by D M Robbins
“One thing at a time.” We park and step outside of the ship. “You said earlier that we needed to shut off the televisions.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, that’s what we are doing.” He connects in using his phone. Numbers begin running across the screen. “My God, whoever set this up was an imbecile. I cannot factor what an imbecile does for there is no pattern.” He pauses, frowning.
“Well, shut the whole thing off,” I say, looking over his shoulder.
He shrugs. “Maintenance,” he says then smiles. “Reconfiguring.” He looks up to the sky then checks the numbers on his phone. “It will take them some time to override this.”
“What did you do?”
“Oh, nothing really, maneuvered a few satellites.” He shows images of satellite arms and mirrors turning and reflecting different angles, antennas shifting. Several satellites crash into each other.
“Unnecessary means,” he says.
“Quite unnecessary,” I say.
City monitors switch to comedy shows and laughter, nature shows, bird documentaries. We watch the closest one playing sports bloopers as an outfielder runs into center field wall then falls making the catch.
“Now that’s what I call entertainment,” Tanz says.
We hop into the airship to get ready for Aldana’s forces.
SPIRIT END
Heading back to Big City we park the ship in no man’s land and hoof it across the train bridge. The city is thick with troops and armored vehicles.
A man and woman stride past speaking lively. “The state building was just blown up and Kimbel’s missing,” the man says to the woman. “It’s war, but with who?”
Tanz looks at me.
Downtown in the business district armored cars are parked on street corners in front of financial buildings. Soldiers with machine guns stand protecting them.
We’re looking for the spirit lady and find her tending to a grieving elderly man who’s feeding pigeons two blocks down.
We stop a few feet away. Tanz’s forehead pulsates. He covers it with his hand as if scratching it and speaks with the spirit lady who smiles at us. She ponders his statement while looking up at the sky. She nods upwards then pauses, as if speaking to someone above her. She then nods at us and smiles continuing with her task of tending to the grieving man who blows his nose and sighs.
Tanz says to me, “All is ready. You know what to do, right?”
I nod. We walk around the corner into an alley and I start pedaling my feet, slowly hovering in the air above him. Garbage bags swirl underneath me. “Wish me luck,” I say.
“You do not need luck. But good luck just the same.” He watches me proudly like a father would.
I pedal faster and faster, shooting up above city skyscrapers through cloud cover to where the atmosphere thins just before space to meet the dark forces. Out alone patrolling the edge, I hear Tanz’s voice. “Be careful up there. They will be dangerous. Do not give in to dark temptations.”
“I’m ready for anything,” I say, feeling my forehead pulsate, seeing the light above my eyes. I drift outside of orbit and the interception point to witness the universe. Tanz is using me as bait once again.
While I wait, incredible stars and constellations captivate me, like seeing the universe for the first time. More stars by the billions than I have ever seen camping. I wait for the dark forces and look around. The silence is as haunting as the beauty is amazing. Yet I am so alone out here illuminated by stars from a million miles away. I want to lay back like on a grass field in the summer and watch. No fireflies are out here. Maybe the dark forces won’t come at all. But I know better and look around. Nothing.
After naming a few star clusters and constellations, what I can remember from astronomy class, I cross hands behind my head and float further out of orbit pedaling occasionally to adjust position. Still no dark forces.
As I settle in from left to right stars begin fading. Dropping my hands bolting upright seeing a black hole swallowing up space. It’s like a storm blowing in. I drift out to investigate, look down and the Earth is gone. My bearings are gone. While light is being swallowed up.
I get ready for a fight. But against what? Peering into the darkness, it’s soundless as it moves through the particle-less void. My brain is slow to process, with no smells, no sound, and fading light.
Disoriented by the darkness, my feet spin slower. None of my senses work in the emptiness of space. I spin looking in all direction, up and down, making myself dizzier. My pedaling slows to a stop…I still see nothing but blackness, feeling lightheaded and cold.
Is this the dark forces? If so, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I was expecting to see entities. That was the plan.
I call to Tanz. “I need help. I can’t see—Tanz are you there?” No response. My forehead is not illuminating. Growing faint and unclear I shake my head as the rest of the stars fade.
“Tanz if it’s them I don’t know what to do. I can’t see. Help.”
I feel physical pressure on my lungs and body pressing in. My head aches, my skull is hurting.
I rotate again feeling something slimy touch me like swimming in a grassy lake. I flinch tucking my legs up but can’t see into the darkness. I spin again feeling weaker, colder, disoriented.
A small yellow light appears. “You must move. Now! They are upon you.” Syol the trainer floats in front of me, meditating upon a lavender lake under onyx mountains. His yellow third eye stares.
“Something is clouding me,” I say.
“You are being swallowed alive.”
This jars my thoughts as the pressure builds.
“Move to where? I can’t see.”
“Run! Now!” His image fades into darkness.
I pedal hard zipping forward in what direction I do not know, just moving. Pumping my legs. The coldness increases. The pressure becomes unbearable like I’m running inside concrete trying to break free.
Pedaling hard and blind, the pressure squeezes my body tighter, I can barely move—my—legs. Pumping—pumping—pumping hard. Feeling sluggish. Having trouble raising my knees… Must—keep—pedaling. Gritting my teeth, grunting, groaning. For Sun Clan, for friends, for light, I—keep—pedaling. Don’t know if I’m heading into a monster’s mouth or what.
I have one last push when my legs almost fly off my body, tension released. Stars are seen again. Earth comes into view far off on my side. I’m closer to Mars and turn zipping toward Earth and the protective shores of the atmosphere to defend it.
I hear Syol’s voice. “Stay within earth’s orbit. You are protected there.”
Within Earth’s orbit, I begin smelling again, hearing. Satellites float past. I hear their transmissions and beeps, adjusting mirror and arms.
Slowing up, realizing how hard I’m breathing with a stinging pain in my chest like some giant kid sat on me. I almost lost my life orbiting downward pedaling slower as I descend. Gravity pulls at me and I let it.
Half the globe away from where I was supposed to intercept the dark forces, I pedal down to what looks one of the snow peaked Himalayas. I stop pedaling, and glide down to rest for a moment to catch my breath and calm myself, trying not to dwell on what just happened. I breathe deeply for several moments, breathing in the cold crisp air, regaining clarity and composure, calming. The stress and confusion fades.
I connect to the metamorphic rock, snowpack and pine trees below. As they are fulfilling their purpose, I must fulfill mine, placing my hands down to push off and fight the dark forces, my forehead pulsates.
“Claremone? Claremone? Please respond. Can you hear me?”
I smile hearing Tanz’s voice. “I’ve never been so glad to hear you before.”
“What has happened? We lost transmission.”
“There was a storm. I was watching the stars and—”
“There are no storms in space. It is them.”
“Well, I know that now. It was like a black hole sucking up all the light. It
caught me by surprise.”
“Interesting,” he says pausing. “Where are you now?”
“I’m safe. Just getting some air. But they are coming.”
“Do not allow your light to be transmuted by darkness.”
Feeling better, I smirk staring down the steep decline. “Is this your way of saying, you miss me?”
“Stay within earth’s atmosphere. It will protect you from the harsh climate of space like a rocky cove protects from the harsh winds at sea.”
I nod understanding what he means.
“Additionally, Aldana’s dark forces cannot remain a miasma of electromagnetic impulse. They must adhere to earth’s properties. The atmosphere will not allow them to remain en masse. They must separate into individual entities here.”
“I got ya, Tanzy.”
There’s a pause. He must be annoyed, or we lost transmission again.
“The name is Tanz. However, as a boy, I always did seek a nickname. Tanzy will be fine, if that’s the best you can come up with.”
I smile taking one final look around then zoom back up getting into position, a little ticked they almost got me. I have friends I want to protect.
*
I reenter the atmosphere and see forms exiting the dark portal filling the horizon like an invading army.
“I, I can’t believe how many—”
“Stay Focused,” Tanz says.
The first ones out take position up front. They must be the baddest nasties they’ve got. Others pour out like wasps behind them.
“How can so many travel inside a black hole?” I ask backpedaling, shocked at their sheer numbers. Controlling the elements, I remind myself, remembering the tornado and black matte sky.
“Another dimension has sent them here.” Tanz says.
Out here alone, I shake my thoughts clear, nod and move. If they catch me or touch me, I will become drained, disoriented, lost, as Tanz put it.
In the space outside the atmosphere I couldn’t hear them. But sound moves through substance, that I know. Energy moves through waves. Inside the atmosphere and coming from the portal I hear screaming, skin curdling, jumping off the dust particles—like pigs squealing at a slaughterhouse.
I need to commit and get close to them, but don’t want to. I pedal in and see their ugly details. Smelling my blood, their heads snap in my direction like hound dogs.
“You would be a prize catch.” Tanz reminds me.
“Thanks, Tanz.”
“Anytime.”
The portal sits just outside of the atmosphere. They all look different like from different places: the four corners.
I pedal holding my position studying them, letting them see me, smell me as instructed, letting their hunger grow from half a football field away. A satellite passes close by and the stars twinkle beyond. But I’m out here alone on the edge.
Wicked faces and witches from other worlds, evil and sinister fill the sky.
The one out front is fierce and stops to look around. He must be the leader. Bones stick out from the perimeter of his face like his face is in prison. He has a head and torso with wings, and what looks like attached organs floating beneath him, pumping. Though I’m not sure if it’s a him at all. His crooked red face half smirks sizing me up as I pedal maintaining the short distance. He reviews his troops then looks to the portal as more pour through.
An ugly thing behind him has a chunk missing from his head, one eyelid and half his forehead are gone, gray decomposing skin with bugs crawl on it.
On the other side of Prisonface in triangle formation is the opposite, a thin creature that looks like it was squashed by a truck. He wears a tattered blue cape. One arms glows like a log in a fire. His eyes also glow red with flame.
Hordes of wicked faces, witches, and other ugly ass dark forces behind them take up position like an army across a field. All focused on me waiting for orders.
Gulp. So much rides on this.
Boneface signals attack. His organs move forward like a rudder on a ship pointing straight at me.
His wings flap and bones extend from the perimeter of his face, twenty, thirty feet, and more. They extend out rapidly. The attack is quicker than I expected. I backpedal surprised by the attack. Not enough time to turn as they’re all unleashed. His neck and face extend inside the bone prison a few feet behind the sharp tips. Witches swing out to the flanks expanding up and down in elevation filling the space. And his lieutenants are close by on his flanks.
The spear tip bones are on me in hurry and his chopping teeth right behind them. Turning and startled, I kick a few bones away that bend out then snap back into place. His neck snaps back into his torso and he scowls.
His first lieutenants come around. Buggy Chunkhead on my left and Firearm on my right. Witches swoop wanting my head and would rise in rank if they got it.
“Brrn, dada, brrn, dada, fss, fss. Brrn, dada, brrn, dada, fss, fss.” I hear them speaking in tongues, languages from other worlds.
As Chunkhead approaches bugs fly out of his skull at me like a squadron.
Several satellites pass us in orbit. I dart closer for cover trying to outmaneuver them as the mirror arms turn and splat. It’s like a giant fly swatter in space.
Distracted by Chunkhead, Firearm hits me; my skin sizzles. The witches swarm trying to draw out my blood, encircling me while speaking to each other. I kick a few to escape. But they stay close on my tail as Buggy and Firearm fall back.
I shout through my forehead looking left, right, up and down. “There are too many and they’re too fast! I need to get out of here.”
“Stay focused.”
“I can’t keep them off me,” I look right then left.
“Brrn, dada, brrn, dada, fss, fss. Brrn, dada, brrn, dada, fss, fss.”
“They must fully commit to the atmosphere. Not energy projections within the portal. The portal must be emptied.”
We fly around in orbit, fighting. As we come around, more filter through the portal, but the numbers are thinning.
A witch with a gnarled face and stubby horns sinks teeth into my ankle. Gnaws on me. Another seems to be working on some spell, conjuring something up to put me in as a small prism appears.
With its teeth in me, hatred pours into my mind like a storm. Images of myself with horns, jagged teeth, anger, raging at life.
My mind grows cloudy. A battle rages within me.
“Tanz I can’t hold—” I shake my foot struggling to get her off as we go around orbit again. Another strikes me in the neck. I’m trying to stay conscious.
All the ugliness of life, hardships, heartbreak. I see their pain. Understand them. I am just like them. Ghastly faces that look like the ones from my closet: scratchy hissing voices, horned creatures. They are my family. No wonder they called to me. I slow my pedaling and smile at them like a homecoming.
But wait, something’s wrong. Smell. Something smells horribly wrong like rotting eggs. My minds snaps awake. My eyes focus. Witches breath on me with rancid hot breath. I lower my legs and straighten my back. The prism grows larger between them. They surround me as the prism approaches. The stench gets worse.
I dry heave and drop in elevation. Spinning into a backflip I kick one in the head and throw another into the prism that sparkles like black diamonds then is gone.
Pedaling hard to get away, I shout, “Don’t you ever shower or brush your teeth?” They come after me harder. I don’t know if the smell is a weapon, but it sure works like one. And not a bar of soap among them!
I get a few feet away when Prisonface and Buggy return for more. Ugly bastards. Organs drag below trying to wrap around my legs like a jellyfish. Up ahead I see the atmosphere’s edge. The witches coming back around trying to corral me into space getting on both sides and under me, driving me toward the void. As we orbit, I see the hordes waiting in formation below.
I keep a few feet away outmaneuvering Buggy and a witch trying to corner me.
“You must wait for them to fully commit.�
�� He is really getting on my nerves. I nod, heading around Earth again.
“Keep moving. Do not stop.”
The portal is emptying. “Almost there.” I go around with them on my heels. The hordes wait a mile or two beneath us.
“One more pass and it should be empty.” We move around orbit when a witch strikes my thigh from the side that feels like a bee sting. Instant sadness slows me.
I shake my head coming around orbit again and see the thinning numbers emptying into our atmosphere as the cloud in my mind grows.
Three exit the portal, then two, then one. I backpedal waiting for more. Nothing.
I shake off the sadness, dissolving it with light. Feeling stronger. Feeling the light of Narican. I throw one ugly into space. It is crushed by the pressure and dies. A spinning back kick into another while my fists unleash a turbine into the face of another sending it to spear onto the antenna of a fast-moving satellite.
As the portal is emptied, Prisonface and the others turn away from me to take up position in front of the hordes. Preparing to descend they turn toward Earth.
I drop down to watch. The dark forces stretch around the globe miles above the cloud cover. They’re hungry for humans, easy prey as Tanz once put it. And the humans are unaware of what’s coming for them as they raise kids, work jobs. The dark forces want to enslave them.
Prisonface takes one last look at me hovering above then turns away. His organs signal to descend. The hordes follow.
“No, stop,” I shout burning along in front of them. They ignore me.
“Brrn, dada, brrn, dada, fss, fss. Brrn, dada, brrn, dada, fss, fss.”
Quietly chanting, smacking lips. Grunting and howling as if coyote’s about to feast. I dart through them, but no resistance. Like diving through a wave trying to move the ocean. They ignore me.
I float off to watch confirming their commitment. The black hole above waits silently. I place hands on the sides of my head, fingertips over my temples.
“Okay now! They’re coming,” I send out through my forehead, feeling the words sprinkle down to earth.