When Darkness Reigns

by Preston L. Marshall

  On top of the embarrassment of his physique, there were half a dozen soldiers training their guns on them, watching them silently inside their helmets. The only way he could tell who they were looking at any given time was the direction the barrels were pointed at. About half of the barrels were pointed at Jesse at any given time. Lumar shook his head and grinned slightly. He couldn't really blame them. It was kind of cold in there.

  The soldiers were nothing if not thorough. They were spending about three minutes per stop per person. At first Lumar was nervous as they peeled him out of his armor, but after that he just let it happen. For everyone besides Nate this seemed fairly routine, annoying, but routine. He felt bad for Ford, he’d ended up in his boxers in the cold mountain air.

  Lumar's eyes started to wander around the hangar. The space was enormous. The ceiling was a cavernous hundred feet off the ground. The floor must have been near the size of a city block. There was a lot of peripheral stuff in the hangar: trucks, ladders, ramps, tools, a silo sized oil tank, bunches of soldiers and mechanics milling around. The thing that caught Lumar's eye was the warship docked here. Her name was Brunhildr and she wore her moniker proudly in gold on her sides. Next to the warship the hovertruck they were standing beside looked tiny. Brunhildr was more than twice as tall and maybe twenty times longer. Their little hovertruck could have easily been mistaken for one of the warship's escape pods when put side by side. Brunhildr dominated nearly half the space in the hangar.

  She was like a bird of prey at nest. Her nose hooked down like a hungry beak. On either side of the beak were her main batteries aimed down at the ground for bombardment. She had short wings on either side, more a ridge than a true wing, but the surfaces were covered in guns, missiles, and bombs. All of these had oblong aerodynamic shapes. To Lumar they almost gave her wings the illusion of feathers. She had four legs keeping her up off of the ground. At the ends of the legs were feet with four taloned toes.

  Lumar and Nate used to build models of ships like that. Lumar mostly just liked the way they looked and the power the models imitated. Nate memorized all the specs on the real versions when they were working on the models. Lumar remembered how he used to complain when the models weren't one hundred percent accurate to scale or were missing something that the real thing was supposed to have. Nate probably could have rattled off how many guns Brunhildr had and how many crew members she was supposed to have.

  They started wanding Lumar down. He spread his arms and legs like they wanted him to. He felt like they were trying to make him pose like a star, but Nate and the others had already done it so he couldn't do anything but follow instructions.

  They also had Crusaders in the hangar. They were giant robots shaped like knights in plate armor. They stood as tall as the hovertruck in ranks against the left wall. Lumar had action figures of them when he was a kid too. He had liked them a little more than the models since they could be posed and played with without breaking them. The ships pretty much had to be left on the shelf after they were done being painted and assembled. He suddenly realized nearly all of his toys were miniatures of military hardware. That was probably why he was able to have much of anything to play with as a kid in truth. It was just another piece of propaganda to get kids wanting to grow up to be soldiers. Even so it was fun to see the real thing after playing with the toys for so many years.

  Finally, after one last pat down, the soldiers backed away. None of them had anything the soldiers could object to on their persons. They didn’t give their armor back to them, but Ford got to put his coveralls back on.

  When the search was done, the leader of the security detail started talking to Radcliff. He was the only one who wasn't wearing a helmet, so they could see his red hair and pale freckled face. He had a gold maple leaves over his left breast just like the Major back at Sangent. Lumar thought this kid looked too young to be the same rank as that guy had been. He might have even been younger than Lumar. The redheaded major had a warm welcoming expression on his face.

  “Well, I'm glad that's over with,” the major said. “I'm never quite sure what to expect these days. I'm just glad you're all people.”

  “Like this little ship could really hold that many of them,” Wallace joked.

  “You’d be surprised,” the Major said stiffly. The warmth vanished from his face. “There's a lot of delicate equipment in here. Even just a few of them could cause some serious damage before we could put them down. Especially if it wasn't just some their rank and file.”

  “Has that ever happened here before?” Nate asked.

  “Not here. Not in my time, but you hear stories,” the Major answered. “I hate to waste any more of your time, but my superiors want to talk with you to see if you can shed some light on what happened.”

  “Of course,” Radcliff said. “Lead the way.”

  “Follow me,” the Major said turning to go.

  They stayed in single file with Radcliff at the front. Ford was right after him followed by Wallace, Jesse, Nate, and Lumar. The soldiers with the scanners had broken off from them, but the barrels of the rest kept on them all the way. Lumar had no idea why they were still keeping them under guard. None of them were armed after they'd taken all their gear.

  On the back wall of the hangar were dozens of doors and elevators. In the dead center was a huge lift big enough for tanks. There were smaller people-sized elevators on either side of it. The Major was leading them towards the back left corner. They walked along the wall after they got passed the giant elevator. Most of the doors they passed were thick metal with small steel netted windows in them. Some of them had names and ranks on them. Others had signs like: barracks, vehicle maintenance, or infirmary. The infirmary had double doors. There was a big red cross above the door instead of a plaque beside it. It must have been where they'd taken the others passengers. Lumar got the feeling he and Nate were supposed to be with them since they weren't actually military personnel. He had a feeling Radcliff wouldn't let anything bad happen to them if he could help it, but Lumar had no idea what he could really do for them.

  Their destination was the corner office. It had an ornate red wooden door depicting a sailing ship on a stormy sea instead of a metal one with a little window. There were one-way windows on either side. The windows took up ten feet of wall on either side of the door. There was a slate plaque above the door framed in animal bones. At the crown of the sign was a deer skull with huge spread antlers. The name on this plaque covered in trophies was: Colonel Fouste.

  “So the Colonel's kind of eccentric,” the Major explained. “Don't provoke him.”

  “This is the guy I talked to on the radio isn't it?” Ford asked.

  “Yeah, probably.”

  “Great. I've probably made him angry already.”

  “Well,” the Major said, “good luck. My men will stay with you, but I have other duties to attend to.”

  The Major popped a quick salute then spun on his heels taking off at a brisk walk. One of the soldiers he'd left behind opened the door and ushered them in.

  On the other side of the one-way windows was a blinking and beeping array of monitoring equipment. There were a dozen stations set up asymmetrically on either side of the doorway. There were seven flight control staff sprawled out throughout the control center. Most of the floor space was trashcans and office chairs, but there was a tunnel through the mess to another door at the back of the chaotic workroom. All seven staff members were talking at the same time into headsets while rolling from station to station in their office chairs. It was little more than a dull buzz to Lumar. He couldn’t make out anything any of them were saying. It was like they were frantically talking in code using abbreviated words or acronyms at every possible opportunity.

  They quickly moved past this room. With all of them and their escorts, there was almost no room in the control center. The next door in their way was far less interesting than the one outside. It was just another of the plain metal doors with its barely useful window.
On the other side of that door was a perpendicular hallway. It ended abruptly into a wall on the left. On the right, the hall stretched down twenty feet before another wooden door divided the section they were in from the rest of the hall.

  This section of hallway had almost no naked walls. Lumar could barely contain the urge to make jokes. In the dead end on their left was a stuffed bear stood up on its hind legs dominating the space with its wide spread arms. But for the decorator that space wasn't full with just the bear. There were taxidermied deer heads above the bear's shoulders. Lumar couldn't even count how many other animals, bones, and pelts were plastered all over the rest of the wall space. There was a mountain lion on the left side of the door, a buffalo head on the right. There were other big cat pelts up and down the length of the hall and bones everywhere. The next door was completely surrounded in antlers with a dozen points on each one. The door itself looked like it had been ripped out of a log cabin with thick cast iron grating over a much larger window than any of the other doors had. The hinges were black cast iron as well as the doorknob.

  Lumar couldn't even begin to imagine what the office inside was going to be like. There was no doubt in his mind that the man with the thick Southern accent they were talking to on the way in was this Colonel Fouste. Lumar knew he wasn't going to like him. He'd always done his hardest not to develop a Southern drawl. His parents were originally from Texas, as were many of the other inhabitants of Sangent. Some of them had been really Southern, to the point that it was hard to understand half the things they said. Lumar just hated the way it sounded and lived most of his life dreading that he sounded that way to other people.

  Disappointment was the next emotion Lumar felt. The door was opened for them again by one of their escorts. The office was hardly any different from Lumar's old boss's office. There was a long wooden desk with a pair of chairs on their side and a tall office chair for Fouste on the other side. There was a couch on the right side with a coffee table. There was another door for Fouste's private bathroom on the right beside the couch. The only real difference from a business office was the shadow box of Fouste's military service medals. In a business office there would be diplomas or some other technical qualifications. It served the same purpose for Fouste though.

  Radcliff, Ford, Jesse, and Wallace saluted the Colonel. Lumar and Nate hastily followed suit. Their escorts just kept their gun trained on them. Lumar was starting to grow weary of guns being pointed at him. He figured they weren't going to shoot him by now, but it was never something he was going to be comfortable with.

  The Colonel raised his arm without rising from his chair. Fouste was a big man. Not a particularly strong looking man either. His neck was thick with a ring of fat and his belly pooched out up against his desk. His fingers were all bigger than Lumar's thumbs, thick with meat and fat. His face was more stubble than beard, but it covered most of his face. The hair on the top of his head was only marginally longer than his stubble, short enough to have no styling.

  Radcliff and the others let their salutes fall. Lumar and Nate did likewise.

  “So far yer story's checkin' out,” Fouste began. “Shadow Hammer's just arrived at Sangent.” The Colonel used a hard 'G' in Sangent instead of the soft 'J' sound that the people who lived there used. Lumar rolled his eyes. He closed them as quickly as he could to hide it. “The battle's over already. By the time she got there, weren't nobody still fightin'. She's engaged a few tarantulas and dragonflies, but it looks like the rest done moved on already. We're gunna sweep the area, but ain't nothing else to do for now. I'm sorry for yer loss.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Radcliff answered.

  “Now we've got some boring bullshit to go through before I can just turn yah loose. Need some testimonials for the formal report. Losing a city's got a lot of paperwork that comes with it. Y'all and the others need to tell me everything you saw, security breaches, enemy tactics, anything you remember will be helpful. I know this’s going to take some time so yah know, don't repeat anything the others already done said.”

  The Colonel produced a hand microphone from a drawer in his desk. It was wireless other than the stem connecting the mic's head to its base.

  “We'll just take your testimonials orally. Lots faster and less work in the long haul,” Fouste explained. “Sergeant you go first.”

  “Hey, um,” Lumar interjected, “Could I use your bathroom over there?”

  “Uh, sure son,” the Colonel replied. “Go right ahead.”

  Lumar made his way over to the bathroom door and pushed his way in. To his dismay one of the soldiers followed him in.

  “Do you really have to do that?” Lumar asked.

  The soldier made no reply other than waving the barrel of his gun in Lumar's face.

  “Fine,” Lumar groaned.

  He really did need to go, but as much as anything he was hoping he wouldn't have to hear all the testimonials. He'd seen what happened. He doubted anyone else could shed more light on the matter other than the Sarsaul coming in the night and destroying everything.

  Lumar suddenly realized there were no zippers in the front of his skinsuit. There wasn't a way to just let the parts below his waist down either. He had to reach up on his back and undo the whole thing. He had to strip almost the entire thing off to get it down low enough to take care of his business. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal to be nearly naked in a bathroom, but he was being watched and Lumar had a feeling his visit wasn't going to be a short one. He knew from watching these guys staring at Jesse's body earlier that they weren't the most professional escorts in the business either. Lumar just hoped it would be a little different since he it was a dude watching him. He just kept his hands covering himself and his eyes down on the floor between his feet until he was finished.

  He'd never felt happier to be in skintight clothing when he finally zipped himself back in. The awkwardness in the bathroom must have gone on for longer than Lumar realized because when he came out nobody was talking and all of their eyes were on him.

  “Everything come out alright?” Wallace pried.

  “We're all done,” Radcliff said. “It's your turn.”

  “What do I need to say?” Lumar asked.

  “Your pal here made it sound like yah walked halfway across the city during the attack’s that right?” Fouste asked. “Yer one lucky son of a gun. Tell me whatcha saw.”

  Fouste offered the microphone to Lumar. He took and held it in front of his face.

  “Well, I really didn't see much to be honest. I was just running and hiding,” Lumar began, “with Corporal George Solaris. I wouldn't have made it without him. If there's anything you can do to honor him I'd appreciate it.”

  “I can do that,” Fouste promised. “What else?”

  “The whole city was just burning and collapsing around us all the way. There were hornets gliding through the air and ants crawling around on the ground. The only other living person I saw all the way in was Geo—George. After that we suited up and tried to hold the area around the bunker there on the west end of town. That is, it was Nate here and me and I guess everyone else here was with us too except Ford. They probably told you about that part already didn't they?”

  “So ya didn't see the fighting start or nothing?”

  “I got woken up in the middle of the night and just had to rush out of my home.”

  Fouste put the microphone back into his desk.

  “I wish we had more information, really do,” Fouste said, “but y'all sound like you did a damn good job all things considered. We're going to sort this comms thing out. That ain't gonna happen again on my watch boys. I tell you what.”

  “Thank you sir,” Radcliff said.

  “There's one last thing I need yah to do before I can just turn yah loose. After that you won't need these guys followin' yah around. Y’all gunna have to make a stop down at the infirmary. We're gunna have ya'll tested for infection, make sure they haven't gotten to yah. ‘Cause, yah know, I wouldn’t want to
find a few bodies lying around in a couple days and have worms between my ears. After that they'll just do some typical doctor stuff, shots, Band-Aids, shit like that, whatever y'all might be needin'. That might take a few hours to get taken care of, but after that I'll set y'all up in a room in the barracks. I’ll keep y’all together and let you have some room to yerselves for the day at least. It's about all I can do fer now. No promises about what happens after that. Well get these people movin'. I'm sure they want this all done and over.”

  They snapped the Colonel a salute and let the soldiers usher them back into the hallway. The soldiers led them through another, less interesting, door in the hallway. It was immediately apparent that Guardridge was even more labyrinthine than Sangent's bunker had been. Lumar knew he would have gotten lost if it wasn't for the fact they were being led down the series of hallways. The infirmary couldn't have been more than a hundred feet back from Fouste's front door off of the hangar, but it took them five turns to get to their destination and a quarter mile of walking. Lumar thought they might have ended up further back in the corner behind Fouste's office, but he wasn't quite sure. What he was sure of was that this little corner of Guardridge looked like it had been swept out of sight and out of mind. There was even a dead light bulb in the middle of the hall.

  There was a wall of windows with a double wide door in the middle separating them from a round reception desk with a metal top. The rest of the desk was made of faux wood. The guards opened the way in for them. The desk was inhabited by a gaunt faced old man with deep wrinkles in his forehead and thin wispy gray hair. His mouth and nose were covered with a surgical mask, so all Lumar could see was cold gray eyes and the wrinkles above them. The old man's eyes were distant until their escort addressed him.