CHAPTER 19

The Palace of Ganzir

Cries of rage reverberated through the darkness as Indy pounded his fists against the great eye in the center of the hall. Talia approached him; fighting back tears, she placed a hand gently on his shoulder.

"Jones—"

Indy shrugged it away. He stood and spun around to face her, his eyes crazed with the desperate urge to do something, anything, to fight against accepting this nightmare.

"We've got to break through!"

"Please," Talia sobbed. "We can't! Jones—"

But Indy had already pushed past her. He snatched the machine-gun; its shoulder strap was tangled around the dead CEDADE soldier so Indy yanked it hard—tendons ripped as the soldier's arm was contorted into an unnatural position, but the gun came free.

Indy stormed back to the stone symbol carved into the floor. He aimed the barrel at the center of the eye and pulled the trigger. Talia leapt back, slamming her hands over her ears as the thunderous crack of gunfire bounced around the hall.

"Jones, stop!" Talia's cries went unheard amidst the deafening clatter. Sparks flew and smoke billowed around him, but Indy kept his finger on the trigger until a hollow click meant he'd exhausted all the ammunition.

Dozens of flattened cartridges lay scattered across the great eye, they'd barely scratched the floor.

"Son of a bitch!" Indy flipped the machine-gun, grabbing it by the barrel. He swung the weapon at the floor.

"Open the fuck up!" He furiously hammered the butt against the ground. Again and again until the gun bent out of shape and started to fall apart. He tossed the weapon angrily, screaming into the darkness.

"Let him out! You hear me?!" Indy spun around and yelled "Ereshkigal...?! Queen of the god-damned dead! You listening to me?!" He paused, sucking in great mouthfuls of air—adrenalin racing, he was a lit fuse ready to blow.

Tears streaked Talia's face. Gripped with fear, she backed away as Indy cried out.

"You set my son free! Set him free!"

Then, the immense palace shook and a guttural, hellish moan filled the hall. Talia cried out in fright, lost her footing and stumbled over the soldier's body; her head struck the cold floor, knocking her unconscious. Concern hoisted Indy, momentarily, from his rage, and he ran to Talia's side.

"Wells?!"

The monstrous cry swirled all around, fragments of rock and dust fell from the ceiling as the violent shaking continued. Indy put his fingers to Talia's neck. There was a pulse. She was alive.

Then, all was still. All was silent. Deathly silent. Until...

Slow, deliberate footsteps echoed from the shadows. Each pace louder than the previous as an unseen figure approached.

Indy slowly got to his feet.

"Hello?" Still the footsteps grew ever nearer. "Who's there?"

Indy strained his eyes into the darkness. Gradually, an imposing hooded figure emerged from the gloom.

Indy gasped, "It's you..." Emboldened by his desperation, he moved toward the wraith. "Ereshkigal."

The figure stood at least eight feet tall. Icy blue eyes pierced through the shadow veiling her face. These same eyes were locked onto Indy; yet still he moved towards her.

"My son! Give me back my son!" Ereshkigal stopped a dozen or so yards from Indy as he continued. "I'm not leaving here without him! You hear me?" Rage consumed him as he barked. "Say something, dammit! I demand that you free him!"

The Goddess raised her arms and thrust them towards Indy; a surging, unseen force sent him flying backwards across the hall, he cried out in pain as he slammed into a stone column and then ricocheted to the floor.

With an eerie whoosh Ereshkigal moved at pace across the hall, standing over Indy as he pulled himself to his knees.

He looked up to the Goddess as she gradually lowered her hood. Semi-translucent skin was stretched over gaunt, harrowing features; a long-extinguished beauty eaten away by eons lurking in this, the most miserable of places. Her wide, unblinking eyes suddenly grabbed Indy. The tendril like grip of her glare fingered deeper and deeper inside him, entwining his soul. He'd never known terror like this, but was unable to wrench himself from her gaze. She was reading his inner most thoughts; his desires, his loves, his regrets. She was bathing in his darkest fears. Her voice hissed and scratched inside his head, speaking dark, unknowable words; an unbearable cacophony dragging him ever closer to the gates of madness.

Then it stopped. She released him. Indy crumpled to the floor.

He wept for his son. For Marion. For a lifetime of mistakes. He felt no anger, no hatred, no resentment. Instead he was penitent, truly remorseful, perhaps for the first time in his life. Consumed by regret, by guilt; he got to his knees and bowed his head before the Goddess.

"My son, this wasn't his fault. Please, it wasn't his time. He's a good kid. He's brave, he's kind. He's got a good heart. Just like his Mom." Indy sniffed back tears. "All this, it was me, it was my fault. Y'know, the kid had me bang to rights. My whole life I've just taken and taken and taken... I've hurt so many people, good people, people I claimed to love. Driven by greed, by my thirst for... glory! And now... now everything is lost. Marion is dead. And my son is gone, too. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"

Indy looked up apprehensively, his bloodshot eyes met with Ereshkigal's piercing, ghostly stare; but she was listening, her expression had softened ever so slightly, a glint of empathy was breaking through. Indy tilted his head back down and begged. "Please, I'll do anything you want. Let me pay for my selfishness. For my... arrogance!Let me suffer. Not him. Not my son."

Silence. Indy hesitantly glanced back up. Ereshkigal's arm was outstretched and a bony finger unfurled, pointing past Indy, towards the center of the hall. A sudden, angry growl rose up from deep beneath the ground. The symbol exploded upwards and the swirling column of blue energy returned.

The Gateway to Irkalla was open once more.

Indy looked back, but Ereshkigal was gone. He scrambled to his feet and hurried toward the twisting maelstrom. He paused at its throbbing outer wall. He took a deep, steadying breath. Then he stepped through the gateway.

Indy was cocooned in an infinity of pulsating blue light. He turned, there was no sign of the great hall from where he had just come; just ghostly, contorting nothingness in every direction.

"Mutt!" he called out as he ran. "It's OK son, I'm here, I'm coming to get you!"

Indy stopped. He heard far off voices, muttering and whispering. There were screams, and he saw movement; distant, murky shadows twisting and then evaporating.

Indy hurried toward the sounds. "Son... I can't hear you," a rising panic in his voice. "Where are you?"

The voices came from behind him, then his left, then his right. Indy spun around, growing ever more disorientated. He heard laughter, sobbing, screams and whispers. Amongst the melee a faint, barely audible "Dad!" suddenlybroke through.

Indy's heart leapt, he ran toward his son's voice. "I'm coming, just hang on, I'm coming!"

Then he heard Mutt cry out again, this time the voice was behind him. He turned and ran back "Mutt... ? Mutt I can't see you... where are you?"

Mutt's call came again, this time from a different direction. And then a different one, still.

"Damn, what is this?!" Indy called out, "Mutt, are you still there? Son? Son?!" There was no reply.

Then, human-like shadows encroached on all sides. The world around Indy became darker, greyer. Storm clouds grumbled. Lightning crackled, illuminating horrific, deathly faces; blood dripping faces studded with bullet holes, smouldering blackened corpses reanimated back to life, one poor soul had metal spikes pierced through his body. The ghouls had Indy surrounded and drew ever closer. Arms reached out, they roughly pulled at Indy, grabbing at his face, his arms and legs. He pushed and kicked them away, but they returned and were joined by more and more tortured souls, clawing at him and dragging him in every direction.

So many faces. All of them familiar. Grotesque artifacts of a life shrouded in death.

"Leave me alone!" he cried. "Y'had it coming... all of you! You chose your own damn fates!" But Indy questioned these very words as soon as they'd passed his lips. Who was he to discern good from bad? Who was he to decide right from wrong? Choose if someone should live or someone should die?

Indy was jostled and crushed in a sea of writhing phantoms. Dismembered Nazi's, burning Thuggees, a Soviet Colonel—the flesh eaten from his skeleton.

Indy had to fight to breathe, the life being squeezed from him by the deathly clamour. He twisted and turned, he became light headed as his eyes fell on one grisly horror after another. He saw Ziegler, his body crushed and deformed. Mola Ram reached out, his face and limbs battered and gnawed. Indy watched his old nemesis René Belloq screaming in blind terror, eyes bulging as an inferno consumed him. Indy turned from the searing heat and witnessed the Gestapo agent Toht, flesh melting from his skull. He saw Walter Donovan rapidly age and disintegrate before his very eyes, Irina Spalko's brain swelling and bubbling within her head. The most heinous of freak shows.

His eyes fell on Cavendish, pale bony fingers ripping the flesh from the Nazi's bones. "Jones! You could have helped me!" he wailed, before being completely dismembered.

The stench of death filled Indy's nostrils, his ears throbbed with their agonized shrieks. The hellish, smothering claustrophobia was too much to bear. Indy cried out in anguish. Was this the end? Was this his fate for eternity?

Then, a blinding white light pierced through the nightmare. The tormented spirits retreated, burnt away as the light approached. It was a figure, cutting through the darkness.

Indy could breathe again. A warm glow spread through him, a feeling of hope, of anticipation. The shimmering angel got closer and closer, slowly drifting into focus, until finally Indy could see her clearly.

Marion.

Indy's heart almost burst and he rushed toward her. Marion's eyes twinkled blue, her mouth tilted in a mischievous smile. They embraced.

Her scent. Her warmth. Her heart beating next to his. This was real. She was real.

"It's you... it's really you!"

Marion laughed and wept as Indy held her face tenderly and kissed her again and again.

He looked into those deep blue eyes.

"I thought I'd lost you..."

Marion smiled playfully. "You don't get off that easy!"

They laughed and kissed again. Indy pulled away.

"Mutt! He's in here somewhere... I've got to find him."

Marion stroked his face and smiled calmly.

"You've seen him?" Indy realised. "You've seen him, haven't you?"

Marion nodded. "He's safe."

Relief washed over Indy, he took Marion's hands.

"But where is he..." Indy cut himself off, Marion's palms were moist and tacky. He looked to them; they were covered in blood.

"Oh my God! No! Marion..."

Blood pumped from the gunshot wound in her abdomen. Indy instinctively put his hand over the puncture, but the relentless flow gushed through his fingers. "Marion, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry!" Indy despaired, swallowed up once more by that helpless, sinking feeling; the same feeling that engulfed him on the fateful night. He looked to his wife "This is all my fault! Forgive me, please, forgive me!"

Marion calmly put a finger to his lips. "Shhh..." Her now clean hand stroked his face. "There's nothing to forgive. See... ?"

Indy followed her downward gaze, the blood had gone, there was no bullet wound. He didn't understand. But he thanked God.

Marion pulled him toward her and they kissed once more. Deep and passionate. A lifetime of love passed between them; their souls forever entwined. They were young again, exploring each other for the first time. A white light shone out from between them, it grew more and more intense, until the light of their love consumed all.

A perfect moment.

Indy opened his eyes and squinted at the glare. It took him a few seconds to figure out where he was, that the light he could see was the rising sun flooding the mountain gully. He whispered, "Marion?" But he knew she was gone.

Indy gazed up to the heavens. He watched as a golden eagle flew across the cloudless sky; it hovered directly above him, between Dena's snow capped peaks.

Indy pushed himself up onto his elbows. Before him, carved into the mountain wall, Shamash's symbol had been remade. The path to Irkalla closed for all time.

He sat and ran his fingers gently over the ancient sun carving. "Goodbye..."

He glanced along the passageway; Talia lay a few yards from him. He scrambled to her side just as she awoke.

Talia looked around, completely disorientated.

"Jones? Jones...?" She was really groggy. "What happened?"

Indy didn't have the words, he helped her to sit up. Talia gently touched the back of her head, where she'd cracked it on the floor. She winced.

"Ow, jeez... I don't remember anything..." she regarded Indy. "You look like hell... and where's Mutt?"

Indy fought back tears as he shook his head solemnly.

But then, a mumbled groan came from a little further along the pass. Indy turned. The rush of joy threatened to overwhelm him. A young man stirred from a peaceful sleep.

Mutt had returned.

Indy hurried to his son. The young man's eyes flickered open. He spoke softly, still confused, unsure where he was.

"Dad?" Then a tender, awestruck smile spread across Mutt's face. "I saw her Dad... I saw Mom."

Indy stroked his son's forehead. "Me too kid, me too."

Tears gathered in Mutt's eyes. "She's okay, she's happy. We said goodbye."

Indy nodded, smiling as tears streaked his cheeks. Mutt pushed himself up and embraced his dad. Indy's heart throbbed with elation, with sadness. He held onto his son, he never wanted to let go.

High above, the golden eagle was joined by an eaglet. The two birds danced, flew majestically across the sky, then soared off, toward the rising sun.