice Pettibon stood before it the monitor sprung to life.

















"Welcome Janice Pettibon, to the history of the United Hellac Empire," a soft female voice cooed from the speakers at the base of the pedestal. For the next hour Janice used the touchscreen to move about the recent history of the Constitutional Monarchy that Hell has become under the rule shared by the people through Parliament and Here Imperial Hellac Majesty Ang'ki Hoor I and her Consort, Pain. Upon seeing it Janice stepped back from the podium and blinked. She listened to the explanation of what Pain is and was and shall be but could not would not grasp that so many emotions, so much knowledge could be sheltered in such a phenomenal creation.

Her head full of the knowledge of the Empire, the death of Shai'tan, and the coronation of the child empress she watched from the railing as blood mist sprayed up over the fo'c'stle and beaded in little pools on the gunwales. She could see the port far in the distance growing larger and brighter. Blue lights grew in the distance and overhead Janice could feel a presence in the ruddy clouds flickering in the black light.

The ship docked and the 600 or so passengers shuffled off seeking onward passage. Signs seemed to be in English for her, Arabic for the Iraqis and Czech for the slim blond woman from Praha. It was at this point that a noise startled Janice as she matched her key to a fare to Rham the city state where her grandmother lives. She turned to look and there were two Iraqi children with an Iraqi woman. They had found their mother across the great gulf of death and resurrection and the three of them stood at the port of entry to the mainland of Hell the desert that separated the Callugo Sea from the City State of Rham & Its Shadow. They were reunited and they all hugged and laughter was the noise that had startled Janice Pettibon. She shifted her ruck and walked out to the platform stand. Three minutes later a flat slab of what looked like concrete came to a soundless stop. It bore forty molded orange bench seats. A set of three stairs appeared and she walked up them and took a seat. Only a moment seemed to pass before the platform moved again without sound away from the terminal and on an unseen road the structure banked and climbed skyward.


Half an hour passed maybe a bit more before Janice saw the first yellow glow through the crimson of the clouds. Now she and the rest of the passengers were among the clouds but the thick accumulations just seemed to be parted by their conveyance. She almost stood when the cloud layer passed and the floating city of Rham appeared above blocking all else from view. She recalled in a stunning flash of memory the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz. And then it was gone replaced by the majestic massive place where her grandmother lived.


Kenton Hill, Order of the Quartz Heart (Eng.)
Santayana Chair of Torture History at the Universijte Di Dis
Chief Historian to the Office of the Torturer General
179 Low Lux Negro 1 AS