When Darkness Reigns

by Preston L. Marshall

  “Well, looks like we lost them,” Ford said, “It doesn’t look like they could have gone anywhere else from here other than that hole in the ground over there. Is this good enough? Can we leave now? I don’t want to be caught in the dark with aliens on their turf.”

  “Drive us closer to the pit and I’ll set up the beacon. As soon as I confirm that they can track the signal we’ll leave,” Radcliff replied. “Don’t worry so much we’ll be out of here soon.”

  Ford sighed. He drove them towards the pit through the remains of the houses. Half of the ground in the valley was paved or graveled in a spiderweb of roads. Nate wished Ford would drive faster. The roads were better in here than they had been on the way in. Nate still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. It felt like there were eyes everywhere, but he couldn't see them. If he could just see them he'd at least know where to point his gun.

  The closer they got to the hole in the ground the more obvious it was that the pit was unnatural. It was too perfectly shaped. The opening was a smooth circle without a single stone out of place. Someone had meticulously carved out the reddish rock. Nate couldn't tell if human hands had shaped the stone or if the Sarsaul had done it when they moved in.

  When they got near the edge of the pit, Nate's window gave him a pretty good view of the target. It wasn't at all what Nate had in mind when he pictured an alien fortress. It was a spiral leading from the lip of the pit all the way down into the darkness. He couldn't see how far down it went. The light probably only reached the bottom for a few hours around noon. The spiral was a footpath wrapped around the sides of the circular hole with little caves dug out of the walls at irregular intervals. There was a metal guardrail along the inner edge of the walkway. Along the outer edge, water from the waterfall flowed down a channel to the bottom. Each cave had a little bridge over the water connecting it to the main footpath.

  There were pinwheels every few feet on the channel to harvest the energy of the flowing water. They were definitely made by humans. For some reason that was a relief. Nate didn't like the idea of the Sarsaul being clever enough to come up with something like that. Nate imagined most of this place was powered by the hydroelectric off of the channel or at least had been. There wasn't any light coming up from the pit. If the water had been powering lights down there at one time, it wasn’t now.

  “Alright, I’ll just be a minute. Keep the car running,” Radcliff said as he jumped out.

  The beacon was a tripod about waist high with a small radio transmitter dish on top. Nate recognized the device. They'd had a few things like that at Logan. It was a device designed to create a sonic image of its surroundings and send those images to a terminal back at base. It also contained a GPS system that could provide its exact location when it was turned on. It was a pretty simple gadget to set up, but it still took Radcliff a few minutes to get working. He set it right on the edge of the pit. It made Nate nervous. That hole seemed to go down forever. If Radcliff fell there was no way he'd survive. Then he would have to set up the beacon probably. He knew how it worked at least. That almost scared him more than the idea of falling into the hole. Radcliff looked so exposed there on the edge.

  Radcliff kept looking over the side. Nate knew he was watching for anything to come up and that's why it was taking so long for him to finish. Nate wanted to go. He knew it was only taking a few minutes for Radcliff to set up the beacon, but it felt like it was taking him forever. Nate almost considered running out to him and setting it up for him. He would have had it done in under a minute easy. He knew he could.

  In the instant Nate unbuckled his seatbelt to go help with the beacon, Radcliff took one last look over his shoulder and activated the beacon. The dish started spinning and scanning the valley with a tiny hum that Nate could just barely hear from inside the truck. In four strides Radcliff was back at the door, opening it, and throwing himself back up into the truck. Nate clicked his seatbelt back on.

  “They can’t hear the signals those things make can they?” Ford asked as Radcliff got back in his seat.

  “No, they can’t,” he replied. “Time to call back to base and get out of here. Drive.”

  “About damn time,” Ford sighed.

  Radcliff picked up his radio and started rattling off his clearance codes and the string of numbers that identified him, his unit, the truck, and the tracking number on the beacon he’d just placed. Nate could kind of hear the person on the other end. It was a woman. It almost sounded like Derricks' blonde secretary with the cold indifference to what she was doing. The woman sounded as completely unimpressed and uninterested as she had when they'd gone to visit the General. He wasn't sure why he expected her to sound any differently, but he couldn't help but feel like the success of their mission was worth a little emotion.

  Ford turned the truck back towards the road out of the valley. Nate let out a sigh of relief. He felt a little lightheaded. He hadn't realized he'd been holding in his breath while he watched Radcliff work on the beacon. He was just glad Radcliff had gotten ahold of whoever he was trying to get ahold of right away and that their work here was done so they could go home.

  Nate felt the ground shake. He saw rocks falling off of the face of the wall in front of them.

  “Did you feel that? Was that an earthquake?” Nate asked.

  “The road's just bumpy,” Ford answered.

  Nate saw a few more stones fall from the rock face before they reached the first turn into the winding climb out of the valley. They were almost as big as his fists. He strained to see if there was something moving above them, but he couldn't see anything from his seat and he didn't dare to open the window and lean out for a better view.

  They had finished their mission just in time. Nate could see the sun falling into the top of the waterfall behind them in the rearview mirror. The light would have been completely gone in the valley any minute. He couldn't wait to be on level ground. They'd probably still have light for a good while once they were clear of the valley.

  The shadows swallowed them the moment they turned the first corner. The twilight dark turned the ruddy stones black. All Nate could see was the orange light of the fading sunlight above them. He couldn't even see the road in front of them. Ford flicked on the headlights.

  All Nate could see through the windshield was a flash of emerald eyes and a massive alien face.

  “Shit!” Ford screamed.

  Ford slammed on the breaks and kicked the truck into reverse. Ford's head darted back and forth between his side mirror and the cone of light in front of the truck. The sudden flash of light had made the alien reel for a full second. Nate couldn't turn his head away from the monster sitting in the road ahead of them. The further Ford backed away the more the headlights revealed. A huge tail pierced the ground two feet in front of the engine block. Nate shrieked and closed his eyes.

  It was a giant scorpion, built like a tank. The top of its tail was almost forty feet off the ground before it struck at them. It completely blocked the road. Nate opened his eyes again. The scorpion was so big its legs were scraping the rock faces on either side of it with each step. It slowed it down. Nate knew they'd be dead otherwise. Ford was barely able to get any speed in the narrow space without crashing into the wall.

  The blade rose again. Nate's eyes widened. His mouth opened in a soundless cry. Ford jerked the truck to the right. The tail blade ripped through the ground and the left side mirror.

  “What the hell?!” Ford yelled. “I thought you said they couldn’t hear the signals!”

  “They can’t!” Radcliff yelled back.

  “Then what the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know! Just worry about keeping that thing from hitting us! Nate! Go wake Lumar up! We’re gonna all hands on deck! Jesse and Wallace! You two be ready back there too!”

  “Yes sir!” they yelled from the back.

  Right before Nate unbuckled his seatbelt, Ford got the truck back out into the valley. Ford spun the truck around in a hard one ei
ghty to the right. Nate's head was thrown against the window on his left. He was happy he had his helmet on. Even with it on he felt disoriented.

  Ford just gunned the truck into the valley. Nate looked back in the remaining rearview mirror one last time. It didn't look like the scorpion was following them at least. It parked its bulk on the road and hunkered down wrapping its legs up around its head to protect its glinting green eyes.

  “Looks like we're not gonna be able to get out that way!” Ford yelled.

  “Move kid!” Radcliff ordered.

  Nate struggled to his feet. The momentum of the truck was throwing him towards the back. He was barely able to keep himself from tumbling forward. Ford swung them around again as soon as he crossed the threshold into the back of the truck. Nate's stomach turned. He thought he was going to throw up.

  Nate threw himself to the ground to crawl for the ladder at the tail end of the vehicle. It felt so much further than it had before as he crawled along the ground. He felt his legs trying to lift up off of the ground towards his head, but he fought with all of his strength to keep himself down on the ground.

  Jesse and Wallace unharnessed themselves and got on either side of him to help him get on his feet. Jesse guided Nate's hand up to the handrail. Nate had never squeezed anything harder in his life.

  Jesse yelled: “Give me my gun you old--”

  An explosion went off outside the truck covering the end of Jesse's sentence. It bounced the wheels of the truck up off the ground on the right side. Nate’s legs lifted off the ground. He looked down at the floor over his shoulder. He was hanging sideways in the air for a moment. He felt the muscle in his shoulder scream out in pain as his full weight was pulling on it.

  When the wheels hit the ground again he was thrown hard against one of the harnesses. His shins and forearms took the worst of it. Even through the padding on his armor he felt bruises forming already. He didn't stop to imagine the injuries he might have gotten without his armor on. He just groaned and walked with his hands along the handrail to the ladder.

  “Jesse, Wallace get on those guns! Figure out where that’s coming from!” Radcliff yelled.

  “I guess we’ll get to kill some of those motherfuckers after all!” Wallace cheered over the chaos.

  Nate finally reached the ladder. He took a deep breath and waited a moment to see if the truck was going to bounce or rock again before starting the climb. He didn't trust himself to keep his grip on the ladder if that happened again. He decided to try and take it as fast as he could to reduce the chances of getting thrown off.

  He scrambled up with all his strength, taking two rungs at a time with each reach. He was halfway up when the next explosion hit. He was thrown into the ladder. His helmet clanged against the metal rungs and the bruises on his shins and ankles were battered again. His hands and feet stayed on though. He kept climbing until he reached the top. He was just barely able to pull himself up. He threw his elbows up on the landing and flailed his legs around until he was able to swing them up onto the floor.

  He didn't waste a moment. He ran as fast as he could to Lumar's bedside.

  “Lumar! Wake up!” he screamed.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Lumar gasped in panic. He flailed in the bed against the straps holding him in place. He couldn’t remember where he was or what was going on. It was just loud. All he was aware of was gunshots and screaming. He got himself tangled and turned onto his side. His eyes finally came into focus and landed on the bed beside him. There was another person there strapped in like he was dead.

  Lumar couldn’t move at all. Someone's hands were touching him. The screaming seemed closer. The man wasn't dead. Lumar could see the light heaving of his chest as he breathed shallow breaths. Then it dawned on him. It was the man he'd seen in the dream.

  “It's you!” Lumar gasped.

  “Yes! It's me!” Nate replied.

  The other man didn't answer.

  Another explosion made the truck jolt. Lumar was thrown up against his restraints. Nate was thrown down on top of him. He couldn't breathe. The pain made his eyes water. He blinked the tears away and he realized he could see out of both eyes again, but it hurt to breath.

  Nate rolled off of him and knelt beside the bed. His fingers were fighting against the straps holding Lumar against the bed.

  “Nate! I can see! My eye! It's healed!”

  Nate's head turned away from the straps for a moment and stared him square in the face. Nate didn't seem to like what he saw there. He frowned.

  “It left a nasty scar though,” Nate said.

  The truck rocked again and the screaming below grew louder.

  “What’s going on!?” Lumar demanded suddenly aware of how insignificant his injuries were.

  “I think it’s safe to say is we’re in deep shit! I think we might have just kicked over an anthill!”

  Nate pulled his knife out of his belt and started hacking away at the straps holding Lumar down. He was able to get through the ones on his arms easily enough, but the one across his chest was thicker than the others.

  “Careful with that!” Lumar screamed.

  “We're moving too much! We don’t have time to be picky right now! I can't get it off any other way!”

  The strap across Lumar's chest finally broke away. Nate had the blade under the strap and pulled it up towards him. Just as the strap came loose something else rocked the truck and Nate lost his grip on the knife. It flew through the air and clattered to the ground.

  “If that hit me I would have killed you!” Lumar screamed.

  Nate pulled Lumar's legs out of the last strap. As soon as he was free Nate forced him to his feet. Lumar felt all his blood rushing to his head. He couldn't see for a moment. He blinked rapidly, but he couldn't tell a difference between his eyes being open or closed. His legs didn’t want to move. They were numb and weak. He wanted to lay back down for a little longer.

  “There’s no time for that,” he said aloud.

  “You're not going anywhere without your helmet,” Nate said. “I fixed it and everything. Put it on! Now!”

  Lumar stumbled to the footlocker at the end of the bed. He flung it open, but the bouncing of the truck slammed it right back down on a joint in the armor of his gloves.

  “Fucking shit!” he screamed.

  Nate lifted the lid. Lumar was able to reach in and grab his helmet. Nate didn't bother to let Lumar put it on for himself. The top of the helmet slammed down on his head with a dull pain. Nate went back into the locker for Lumar's weapons while he was trying to get the helmet to sit on his head right.

  The truck hit something else. They were both thrown rolling against the back of the truck. Pieces of armor, bullets, and weapons came with them in a storm of lead and steel. Lumar hadn't been able to close up his visor before they crashed to the ground again. Bullets landed in Lumar's face. They jangled around his nose and cheeks as he tried to keep them away from the tender skin on his face.

  Nate clawed at the weapons that had landed near them. Lumar's pistol was one of them. Nate clapped the sidearm into the holster for him while he scooped as many of the bullets into the pouches on his belt as he could. Lumar's part took far longer than Nate's. He had to sort out all of the bullets by hand since they'd gone everywhere. The big pointy ones were for the rifle. The smaller snub nosed ones were for the handgun. Fortunately all of the ones near his face had been the ones for the pistol or else the pointier rifle bullets might have torn open his freshly healed wounds.

  Nate crawled away while he was working on the bullets. Nate moved forward holding onto the legs of the beds until he was back at the open locker. He tossed back Lumar's sword. The blade clattered to the floor in the middle of all the bullets and scattered them away again. Nate stood up and pulled Lumar up to his feet. Nate put the sword in its scabbard on the magnetic ring on Lumar's left hip. Then Nate pulled Lumar forward to his footlocker. They were able to stand up for a few moments while Nate started pulling out magazines a
nd bullet cartridges that hadn't been thrown open to fill up the rest of Lumar's pouches.

  “There you go!” Nate yelled. “Let’s never do this again!”

  Lumar was barely able to hear the last part over the sound of the guns blazing below and all the screaming and explosions.

  Nate shot to the ladder and threw himself down. Lumar took a deep breath. He wasn't ready for climbing especially not being thrown around like they were, but he didn't have much of a choice. Nate was down on the ground by the time Lumar took his first steps down. As soon as Nate let go he was thrown against the back gate of the truck. Lumar fell the rest of the way. His side hit the floor.

  “Can’t you drive straight?!” Lumar yelled over his pain.

  Nobody seemed to hear him over everything else going on.

  Radcliff was screaming into the radio as loud as he could. “Mayday, mayday, this is truck number bravo-zero-three-one-five! We have found the enemy! We are cut off and under heavy fire! I need air support and evac at the coordinates of my beacon! Guardridge dispatch do you copy?!”

  He screamed his message over and over into the radio. In the middle of his fifth try one of the explosive rounds hit the radio dish on the top of the truck. The truck was slammed straight down against its shocks, bouncing the crew into the air. The static of the radio died. Radcliff threw the microphone against the dashboard and growled.

  “They’re coming out of every crack in ground!” Ford screamed, “I’m running out of room here! Those assholes better get here quick!”

  Nate got Lumar back up on his feet. He couldn't see anything from where they were standing. Lumar climbed forward along the handrails to the cabin to see out the window. Nate followed close on his heels. Another blast threw Lumar against the back of one of the seats. He wrapped his arms around the headrest and clung for dear life. His eyes were closed for moment. He almost didn't want to open them, but he had to see what was going on.