Voodoo Holmes Stories

she knew exactly where she was going and had been here many times before.
    After ab hour or two, I started to be amazed at the number of people assembled here in the middle of the forest, in complete and utter, unsheltered wilderness. There was nothing here but people, and they all seemed to be waiting. But none of them showed any eagerness or willfullness or even restlessness like humans are want to. They were there for the duration, that was the general impression I had as I walked by them. And even though they were hundreds, thousands, and an even greater, swelling number there was nothing aggressive or even oppressive about them and their staring. The were like fish in a swarm, perfectly fitting in while still making way for two fish passing.
    I don't know how long we walked but it was long. Probably eight or nine hours. We walked all day incessantly. I started to tire after four or five hours, and walked more slowly. Baker observed by fatigue immediately and slowed down as well, not talking or remarking on my weakness. During all this while, day never broke. We walked in eternal twilight. Another thing I observed was that there was no fauna of any kind. No animal noise was being heard, no rustling sounds, no cries. Instead, an increasing silence. At the edges of the forest, I had had the impression of being close to a large body of water. But now, the landscape had changed. The trees faded away and the landscape became harsh and dry. It was even more surprising that the amount of people assembled in the area did not diminish but there more even more of them. Their overall number ran in den millions or billions. There was nothing but moving corpses all around us, and a path that led through them until we came to a spot which was not distinguished from any of the other places we had come through late, except that there was a person there, standing by itself. First, he showed us his back, but then he turned and set his eyes upon us as we neared him and said: „How good of you to come.“
    Baker stepped aside, so it was natural that I speak to the old man. His face was haggard, and I could not see his eyes, the sockets were dark and seemed empty.
    „ Glad to meet you, Sir“, was all I could manage.
    „ You know who I am, do you?“
    „ Yes Sir. You are the God of Death.“
    „ That's not a name“, he critisized.
    „ You're Death.“
    „ No. That's an insult. I am a god, after all.“
    „ So I will call you Hades, after the Greek example.“
    „ Good. Good“, he muttered.
    „ I would like to recap this briefly, if I may, Sir“, I continued, „I was sitting on a train, the train stopped, your ambassador here asked me to go on a hike and here I am. Begging the question why.“
    „ You are here because you are Holmes. The one deserving the name. Who has the gift for coming to meet us when we need him.“
    „ Do you need me?“
    „ Yes. There is a need for you here.“
    He stopped in front of me, motionlessly. I was so tired I squatted and then sat down. The earth was cool and dry, and my aching back was thankful for the relief accorded.
    Hades remain standing. Looking down on me he continued: „You have heard about the breach.“
    „ Early morning trains.“
    „ I wonder if you know how to close it.“
    „ Why?“
    „ Because all live on the planet will die if you don't.“
    „ Why?“
    „ Because the dead will rise, and conquer the living.“
    „ How will we notice?“
    „ You will not notice it until it is too late. Not living is no sin. A living person can go not living forever and then realize that it is too late because the body dies. You see: The difference between the living and the dead is in the body. If the body dies, then you are dead.“
    „ Naturally.“
    „ Unfeeling that you are alive, that is what happens to most people when the breach widens. They are dead before their body dies. And that is what makes them destructive. Death working within the living ones is what you call violence.“
    „ I understand. So you are saying that civilization – in that case the railway – will bring about the widening of the breach. And future century will invent whatever products of civilization which will increase the problem. Is that it?“
    „ Yes.“
    „ And what it all comes down to eventually is that mankind destroys the planet which is at the same time a kind of half-intentional mass suicide and then Earth becomes lifeless like Venus.“
    Hades glared at the insolence with which I