The Supernatural World of Vladimir and Viktor, Chapter 25
Eddie Timms, Dorothy Gale and Captain Fyter were outside of the Eddies' barn, standing around Hannah's lead boot.
"Eddie, didn't you say Hannah severed her leg to get away?" Captain Fyter was asking. "This boot is empty. Where is her leg?"
"Then Hannah wasn't completely destroyed when Glinda arrived in her dragon form and ate her. A part of her was here. She got away," worried Dorothy.
"When Anica returns, we will check the trunk for the arm," said Eddie. "I wonder if it will be gone, too. If so, Hannah escaped and have parts of her physical self to rebuild from."
They were walking over to Anica's rental car when Anica, Vladimir, and Viktor popped into view.
"We need to see in the trunk," Eddie announced immediately.
Vladimir fumbled through his keys, dismissed the mausoleum keys and found the trunk key for the car. He walked over to the trunk to open it and pull the ice cooler to the front.
A turn of the trunk key and a lift of the cooler lid, Vladimir pulled out the chain with no arm attached to it.
"It's gone!" Declared Vladimir and Viktor together.
"Hannah is still alive," confirmed Dorothy. "She will return. I knew it. When Castiel told me the other witch was Rose, I knew the wicked witches found a way back to life!"
She turned to Captain Fyter. "Beau, I don't know if Hannah and Rose realize who they are, but if they ever remember, Oz is in for dire times."
"Dorothy?" Eddie asked. "You mentioned Castiel. Where is he?"
"Well, I told him that witches go where goblins go and he decided to find out. Somewhere in our conversation he decided that they if disappear into another dimension they might be in a place called Pedsh. Where is Pedsh?"
"Where the ghost cats go," Eddie mused as he looked over the dents in Anica's rental car. "He went to my place in Montana before making a jump into the dimension where the city of Pedsh is."
He took the chain from Vladimir and Viktor and caused it to turn into silver. Then he handed it over to Anica, saying, "Here. Tell your rental car place in Vienna that you will just purchase the car. This should cover the cost."
On his way out of Pedsh, Castiel discovered his first living being. Two men were riding an open wagon being towed by oxen-like creatures. A white powdered substance was piled in the back.
When their paths crossed, Castiel asked the two men where they were going.
"To the quarry," said one of them. "We have lime to shovel in, and then home."
"Who are you and where are you headed?" asked the other.
"I am Castiel. I am trying to learn where the residents of Pedsh are now. There is nobody there."
"Ah," replied the driver. "I am Dendegrezzal and this is Gragestorneeth. Where are you from that you do not know what happened to the people of Pedsh?"
"I have just arrived from a distant place." Castiel wondered what it was he had missed in the city.
The two glanced at each other with puzzled expressions and the driver continued. "It is happening everywhere. Where could you be from that you don't know that..."
The other man nudged the driver and spoke. "If you come with us to help shovel out this lime, we will show you where the people of Pedsh are now."
The driver was about to speak again, but glanced again at the other man. "Yes. It would be better for you to come with us and you will see. On the way, you can tell us where you came from."
Castiel climbed aboard the wagon.
The driver called, "kakakah," to the oxen and the wagon rolled on for a short distance before they turned off of the paved road and onto a rough dirt lane. "Leaving the land of the advanced culture and into the realm of our country culture. The quarry is up ahead."
"So tell us, said 'Grage,' "Where are you from."
"Kansas," said Castiel.
"Ah. Never heard of it. In what country?"
"America," replied Castiel.
"Ahhhh. Nope! Never head of it either. It must be a small country."
"We think it is a large country," said Castiel.
"We all think we are of large country in one way or the other," chortled the driver Dende."
The wagon rolled on for more than an hour. Finally they came upon a gathering of wagons at a cliff's edge. The other wagons were loaded with dirt or gravel. Castiel could see the opposite wall of the quarry from his spot in the wagon.
"We will have to wait our turn," said Dende as he pulled over the wagon to park it among the others. "Come with us to the edge to see the citizens of Pedsh."
Dende and Grage marched to the quarry's edge with Castiel in tow. There the angel learned why the city was empty of people. Nearby a road wound down into the quarry to a point where all was level. From that point, gravel lanes on the top of brick-lined walls branched off in all directions forming barriers around pits in the level surface. Each pit was either filled to various levels with dirt, or with dead bodies. And the eyes of every body were sunken in as if burned.
Castiel looked abruptly at the men. "What caused their deaths?"
Dende said, "God's retribution on those of us seeking to become gods themselves. It started in Pedsh, but it quickly spread into all of the cities of the world. Every individual who turned from God to faith in their anti-God leaders died by their own advanced devices."
Grage continued. "They tried to break into God's realm in the scientific research center in Pedsh. They tried to copy animals who could cross into God's realm and made their own creatures but failed to cross over themselves. Finally, an angry God crossed into the realm of people in the laboratory there and killed everyone, and everyone watching on their social devices, and everyone across the world who also saw the face of God on their devices.'
That left only we who live simple lives in respect for the authority of God. We have no such devices, we do not believe our scientists should tamper with that which is unseen. Now it is up to us to bury the people of the strayed societies who defied God, and to raise their surviving children in our simple ways approved by God."
When it was their turn, Dende, Grage, and Castiel rode in on their wagon of lime and to one of the pits of human bodies. They climbed out of the wagon and looked over the mass. Dende handed a shovel to Castiel and the trio went to work shoveling lime over the bodies.
"This will slow the decay. Otherwise the men bringing the next batch of bodies would pass out from the stench. When the bodies are stacked close enough to the level of the lane, dirt is thrown out instead. Then bricklayers come in and raise the lanes, and we start all over again. Someday the quarry will be filled to the top, and when their children die, they will probably be buried at the surface above their ancestors."
Castiel paused to look around in the quarry. Sure enough, dirt was being thrown in some of the pits. And where the pits were full to the top with dirt, masons were either adding bricks to the walls around the pits or other men were shoveling gravel between the walls to raise the lane higher.
The lime wagon was empty and Dende removed the feed bags from the oxen in preparation to head home. "Castiel, would you like to come with us? I'm sure the family would be happy to meet a foreigner. Stasi would love to learn about your country America."
Castiel thanked him and agreed to go with them. He had nowhere else to go and still needed to find out about the goblins.
The meal at Dendegrezzal's homestead was delicious. Castiel had no idea what animals were the source of the protein and could not match the vegetables with any he had seen on Earth, but he enjoyed them regardless. He thanked them for their hospitality.
"God expects us to feed the travelers," said Dende's wife. The two boys grabbed used dishes from the table and took them into the kitchen. One tall girl left and returned excitedly with a large book stuffed with scraps of paper. It was a world atlas.
"Castiel, this is Stasi," said Dende.
Stasi held out her hand to Castiel saying, "I am honored to meet you. May I talk with you privately in the garden?"
Castiel nodded and followed her into the garden where they settled down on chairs around a wooden table.
"I do not know about Kansas," Stasi began. "But I know where America is. Montana is in America."
Castiel raised one eyebrow. How would she know that?
"I worked at the lab where the catastrophe began," she continued. "I saw you that day with three others, a white-haired man and two dark-haired boys."
Stasi held up one hand and wiggled her six fingers. "You all had five fingers. Did you not notice the reactions of the people who saw you? Your eyes are small and your ears are large. That would have gained notice from the people."
Castiel admitted that he hadn't thought about that.
Stasi pulled out from the atlas, a hand-drawn map showing an 'x' in a rectangle identified as 'Montana.' Some towns were there, like Kalispell. Mountains were added, Some other states were identified, including Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.
Then she laid on the table a printed image of a female and four males among the bigfoots in the laboratory's animal room. The image was of her with Castiel, Eddie, Vladimir and Viktor on the day the deaths began.
"Castiel," Stasi asked solemnly. "Did God send you?"