I continued. “We should also try to get a couple hours of sleep.” Fiona voiced her agreement. I looked over at Kari, leaned in and said, “You should get some rest as well, Kari. A little girl like you needs to sleep to grow up to be strong, just like your mommy.”
Kari giggled and hid her face in her teddy bears. I smiled.
“Honey,” said Fiona. “Go bathe and get ready for bed, okay?” Kari nodded and hopped out of the chair and went off to do as she was told. Now only Fiona and I were at the table and a heavy silence encroached upon us. A few minutes passed with neither one of us saying anything.
“Thank you,” said a small, quivering voice. Fiona was looking down at the table, her black hair shielding her face from me.
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“I do…” Tears were falling on the surface of the table. “We were stuck down here for so long. I never thought I’d see another human being again, let alone get the chance to leave.”
“When the Day of Dark happened, were you the only ones in this bunker?”
Fiona wiped her face with a hand but she still didn’t look up. “No. We didn’t find this place until much later. When the sky blackened and those things came raining down we hid in a much larger bunker along with two other groups of people. There were nine of us.”
I folded my hands on the table as I leaned in closer.
She continued. “Days turned into weeks, and then weeks turned into months as we heard what was happening on the surface. The bunker was connected to a broadcast beacon hidden deep underground and hardened against nuclear attacks so we were able to get news from above, just as long as whatever antennas on the surface were still intact. Every day we would hear pleas for help, calls for armed resistance, and people begging for shelter. The latter were the hardest to hear because as much as we wanted to do something, revealing ourselves to them meant revealing ourselves to those things.” She spat out the last word like a curse. “And so we had to sit still and listen to people beg and cry and curse those who couldn’t – wouldn’t – help them.”
She looked at me then, her eyes pleading for me to understand. I did, and when Fiona saw that she was grateful.
“I was two months pregnant with Kari when the Day of Dark happened,” said Fiona.
“And her father? Was he there with you?” I asked.
She nodded. “He… Kevin was the one who brought us to the bunker that day…” She trailed off.
“I see.”
She wiped her eyes with her hand. “While we were there I gave birth to Kari.” She looked over at the direction Kari had walked off to and then returned to me. “It was tough but we got through it. We even had a celebration of sorts with what little provisions we had. Everyone was content, for a time. But news from all over the world was bad and got worse and worse. With each passing month our food supplies became less and less to the point we had volunteers head up to the surface and scrounge for food. See that machine over there, the one in the corner?” I peeked over her shoulder and nodded.
“That’s a waste reclamation system. It recycles any organic garbage into little gelatin cubes we can eat. It can even reclaim nutrients from human waste, but not nearly as much. We had three of these units in the bunker we began tapping into when scavenging for supplies became more dangerous.” She pointed at the machine again and said, “Kari and I lucked out with this one; this model is only thirty years old and very efficient. The ones in the other bunker were twice as old.”
“What made you guys leave the big bunker behind?”
She became silent for a time. Thinking she wasn’t going to answer, I made to ask again when she broke the silence. “By the time Kari was three there were only six of us left. Three of the others had gone missing while they were out looking for food. No one dared go out to try and find them; we simply mourned and moved on as best we could.”
I thought about all the people these creatures have killed. I could’ve easily become a victim. I asked, “And the others?”
“The six of us held out for another year. There hadn’t been a single radio broadcast in months; the last one we heard was from somewhere in Canada. It was a man and he spoke French. One in our group was able to interpret what he was saying. Looking back, I wish he hadn’t.”
“What did he say?”
“Most of it was garbled but we were able to make out the last few sentences. He said: ‘My food is gone. My family is gone. I can hear them outside. The scratching. Oh, the scratching. I hear the screams too. Not human ones. They belong to the dark ones. I don’t know which sound is worse.’” Fiona swallowed and wet her lips, using the opportunity to clamp down on her memories of that awful time and continued reciting the man’s final message:
They are at my door but they do not know I am here. Not yet. But they will find me. They always find what they want. For anyone out there who is still alive, who is listening to this, I pray we both may see the sun shine once again.
Fiona looked down at the table and kept her eyes there. I could feel her heart sink upon recounting those words. My eyes wandered upward to the bulbs and I began to think, to think that despite the events back home, I at least had hope for a good life. No one here did, but there was still hope for Kari and Fiona. I will make sure of it.
I turned towards Fiona. “What happened after the broadcast?”
She looked up at me and I saw her mouth quirk as if to say something.
I smiled. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. We can talk about this another—”
She shook her head. “It’s fine. I just need a moment.” I let her take all the time she needed. I could only imagine what she and her daughter have been through - they had been stuck in this bunker on this desolate world for years.
After taking an exorcising breath she continued. “Besides my husband, Kari and myself, there was a couple and a friend of theirs. They were the most affected by the broadcast, especially the couple. They were young; before the Day of Dark the man had just proposed to his longtime girlfriend. The guy they were with was supposed to be the best man.”
I knew the answer but I asked anyway. “They left the bunker, didn’t they?”
Her shoulders drooped as she nodded. “They argued amongst themselves and we tried to convince them to stay but they wouldn’t see reason.” She made a helpless gesture with her hands that would’ve been comical to see under different circumstances.
“They left a week after the broadcast; they said they didn’t want to die in that bunker and wanted to take their chances outside to look for others. I remember when the couple told us they were leaving my husband and I looked at each other like they were crazy. We both turned to their best friend and you could tell he didn’t want to be a part of what they were doing but he couldn’t just abandon them.”
I nodded. I understood duty.
“So what choice was there but to let them go?” said Fiona. “We gave them as much food and water as we could spare, hugged them, and told them they’d be in our prayers. I knew the moment the door shut behind them we’d never see them again. You think…”
I knew she was going to ask before she even thought it; she was just that kind of person to care so much for those in need. I shook my head. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking for them,” I said. “And even if it were possible they’ve been alive all this time, they’re not my priority. I’m sorry.” I expected her to argue with me but all she did was slump back into her chair. I could’ve been kinder about it, but the longer we stayed the greater our chances were of being discovered by the creatures outside. None of us could afford it.
Fiona began speaking again. “The three of us stayed for another few months until our supplies were all tapped out. The day after we ran out of food we packed up whatever we could and left the bunker behind. That’s when…” Fiona caught her breath as she tried to speak.
“That’s when your husband died.” I completed the sentence for her.
She nodde
d. “Yes, we were able to pinpoint this hideout from documents left behind in a storage unit in the old bunker. We headed south, making sure to move from building to building to try to hide from them. A little over halfway into our trip one of the human-shaped creatures found us. Kevin yelled for me to take Kari and run but I didn’t want to.” She was breathing hard and her voice was shaky but she didn’t stop speaking. “He pulled out his pistol and began firing at the creature. Pieces of it were torn away but with every bullet its body began to grow accustomed to the shots and soon they had no effect.
I screamed for him to come with us but he just stood there and fired his gun. It knew Kevin wasn’t a threat so it took its time. I screamed at him again but he wouldn’t stop. Finally, what made me pick up Kari and run was when my husband said, ’If you don’t get her out of here Kari will die!’” She paused and I could feel shame seep through her like a disease.
She said, “And so I ran. I picked up Kari and ran until my lungs burned just to inhale. The last thing I remembered was closing those large doors behind me and weeping the moment they were locked.” She put her face in her hands and while she wasn’t crying, she was close to it.
I got up from the chair and made my way around the table to her. I laid a hand on her shoulder and said, “There was nothing you could’ve done.”
Still hiding her face she said, “You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do. Kevin was a brave man, and he was right. Had you not run you and Kari would’ve died and neither of you would’ve been given this chance to start life anew. He saved your lives. You must see that was the only option.” And she did, I could see it in her mind. She had admitted it to herself years ago but to have it brought out into the open by another human being was one she wasn’t expecting. And as hard as it was for her to have said it aloud I felt a certain kind of peace ease into her mind like a welcome breeze entering a stuffy room that hadn’t been opened in a long time. It had a redemptive quality to it.
She nodded with her face still hidden in her hands. I removed my hand from her shoulder and leaned back on the table’s edge. At last, relieved of her ghosts Fiona took her time sitting back and took a very deep breath which she exhaled with a control that was admirable.
She faced me and said, “Thank you, Darrius.”
“Of course.” I let silence take up as much time as I could before I asked my next question. It was something I had to know. “What happened eight years ago?” I saw her eyes and saw sadness that was so intense and crushing I was afraid it would overcome her. But it didn’t, and so she began.
********
“Eight years ago, we were ready to launch our first pilgrim ships into space and colonize the solar system. We were to launch six ships, one for each of the countries that funded and built their own. This project was something the entire world was looking forward to: from scientists and businessmen, to street vendors and store clerks, it was the subject many people had on their lips and minds. It was an exciting time to be alive.” She was staring at the wall when she spoke, but I was able to glimpse the ghost of memories and happy times manifest and then fade away in her eyes.
Fiona continued with her story. “The problem was fueling our ships while en route to their destinations. Solar energy was the primary source of fuel that ran our ships but the problem was the degradation of energy efficiency the deeper into space our ships went and further from the sun. So, our scientists banded together to come up with a solution.”
“What did they come up with?”
“A controlled small-scale space-time singularity, that’s what they called it.”
I blinked. I was confused at first, and then my confusion turned into realization, which turned into disbelief. “You’re talking about a black hole,” I said.
Fiona nodded dumbly.
“You can’t control a black hole!” It sounded like an accusation.
She turned to me with fire in her eyes. “We thought we could! Our scientists assured us they could make it small and stable enough to control.”
“What did they think they were going to do?”
Fiona turned back to the wall and the fire was gone from her voice. “They wanted to create a singularity close enough to the sun absorb its UV rays which would be spit out of other black holes in other parts of the solar system and absorbed by relay stations the ships could siphon energy from.” Upon hearing they had planned to make not just one, but several black holes I grimaced; I couldn’t believe the degree with which they had decided to play with fire. “But we were never able to create more than the one closest to the sun.”
“What happened after the black hole was created?” I asked.
At first she didn’t respond but she mustered whatever courage she could to finish recounting the events of the past. “Several ships positioned themselves near the sun, each carrying a device that when activated at the same time would create the singularity. And it worked. The reports being relayed back to Earth told of an event horizon appearing as a line in front of the sun. Seconds passed as the almost imperceptible line expanded into a black hole roughly the size of a car. For a while it didn’t do anything but swirl in the vacuum of space like a whirlpool. As mesmerizing as it must’ve been to the scientists there to witness, it quickly turned into something they couldn’t control.”
Still leaning on the table I turned my body to face her. She continued.
“It started when the black hole stopped moving, until without warning it expanded to ten times its size in an instant. The spiraling began again but it had become more violent. One of the scientists sent a report back – one of the last before we lost all communication with the ships – that it felt like staring into the eye of a tornado. Then the unthinkable happened: the black hole began to drain the sun’s energy before their very eyes. They just stood there and witnessed something that was too terrible to believe. The sun began reacting violently, as if protesting its life energy being taken from it. Realizing what was happening, each of the ships began releasing streams of tachyons into the uncontrolled singularity to make it stop. But little did they know they were creating the monsters that would be the doom of all mankind.”
“What do you mean?”
Fiona swallowed hard. “At first, it looked like it was working. The sun’s energy was no longer being pulled into the black hole and the singularity itself seemed to calm down. But it was too good to be true. In the blink of an eye the black hole expanded in size and twisted and turned until it became a misshapen thing that was unbearable to look at. And from its depths a massive cloud the color of obsidian with crackling energies began to seep out towards the sun. Everyone on the ship was panicking. They increased the intensity of the tachyon streams but it didn’t take long for them to realize it was only feeding the thing. They stopped but it was already too late. All the light had gone out of it, instead replaced by dark energies that undulated and writhed as if they were alive. And we’d find out soon enough that they were.”
Hearing her speak about the incident that damned her world, I was reminded of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and was destroyed for his arrogance.
“One of the last images beamed back to us were from the lead vessel. It showed the dark matter protruding from the sun and reaching for the ships like a giant hand. The Day of Dark happened the next day…” Fiona fell silent.
I said, “Thank you for telling me.” I surveyed my surroundings. “I think it’s about time we get some rest. Afterwards, you’ll get to see my home; there, you and Kari will begin your new lives.”
Fiona turned to me with a look of gratitude that was so pure and wrenching, it would haunt me for years after. And to this day, I wish things had turned out differently.
********
We got up after just a few hours of sleep since we couldn’t afford to risk losing moonlight. Before setting off I told them to pack only what was necessary for the trip. For Fiona, it was a few provisions, spare clothes, and a few other personal items. She also b
rought her pistol with her. As for Kari, she carried a cute backpack with extra clothes and of course, both her teddy bears.
When we reached the entrance to the house above, I signaled both Fiona and Kari to stop as I opened the door and peeked outside. I had already turned on the night vision meme which was further aided by the presence of the moon and stars above. I took a few seconds to scan the area visually and mentally. When I found nothing lying in wait I signaled them to follow me as we walked out onto the desolate street.
“Wow,” said a voice filled with wonder. I turned my head around to see Kari, looking up at the sky. Fiona was standing beside her, also looking up.
“Mommy, that’s the moon, right?” said Kari, pointing with a small finger. “Are those the stars?”
Fiona knelt down and faced Kari. “Yes, sweetheart.”
“Wow, they’re beautiful.”
“Yes, they are, aren’t they? You were still so young the last time you were outside you don’t remember what they looked like.” Fiona turned to me and said, “I think even I forgot.”
I smiled a small smile and walked over to Kari and knelt down. I said, “You will get to see hundreds, even thousands more moons and stars. And as many more suns.”
Kari giggled and nodded.
I said, “From here on we have to be quiet, okay? We can’t have the bad people find us or there’ll be trouble. Understand?”
Again Kari nodded. I looked at Fiona and she also complied.
I whispered, “All right, let’s go.”
I planned to use the same back alleys and narrow roads I used to reach their bunker. I couldn’t risk running into even one of those things while I was with them. It was rough fighting one by myself, and if I had to do that while protecting them I don’t know if I could…
We were rounding a blind corner when I heard a clicking sound. Actually, it was more than one. At first it sounded like it came from a single source but the sound was an overlap of many, each click out of sync just a fraction of a second, but my heightened senses were enough to notice the discrepancy. I held out my hand and the two behind me stopped. They planted themselves against the wall with Fiona placing a protecting arm against Kari. Seeing that, I peeked around the corner keeping my body tight against the wall.
A Life in Darkness Page 6