When Darkness Reigns

by Preston L. Marshall

  “I wasn't going to let you do this by yourself,” Nate replied. “Besides I want some payback for my brothers.”

  “For Geo,” Lumar said.

  “For Geo,” Nate agreed.

  A moment or two later and they were in the undergarments. There was a zipper from between the shoulder blades up to the back of the neck. Lumar pulled the zipper tab up to the top, but even after getting the suit on, it almost felt like being naked. The suit did feel a little tight against Lumar's skin, but it didn't seem to affect his mobility at all. The fabric was cold against his skin like the fibers were made of metal. Lumar wasn't too keen on the fact that his junk was where some other dude's junk had been either. He just wished the outfit had been washed since then, but the smells coming from it told him it hadn't.

  “Okay,” Radcliff said reemerging. “This stuff is going to stick to that suit so it stays in place.” Radcliff started pulling pieces of armor from off of the shelves: a breastplate, shoulder pads, a girdle, cuffs for the upper arm and leg, shin guards, forearm guards, boots, and a helmets. “Just slide them on and they'll take care of the rest. Start from the bottom though. It's easier. Just save the gloves for last since you'll need your fingers.”

  Lumar had noticed the rings on the suit when he was putting it on. They were cold, hard metal circles about the size of quarters all over the outside of the suit. Following Radcliff's advice, he pulled on the boots first. They were tall black metal shoes that went about halfway up his shins. At his ankle was a joint of fine metallic cloth that let him bend his ankle normally. There were no laces or Velcro to hold the boots on to his feet. They felt way too big for him. He could easily slip his foot out with a flick of his ankle. Then he felt something inside the shoe touch one of the metal rings on his shin. There was a click and then the shoe started feeling smaller and smaller until it was almost uncomfortably tight, but it wasn't going anywhere. The shoe felt like a blood pressure cuff. He could feel his pulse in his toes, but it wasn't cutting off his circulation.

  He got the other boot on and it filled in just like the other one. He worked his way up to the shin guards. They were like casts of the front and back of a leg. Lumar put the front piece on first. It clicked into place and held fast on one the rings just below his knee. Adjusting the piece of metal a little, it found another contact point lower down his shin and held fast. The back piece was much the same. There was one contact at the top of his calf and another at the bottom. When the front and back plate were both on they seamlessly connected and filled in around the thin muscles of Lumar's calf.

  There was a triangular knee pad at the top of the shin guard that looked like it had been sharpened to a point. Lumar remembered feeling some sharp bit digging into him when he was huddling next to Geo in his armor. That was probably one of the edges he'd felt pressing into his skin. He could tell it was for jabbing into the enemy. It was nearly three inches long, long enough to tear through skin and into organs.

  Much like the shin guards, the pieces that went over his upper leg fit together like one piece of armor once he put them into place on either side of his leg. They were simply smooth metal pieces that contoured around the groin, but covered almost all the rest of his leg with a small gap above the knee to allow for the spike on his shins.

  The next part was less than wonderful. It was the girdle and attached to it was the crotch guard. It looked like a short black metal skirt reminiscent of what Lumar thought a Roman soldier would wear around his waist. The worst part was what the skirt was attached to. To Lumar, it looked like a metal bikini. Just like all the other pieces Lumar fit it into place so that it connected with the metal rings. Then it filled in. Lumar felt his stomach fall as the bikini filled in around his balls. It felt like the armor was going to fill in too far and crush them, but then it stopped and Lumar's panic and stomach settled. It felt weird at first, but once the panic subsided it felt comfortable, much better than a cup. It made him spread his legs a bit since the two pieces on the front and the back joined between his legs, but it wasn't enough of a gap to be uncomfortable, just noticeable.

  Next, was the breastplate. It was like a sleeveless shirt that Lumar slipped down over his head. There was one solid piece that covered his chest from his shoulders down to his ribs. Below that was a series of overlapping metal plates. The overlapping plates moved freely under one another, allowing him to bend his torso. It didn’t keep him from bending. It just made it harder because of the weight. The breastplate was heavy and put pressure down on Lumar's boney shoulders until it filled in. The cushioning from the armor not only filled in around his chest, but it kept the weight off of his shoulders.

  The arm pieces followed. They were very similar to the leg pieces: two plates on each side of each forearm and each bicep. The one on the bicep felt like wearing a thick armband. The forearm pieces were clipped just above the wrist and at the elbow. Much like the shin guards there was a spike at the elbow for striking. Lumar couldn't remember seeing anyone kneeing or elbowing Sarsaul before, but if the situation ever came up where that was the last weapon available he'd be happy to have it.

  All that was left were the shoulder pads, the helmet, and the gloves. The shoulder pads were just pieces of contoured of black metal that attached to a couple of contact points on Lumar's shoulders. They covered the muscles with a slight arch. There was enough of a gap between the chest piece and the band around his bicep that they didn't touch even when Lumar stopped for a moment to stretch.

  The helmet came next. It was a lot like a motorcycle helmet with a visor that slid up and down through a track inside the shell at the top of the head. By his right temple were three buttons. One caused the visor to lock and release so it could move along the track. There was a small handle about the size of a grommet to push it up and down on the bottom right edge of the visor. One of the buttons was the on switch for a flashlight mounted on top of the helmet. The last activated the heads up display. The bulletproof glass in the visor had an inner and outer pane. In between the two panes was a transparent computer screen that displayed the HUD. It had three light blue components displayed. One was a scanning radar ring in the bottom left corner. In the bottom right corner was a suit integrity diagram that showed an outline of the suit, glowing green to show that everything was in order. In the bottom center was a display for the radio. It showed which one of the five channels the radio was on and had a microphone symbol that flashed to indicate if the wearer was transmitting and a speaker symbol that flashed if the radio was receiving. The radio had its own set of buttons on the left temple. One was the push-to-talk button that lit up the microphone and let the wearer's voice be heard. The other cycled through the radio channels.

  Below the visor, in front of the mouth, was an air filtration system that kept dust and smoke out of the helmet once it was sealed. Once the helmet was on it found a trio of contact points on either side of Lumar's neck and one in the back over his spine. Like in the groin section Lumar was afraid the filling of the helmet was going to strangle him or cut off the circulation to his head, but it didn't. It was just snug. It felt like wearing a fitted shirt that was one size too small at the neck.

  Last of all Lumar slid his hands into the gloves. There were made of the same cold metallic mesh fibers as the rest of the suit. They overlapped the wrists of the body suit and locked on like the rest of the armor. Each finger on the glove had a series of interlocking metal plates like the part over Lumar's stomach. His dexterity didn’t seem affected much. He squeezed his fingers together into a tight fist just to be sure. On the back of his hand was a square of metal to protect the tendons. The square connected to a short cuff also made of overlapping metal plates that covered his wrist bones.

  Lumar and Nate got done about the same time. It was so weird to see Nate in a soldier's uniform. Nate wasn't the kind of guy to start a fight. He was skinny and fair skinned for being Hispanic. He was nothing like his brothers. They were big and muscled from head to toe, but in the armor Nate looked taller a
nd in the armor even his scrawny frame looked solid. Nate had the visor down already so Lumar couldn't see his face, but from the way he was standing Nate just looked like an angry war machine, hardly even human.

  He wondered what he looked like to Nate. For some reason, the act of putting on the armor was taking away the shock and the last bits of the lingering hangover. The realization that his parents were dead was starting to sink in. He didn't want to think about it when he saw that hole in the ground with the fires down below, but if the Sarsaul made it down there was no way anyone could have gotten out. All of his neighbors were dead too. The building was gone. People were still in their homes when the building blew up. Everything he knew was burning. Maybe he looked the same way to Nate. All either of them had left was a small chance of revenge.

  “You two take longer to get dressed than a couple of teenage girls,” Radcliff said when they were done. “Hurry it up. We don't have time to waste. Follow me.”

  “Wait a minute,” Lumar protested. “How do we get out of these things once we're in them? What if I need to pee?”

  “Just pee in the suit. If you live I'll show you how to get out,” Radcliff said.

  Lumar cringed. Maybe he wasn't smelling body odor after all.

  Radcliff led them back into the hallway. There was another soldier heading to the gun storage side of the armory ahead of them. He had a big backpack slung over his shoulders. Radcliff held Nate and Lumar back to keep out of the way. The backpack was thrown down on the ground with a crash and Lumar could hear bullets being poured into it without any regard for what gun they went with. When the soldier emerged, he looked like he was carrying all the ammunition in the room on his back. He pushed past them. Radcliff checked the hall to make sure no one else was going to barrel through and then led them into the gun closet.

  It looked like they'd set the room up like a tiny shooting range with a few targets nailed up on the far wall. They were nothing but the typical red and white bulls-eyes spaced about four feet apart. It looked like they'd been shot up many times and somebody had graffitied on an outline of a Sarsaul on one of them. Some of the shots right in the middle of the target had signatures on them. The targets couldn’t have been more than fifteen feet from the door. Anyone could probably hit them. Though Lumar imagined half the time the Sarsaul didn't give much more room than that.

  Other than that, the room was little more than an ammo closet about the size of a bedroom. There were bins of ammunition on the left side and lockers on the right with guns inside. The lockers were made of angle iron with gaps just big enough to stick a thumb through. Lumar could see what was inside: rifles and shotguns mostly. Radcliff pulled out one of the rifles for himself and slung it over his shoulder.

  “I’ll bring you two a couple of side arms,” Radcliff said working his way around the keyring.

  “Can't we have one of those?” Lumar asked pointing at the rifles in the lockers.

  “Too much recoil,” Radcliff said. “If you've never handled one of these before it'd beat the hell out of you and you'd never hit anything. Don't have time to teach you how to handle one. A pistol though, I can trust a civie with.”

  Radcliff found the key he was looking for and unlocked one of the lockers. There were ten identical handguns hanging on hooks inside It looked like there was room for six or so more. They were all sleek black metal other than the ejection port and the trigger which were silver. Printed into the metal on either side where the words: “Panther. Made in America.” Radcliff reached into the locker and picked two of the guns out. He handed one to Lumar and the other to Nate.

  “Ever held a gun before?” Radcliff asked clearly expecting a no.

  “No,” Nate and Lumar answered.

  “Crash course,” Radcliff said. “The switch on the side there is the safety. Keep it on until we get outside. Magazine holds twelve rounds. This is how you take it out and put it back in.” Radcliff squeezed a pair of buttons on the handle of his own pistol to drop the magazine out and then he put it back in. “Pull the hammer back before shooting. Hold it with both hands. Keep both eyes open.”

  “I think I've got it,” Lumar said.

  “Yeah me too,” Nate replied.

  “If we weren't in a hurry I'd let you let you test it out on one of those targets, but there's no time. Here these holsters attaches to rings on the belt.” He handed them each a belt that was only long enough to cover one hip with a holster hanging from it and pockets for holding ammunition. “Doesn't matter which side you want to hang it on. It attaches just like the other pieces of your armor. Keep it in the holster 'til we get outside. Here's three magazines each. They're full. Don't waste them. That said: if you see any guns or bullets lying around out there, please pick them up. We can't afford to waste anything,” Radcliff said. “Let's get moving. You're as ready as I can make you.”

  Radcliff led them back past the infirmary. There were different people in the operating theater now. The tables had four civilians on them now, but there were surgeons working on them in blue scrubs with masks over their mouths. One of the patients was a kid. The kid was missing a leg and wailing in that unbelievably high decibel that only a young girl can reach. The infirmary just seemed louder than it had before. There were more voices screaming. Lumar hoped that meant more people were being rescued, but he feared it just meant more soldiers were being dragged down out of the fighting.

  They took a couple of different turns up instead of back down to the place Lumar had been brought after he'd made his stop at the infirmary. The upper levels looked like they had been fairly pleasant before, mostly offices and bunkrooms. Now there were barricades being set up by men in uniforms, furniture all over the floor, and a scratching sound coming through the walls and ceilings. Lumar, Nate, and half the people working in the halls kept stopping to listen and look around nervously. The sound would seem so close for a moment and then go away. Then it would come back and it was like everyone held their breath and skipped a heartbeat. Hands kept leaping to gun holsters and some of the jumpier soldiers fell back behind their barricades.

  Radcliff guided them through the maze of overturned tables and bunk bed frames to the Major's office. On the wall just to the left of the Major's door was a picture of President Helms hanging from one corner threatening to fall to the ground if anything else shook the walls.

  “Get your men back here now!” the Major roared into his radio. “It's a lost cause. You'll lose more of our people than you could possibly save.”

  Radcliff paused in the doorway for a moment before entering. The Major's office was a windowless room with a long, aged wood desk dominating the space. The Major stood behind, it red-faced from shouting. He had a blond mustache and bald head dripping with sweat. He looked like he'd been running or pacing madly around the room. Papers were all over the floor with no regard for their contents or the confidentiality of the: For Your Eyes Only or Top Secret stamped on the documents.

  “What?!” The Major shouted at Radcliff.

  “They're suited up and ready to go,” Radcliff answered. “What should I do with them?”

  “Take them outside. Put them in the trench. You go too. I need more men out there. You didn't need to come here. You knew that's what I was going to use them for. I got half a dozen dumbasses out there leading their men on suicide missions that I have to corral back here before they all get themselves killed. Get out of my sight and don't waste any more of my time.”

  “Yes, sir,” Radcliff replied.

  “Give them hell,” the Major said a little kinder.

  “Will do sir,” Radcliff said.

  It sounded like someone was dragging a blade across the wall just behind the desk where the Major sat. The walls were thick concrete. The fact that Lumar could hear that through all the stone separating them from the outside made him cringe. It sounded like the aliens were taking a saw to it. Then as quickly as it started, it disappeared again. Radcliff turned to go. Lumar and Nate stayed close.

  Radcliff
took them through the barricade maze again to a huge metal door with two small windows. Radcliff grabbed a helmet hanging on a hook by the door. It looked huge next to the others. When Radcliff pulled it down over his head, he seemed even more giant. Not only did it add a few inches to his height, but Nate was dwarfed standing beside him. Radcliff's armor looked old and scuffed up from top to bottom. There were medals or trophies painted on several of the armored panels, but Lumar couldn't tell what any of them were supposed to be from wear. The only insignia Lumar could recognize was the upside down 'V' on Radcliff's shoulders that marked him as a sergeant. The rest of the insignia had worn off.

  “Turn on your radios,” Radcliff ordered, “Stay on channel four and stay close.”

  Radcliff threw open the doors before Lumar and Nate had a chance to respond.

  Chapter Four

  The heat was the first to greet them. It came washing in over them like a wave as they stepped through. As soon as Nate and Lumar were through, Radcliff slammed the door behind them. Lumar could hear the gasp Nate let loose inside his helmet. Nate staggered a few steps forward and turned in a slow circle with his hands hanging limp from his sides. Lumar realized Nate hadn't seen any of this yet. The bunker was right on the edge of town, just a hundred yards inside the outer wall. Most of the wall was still there, but there were places where it looked like giant hands had torn huge sections off leaving nothing, but piles of broken rock and bones. There burning buildings behind them casting long black shadows and ahead of them was a blaze of gunfire from an entrenched line of soldiers as aliens poured through the holes in the wall.

  Radcliff started walking slowly towards the trench. Lumar and Nate must have looked like children walking behind him. Lumar couldn't quite figure out why Radcliff was taking his time on the way to the line, but Lumar wasn’t about to go ahead of him. He didn’t know if there was some kind of protocol to follow when joining a fight. Lumar wondered if Radcliff was just sizing up the situation. His head was turning from side to side and tilting upwards. Lumar decided to do the same.