Our Lady of Perdition

The Entry Gate - Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

The girl, her eyes thin and almond like a lot of the people on these islands, dashed away before I could say a word beyond my curse. 

Bugs hopped over the vegetation I'd chopped down. "Come on - we gotta go after her." 

"What?" 

He pointed toward where she'd run. "Did you not see her? Walt, that was the Virgin Mary, plain as day!" 

"That was just some little island girl." 

"It was a Marian Apparition. Our Lady of Shit Island or something." He concentrated on where she'd gone. "She'll leading us to safety if we just follow her." 

"You can't know that. Besides, I don't believe in all your papist, Mary crap." 

But Bugs didn't listen. He'd already gone on a mission, and no threats of malaria or cannibals or getting lost were going to stop him. I stepped over the vines and leaves after him and gave chase. 

We hurried through the jungle vines, hopping and rushing toward something that was at best a holy apparition, at worst a trap leading us into the hands of the Japanese. But Bugs didn't stop until I grabbed him by the shoulder. "Bugs - stop! We're going to lose the shore if we go much further." 

He breathed heavily, but he stopped rushing forward. "But it was Mary. If we can't catch up, she'll decide we're unfaithful and not help us anymore." 

"She's supposed to be the perfect mother, right? What kind of mother would do that, Bugs? She knows we're doing our best." 

"Maybe you're right." He kicked at a rock near his feet. He crinkled his nose and furrowed his brow, then sniffed. "Hey, you smell that?" 

I inhaled as well, trying to catch a whiff of whatever Bugs had identified. I repulsed when I finally smelled it. "Is that... burning hair?" 

"Smells like it, doesn't it?" He waved me forward and said, "It's coming from this way." He hopped through the jungle and pushed under some vines, and I followed like Ruth going after Naomi. 

Upon pulling up out of the jungle, I looked over a rocky escarpment. At the bottom of the slope was a bubbling tar pit that smelled of burning hair and slightly of putrid eggs. To our left, north given the position of the sun in the east, the volcanic mountain at the center of the island rose to an inspiring peak. From here I could see the rocky crags and crevices on its side. 

"You think this ditch leads back to the shore?" I asked. "I don't think I can lead us back the way your Mary took us." 

"Shut up. She brought us here for a reason, you damn protestant heretic." 

I crossed my arms at his insistence. He couldn't make that comment to me. "She didn't bring us here - we ran here pell-mell." I readjusted the way my machete sat in my hands, then pointed away from the mountain. "Come on. Let's follow downhill, away from the volcano, and we'll surely get back to the shore."

I tromped along the treeline, hugging close between the jungle and the steep precipice leading down to the tar pit. We went around one bend, the tar pit looming fouler than ever, when Bugs stopped behind me. "Hey, Walt, you hear that?" 

I listened closely. Something rumbled just around the bend, like a herd of horses or elephants. It was far enough away that it was quiet, but it moved in our direction. The animals were screeching as if being chased, perhaps some of them succumbing to a ravenous beast. 

"Sounds dangerous, like some sort of stampede," Bugs said. He grabbed one of the trees and wrapped himself around it. "Don't look at me like an idiot. You're the one that's gonna fall off that cliff and get smashed by some jungle monster."