Bram coughed. The taste of sulfur was always stinging the back of his throat. Damn place. The bleary sunrise cast hard shadows on the rocky plain before him and beyond that, the black, serpentine body of the Styx cut its way across the horizon. It was shallow and fast here, but some of the lads had seen it lower down, where it swelled to monstrous proportions. Mind you, what wasn't monstrous about this land?
Ah well, another night survived. You might think that night after night of bracing for demonic assault might numb your usual sense of danger, but it doesn't. Bram spent most of his night sweating, despite the cold. Peering out into the darkness, peeling his ears for the slightest scrape or scratch. Out at the edges of the camp, you lacked the small comfort of all those sleeping bodies around you, however thin it might be.
Bram put the pot over the fire, then sat to stuff his pipe. The lad, Odie, was lightly snoring against the parapet. Sarge would have a fit if he found him like that, but Bram hadn't the heart to wake him. He'd made it most of the night, making jittery conversation to stave off his nerves. Must have fallen asleep an hour or so ago. Poor lad must be knackered. How old could he be? Fifteen? Sixteen? Certainly not old enough to be out on the high layers of hell.
But who was? Now that Bram thought about it, why were any of them here? Hell hardly seemed a place for man. It was the business of knights and kings to know that sort of thing. Bram's lot was to get his levy pay and pray he wasn't gored by a demon in the night. There had been a lot of crusading and such like, down in the lower layers, but he wasn't sure what good it did any of them. To purge hell of all it's devils, what arrogance could fathom that? Bram shrugged to himself, as he lit is pipe. Business of knights and kings that.
He looked over and gave the lad a light shove.
'Come on, best wake yourself. Sarge will be worse than any devil if he catches ye snoozing.'
Odie blinked himself into the morning. A frown was on his face. No wonder, Bram thought. No one smiles at another day in hell.
Paddy Dobson
10th October 2020