The Bridge of No Return

Fred shook his head, as much to shake the sleep out of his eyes as to answer her. "I don't know. Strange ones, that was for sure." And then he leaned forward and looked out the window at the scene illumined by the cab's headlights. "Are we there yet?"

"Just about," Tarin grunted. "We're almost at the bridge, and after that there's no turning back."

And then Fred saw it. The bridge. It was wide and grey with many lanes, although most of them were blocked by debris. Burnt-out husks of cars, half-crushed metal drums, piles of cracked cinder blocks wedged with pipe and barbed wire, old furniture stained and torn. The mish-mash of wreckage was strewn all over the place with no rhyme or reason that Fred could see and made the bridge look like the scene of some terrible battle waged long ago. Tarin weaved in out of the lanes, barely avoiding each obstacle, so thick was the bridge crowded with the abandoned junk.

But Tarin didn't slow down, driving across the bridge with almost reckless speed. Soon Fred noticed the glow of light coming from up ahead. And as they neared it he saw that a line of torches burned along the steel trellis that rose up from either side of the span. And in the light of the torches Fred could see bodies. Dead men lining the roadway in heaps, like garbage.

When they finally came to the end of the bridge, Tarin stopped the cab in front of a pitted, rusty, iron gate. A sign was posted near it, written in dark red letters. "Welcome to Hell. Abandon all hope mudderthukkaz!"

The threesome got out and walked over to it. "How do we get in?" Astra asked. "All we gotta do is knock," Tarin answered. Fred frowned. "For a walled city such as this, you'd think that entry would be a little more challenging."

Tarin rolled his eyes. "Listen Fred, it's not the entryways that are guarded, it's the exits. They've got a saying in this place, and it's a creed they live by. Once you check in, you don't check out!"

1. They knock and the gate opens for them...

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