Water

Paul

Paul was impatient. It was ten years ago when they had their last visitor. Paul and five other survivors maintained a radio communication station in Hamburg. All of the five were very skilled with all the lo-fi radio tech and two of them, Paul himself and Marta were also good entertainers and music enthusiasts. Thus next to maintaining the radio transmission technology, they had also set up a small studio and aired a little show for two hours a day.

Additionally, they maintained contact with as many frequencies and locations all over Europe as possible. But not many people were left. Even fewer could keep radio receivers and only a handful were capable of transmitting. Dublin was the most active partner for exchange for them. There were scholars over there who could retain quite an amount of knowledge and were always open for exchange.

When they asked for a visit two weeks ago, everyone at the Hamburg Studio, that's how they called their refuge, was excited. Since then, they stayed in permanent contact with the Dublin base station and a sailing yacht that was on the way to Hamburg. The yacht was supposed to arrive today, so they prepared for a little welcome party and a good dinner.

It's been a long time since they had guests. Marta and Johann from the station as well as several others from their small community were standing on the pier, while Paul kept radio contact and updated the reception party from their headquarters. The yacht was running late, but now they finally saw them coming up the river Elbe.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the pier. The first thing the crew had to do was stretching. No one of them had been used to the life at sea and on a boat swaying 24/7. The second thing was the warmest welcome they could get.

The evening was at least as warm and welcoming as the first impression. Seeing new faces alone was a blessing. But exchanging new stories from regions other than their own camp was an event. Also the dinner itself was the best they had in years, Irish as well as Germans. Everyone was helping to prepare dozens of small tapas items. They were eating and talking for hours without mentioning too much about the dark shadows that had been usually blurring everything.

Ruth

Everyone needed this evening off. Life was exhausting these days and the news from the last weeks and the boat trip had been draining energy that needed to be refilled. But everyone was used to a hard life and therefore the whole crew was up and running and focused on the next morning.

"Hey Juliette, do you copy?", yelled Ruth into a weird looking d.i.y. microphone in the comm room in Hamburg.

"Ruth", Juliettes voice came crackling out of an old and dusty speaker. "Ruth, I'm here, yes. How are you? How is Hamburg?"

"We had an amazing evening yesterday. The people here are so nice and friendly. It's really a pity that you couldn't join. We had the best dinner in years, I swear", Ruth looked into the round. Paul, Marta, Johann and Doc from the radio station were there as well.

"We are sitting in the tech room at the moment", continued Ruth. "The equipment here is amazing. No wonder the Irish Comms had used this station as a Relay. We want you to listen and confirm some of our data if needed. Siobhan is here, too, to help me with the comms."

Ruth obviously took over. She was a software engineer before the incident, which qualified here more for maintaining theses systems than any other person in the room including the Siobhan and Paul or the other engineers who had been listening from the Dublin headquarter. She knew everything about operating systems and com protocols and already had showed her amazing skills th Siobhan when thet had been sitting together in Dublin.

The system they had in Hamburg had been state of the art before the end of the world. Additionally, they had direct access to a scientific communication network with an authentication interface for several science facilities, a big library and an array of satellites. But the actual reason why they were here was that it had the software to control three different arrays of satellites. She could fine tune the video footage from remote, but she hadn't been able to submit orders to the machines in space.

She sat in front of four screens that showed different software interfaces and terminal instances. Into one of them, she was about to type some bash commands. It took several minutes and the help of all experts around her to find the right satellites for her job. Especially Juliettes pragmatism on the other end of the line and her ability to moderate through the situation helped her more than any other expertise. In the end they chose three, but the satellites had to move closer to the target area first. They needed hi-res footage from the crater region in the east of London and ideally some overview over the whole area on top of that.

Some minutes later after going through several states of white noise and blur, three windows on monitor two showed proper footage from the chosen set of weather satellites. Ruth moved the frames to the other monitors so they could watch in full screen.

The resolution and focus were amazing after some more adjustments. They could zoom down and even see trees thanks to the good weather throughout Europe at that moment. After half an hour, Ruth found out how to move the satellites into their new positions. She prepared the commands and finally pushed the button. Everyone hoped that this wouldn't damage the satellites or bring them off course. But now they had to wait. A timer showed up in the terminal. It showed a bit more than 34 minutes. Time for a small lunch snack.

After a half hour break, all of the team came back to the tech room. Just a minute later, also Juliette joined on the radio from Dublin. The satellite move was done. Cinema time.

There was even a light mood in the air, a vague memory from the time before the incidents. Probably some remains from the previous evening. Then Ruth adjusted the satellites once more. Brought them in focus again after the move and zoomed in and out into various details.

After a while, the camera of monitor 2 was focused and you could see the view of greater London. Well, not entirely. The whole western area, Hammersmith, Shepherd's Bush, Fulham, Kensington and half of Hyde Park formed a huge round lake fed by the huge river Thames. That's where the bomb had been detonated. Everyone fell silent and the light mood disappeared in an instant.

"Do you see that shadow in the centre of the lake?", said the Theologist finally. "Can you zoom in?"

Ruth adjusted the footage and increased the zoom to a level, where you could easily see houses cars in the streets. But at the spot they zommed into, there was no such thing. But they were there. Thousands of dark, undefined creatures streamed out of a gigantic void like ants. You could have cut through the silence in the room now.

"Hamburg, Hamburg, do you copy?", Juliette's voice came out of the speaker.

The only person that started to move again was Ruth. She was typing more commands.

"Ah, yes, yes", the theologist spoke into the mic. "Yes Dublin, we're still here. We're just speechless."

He passed a vague description of what they saw through the mic.

"I've just sent you some images through the line", said Ruth finally. "Probably one of you can open it on your computer."

Ruth concentrated on the footage again now. She zoomed in and out and started to print maps and aerial pictures of the current situation. She managed to focus the satellite optics even more precisely and received now high-res images from demons with horns and hoofs. She tried to get as much material as possible. They continued to work on that footage for hours.

The Theologist

Later on in the evening they sat together in the dining area to take decisions.

"We have friends near Boulogne", said Paul. "They maintain the harbour and a small airfield over there. I'm sure we could get a plane to fly over the London area."

"Sounds good", responded the Theologist, "we could get an even better impression on the situation and see the horde of demons with our own eyes. But what are we supposed to do against it?"

"Yes, good thought, but probably one step after the other", approved Ruth and turned over to Paul and MArta. "Do you think, you could contact them? I believe, we need to get nearer to this hive."

"We can try to make contact", said Marta. "The last time, we spoke to them, they still maintained two aeroplanes. I'm sure they would help us."

They continued their exchange during dinner. While it was as good as on the previous day, the mood had been gone and the discussions ruled the table. In the end the Theologist thought, that they had to be prepared to go there, to the gates of hell, that's what this vortex looked like. They were the only people who could close it and somehow save earth - or at least find out more about the spirits above and beneath us. When else would you get a chance to do such a thing?

It took another two days to make radio contact with Boulogne. Marta and the Theologist talked to them and explained the situation. The planes were still active, had enough fuel and could reach the London area. But there were sightings of demons on the French coast as well. The Theologist could help out with soe expertise, but everyone was alert and in a hurry.

On the next day, they made their yacht ready, added another bunch of supplies and set sail to Boulogne-sur-mer. Johann, one of the radio operators who also had friends over in Boulogne, joined the old yacht crew. Paul and Marta continued to maintain the Hamburg station and formed a continuous radio network together with Juliette's team in Dublin. They maintained a permanent voice and data stream with the boat and the Theologist became something like the narrator or reporter.

Siobhan

It turned out that Siobhan knew their new guests as well. They had been in contact before. The radio community in Europe was small these days. After a day at sea on their trip from Hamburg to Boulogne, Siobhan and Paul managed to make contact with Pierre.

Pierre was about at Siobhan's age and she remembered nice talks until late at night sitting in a dark, small room in front of a mic while she was on watch.

So the company had another warm welcome when they arrived on the coast of Northern France, another evening very similar to the one in Hamburg with the difference that she liked Pierre's real life company even a bit more than his voice. She thought, what would do you any harm if you live at the end of the world facing a road trip to hell. So they slept with each other that night.

Also, the Boulogne team was well prepared already. One of the planes was ready to start and his crew had prepared one of the planes already and offered himself as a pilot.

The plan was to get as near as possible to the crater. shoot photos and videos and prepare for further steps. It seemed to become a habit to come together in a cosy round for dinner before leaving. So also here in their third stop, they had a nice evening before diving into yet another adventure.

On the next day, the plane to London was ready for the lift-off. There was enough gasoline for the flight over london and they also provided some additional camera gear. The Cessna had six seats, so the company had to choose who would join.

Ruth maintained an ancient tablet computer that she brought from Hamburg with all the information in digital format and an interface to their cameras. There was also a bottom camera built into the plane that she could connect to. So she had to be there as the information central.

Siobhan was the communicator while Johann stayed in Boulogne to work on their radio station and probably improve one or the other things for more stability and transmission quality.

The Theologist was the only one who had been to London before. So he had to be in there as well. Additionally Ruben and Hannah joined, who turned out to be the best photographers. Pierre was the pilot.

Siobhan was nervous. She never flew before. She had been on boats quite often, but that was not the same. She talked more than usual sitting next to Pierre's pilot's chair and she had a significantly paler skin tone than usual. But also Ruben was nervous so they talked a lot of nonsense before the liftoff - or better until Pierre stopped them because he had to concentrate on the start.

Five minutes later, it was the Theologist who puked. The only one who already had been sitting in a plane before. But that was a different plane at a different time.

Everything else went well. The first view of the French coast was breathtaking. The flight was supposed to take an hour. After the start it was an hour of almost total silence.

They were high up in the air when they saw the gigantic crater lake in London's west. From that height, Ruth couldn't grasp much detail, but the cameras on the plane worked well and they could take detailed aerial shots for cartography.

Pierre steered the machine down to take more detailed recordings. None of the buildings were intact as they flew over Covent Garden and Soho to approach the shore of the lake. Plants had taken over already and the streets showed a mixture between green and the rotten grey of concrete and asphalt.

The streets were flooded with water the more they approached the crater lake. When Siobhan looked ahead, she saw these gigantic water masses where the green Hyde park should have been. From a height of 100m, this looked much bigger than from the greater height they came in from. Siobhan and the others knew that London was destroyed. Everyone knew that. But seeing this with your own eyes was a different thing.

After some more minutes, they were flying over the vast blue layer of crater lake. Water was everywhere, but here and there some of the ruins of large, flooded buildings stood out of the its surface. Another mile further towards the lake's center also these could not be seen anymore. The crater lake was deep.

Ruth

Ruth stared at the views on her laptop screen. She zoomed in and out of special points of interest and took screenshots from the most interesting parts. When she zoomed in randomly at the lake's surface, she noticed something strange. There was a current. Water was flowing towards the centre of the lake. That was where the vortex was, the phenomenon that the Theologist had named the gates of hell. They were flying into the right direction, no doubt, but in that moment she didn't know if that was a good thing.

"There", the Theologist shouted, pointing his hand towards the front windscreen of the plane. Ruth saw a small dark dot, an object or several ones. As the plane approached, Ruth was more and more sure, that it was a landmass. There were islands in the center of the crater. They surrounded the vortex. But that was where the bomb detonated. How could there be land?

Ruth quickly pointed the outside camera to this place and zoomed in to get clearer footage. She followed its focus as they moved along.

"It's clearly a group of islands, like an atoll", she said to the others via intercom. "I have no idea how that is possible. Look at this footage", she pointed to here monitor and the others stared at the details. "These are buildings, architecture. Someone must have built that. Right behind the vortex. I'm sure I don't have to remind you that this is the place where the giant stream of demons came out of the water. Is this some sort of home for the demons? Or a stopover?"

"Purgatory Island", coined the Theologist its name. "The last stop before hell. It can be the place where the demons are stranding, but it could also be the place where the judgement takes place. I mean, we have seen demons, right? So why not also angels? And hell and heaven?"

"Whatever it is", answered Ruth. "I think we have to visit that place. Not only by plane, I mean. We have to go there. paul, I doubt that we can land there, right?"

"Never", he answered. "No matter how the surface looks in detail, it is too small to find a landing spot for a plane. We have to go there by boat."

"Paul, please fly us there anyway", said Ruth. "I want to see that place. W have to try to take as many pictures as possible. We have to document this."

As the plane came close to the Purgatory Islands, they had a clearer view, especially with the zoom objective on Ruth's monitor. The islands were not at all contaminated with demons as the crew had somehow expected. The Theologist might have been right after all. The land looked peaceful. There were simple dwellings like huts and tents on the eastern coast. And further towards the vortex, the architecture became more majestic and beautiful. They didn't recognize the style of all the hallways and mansions. They somehow had an antique vibe, but were neither of Roman nor Greek style nor of any shape Ruth had seen before.

As they flew over the biggest island, Ruth even saw persons on one of the agoras or places. They looked human, not demonic at all and they were waiving.

But they decided to go even further and dare a fight above the vortex. It was Ruben who initially thought that if there were currents in the water, there could also have been turbulences in the air. But as Paul didn't notice any forces pulling on the plain, they decided to take a close look tat the vortext and the mass of demons as well. Ruth saw the vortex in detail first again as she looked at her monitor and orchestrated all vide devices. She rotated to record everything as detailed as possible. But soon everyone saw it with their own eyes. There were thousands of dark creatures with horns that streamed out of a hole in the lake, while the water was streaming in. Many of them struggled and also looked weak. Others were strong enough to fight against the current and the blackness below.

After the crossed the vortex, they turned around and headed home. There was nothing more that they could do. The flight back was even more oppressively quiet than the flight to London, if that was even possible. Ruth couldn't stop staring at the footage and now that she had seen the scene with her own eyes, she discovered even more details on the satellite feed.

The Theologist

"What a weird world", said the Theologist into the big round. "Whatever I've learned about god, heaven, hell, angels and demons seems to be coming true. I mean, I believed in god all my live, but still I thought of all of the tales and stories in the bible and in the other tests as metaphors, mythology just like Odin, Jupiter or Shiva."

Five days had passed since the flight. In the meantime, the party was on its next quest. They were on the boat again, heading towards the vortex. They just passed the former city center of London on the thames.

Pierre wanted to stay in France to help defending their home land against the rising demon menace on the coast and to be ready with a plane in case he was needed for a rescue mission. So it was the old gang of eight again. Ruben, Bantry and Ruth from the O'Clare clan, Siobhan and Hannah, Skipper Ron, Johann from Hamburg and the Theologist himself.

Ron said that they had wind from the east and the yacht made good pace running only on sails at the moment. He also said that eastern winds were rather unusual. Was the wind blowing towards the vortex just like the water did or was it a coincidence? The would have had to sail around the whole crater lake to find the answer to that question but the decided to go for the more important questions for now.

After another hour they had sight of what the Theologist had titled Purgatory Island. Ruth was still mastering all incoming footage and for the first time, they could see themselves, their own boat on the satellite stream. They approached the biggest island under her navigation.

"Do you know the story about Purgatory Island?", asked the Theologist. "It's also called St. Patrick's Purgatory. A place of pilgrimage in Donegal."

"I've heard of it", said Ruth. "A priest in our community told me about it. He said we should visit that place one day with the clan. But Donegal is in the north and we never made it there. Some years later, he died. He was already very old."

"Oh. Then do you see the parallels, too? All of this", he responded and pointed towards the growing island in front of them. "All of it reminds me of that story. There was supposed to be a cave on that island and in that cave was an entrance to hell."

"Didn't come to my mind yet", said Ruth. "But before Ruben came up with a living specimen, I didn't believe in demons either."

"Fair point", said the Theologist. "So what I'm saying is, that we should be prepared. Probably we really enter the Purgatory in some minutes."

Bantry

Bantry hated it. Whenever the others talked, they referred to him as the kid. He was eighteen, large and stronger than anyone else in his clan, let alone the group of eight that was on the mission to hell.

Tey also underestimated his intelligence and observation skills. He had spent most of his youth together with the old father John O'Clare, listened to his stories and read all the books that had remained in the clan's possession. So he also had a good deal of knowledge about all of the religious things that happened to them now in real life and learned even a bit of Latin. He knew almost as much about the Purgatory as the Theologist.

Now they stood on the pier of a weird island with the most beautiful and not-of this-world architecture he had ever seen. He had seen pictures of roman and greek temples, french cathedrals and gigantic modern steel and glass buildings. The buildings here were made out of white marble. Some of it looked antique, like the many columns, other parts were as clear as the Bauhaus style. The mixture and overall impression was uncanny.

An old man stood in front of them and introduced himself as Cato. As usual the two leaders of the group, the Theologist and Ruth, stood upfront to introduce themselves. But Bantry knew this name from somewhere. It sounded familiar.

Then he remembered. Cato is a character from Dante's divine comedy, the gate keeper of Purgatory. How could this be a coincidence? He pulled over the Theologist while Ruth was talking to Cato.

"Hey, Theologist", he whispered. "You know Cato, don't you?"

"No, of course not", he answered. "I've never been here before. What do you mean?"

"Cato, the Divine Comedy. Cato was the guy at the entrance of Purgatory or something."

"Wait, what?", the Theologist was confused. "Bantry, Bantry, where do you know all that from. You're so right. And now we stand of a real person on an island that I coined Purgatory Island. What the hell is going on here?"

"So either Dante was really here, too - some hundred years ago. Or", started Bantry a sentence.

"Or what?", asked the Theologist. "Or all of that is an imagination? Human tales are manifesting in the real world?"

"Perhaps", said Bantry. "Are we in a dream?"

"Or in a nightmare", said the Theologist. "I don't know. But I'm impressed by you, Bantry. You would be my best student if I was still a teacher."

But then Bantry saw a girl coming over from a big place towards the quay. The group was still standing there with the old man, who called himself Cato. When only a handful of humans are left on earth and you are the only being of your age, it's only natural to get excited by a girl. But she was objectively beautiful, thought Bantry. Long dark hair, bright skin, a white toga-like dress. And she approached the group.

"There she is", said Cato turning around to her. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Sephys, my granddaughter and here comes Bartholomew or Barthel, her younger brother. Don't be blended by their youth. They both are more than a thousand years old. They will show you around and discuss your matters with you."

Bantry must have missed at least half of the conversation before. Did Cato just say 'a thousand years old'? But anyway. He was excited, he could spend some time with Sephys, so he was as excited as probably never before.

After some more introduction, where again Ruth and the Theologist took the lead, the two siblings showed them around their beautiful small island. Sephys and Barthel showed them the gardens with tropical plants and ferns as big as trees. They also showed them the houses or better villas where the community lived each of which connected to an illuminated water system where you could take baths. Then they went into the library with hundreds of thousands of books and scrolls.

Along the way, Bantry and Sephys had some time to talk. But Bantry didn't dare to ask personal things. He also was too curious about where they were and what the world had become. But Sephys very often responded with a heartwarming smile.

Finally they went to the agora in the center of the representative area with even classier buildings and architectural highlights. They approached a group of benches and tables on the agora and took a seat right in front of the most splendid building. It had two rows of ionic columns in the entrance followed by a cupola and several five or six storey buildings surrounding it each topped by a roof terrace where plans and trees grew.