In No Man's Land

Escape or Die!

The sun blooms on the horizon, golden petals stretching ever outwards into the rich blue. It is the brilliant flower of the sky that warms the day. It is the invitation to a new day, that sunrise so ordinary extraordinary. John yawns as he stretches himself, “Good morning Cerberus.”

“Good morning human.”

“You can call me John, I will be pleased.”

“Noted, but we have to go now!”

“Go to where exactly? You have not even answered my question last night. You told me you will brief me this morning,” John argued.

“I did say that but it’s not safe for both of us to be here right now. We need to find somewhere safe.”

As one of the children of Typhon and Echidna, Cerberus is the only one who works for the gods directly. One of the labors of Heracles was to bring Cerberus from the Underworld to the Earth above. Hades agreed to let Hercules take Cerberus back to the world of the living if he could remove Cerberus from the Underworld, with only his brute strength and without killing him. When he took him out of the living world after a long and fierce battle, Eurystheus immediately told him by messenger that to complete the labor, he had to return Cerberus, immediately. And all this happened before the war started.

 “Where exactly do you have in mind?”

John was making sure; Cerberus is not going to take him back to Ozenzo’s castle. He was still angry with the way he was treated at the castle and was left without answers.

“Follow me and find out for yourself.”

“Where exactly will that be?”

“Since you are curious to know, we are going to my mother’s place.”

John gave him a wide-eyed gaze of surprise. He started wondering what his mother could look like. So without hesitation, he fired some questions. “Is your mother looking like you? Will she want to eat me?”

“It will be rude for my mother to eat our guest. No one will harm you.”

John was relieved from his worries of being around many creatures like Cerberus and what the outcome might be. He wasn't relaxed walking around the woods with a talking three-headed dog with the tail of a serpent. He was scared to death but since he was promised answers, he had to kill his fear and follow him.

As they walked down the sloppy path, they noticed they were being followed. As John turned, he caught a glimpse of the two creatures that saved him from Zeus’ dungeon. “Oh no, they are here for me,” he cried out.

“I have assured you, no one will harm you,” said Cerberus as he turned towards the almond tree the two creatures were hiding. “I know you are behind that almond tree. Come out now or it will be your sorry filthy arse.”

The first creature made his presence known as he gently removes his hood, “We are not here to fight you. Hand the human over to us and we will let you be.”

“There will be no blood spill if you will be wise. Turn now and leave!” Cerberus positioned his serpent tail as though he wanted to sting like a scorpion.

“We are here on the command of the warlock lord and we are not leaving until we get the human,” the second creature said walking out from behind the almond tree. “Hand over the human now and we will let you live. Look around you, it’s two against one.”

“You calculated wrongly,” Cerberus giggles. “You mean four against two?” he asked, referring to his three heads and a serpentine tail. He was ready to go down fighting with Ozenzo’s warlocks rather than to let them have John.

“This is your last warning, hand over the human!”

“I chose whomsoever I wish to be with and besides you should be ashamed of yourselves calling me human and not my name,” John fired back at the creatures.

“You have heard my friend John, he chose to be with me and if you don’t leave now, you leave me with no option than to kill you both.”

Cerberus has great strength, allowing him to prevent souls from leaving the underworld. His multiple heads enable him to look in several places at once and attack different opponents simultaneously and he is functionally immortal.

The second creature glances at John as he opens up to speak, “John, do not be deceived, Cerberus is a good boy to Hades and not to you. He does everything his master, Hades, tells him to and keeps souls inside of the underworld. And now there’s an ongoing war, how certain are you he’s not doing Hades' bidding to bring you to him. If the gods…”

The first creature’s words were pushed back as John interrupted him rudely, “To hell with what you believe. Are you scared that I will find my way out of this world? Your so-called lord wanted to keep me here and I do not belong here. Don’t you get it?”

“We are not leaving without you and we are not scared to die fulfilling the warlock lord’s bid.”

“Suit yourself,” said Cerberus as he pounced at the first creature and ripped out his heart with his claws.

As the second creature was about to cast a spell on Cerberus, he was slammed to the Almond tree with Cerberus’ serpentine tail. Before he could make it to his feet, Cerberus knocked him down and held him to the ground. “Say hello to witch Neena for me, would you?”

“You will burn in hell!”

“I am of hell,” said Cerberus as he brought his tail close to the creature’s heart. The head of the serpent pierced through the creature’s heart and pulled out his heart.

“John, this is how you kill if you must survive in ‘No Man’s Land’” Cerberus said as he turned to face John but to his greatest surprise, John was nowhere to be found.