Alan announced his arrival by tapping against the rock as he drew near. "Hello," he said as he walked into their light.
"I appreciate the warning," Logan smiled.
"I appreciate you not pointing a sword at me," Alan replied. "Are you ready to meet your neighbors?"
"Yes." Logan looked at Karen. "You want to come?"
"Every chance I get," she said with dancing eyes. "Oh, you mean to travel with you?"
"Yes," Logan grinned. "I mean travel with me. It couldn't hurt for these other damned souls to see me in the company of one of their own."
"Happy to. Let's go."
The deep stillness and thick darkness of an underground world was an unnerving sensation as they fell into step behind Alan. They reached the other cavern in less than an hour of travel. The others were already gathered on the porch of the partial ruin and waiting anxiously.
Logan raised a hand in greeting. "Hello. I… come in peace?"
An older woman with short-cropped, graying hair and sad eyes looked him up and down, especially the blades hanging on his belt. "Why then do you wear the weapons and armor of our tormentors?"
Logan looked to Alan for guidance. Alan just nodded.
"To do to them what they would try to do to me first. To defend myself as I search for a way to escape out of Hell. My name is Logan and this is Karen. Karen is one of you, a damned soul."
"Like us?" Sad Eyes came closer, staring at Karin. "Look at you, young lady. So vibrant and beautiful! How have you managed this?"
Alan blinked in surprise, immediately picking up on what Logan had not said. "Are you saying you are not a damned soul?"
"To the best of my understanding, no, I don't think I am." Logan shrugged. "It's a long story."
Alan smiled. "We have nothing but time."
"Let's table that discussion for another day." Logan gestured at the ruin. "What is that?"
"Our salvation, I suspect," Alan replied. "Come, sit. Make yourselves comfortable and I will explain."
The others split off into smaller groups, draping on and around each other with casual intimacy, and settled nearby to listen. Logan and Karen looked for someplace to sit. Here, there was not even the modest comfort of a bed of moss. Logan settled for dropping onto his haunches, just in case a quick response was required. Just in case.
"Look there." Alan pointed at an image engraved at the top of the peaked roof in the exact center. "What do you see?"
Logan looked and saw a figure of a man, dressed in a toga that hung from one shoulder. In one hand was a spear. At his other side sat a three-headed dog.
"That is Hades, the Greek god of the underworld," Alan explained.
"A temple to Hades… in Christian Hell." Logan shook his head in bafflement. "How? Why? I mean, I finally see some evidence of civilization in the wasteland and it's…"
"Not what you expected?" Alan almost smiled.
"Yeah," Logan replied. "Let's go with that."
Alan nodded. "Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire." Revelations 20:14."
Logan stared at the ruin. "A Bible quote… about the Greek god Hades…"
"The very same." Alan nodded and gestured at the broken temple. "We are looking at the equivalent of dinosaur bones, the bones of a dead world, my friend. A fading echo of another reality and, I suspect, our sanctuary from the infernal influence above. One that is being slowly and inevitably consumed by the very walls of this cavern."
Logan blinked at him. "Consumed?"
"Consumed, eaten, assimilated, the word doesn't matter."
"That's…" Logan stopped short of saying "crazy". After all, this was Hell, and there was no shortage of crazy in this place. "That makes no sense," he offered instead.
"Doesn't it?" Alan asked. "Tell me, how much do you know about Christian teachings on the subject of Hell?"
"Not much," Logan admitted. "I was never the religious type."
"I was," Alan replied. "That is to say, as much as I had to be to convince people to throw their money at me. I was famous once, you see. Preaching "the word of God" on TV to millions, promising endless bounty in exchange for their donations."
His smile was bitter. "We called it the "Prosperity Gospel". Give me a dollar and God will give you three in return. Amen. Praise the Lord. Of course, the only ones who truly prospered were me and those I chose to include in my lucrative business."
"You were a TV evangelist?" Logan wrinkled his nose. Disgust drove impulsive words out of his mouth he would never have imagined saying to a stranger. "Holy shit. You might be the first person I have met who truly belongs in Hell, and in the realm of Lust no less. What did you do? Diddle one too many young believers?"
If Logan's harsh accusations angered or offended him, Alan's expression did not show it. The bitter smile remained fixed in place. His eyes were haunted with knowledge but did not waver beneath the burden of guilt long since weighed and measured.
"Yes, it has occurred to me that perhaps I do belong here, but no. Lust was not my sin. Nor was it my punishment. I was brought to this circle of Hell by ship for the amusement of my demonic Master until he grew bored of me and I managed to escape into the wastelands, and eventually, to these caves."
Logan stared at him. "There is a lot there that you are not saying, I think."
Seeing the look on his face, Alan smiled and shook his head. "Let's table that discussion for another day. For now, we were speaking about Hell, and how it does not actually exist."
"You said that before. My eyes tell me you are still wrong."
Alan leaned forward and held up a finger. "I mean to say that it should not exist. Not, and this is the important part, according to the Bible. Which, as I hope I have established, I was something of an expert on and sufficiently jaded to question its inconsistencies. Do you recall what I said about the word Hell?"
"That it is an incorrect translation, apparently of four different words."
"Indeed," Alan said. "Every instance of the word "Hell" in the Old Testament is a mistranslation of the Hebrew word "Sheol" or as in the Greek text, the word "Hades". He pointed at the carving on top of the temple roof. "Neither of those original concepts spoke of an afterlife of eternal damnation."
"That's only two." Logan pointed out.
Alan nodded. "Later in the New Testament, all but one use of the word "Hell" is a mistranslation of the word "Gehenna", which was an actual place in Jerusalem where trash and dead bodies were taken for disposal, quite literally a land fill of the ancient world. When Jesus is allegedly quoted talking about "rich people going to Gehenna, he is saying they would die and their bodies would be disposed of just like the poor people. Yet, in the King James version, "Gehenna" was replaced with "hellfire". Writings about an entirely real trash and corpse pit were translated to mean an eternal, burning pit for the sinful."
Alan continued. "The only other use is a mistranslation of the word "Tartarus", which in Greek mythology was the lowest level of… wait for it… Hades- the underworld realm, not the pagan God. And that passage in the Bible? It's from the Book of Peter and happens to be a reference to a place where "fallen angels" are sent. Not humans. Not us!"
Movement distracted Logan. He looked over at the listening audience. They seemed to be paying less attention to the conversation and more to each other. Hands had begun to actively wander, fondling, and caressing whoever was within easy reach.
Alan sighed at them, like a parent, loving but weary. "Be calm, my friends. Remember to breathe deep and slow. Control your desires before they can control you, just like we practice." He turned back to Logan. "I do not ask your forgiveness for my friends. If your sin was also lust, then you understand their pain." Alan gestured around them. "This place eases that pain, that obsession, but it is a battle they must fight every waking moment."
"Because nothing they do will bring them any kind of sexual relief, only more frustration. Yeah, I know." Logan offered."But not you, it seems."
"No. As I said, lust was not my sin. My eternal punishment is quite different."
Logan nodded and took the hint to probe no further into the man's pain. He also turned to one side so that he was not distracted by the foreplay exhibition warming up around him. Every passing minute felt more awkward and he began to look for a polite way to make his excuses and leave.
"Well, Alan. It was nice to meet-"
"No!" The intensity in Alan's voice seemed to startle him as much as it did Logan. "Forgive me, but you must listen. Please." He went on in a softer, calmer tone of voice. "This is important."
"Ok, Alan," Logan soothed even as he checked to be certain that the way out was still clear. "If it means that much to you, then say your piece."
Alan tried to smile but Logan was beginning to sense cracks in his calm demeanor. "You must understand that the very concept of Hell and eternal punishment has absolutely no authentic Biblical support. It is a two-thousand-year-old scam, fabricated by the church elders to leverage fear of damnation for profit and control! Even Christianity itself, like every other religion, is nothing more than re-purposed beliefs from older religions. The cross, crucifixion, Easter, Christmas, the Sabbath, holy trinities, the son of God being born to a virgin, it's all of Pagan origin."
Again he pointed at the temple. "The proof is right there! That building is a physical remnant of that older religion, entirely free of demonic taint or sexual hunger. A slowly, fading echo of what once was."
"Even if true, why does that matter?" Logan asked.
"Don't you see?" Alan asked. "It is evidence that Hell is not real!"
Logan pointed up at the ceiling. "Except that it is real!"
"Exactly!" Alan said. "How can that be? What makes Hell real? What makes that broken Greek temple real? Or demons? Or flying ships?"
Logan resisted the urge to strangle him. "You tell me."
"I don't know!" Alan all but shouted. He pointed a finger at Logan. "But I believe that therein lies the answer to your very first question. Learn that truth, discover that secret, and you will have your means of escape out of this nightmare realm!"
"Logan." Karen tugged at his arm. "I think there is about to be an orgy and that can't have a happy ending for anyone."
He looked where she was looking. The murmur of voices and the subtle whispers of desire were growing louder as bodies began to writhe together on the ground. Hands groped with desperate urgency. Lips and tongues explored naked flesh with feverish need. Need that, inevitably, went unsatisfied.
When they started looking towards him with raw hunger in their eyes, Logan decided it was time to go. "Why are they looking at me like that?"
"I don't understand." Alan looked at his friends. "They should not be so restless. Not here." Alan leaped to his feet and moved to intercept his people as they began to move toward Logan and Karin with pleading, desperate eyes. "Somehow, the presence of you and Karin is interfering with the peaceful aura of the temple. I will try to calm them but you must go. Go now!"
Logan and Karin made a hasty retreat.