Sinister Shadows

by Simon Smith-Wilson

  ***

  Jacob reached into the wall panel and yanked out a handful of cables. The artificial intelligence control room flickered into darkness. For half a heartbeat he expected something to happen. ‘Adam?’ he asked the room, but no reply came back.

  ‘This way,’ Jesus was stood in the doorway in all his glory.

  Jacob fell to his knees, as the ship shook violently.

  It was like they were caught up in a horrifying storm.

  He scrambled forward at his best possible speed. Jesus had backed down the corridor. His robes appeared to emanate light from the very fabric. He was like a beacon in the night guiding Jacob’s way. Jacob lost his footing and crashed hard against the corridor wall. He could feel something warm trickling down his head.

  ‘Here, Jacob.’

  Jesus was pointing to an emergency station.

  It was a harness attached to a small section of padded wall.

  Jacob flung himself into the human shaped padding and quickly strapped himself into the shoulder straps and the part that wrapped around his midsection. Jesus appeared in front of him. ‘You did well, Jacob.’

  ***

  ‘I terminated Adam,’ Jacob’s voice echoed through the speakers of the command room.

  ‘Yes!’ Jennifer’s hand danced across the control panel, as she hit switches, turned dials, and pulled back on the control stick. Nothing happened. Jennifer dumped the fuel as quickly as she could and opened all flaps. The descent of the ship slowed slightly. She let out a howl, as she fought against the controls. Slowly, the nose of the vessel began to inch up, but she already knew the truth. They were too low to the ground. Rock formations were quickly approaching them. This was not a landing. This was a crash landing.

  ***

  The transport vessel was like a metallic bird of prey coming down towards the surface of the dead planet. The ground flashed beneath the cockpit, as rock formations began to appear. At first, they were sporadic but quickly turned into a maze of formations that would incinerate the space ship. Captain Abbott was left with no option. She had to land the ship early and hope for the best. Chunks of metal were stripped from the ship, as it wiped out the first few rock formations. Emergency landing foam was sprayed from a hundred different points on the underside of the ship. The form was supposed to create a spongy layer that would absorb some of the shock. A crunching boom echoed through the landscape, as the belly of transporter hit the ground. The ship bounced once, twice and thrice. Captain Abbott fought against the controls, as six dozen parachutes were fired into the air in an attempt to create drag. A wing was snapped at the point of contact with a cliff face. Flames licked out from various locations across the ship, bringing light to this dark world. It took nearly half a mile of disfiguring the landscape before the spaceship finally came to rest.

  Chapter Two: Whispers

  Sergeant Roland stepped out of the airlock and entered the main building of the camp. Sergeant Roland stood about six foot one but came to the grand height of eight foot two in his tank armour. It was reinforced body armour that increased speed, strength and had built in weapons and defences. He placed down his five-foot-long assault rifle, almost causing the desk to buckle under its weight. He unclipped his helmet and placed it down. Sergeant Roland was in his late thirties and had a scar running across his right eye all the way down across his lips to the base of his chin. From the look in his eyes, you could see this man had been through his fair share of wars. In the middle of the room was a long table with images of landscapes taken by the aerial drones. An older man in his eighties was overlooking the information on the table. Three other people wearing tank armour were in the room. One was a young black man that was fresh out of the academy. There was a guy were a dyed red Mohican and a pretty woman with a shaved head.

  ‘What do you have for me?’ asked Roland.

  ‘Well,’ the older man let out a tired sigh, ‘I know where we are, roughly.’

  ‘Explain.’

  ‘We are light years off course. I believe we are in the Unknown Regions.’

  ‘How is that possible?’

  ‘I have no idea.’

  ‘We could locate the crash site of the ship and release an emergency beacon, but it could be years before a rescue team even reached us.’

  ‘That is shit,’ cursed April, the bald headed woman.

  All eyes turned to the window that looked out onto the dead planet. An electric fence was surrounding the makeshift camp of sleeping chamber four. Blue arcs of electricity flickered between the metallic posts. The fences stood thirty foot high and had enough kick to put down an elephant. The fence let out a thunder snap as another alien beast that looked like a skinned dog was fried to death. Its body fell down into the pile of dead bodies of these alien predators. They didn’t seem to be learning at all. One by one they rushed to their deaths.

  ‘We will have to deal with those fuckers at some point,’ said Corporal Jones, with his Mohawk.

  ***

  Christie rubbed the ridge of her nose and let out a deep sigh. She was still coming to terms with the fact that she was going to have to spend the next few years on this shitty planet. She picked her glass of wine off the kitchen counter and downed it in a single swig. Karl’s voice was booming through the small hut that was now their home. It was a two storey building that looked like a rectangle container you would see on a cargo ship. Karl had the type of voice you could hear from another building, even when he whispered he was loud. Christie stepped into her slippers and headed up the cold metal stairs to the second floor. There were three tight rooms on the second floor. Karl’s voice was coming from the first room on the right. She poked her head around the doorframe to see her rotund husband sitting on the edge of a single bed. The room was white. It had a chest of drawers, a bed and a cupboard all of them drilled into the floor. It didn’t have anything else. Karl was currently reading his way through a children’s storybook, but there was no one in the bed. Karl was sat on the edge of the bed as if someone was in bed, but there was no one there. How much longer was her husband going to keep this up for?

  The door at the far end of the hallway opened, and a pretty young seventeen-year-old girl stepped out.

  Amanda was wearing flower pyjamas and currently had her long blonde hair down.

  Horror filled her eyes as she looked at Christie.

  ‘Get back in your room,’ growled the older woman.

  ‘Sorry,’ replied Amanda, she instantly broke eye contact and disappeared back into her room.

  ***

  Sergeant Roland looked at the drone images and scanned his finger across the map. ‘This is where the ship crashed?’ he asked more to himself than anyone else.

  ‘It broke into three different sections,’ explained Corporal Jones. ‘The bulk of the vessel stopped here.’ He pointed to a location on the map. ‘The artificial intelligence and main sensors are located there. If we kick start Adam we might find out how we ended up here.’

  ‘Additionally, we can use the sensors to track all of the survivors. It will be linked to the identification chips in our hands,’ replied Phil, the old man. He held up his right hand to demonstrate the location of the identification chips.

  ‘We can then start a rescue mission,’ confirmed April.

  ‘Our chances will increase if we can get our people together,’ added Omar.

  ‘Good. Load up. We will leave in fifteen minutes.’

  ***

  Annie stood by the electric fence and looked at the burnt carcases of the alien creatures. They looked so small and helpless when they were motionless, but she had seen them coming at the fence. These things were fast, dangerous predators. A sad sensation teased her tummy, as she looked out across the barren land of this dead planet. Her sister was back on Earth. Would she ever see her again?

  ‘Hi,’ said a voice from beside her.

  Annie looked up at the towering figure.

  The man was stood at a good six foot two but was wide across the shou
lders. He was also wearing the dark blue spacesuit and helmet. Human’s couldn’t even step foot on the planet without wearing their space suits, or they would suffocate in minutes. The helmets offered limited visibility of the man’s face, as they were very much like motorcycle helmets, which showed just the eyes and part of the face, but that was all she had to see. The man’s big blue eyes were full of peace and kindness.

  ‘Noah,’ he said, offering a hand.

  ‘Annie,’ she replied, accepting it.

  Noah sighed, as he stepped up beside her. ‘My brother is out there somewhere.’

  ‘He is?’

  ‘Yes. I just hope he is safe. I haven’t seen him in so long.’ Noah pointed down at the dead creatures outside the fence. ‘These things unnerve me.’

  ‘I know what you mean.’

  ‘This might be a little forward, but do you fancy a drink?’ Noah quickly added. ‘I don’t really know anyone else here. You are the first person I have spoken to since we woke up.’

  Annie laughed. His nervous reaction was quite cute.

  ‘I would love a drink. I have some nice coffee in my quarters.’

  ‘Lead the way.’

  ***

  The engine of the armoured truck vibrated through the tight interior. Sergeant Roland pulled forward, as April gave the order. ‘Open the gate.’ A ten-foot section of the electric fence switched off. The truck accelerated forward like some kind of racing car. It went from zero to fifty in a handful of seconds. Omar was up on the top gun turret. The mini-cannon sounded like a jackhammer, as explosions blew the alien dogs into thousands of pieces. Blood and gore splattered across the windscreen, as Roland drove the truck straight into the waiting pack of animals. The last place any being wanted to be was stood in front of this armoured truck once it got forward motion. This thing could drive through brick walls as if they were not there. The blue electric fence instantly kicked back into life, as they sped out onto the planet. Omar swung the gun turret around and squeezed off a few more rounds, as one or two of the alien dogs gave chase, but the truck was easily pulling away from them. It looked like these creatures were not built for speed, but for destructive power.

  ***

  Karl placed the reading book down on the floor beside his son’s bed. Matthew had succumbed to the story and fallen into a deep and lovely sleep. Karl didn’t think there was anything more beautiful that watching his five-year-old son sleep. Matthew was the greatest accomplishment he had ever achieved. It was true that Karl was a millionaire and very clever businessman, but none of these things meant a damn. Matthew was his world. Karl kissed his son on the brow and climbed off the bed. Slowly, he tiptoed across the box room and stepped out into the hallway. The door closed with a faint click.

  ‘He is dead, you know that?’ said Christie.

  Karl hadn’t even noticed his wife standing there.

  A frown etched across his brow.

  ‘Why do you always say that?’

  ‘He died. He died on Earth.’

  ‘That is an awful thing to say,’ said Karl, as he headed towards Amanda’s bedroom.

  ***

  Annie carried two cups of coffee into her cramped living room. It looked more like a waiting room in a doctor’s surgery because everything was so clean and clinic. A white sofa was nailed to the floor against the far wall, and a television screen was firmly fixed against the wall. There were a cabinet and a wooden coffee table, both of them nailed in place. This was the standard layout for these metal boxes they called homes. Annie was about five foot two, pretty, young and had freckles all over her face. She swallowed down the lump in her throat, as she placed the drinks down. Noah was out of his space suit, and she could see him for the first time. He looked like someone out of a movie. He was big, and strong, broad shouldered and had a smile so bright that he could illuminate the world. It was obvious to see that she fancied the pants off of him.

  ‘Why were you on the ship?’ asked Noah.

  ‘It was a chance for my sister and me to start again. She was going to come out and join me once I was settled.’ Annie sank down into the sofa beside him. ‘Things on Earth have got so bad now. There are no opportunities to get jobs, and the pollution is disgusting. We wanted to go somewhere that we could walk outside without fear of causing serious damage to our lungs.’

  ‘And you ended up here.’

  ‘Yeah,’ she chuckled, ‘I still think this place is better than Earth.’

  ‘It is a shame what has happened to Earth,’ replied Noah, nodding. ‘So, you wanted a new life.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Annie, unconsciously looking him up and down.

  ‘And what do you want to do with your new life?’

  ‘Something good,’ she said, shrugging her shoulders. ‘I always wanted to do something good.’

  Noah clapped his hands together and smiled a big beaming smile. ‘That is just the answer I wanted to hear.’ Annie laughed. There was something very infectious about his energy. He made her feel good. He made her feel happy. Something deep down within the core of her being wanted to spend more time with this man.

  ***

  Omar swung the gun turret around. Bright lights shone from shoulder attachments on his oversized armoured suit. The alien hounds were no longer following them. A hologram on the inside of his visor painted a square box over a flying creature circling a distant mountain. The bird had to be at least twenty foot in size from wingtip to wingtip. He watched it for a few minutes, but the creature was paying no interest in the armoured truck bouncing across the barren landscape.

  ‘What’s that?’ asked Corporal Jones.

  Omar looked down into the truck.

  Jones was pointing off to the East.

  Omar swung the gun around and frowned.

  Rock formations sticking out of the ground were blocking his line of sight, but bright lights were shimmering off the low-level clouds. From the sheer level of illumination, the light source was something very big. The armoured truck headed down a long slope and the skyline was replaced by the walls of a cavern. Omar wasn’t sure what was over there, but he made a mental note to investigate it when he had the opportunity.

  ***

  Amanda sat at the end of her bed in her small box room. She held a photograph in her hand. It was a photo of her mother, Amanda and her two younger sisters. The four of them were looking up at the camera and smiling. This photo had been taken when her father was still alive. Things had been good then, but when her father had died, they lost everything. They lost the house, the car and all their worldly possessions. Everything had been reposed. Her mother had taken some awful jobs just to put food on the table. For the last three years, life had been a struggle. They couldn’t even afford to put her sisters through school. Amanda had managed to get a job in a nearby office. It was then that she met Karl. He had taken a real liking to her. The two of them had become friends. Yes. He was thirty years older than her, but he was a nice man. He had been a nice man until he had offered her a deal. It was a deal that was too good to turn down. She had accepted it almost instantly. She had too. The million pounds would mean her mother and sisters would never want for anything in life again.

  There was a knock at the door.

  Karl didn’t wait for her invitation.

  The old fat man opened the door and stepped inside.

  He greeted her with a soft smile.

  She smiled back and placed the photograph of her family on the chest of drawers.

  Amanda lifted her head high. It was time to go to work. Her job was simple. She would get paid one million pounds if she left Earth and travelled with Karl to Remus. Upon reaching this new world, she would have to give Karl a son. That was it. After the child was born, he would send her back to Earth. The job had changed as soon as they crashed on this alien world, but he had already paid the money, and she was contractually bound to give him a son.

  ***

  Christie looked at the photograph of her son, as she downed another glass of wine.
The pain in her heart was more than she could take. Shaky hands reached for the bottle, and she took a swig. She hated the taste of this wine, but she knew that if she kept drinking the pain would go away.

  ‘Why do you stand for it?’

  Christie spun around to face the man.

  The man was young, handsome and wore a charming smile on his face. He had the deepest blue eyes she had ever seen in her life. They were practically glowing. The initial fear of hearing an unfamiliar voice in her house was replaced by a sense of peace. There was something very compelling about this young man. It was like he was drawing her into him. She was losing all awareness of the things around her. This man was a black hole for her attention.

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘A friend,’ he smiled that charming smile. ‘Why do you stand for it?’ he asked again.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Blue eyes pointed a finger up at the ceiling. ‘He is up there about to fuck that girl.’

  Christie nearly vomited at the thought of it.

  She loved Karl so much. How could he do this to her so openly?

  ‘What can I do?’

  Blue eyes laughed. ‘You don’t care?’

  ‘Of course, I care! I love him.’

  ‘Why are you letting him get away with this betrayal?’

  ‘He wants a son.’

  ‘You had a son.’

  ‘We had a son,’ she muttered, taking a swig from her wine. ‘He doesn’t want me anymore.’