~ three

As either now or later they approach the way to Hell ~ 

Learner - "I have a plan."

Killer - "And I like blaming others.  Let's hear it."

Learner - Smiles, "The provisions are for them.  The mayor and his people.  They don't expect us to succeed, and they don't want us to.  

 

"The symbols they combined in there ... there's three circles from that set.  Each with a correlating demon that oversees the protection it's supposed to give, but the one we saw in the Mortuarium had mismatched inlays."

 

Killer - "So they paid the wrong guy."

 

Learner - "Probably three times.  Each to a very competitive demon, infuriated by any reminder of the other.  All we need to do is complete their mistake.  It's like they fucked it all up just right for it."

 

Killer - "Does that make it a good idea ?  Can this world handle all three ?"

 

Learner - Answers with a sad and desperate kiss. "So we need to go into the deepest pit and draw a circle around it.  And when the rumbling starts sooner than they expected, the people we don't hate all start running for a boatload of supplies waiting for them."

 

Killer - "While our 'Mister Mayor' and the like are on the wrong side of town from it.  ...  Hey.  We're gonna make it."

 

The learner smiles indulgently, nods as they rise.

 

Descending the pits, tapered downward much like the operating theater seating and more like Dante, through the core of the underground network from which the passages and warehouses all split.  

 

Deeper leaving what's attached to Midwich and into Hell at the lowest, where the damned pour impossibly numbered from their tortures, carried by the pain as the thorny vines grow through their bodies, pushing them forward with each growth spurt.  

 

The descent to the lowest pit reached, countless clawing beyond killing's count in pursuit, the Learner sets to work on the circle and words.

When finished the damned pour accusing them of their crimes from all passes surrounding the pit  forcing them back to it, spending ammo which just turned infinite.

Learner - Shooting, "I was going to marry you someday."

Killer - "Be a real nice house too."

Learner - "The best.  And I'd always feel safe."

Killer - "Always would be.  I thought maybe we'd even get a kid in there somewhere."

Learner - "Or two ... you know I heard it's better when they have someone to play with."

Killer - "I heard that too."

Learner - "I remember you ..."

 

('Happiness is a Warm Gun' by The Beatles)

Surrounded firing into the oncoming endless swarming them until the guitar, the Founder hanging over the mass by the growth.  He screams the agonies of it tearing through him, flowing with its thorns, echoing the hells.

Watching.  

 

The phrase in the song "mother superior drop the gun" repeats into an increasing loop of cacophony sounds never moving on until finally the Killer and Learner are finally forced backward into the pit

~ firing at the droves pouring over them, fire beneath them ~

 

"Happiness is a Warm Gun"

After a long fall, time slowing for all but them as they fire, they reach for hand and smiling into each other's eyes.  The roar beneath them fills the pit through at the vocal crescendo, burning them and their falling pursuers.

It burns the caverns through and all within, soldier demon and damned alike, cracking the ground beneath the town and burning the roar to the skies.