by Simon Clark
No light.
With the rational part of my mind I had expected none. But a tormenting voice inside my head sang out loud and clear that light - lots and lots of lovely brilliant light - had cascaded from the bulb to flood the kitchen. But you can't see it, because you really are blind, David Masen… sightless as any three blind mice… three blind mice running after the farmer's wife…
Stop that, I told myself sharply, fighting down the wave of panic rolling dangerously through me. Stop that at once.
Once more I fumbled my way across the walls. Now there were worktops.
A sink. Cooker.
More cupboards, with plates from-
I stopped.
A cooker?
Quickly, I groped back through the cloaking darkness until I found the burners and the iron stands on which to set the pans. There I could feel the round gas-control knobs, hard beneath my anxious, searching fingers.
Gas. Yes - yes.
I fumbled for a lighter that must, I thought, be close by.
After a few moments' fruitless search I began cursing - an equally fruitless occupation.
I realized too that there must be candles and lamps nearby. Not for Mr Hartlow's use, of course, but for any sighted guests he might entertain.
But, for me, these might as well have been hidden on the dark side of the Moon as I groped sightlessly through what seemed to be endless racks of plates, cutlery and vegetables in baskets. A candle might have been right there in front of me, only I couldn't, for the life of me, find it.
As it was, my characteristic impatience rescued my ailing sanity.
I found the cooker again.
Or rather, I located it - by blindly putting my hand in the hot bacon grease in the frying pan. I turned the knobs at the front of the cooker, instantly hearing the methane as it hissed odourlessly from the burners.
Right, this was crude… but if it worked… well, that would be just tickety-boo by me.
I reached out again to the worktops. My fingers found a pan - one that was satisfyingly heavy - and picked it up. Then, with the gas hissing from the cooker vents, I brought the pan down hard against the iron stands.
The impact clanged mightily.
I struck the top of the cooker again.
And again the metallic clang rang loud in my ears.
Then, at the third attempt - this time swinging downwards with all my might, shattering the wooden pan handle - my plan worked.
The two metal surfaces crashing together produced a single spark.
With a loud pop, followed by a whoosh, a ball of flame blossomed under my nose.
I reeled back from the smarting rush of heat, the smell of singeing telling me that I'd been too slow to save my eyebrows.
But I didn't care. I didn't care the tiniest bit. Because something wonderful had happened.
I could see.
I saw in perfect detail that brief blossom of orange and yellow fire. Within a moment it had died back to four discs of blue flame where the gas jets burned from their vents.
They were anything but bright. Yet they cast a faint bluish light across the kitchen, revealing the stairs, table, radio - and here were Mr Hartlow's pipe and tobacco pouch on a shelf by the window.
And, more importantly, I could see on the wall the clock from which issued those lugubrious ticks and tocks. For a second I thought my eyes really were playing tricks.
The clock, if it was right, told me it was ten minutes past nine o'clock.
I looked outside.
That was the moment when I realized that either I had in some way gone spectacularly mad and was imagining all this - or that it really was the end of the world. For all I could see beyond the window was absolute darkness. That tormenting voice of unreason wasted no time before murmuring: 'You're right, David Masen. The sun is dead. And this is the beginning of everlasting night.'
CHAPTER TWO
AN OLD FOE
WHAT should have been giddy relief at being able to see again gave way immediately to a sheer, stunned perplexity.
This was a May morning after nine o'clock. The village and surrounding fields should be awash with daylight. Instead there was only that velvet black. So, where had the sun gone?
The idea that it had simply just not risen hurtled across my brain. Could it be that during the night some disaster of cosmic proportions had knocked the Earth from its orbit? Or that the Earth had stopped revolving and from now on would present the same face to the sun in the same way that the Moon eternally presented only one side to the Earth?
But that was too fantastic. A disaster of those proportions, such as a comet plunging into our planet at thousands of miles an hour, would have caused tidal waves, earthquakes, continent-shattering explosions.
But here on the Isle of Wight everything was quiet, peaceful as a summer's morning should be.
My mind was a confused whirl. Because I remembered waking to hear people starting their working day as if nothing was amiss. But why had they gone about their business as if everything was normal? As if the world hadn't gone topsy-turvy? And hadn't been left in total darkness?
The resoundingly simple answer to that, I realized, was that Bytewater was a community of the blind. How could they know there was no light? After all, darkness doesn't impress itself against your skin; it can't be smelled, can't be tasted. If a man is blind there's no way he can tell the difference between light and dark. Unless, that is, he's standing in sunlight strong enough to warm his skin. Instead he must rely on the chiming of clocks and the word of the sighted.
So the Blind of Bytewater had simply woken into total darkness, then unwittingly started the day, believing it to be like any other.
After staring through the window out into the dark for a full three minutes I shook my head. I had to do something; I couldn't wait in the simple hope that the sun would suddenly return in a blaze of glory. The first obvious move was to put some clothes on.
Now, there was no difficulty at all in finding a candle. And that light - that beautiful, wonderful light! - a miracle in the darkness, lit my way back to the bedroom.
Once dressed, I made a quick recce of the house. No Mr Hartlow to be seen. Perhaps he'd gone to feed his rabbits. He must have thought me an Idle Jack for snoozing away the morning while others worked.
Exchanging the candle for a brighter oil lantern, I left the cottage, carefully closing the door behind me, mindful that my host wouldn't thank me for letting every cat in the neighbourhood into his kitchen. Once I'd done that, I set off along the road that led inland.
The lamp cast a yellow smudge in front of me; nothing more than a speck of light in this all-encompassing darkness. But I remember thinking then that this postponement of the dawn could be nothing more than a freakish pall of cloud that had temporarily blotted out the sun, and that it should pass soon enough.
I paused every so often to raise the lamp, looking for one of the Blind who might be tending his or her cattle in a field, still oblivious to the dark.
I saw no one.
At the edge of the road were the white-painted guide rails that the Blind villagers would follow. The rails were made of wood and ran at waist height. Here and there, signs in Braille directed the Blind to turn right or left to reach a particular cottage, the inn, or the Mother House. The Blind would always keep the guide rail to their left, so avoiding colliding head-on with a neighbour. But, in fact, they were so well adapted to their condition that they moved briskly around their territories with hardly as much as a fingertip brush of the rail.
I walked faster.
The oil lamp had no reflector plate to focus its light; instead I walked in the middle of a soft-edged glow. Consequently I could see no more than a dozen feet in front of me at any one time.
So when I came upon Mr Hartlow sitting alone on a roadside bench it was something of a surprise.
Mr Hartlow was a well-built man in his mid-sixties with close-cropped white hair. Long ago he'd been a London solicitor specializing i
n copyright law.
He looked up even though I'd stopped and the sound of my footsteps had ceased. His keen hearing must have picked up the sound of my breathing.
'Who's there?' He sounded immensely tired.
'It's David Masen,' I said, walking forward.
'Ah, David… come here, please…'
He held out his hand which I took in mine. Immediately he clasped it in a surprisingly fierce grip.
'What's happened, David? Something's gone wrong, hasn't it?'
'It's dark. All dark, as if the sun hasn't come up.'
'Dark. Ah…' His voice sounded hoarse with exhaustion; as if he'd just come through the grimmest battle of his life. 'For a moment I wondered…' He shook his white-haired head. 'I wondered if the green lights had come back.' He raised his own sightless eyes to the sky. 'I heard Tom Atkinson shouting earlier… oh, you don't know Tom, do you?'
I told him I didn't.
'He's one of the few Sighted here in the village. He's a fisherman - and he's one of the biggest grumblers I've ever met. He's always too warm or too cold, or the fish won't bite, or the wind's blowing in the wrong direction… Ah…' He broke off. For a moment I thought he was simply going to nod off there on the bench. I raised the lantern to look at him, but his head hung down wearily.
'Mr Hartlow?'
He seemed to pull himself together. 'Sorry… I don't know what's come over me this morning. I tripped into the hedge back there. Must have fallen over my own two feet. Clumsy devil I'm becoming. Never done that before…' He suddenly seemed to shake himself awake. 'Yes, I was telling you about Tom Atkinson, wasn't I? He was shouting out in the street that he couldn't see. At first, as I say, I thought the shooting stars or whatever they were had come back - those damnable things that burned out our eyesight thirty years ago.' He paused, then took a deep breath. 'You know, David.' His grip on my hand tightened further and he began to speak in a low voice. 'That fear came back to me. Just like it did after I stayed out in the garden that night all those years ago. My God. We even made a party of it with the neighbours because they said it was something we'd never see again.' He gave a colourless laugh. 'Never see again. How right they were. Because in the morning we were all blind. And of course I never saw my family again, even though they were in the house with me. But I could hear them screaming. Oh, by Heaven, I could hear that all right, just… just screaming with panic as their eyesight faded away.'
The grip on my hand, which had relaxed slightly during Mr Hartlow's sad reminiscence, tightened again. He turned his sightless eyes to me. And even though I knew he was one of the old Blind, at that moment I believed he not only looked at me but right into me, into the depths of my soul.
'David. You know, I had a beautiful, intelligent wife. I had two pretty daughters - just ten and thirteen they were. And thirty years ago, suddenly blind… stone blind… I stood every day in the doorway of our house and called for help. And I listened to my wife and daughters cry themselves to sleep every day for the next three months. You see, we ran out of food. I couldn't find any more…' He shook his head. 'I hated myself, David. I was too weak to find a way of helping them. My God, I wish I could turn the clock back… I wish I had just the one chance to help them; stop them suffering… because…' His voice failed him.
'I'll take you back to the cottage,' I said gently.
'Maybe in a moment. You know, I haven't an ounce of strength left in my body. What on earth's happened to me, David?'
'Don't worry, Mr Hartlow, it must be the shock of the fall, that's all.'
'Falling over into bushes? Time they put me out to pasture, eh?'
'You'll soon be fighting fit again, Mr Hartlow.'
'Maybe, David. Maybe. Now, do you see any sign of that old moaner Tom Atkinson?'
'I can hardly see a thing. This lantern doesn't cast an awful lot of light.'
'But how in heaven's name did it get so dark? It doesn't feel like rain so there can't be so much cloud that… ah…'
The grip on my hand suddenly loosened. His head hung forward again.
'Mr Hartlow?'
'Oh… uhm? Sorry, David… I'm just so light-headed. I feel as if I've put away a jug or two more of ale than I should have. Now, this darkness… what do you suppose is responsible?'
'I don't know - cloud, maybe. But it must be incredibly dense. Without a lamp I can't see my hand in front of my face.'
'Now that kind of darkness is a great equalizer between the two of us, isn't it?' There was no maliciousness there; the old man sounded as kindly as ever.
'Mr Hartlow, I'll help you back to-'
He waved my helping hand away. 'No, David. Not yet.' He took a deep breath. 'David… you know, I've always suspected something like this would happen. All these years I've sat in my cottage and thought about the terrible calamity that befell the planet, and how people like your mother and father and Ivan Simpson worked their miracles, how they saved so many people - Blind as well as Sighted - and how they embedded a tiny sliver of civilization in this island.' He sighed. 'But long ago I came to the conclusion it was all a waste of time and effort. Three decades ago Mother Nature, fate or God Himself decided that Man had ruled this planet long enough; so an attempt was made to wipe Man out; render him extinct. Very nearly succeeded, too. Still, as I said, due to the brave efforts of the Masens and people like them we cheated extinction. But I tell you this, David.' He looked at me, those sightless eyes once again seeming to pierce my soul. 'I tell you, God will not be cheated. Nothing Man can do will thwart His plan. We are all going to die. He has decided. The last twenty-five years here have been nothing more than a peaceful interlude. An intermission between two halves of a titanic catastrophe that will destroy all human life. Now He-' Mr Hartlow pointed skyward '-is going to finish the job. Remember the Bible's Book of Exodus. One of the plagues to afflict Pharaoh was darkness. The Lord said to Moses, "Stretch your hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt".' Eyes glittering strangely, the old man lifted his hand as if to touch the encircling darkness. 'In every culture darkness precedes Armageddon. The Vikings predicted the end of the world would begin when the monster wolf, Fenrir, swallowed the sun, bringing darkness. The ancient Sumerians told how nearly all the people of the Earth were killed "when daylight turned to darkness" and their god "smashed the land like a cup…" Mark my words, David. Mark them well… this is the beginning of the end.'
'Mr Hartlow, you're tired. Let me get you back home.'
'Thank you, perhaps… Oh…'
'What's the matter?'
'My face is sore. I must have grazed it when I fell.' He touched his cheek.
'Let me take a look at that… Mr Hartlow… Mr Hartlow?'
His head sagged forward and I had to grip his shoulder to stop him falling. Not that it mattered to Mr Hartlow now. As I lowered him sideways onto the bench I instinctively knew he was dead.
I raised the lamp to look into his face.
There, in the glow of the lamp, I could plainly see the bright red streak across the old man's cheek.
Now I knew what had killed him.
I stooped quickly, using the back of the bench to shield at least part of my body. Then, raising the lamp as high as I dared, I looked at the dark shapes of the bushes and trees. But the light was too weak to identify individual species. They might have been everyday alders, sycamores, immature oaks, young chestnuts - but they might have been something entirely different. Something infinitely more sinister.
I knew there was nothing more to be done for Mr Hartlow. What mattered now was that I should warn Emergency HQ at Newport.
Keeping as low as I could, I ran at a crouch.
And even as I ran it started. A hollow drumming sound of wood on wood. A sound that every child on the island had been taught to recognize.
Something rustled in the hedgerow beside me.
Ducking my head still lower, I hurried on.
In front of me lay the dark form of a horse. The animal
was stone dead.
A little further on, I saw a pair of waders protruding from the long grass at the side of the road. That would be Tom Atkinson; silvery fish from his basket lay scattered across the ground. He'd landed his last catch.
The drumming grew louder. A maddening tip-tap-tip-tap.
Ahead I saw a cottage from which hung a post-office sign. I raced for it, seeing from the corner of my eye a monstrous shadow moving jerkily through the gloom.
My voice rang out into silence as I burst into the building.
'Hello! Anyone home?'
Silence - as oppressive as the darkness.
Now it seemed that I was alone in the village. With the lamp casting shadows that leaped crazily up the walls, I searched the post office until I found the room that served as the radio cabin. Here I sat myself before the small set and switched it on. Seconds later valves glowed yellow through the ventilation slots.
Something tapped at the open window above my head.
Using the radio set's Braille instruction booklet as a makeshift shield to guard my face, I jumped up at the window, shoved it shut, then locked it. Now at last I could make that call for help.
I pressed the transmit button. 'Hello, this is an emergency transmission on frequency nine. Emergency HQ, Newport, do you read me, over?'
Static hissed.
For a moment I was convinced I'd receive no reply. Already I was too late - the island had been overrun.
I tried again, tension making my voice sound higher: 'Emergency HQ. Newport, hello, do you read me, over?'
'Caller on frequency nine. We read you; please stay off the air.' Weariness permeated the radio operator's tones. It sounded as if he'd had a long night.
'But I need to report an emergency. Over.'
'The darkness? Oh, yes, thank you, caller, we know all about that.' The man had clearly written me off as a dim-wit. 'Now, I'm waiting for a number of fire reports. I have to keep this frequency clear. So, caller, please go off air. Over.'
'Good grief! You can't be serious,' I shouted, forgetting on-air etiquette.