The Torch Chapter 10-The Roar Of The Burning Light

"Tanaka, Tanaka, wake up! Wake up!" said the voice. Tanaka's 4hours of sleep were interrupted by the ominous gritty voice that called him, sowing the seeds of fear in the boy who had just found serenity in his sleep. Tanaka opened his bloodshot eyes and darted at his surrounding whereabouts. There was no one around him; the room had only him and his belongings. This made him sigh in relief until he heard the voice again. It called out to him saying, "Tanaka, you're now awake. Tanaka you're now awake you ghastly piece of flesh." Tanaka immediately got out of his bed, dropping the iPod on the ground as he rushed to grab his torch. As soon as he got a hold of it, he quickly examined his environment with great hostility. His adrenaline rose up high, fuming him with inner tension as he tried to find out the source of the evil voice.
"Tanaka, I will feast upon your flesh boy, give it to me, give it all to me!" said the voice as it laughed, unbashfully exhibiting its wretchedness. "Who are you, who are you, show yourself!" he shouted as he darted his torch at where he thought the voice was emanating from. He found nothing and was enraged by his failure in locating the target. The voice began to hiss like a snake and said, "Join us Tanaka, you won't make it on your own, lend us your flesh. The pain will go away, offer your body to us. We want everything and more!"
"What are you? What the h.e.l.l are you monsters?" he shouted as he looked distressed.
"We are the very thing that only finds satisfaction through human suffering. Make us happy young man and give us your flesh!" screamed out the demented voice. The shrill was high pitched, causing Tanaka to cover his ears in great despair. Tanaka couldn't bare the noise and grimaced in pain as he tried to bloat out the deafening shrill. The scream broke the mirrors one by one, propelling some of the pieces of gla.s.s at Tanaka. The fragments which were about to hit the boy were evaded through a momentum of unexpected agility. Tanaka was now on the ground with his torch in hand, trying to get himself up to face his adversary. The lighting, which had been there before due to the mirrors had now dissipated. The bedroom was now full of encompa.s.sing darkness that had rendered his torch to being the only light source that pierced through the terrifying oblivion. The voice began to laugh at him and began to say, "You got c.o.c.ky when you thought we couldn't touch you didn't you boy. You think because you have the light that you're safe? I am going to enjoy feasting on your flesh you fool!" Tanaka was intimidated by the threat; it reminded him of the fear that had left him. Was he not immune due to having the torch? The possibility of his one trump card being rendered useless was now terrifying him. Death had come to him in his domain and now it wanted to slaughter him. A sudden burst of adrenaline drove the boy into screaming out loud and caused the torch to surge with energy. Tanaka then immediately pointed his torch towards where he thought he had heard the voice. A ray of burning light gushed out of his touch and blasted through the ceiling. The light went through all the upper floors and pierced the encompa.s.sing world of darkness. Upon this happening, Tanaka heard the screaming of souls which he couldn't quite pin point. The noises made him breathe intensely, an anxiety he had not yet felt since the day he had been born. Tanaka twirled his torch around, looking for anything with form, trying to spot the creature behind the voice. His exasperated disposition was sadly rewarded with nothing. The voice had gone quiet. Tanaka looked around and found nothing, feeling the fret build up in him as he became manic over the situation. He began to scream out loud, "What are you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds? What the h.e.l.l are you things? Leave me alone you monsters, leave me alone!"

"The food isn't allowed to talk; it's only allowed to offer itself to be eaten. Give us your flesh boy!" said the voice. 
"I will kill you' you sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d, um gonna murder you' you monster!"
"Come puny human and offer yourself, I will greatly relish your feeble body." said the voice as it made a sound that was similar to that of an animal wagging its tongue. As Tanaka twirled his torch, trying to spot the creature behind the voice, he noticed something peculiar. The paint on the walls of the room began to peel off, but the peeling was similar to that of skin being flayed by the use of a blunt knife. The walls began to bleed, drenching the floor with greasy blood as Tanaka trembled in fear. The peeling continued until the bricks inside the plaster casing of the walls were vomited, ejected from where they we lodged and coming in the form of horrid creatures. The creatures were larvae like human infants with rusty chains as their strands of hair. The obscenities that were flung from the walls came at him with great velocity, but something saved the boy from the jaws of death. His light flickered like a camera and then flashed. This instantly incinerated the sp.a.w.ns of h.e.l.l. Tanaka breathed heavily as he was gripped with the fear of almost having tasted death. The voice began to laugh in a disturbing and malformed voice, which sent shivers down his spine. The ceiling suddenly began to expand like a womb and gave birth to a huge blood plasma being that splattered on his bed upon hitting the surface. The bubbling creature that reeked of so many unbearable smells began to shout out, "We love you Tanaka, that's why we want your flesh. Can't you see that it breaks my heart to see you all alone? Make your mother happy and just die!" Tanaka began to scream out loud, as he glared at the obscene ent.i.ty. He instantly directed his torch at it and turned it into ash. The creature along with his bed was incinerated into nothingness. Tanaka began to hear sounds of muscle spasms and the throbbing of torn muscles mixed with the collision of bones. He turned to see a crawling stomach with its intestines dangling as it came from the door. It growled like a r.e.t.a.r.ded being and shouted, "Can't you see that it pains me to be this incomplete, I know that deep down inside of you there is love for me, pour out your flesh for me!"

"NO!" screamed out Tanaka as he blew away the creature with the intense heat of his torch. The madness had returned and his rest had been ended. The voice began to laugh diabolically, as Tanaka ran out of the room. The compiled food supplies were all left behind as the walls and the ceiling that made up the room caved in, gushing out blood as if an organ had been busted open. As Tanaka headed to the exit of the apartment, the walls of the lounge began to rupture, turning into heinous orifices that egested foul things at him. The room began to wobble like jelly as he approached the door and it soon lost its form. The whole flat began to lose its solid structure and turned into volumes of blood. Tanaka was swept away by the landslide of putrid flesh, which had surprisingly come from the once solid building. Tanaka was drowned in the volumes of blood, following its current as it led him to Josiah Tongogara road. He could feel creatures in the blood, they meleed him and he also kicked and punched back at the things he couldn't see. This was a terrible misfortune for him and all he could hear as this happened was the dreadful voice. The voice laughed and shrilled malevolently as his body flowed with the b.l.o.o.d.y current. The voice then uttered with great acrimony, "You see Tanaka, you were always meant to be ravaged child. How selfish of you to keep you flesh to yourself!" In that moment the will to live coursed through his torch and what came out was a great furnace of light, blazing the blood and lighting up a large portion of his current position. The velocity of the wave stopped and left Tanaka who was tumbling like a barrel down the road. Tanaka's back hit a stop sign pole, breaking his rolling with great pain. Tanaka cried out in agony as he twitched, fumbling like a helpless child who had been hit by a boulder. Despite the pain, he twirled his torch and darted it at the voluminous body of blood, which had receded backwards like the ebbing of ocean waves. Tanaka saw the dilution from h.e.l.l and clenched his teeth as he rose slowly from the ground. His bruised back was hurting, but the anger that came with the pain made him glare at his adversary with an intent to kill. The voice began to shout out, "There is no hope for you Tanaka, we demons are a product of man's sin, and we have come to claim our meal. Mankind is dead! Dead!" The voice burst into depraved laughter, but Tanaka did not entertain it. Instead, he vented out his rage and shouted out loud, "NEVER YOU b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Tanaka deployed the most violent ray of light at the b.l.o.o.d.y creature, burning it as if he had a flame thrower. The act that was at first an involuntary portrayal of survival became an intriguing fetish for violence. He boiled the blood and after he pa.s.sed the boiling point, he evaporated every molecule of blood until what was left were vapours of red smoke. The road beneath the layer of blood was burnt to a crisp, removing 6feet of earth from part of the Leopold Takawira road. Tanaka began to laugh sardonically at the fact that he had killed it. He threw himself to the ground and began to murmur to himself, "Why can't I just have a happy moment. I hate being here. I hate this world. Mommy, mommy, mommy!"

The boy snivelled at the thought of his miserable life. He was filled with feelings of despair and anger as her breathed on the ground. His rest was soon interrupted when he heard the sound of water rush from afar. The sound was similar to that of coming rain, but it seemed to be colliding against something. The direction in which it came from was opposite from where he was. The sound of voluminous waves of liquid was coming from the heart of the city and this made Tanaka stricken with fear. He darted his torch at the long trail of the Leopold Takawira road, which extended into the heart of the city, making his light reach past Park Lane Street until it connected with Samora Machel road. What Tanaka saw was indeed horrific; it was something he only ever dreamed of ever seeing in the apotheosis of all nightmares. It was a 12m tall volume of b.l.o.o.d.y flood water coming his way! As it traversed towards him, it devastated the buildings and the surrounding vehicles past Herbert Chitepo Avenue. The end was surely drawing near and in that moment, Tanaka began to reflect on his child hood, the good parts and the bad, thinking of things he wanted to do and accepting regret in its fullness. This was the end to a long struggle and he honestly believed that he had done his best to survive, but just as he was about to throw in the towel, something bizarre happened. Tanaka's right hand, which had been wielding the torch, began to throb, bulging with veiny lean muscles. In conjunction with what happened to his hand, his nose began to bleed and he coughed out a bit of blood. Though all this happened in a peculiar way that made him think that he was going through some form of tissue necrosis, Tanaka somehow new that something unprecedented and positive was about to happen. His arm charged the torch energy and filled it with some extraordinary power. As the waves quickly pa.s.sed Baines Avenue, slowly getting to where he was at Chinamano Avenue, his torch released the greatest beam of light that bewildered Tanaka as he watched. Like what Moses had done in the bible, separating the red sea with his staff, the boy divided the waters with a burning hot beam of light. The water inadvertently went around him with geysers of steaming blood engulfing the air. The whole process lasted for 10minutes as Tanaka evaporated all the blood before him. The temperature around became like burning aura; this was no different from being in a boiler room. The wave of b.l.o.o.d.y flood water soon ended, leaving Tanaka in a gaunt condition. The torch had saved him again, but this time it had crippled him. Tanaka was coughing out blood and feeling pain in his bowels. He huffed and puffed, doubting that he was alive but yet again, alive to fight in the infinite darkness. As he respired, breathing in and out and chuckling in appreciation of being alive, he then thought about what had happened to the remaining water. As he lied on the ground, he averted his head to face the direction where the water had gone. To his dismay, his victory was soon abated by a startling scene. The land marks, architecture, and everything towards King George road, which connect to Avondale had sunken deep into the b.l.o.o.d.y sea. At first, it seemed as if it was just the flood water level being stationary, but what actually happened was something far much worse. The flood water had devoured the land whole! Tanaka could also see swimming demonic reptiles in the vast sea of blood, basking in their inglorious wickedness. In the end, he was just living in a never ending nightmare, one that defecated on his efforts with great spite.

From nowhere he heard the cry of a grown man. The encompa.s.sing darkness, which had impaired his vision, forced him to twirl his torch to sight the source of the cry. Tanaka found a land rover that was flipped on its back side and lodged to the ground. The vehicle was most probably flung by the waves, but the fact that someone had survived was a miracle in itself. Tanaka began to crawl slowly, heading towards the vehicle with little strength. He mustered his strength to crawl until he reached the vehicle. He pointed his torch at the cracked window and found a mid forties man who looked extremely distraught. The man saw Tanaka and screamed out, "HELP ME PLEASE! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"