Dark Side of the Moon

by P. C. Rasmussen

  Obviously, Bark thought his reaction was funny, because he chuckled lightly. "I don't consider myself a crook, you know. I consider myself an entrepreneur-in-the-making."

  Plans upon plans started to build in Kyle's mind and he grinned mischievously. "Well, who knows? You might still get the chance."

  Bark glanced at him, a slight frown furrowing his brow. "How would that happen?"

  "If you help me get in touch with my father, I can help you get out of here. And with his contacts ... it'll take a bit of work on my account, but why the hell not... you'll end up with a clean slate," Kyle explained and was pretty satisfied with himself right now.

  Again Bark chuckled. "Yeah, right," he said and continued working. "Believe me, after what I found out about your father's business strategies ... he's not going to let me run loose."

  Kyle considered it for a moment. "I think I can convince him to hire you, actually. I doubt his lawyers have presented your case to him correctly. If he's told what an asset you'd be, I'm pretty sure he'd welcome you with open arms." There were definitely opportunities here, and the more he found out, the more eager he was to leave the Moon behind and resume his Earth-bound life. "With you being a hacker ..." he continued, but paused, not sure how to word what was going through his mind.

  Bark glanced at him expectantly, while Kyle searched for the right words.

  "Is there any way that you can circumvent the connection to the Penal Administration and get through directly to my father?" he finally asked.

  Bark glanced up at the com-station, mulling it over, and then pressed his lips together into a thin line. "Depends on the programming," he said. "As soon as we get this bucket up and running, I'll be able to tell you more."

  Kyle grinned. "Well, then hop to it. Why are you wasting time yakking with me?"

  This drew another bout of laughter from Bark. "I told you that you're distracting me with all your chatting. Get lost and let me work," he countered in a mock gruff voice.

  It seemed that Bark had something to look forward to even though he had doubts about the outcome. Kyle left the com-station room and stopped to consider what he should do while Bark was busy finishing the connections. Maybe he should go find Daniel? The kid had gone back to dome 3 for something or other. He couldn't immediately recall what Daniel had said before leaving.

  ***

  And then there was one

  Going back alone turned out to be a somewhat grueling experience. Kyle had never counted himself among the skittish, but he did realize that whatever skittishness he had, it had almost always been subdued by some kind of intoxicant; booze, drugs, even sex ranked among those things that kept his mind off what might scare others. But he was neither intoxicated nor high nor had he had sex, and that left his senses wide open and raw to his surroundings.

  Dome 2 felt colder somehow, deader and actually more hostile. Okay, so he had met the Russians, as Daniel called them, and they were weirder than weird. But that didn't really mean much in his book. Most of the people he had run into here were weird.

  He tried counting how many feet there were from one end to the other, but lost track somewhere along the way because he thought he kept hearing sounds that made no sense. "I'm just jumpy," he told himself and tried a smirk that failed.

  Lengthening his stride, he covered the distance between the two tunnels in half the time, and all the while he couldn't shake the creepy sensation of being watched. Apart from the Russians, he had no idea who else would be hanging out in this dome, watching people. He really doubted that Jack and Andy spent much time doing that, even though he was hard pressed to imagine what they actually did to pass the time.

  The moment he stepped into the tunnel to dome 3, the sense of being watched and utterly creeped out dwindled. He paused and glanced back out into dome 2, uncertain of what it was; his nerves or something real? It was hard to determine, really, and not something he really wanted to waste time on right now.

  With a sigh, he mentally shook off the rest of it and continued along the corridor into dome 3. The welcoming scent of green growing things along with the moisture-heavy air made him draw a sigh of relief. "Man, I gotta shake this," he muttered under his breath while he continued along the rim of the dome and turned onto the path leading to the center clearing.

  It felt a bit like coming home. This was the only part of LPC where he'd felt at ease, and watching everybody mulling around, doing their thing, was soothing. He zeroed in on Stella, once again occupied with her beloved plants, and crossed the compound. "Hey, Stella."

  She glanced at him over one shoulder and smirked. "Kyle," she said. "So good of you to drop by." She wiped her hands on a dirt-encrusted towel, and then turned around to face him properly. "To what do I owe this unexpected delight?"

  Kyle smirked back. She was sassy and he liked that in a woman. If she'd been his age, he would definitely have made a move on her; husband killer or not. "Have you seen Danny?" he asked.

  A frown graced her brow briefly. "Not recently, no. Have you misplaced your shadow?" she countered and folded her arms over her chest.

  It was a little odd for him to realize that he'd spent a lot of time with Daniel ever since running into the kid, and Stella could actually have a point about the shadow-part. Daniel seemed to be the type who latched on to anyone who could protect him. Whether he had been that way before the unspeakable had happened to him was something Kyle assumed he would never know. He pursed his lips and sent a quick look around. "I guess so," he agreed. "He said he was coming back here to pick something up, but I can't for the life of me remember what he said exactly. And it's been a while. If he just came back to pick something up, he should have been back by now."

  "And what exactly are you boys up to, if I may ask?" Stella enquired, still watching him closely.

  Kyle met her eyes and considered what to tell her. And yet again the truth seemed to be the most appropriate path. Kyle couldn't really remember if he'd spent a lot of time lying in his life; this constant back-and-forth over whether he should tell the truth or not struck him as a bit odd right now. "We went looking for Bark. Found him too. He's staying in dome 1. Maybe Danny wanted to get something for him," he countered. It wasn't exactly a lie, but definitely not the truth either.

  "Well, I wouldn't know, would I?" Stella countered and shrugged.

  For some reason Kyle's mind suddenly snapped to Billy, the skittish kid they'd brought along to dome 3 and he realized he hadn't actually seen the guy since they'd arrived. "Where's Billy, by the way?"

  Stella arched an eyebrow. "Billy?" she asked.

  "Yeah, the skittish kid who came with us when I brought Danny over here," he said and met Stella's eyes dead on. Something didn't click right now. He just wasn't entirely sure where that feeling came from.

  The older woman mulled that over while her gaze roamed over the compound. "I don't actually know," she admitted. "Haven't seen him in a few days."

  Something about that statement worried Kyle. "Has Daniel asked about him?"

  "No, not that I recall," Stella said.

  Whatever it was that bothered him here, he assumed it could wait, but there was the overwhelming urge to find Daniel, to make sure he was okay, and such overprotective responses had never been part of his repertoire before. It staggered him a little; to such an extent, actually, that he didn't know what to do first. In part this could also be attributed to the fact that he had no idea where Daniel might be if he wasn't here. "Well ... I guess I'll just have to look around for him," he said.

  "Guess you'll have to," Stella agreed. "Let me know if I can do anything for you," she added as an afterthought, gave him a quirky little smile that didn't reach her eyes, and then turned back to her plants.

  Kyle turned away from her and scanned the immediate area. He caught sight of Mike talking to some of the others, and figured he could ask the older man for help. Despite her offer for it, Kyle didn't really get the impression that Stella was keen on helpi
ng. He hurried across the compound. "Hey Mike," he called out.

  The gray-haired man turned to face him. "Kyle," he said. His sharp gaze locked on Kyle's face and narrowed a little. "Something up? You look worried."

  "I am," he admitted willingly. "Have you seen Daniel? He took off from dome 1 a while ago and said he was coming back here to pick something up. He's been gone too long."

  The shift in Mike's expression was subtle, but Kyle still caught it and it made him hesitate. The older man's gaze shifted a little and locked on something past Kyle's shoulder, then snapped back to Kyle. "No, I haven't seen him. Have you tried the tents?" He made a gesture toward the path leading to the tented area.

  Something was rotten and it was beginning to stink to high heaven. Kyle glanced in the direction of the path, and then sent a look over one shoulder to maybe get an idea of what Mike had looked at. All he could see in that direction was Stella with her back turned.

  "I really think you should check the tents, Kyle. He might have decided to lie down for a bit," Mike suggested, his tone flat. Then he grabbed Kyle's shoulder. "I'll help you look."

  Kyle arched an eyebrow. Whatever was up, Mike knew what it was and was willing to share. "Sure. That would be great. I feel like a mother hen here," he said and laughed a little, not feeling it.

  "Let's go," Mike said and shoved him a little roughly in the direction of the path.

  Kyle sent a quick glance in Stella's direction and noted that even though she had her back turned, she was still paying attention.

  They made it all the way up the path to the tents before Mike made any move to speak. He slowed down, sent a look back down the path, and then held up a hand when Kyle opened his mouth to start asking questions. For a moment, all he did was listen to their surroundings before nodding and focusing on Kyle. "Listen to me and listen good, kid. This might save your life. If you know what's good for you, you'll get the hell out of dome 3 and go back to dome 1. And stay there!"

  Obviously Kyle would do no such thing until he knew what this was about. "What the hell is going on here? Where's Daniel? Where's Billy, for that matter?"

  Mike blinked in surprise, disclosing that he hadn't known Billy was also involved in whatever was going on. "You're telling me they're both missing?" he asked, his voice almost grating with restrained anger.

  Kyle nodded. "Yeah, I haven't seen Billy since we arrived here, which is ... what? A couple of days ago?"

  "Days?" Mike barked out a sharp laugh. "Kid, you've been here for over three weeks. The constant light is really wreaking havoc on your sense of time, isn't it?" Before Kyle could come up with a reply to that one, Mike grabbed his face with both hands, forcing him to look him in the eye. "Forget about both of them. Get out of here if you can. It's harvest time and you don't want to be anywhere near this dome when she gets going," he repeated and nodded toward the path they had just walked.

  Angry now, Kyle slapped Mike's hands away. "What the fuck are you talking about? Where are the boys?" he demanded.

  Mike sighed and took a step back. "Kid, you don't know what you're getting into," he said, then pressed his lips together into a thin line. "They're probably dead already."

  Kyle's stomach dropped. "What?" he snapped, grabbing the front of Mike's shirt and stepping into his personal space. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

  "It's harvest time. It stirs and she jumps. She made a deal with the loonies and she has to pay up once a month. Young guys are the preferred dish," Mike said, his tone tense. He eyed Kyle for a moment, then grabbed his wrists and almost gently peeled his hands off his shirt. "Whatever the hell is living in dome 6, Kyle, it demands sacrifices. It needs to be fed. Usually, she gets away with one person a month. If she's delivered two it means something's up."

  The bottom dropped out of Kyle's world. There simply wasn't enough malice in the universe to justify what Mike was telling him, and it made his head ache just to skirt along the edges of that thought. "Are you nuts? You sacrifice people to that thing?"

  "Stella thinks it's a god, a deity of some sort, and it has to be appeased. Personally, I think it's an alien or a genetic mutation. It gets hungry and the loonies feed it. If she doesn't hand over someone willingly, they come out and grab someone," Mike countered and he suddenly looked very old. "I don't like it, kid. I really don't. But it's kept us alive this far."

  Kyle shook his head in denial. "You are so far off the reservation, it's not even funny anymore," he snapped. "Holy fuck. Can't you hear how insane this sounds?"

  "Yes, I can, Kyle. But it doesn't change the facts. That thing - whatever the hell it is - was here when this was turned into a prison. It was a research station before. I met this old hag when I first got up here and she had some stories to tell." He shook his head, looking uneasy. "I thought she was full of shit. But it turns out that most of it makes sense. She was a scientist, you see; the first inmate of LPC. Her group had discovered something up here. She didn't know where it came from, just that it was dormant when they found it. They dug it up and now it's not dormant anymore. It started eating the scientists, one by one. Those it didn't eat, it drove insane. It has some sort of influence and the closer you get to dome 6, the stronger it gets."

  "Fuck the history lesson. Where are the boys? In dome 5?" Kyle snarled, to which Mike nodded.

  "Yeah, but I'm telling you ... you're only putting your own life on the line here. There's no coming back from where they've gone," Mike said.

  "Doesn't mean I'm not going to try," Kyle growled, pushed past the older man and strode through the tented area to where the path led up to the tunnel to dome 4. "I'll be fucked if I leave him behind. I promised him, dammit," he huffed angrily.

  ***

  Tread carefully

  The anger was what drove him. He knew that and he fed it, because without it he might not do what he was in the process of doing. For someone who had spent the majority of his adult life being indifferent to the state of mind of others, Kyle knew that he was overstepping all the lines he had drawn in the sand for himself long ago.

  But if there was one good thing he could say about himself, then it would be that if he made a commitment, he stuck to it. And he was committed to Daniel, come hell or high water.

  He broke into a run when he stepped out of the tunnel into dome 4, all the while telling himself how fucking insane this was and how unfair it was to put two already traumatized young men in a situation like this. Not at any point did he allow his conscious mind to touch on how insane his own participation in this undertaking was. He was risking his sanity, maybe even his life, and for what? Someone who might already be dead? No, he wouldn't accept that. There was still time; to make a difference, to put things right.

  People got out of his way in a hurry, but even though he was running, he still noticed that there was a definite shift in how the dwellers of this dome behaved. They seemed agitated, and he saw more than one concerned expression in passing. He swore to himself that he would kick ass and take names if they tried to get in his way. None of them did, though, and he didn't break his forward momentum when he reached the next tunnel. Instead he plowed through it like it wasn't even there, and burst out at the other end in a flurry.

  There, however, he came to a skittering stop and had to wait until his eyes adjusted to the gloomy light. But he realized instantly that he couldn't wait too long and blinked furiously to maybe help speed up the process; mainly because he could hear shouts across the dome.

  Before his eyes had adjusted completely, he started walking and lengthened his stride with every step he took until he was practically running again. "HEY!" he yelled at the gathered group of loonies he had spotted at the far end of the dome.

  Everything stopped moving except for one thing; horrified screams that sounded like someone being eaten alive. The screams should have sent a shiver of fear up his spine, but Kyle didn't allow himself to reflect on it, because these screams didn't come from Daniel.

  The
kid was stuck in the middle of a group of underfed, practically naked loonies and from what Kyle could tell, they had been tearing at his clothes, trying to strip him.

  Going with the element of surprise, Kyle grabbed the first loony he came to and threw the lightweight creature away like so much garbage, and before he really realized what he was doing, he had plowed his way through them to where Daniel was lying on the dusty ground, his eyes wild with fear. He grabbed the kid's arm and hauled him to his feet. "Move!" he demanded, activating some latent primal instinct in the younger man which got him moving.

  Skinny Guy stepped in their way, but Kyle jammed the heel of his left hand into the guy's chest, shoving him backward. "Fuck off!" he spat. "Don't you even think of touching him!"

  Obviously his anger made an impact. None of the loonies made any move against them and allowed him to march Daniel out of there without resistance. The agonized screams from the tunnel to dome 6 had tapered off and died, which made it easier for Kyle to just keep moving; at least until they were halfway back to the tunnel to dome 4, when Daniel lurched to a halt.

  "Billy," he croaked and halfway turned back.

  Kyle kept a firm grip on his arm, and forced him back toward the tunnel. "NO!" he snapped and dragged Daniel along. "He's gone. Forget him."

  "I can't leave him," Daniel gasped, desperately trying to disengage himself from Kyle's grip. He stumbled over his own feet and nearly went down, but Kyle kept him up and moving. There was something in the back of his head that told him that any sign of weakness right now would have the loonies swarming over both of them, and Kyle wasn't too sure he could fight them off if they decided to attack. They no longer had the element of surprise.