Dark Future

by KC Klein

  ConRad leaned back in the chair and folded his arms across his chest. “Things will go better for you if you cooperate.”

  “Yeah, because things have gone great so far,” I said, rubbing my neck. I may have a penchant for drama, but I really had been scared that he was going to kill me. It’s not something a gal was willing gloss over.

  “This way of speaking that you do—this tone in your voice, is it your attempt at humor?”

  Great, he’s beginning to sound like my mother. “Are you telling me sarcasm hasn’t hit this world of ‘Cavemen Gone Military’?”

  I copied his mannerism by folding my arms to match his.

  “Hmm . . . there it is again. It’s . . .” he paused for a moment, “annoying.”

  Yep, about sixty minutes ago he was telling me I tasted like the sun and now he found me annoying—lovely.

  “Regardless,” he continued, now all business. “We need to know where the portal is. It’s a matter of life or death, not just for us at the compound, but the entire human race.”

  This question again? We had come full circle, but the “annihilation of the entire human race” thing had started to sink in. My run-in with the monster, an . . . alien was still too real. I had deep scrapes along my hands and knees to prove it. “I’ve told you everything I know. All I remember was passing out and then waking up with a foul stench and a monster breathing in my face. If that was a portal, then I have no idea how I came across it or how it works.” Then a thought came to me. “What if we went back to where you found me and tried to activate the portal? All I did was walk through; maybe that’s all it would take.”

  He dismissed the idea with a quick shake of his head. “It’s too dangerous right now to attempt a discovery mission. Besides, my men and I have walked every inch of this planet and we never came across any portal.”

  I nodded my head, but somehow I already knew that I was the key to activating the portal.

  His glance flickered away, and then sliced back. “That’s why I enlisted a help of a goddess. There may be things you can’t remember, but we still need in order to assure mankind’s safety.”

  Wisps of unease began to curl through my belly. I still didn’t trust this man. I was becoming less and less judgmental of my BBD’s decision to knock him off. Of course, that was not something I wanted him to know. “And how do you propose to get that information?”

  He uncrossed his arms. Concern flashed in his eyes, but immediately it was replaced by cold indifference. This was a man who would get the job done and not waste energy on regret. “It will all be over soon.”

  Chapter Nine

  What the hell was that supposed to mean? If this was another death threat, then I was about willing to slice my own throat in order to stop the suspense of it all.

  My head snapped to the side as the door opened, and five very capable looking soldiers, armed with machine guns, marched in. Buzz cuts and camouflage galore, the men displayed a uniformed front resembling cutout paper dolls. Their stance military ready, their guns in front for easy access. The soldiers’ gaze darted around the room as if ready to address any threat. Apparently finding none, they opened their ranks in a half circle, enabling me to see what they were so jacked up over.

  There in the center, protected like a lamb among lions, stood a tall, willowy figure in dingy white robes. Her shoulders were stooped, gray hair long and unkempt. Her head was cast down as if in deference so I couldn’t see her eyes, but my wisps of unease grew and encircled my heart with a constricting grip.

  ConRad had shot to his feet at their entrance. Giving his full attention to the woman, he gave a small bow. “My utmost gratitude for coming.”

  Gesturing to the woman, ConRad looked to me. “This is Aura. Aura, this is Kris. Aura is a goddess, one of the most powerful in the compound, perhaps in all of civilization. Since you’re new here, I’ll explain a few things. All goddesses, when first their powers are perceived, are isolated from any human contact so they can more aptly focus their senses within. Very few humans are allowed to even speak with a goddess, but since this is such an extreme case, we made an exception.”

  He turned his attention back to the robed figure. “Aura, do you know why you are here?”

  “Of course I do,” she snapped. “I wouldn’t be a very good goddess if I didn’t.”

  My eyes darted back and forth between ConRad and the goddess, trying to piece together their relationship. Hadn’t ConRad said he was the Commander at the compound? So who was this woman and why did he treat her with such respect? Respect that was sorely lacking in his treatment with me.

  “Then thank you again for coming,” ConRad said, with a reverence and moved to the side.

  A path cleared be ^ colortween her and me. The very air seemed to part. There was a strange pulling sensation from this woman, as if invisible tethers were being thrown out from her soul and hooking into mine.

  Aura stepped out from her protectors and the soldiers scurried out of her path, almost as if they were afraid to touch her. Gliding over she sat on the chair ConRad had vacated, all the while her head still bent with stringy hair obscuring her features.

  Something wasn’t right. What had ConRad threatened earlier—mind-invasion? Chills rose on the back of my neck and ran along my arms. My desire to flee was so strong that my limbs became paralyzed in contradiction.

  She slowly slid her palms, fingers knurled with age, closer to me along the table. She unbowed her head, and for the first time I caught sight of her face.

  I got a vague impression of papery-thin skin that crinkled and sagged over delicate bones. But it was her eyes. Her eyes transfixed me, fusing my flesh to the metal chair and birthing a fear in my heart like I’d never known.

  There was no color . . . just huge black pools swimming amidst the hollowed orbital cavity. No iris, only black from lid to lid. Only a person whose soul had been taken and replaced with something darker could have eyes like that.

  My breath caught. A rush of adrenaline unfroze my muscles as I sprang from my chair, and then just as quickly hit a solid wall of flesh—ConRad. He’d come up behind me and very firmly pushed on my shoulders, lowering me back into my chair. His hands splayed gently along my throat as a silent reminder that I was not going anywhere.

  I turned my head, my gaze clashed with his. There was no way I was going to stay and participate in this interrogation. I may be under suspicion, but I had cooperated with his demands. I told him everything I knew. I wasn’t a hostile witness and shouldn’t be treated like one.

  “We need answers, Kris. This is the easiest way.” His voice was quiet, as if we were the only two people in the room.

  “For you or for me?” I’d little doubt the easiest way for him was not necessarily the same for me, but I couldn’t help focusing on his eyes. Was that kindness in his normal blue eyes, with the normal pupils and irises?

  I cut my gaze away, disgusted at myself for reading into the slight softening of his face. I was here because of this man. No one was holding a gun to his head, and like he’d said earlier, nothing goes on within this compound without his consent. It was crazy to trust a man who only a few hours ago I thought was going to kill coiny chair.me; but then again, lately my instincts were off.

  I braced myself and glanced back at Aura. Her lips stretched into what I assumed was her attempt at a smile, but browned teeth paired with the black eyes turned the expression grotesque. How deep did this mind-invasion go? Would she be able to “see” my omission about my BBD?

  “Don’t be scared child. I’ll protect you. Lay your hands in mine,” she said, beckoning with a slight upturn of her fingers.

  As unreasonable as it sounded, I believed her. Hadn’t my BBD said that I needed to be more trusting? Besides the odds of me not obliging were zero at best—with five, make that six, armed men ready and willing to make me obey.

  I slid my hands into Aura’s dry, cracked palms, her skin warm against my chilled flesh. She began to breathe slow deep breat
hs. Soon my lids became weighted. I lost the battle to keep them open. All the tension flowed out of my body. My jaw, head, and shoulders felt heavy; my whole frame drooped. My muscles became liquid, yet tingly and light at the same time. With each breath I went deeper and deeper into a black abyss. Hues of blues, purples, and greens swirled before my closed eyes. A cool breeze stirred from outside my body and forced itself deep down into my lungs. I felt a pulling, slight at first, then with more persistence, toward my hands, then out of my body all together. At first I struggled, but the urge to let go was too tempting, like slipping into a hot bath after a twelve-hour shift. Relinquishing control, I floated on the gentle breeze as it hovered around me.

  I won the fight against my eyelids and pried them open.

  God, I’m tired.

  My head was lying on the table on my crossed arms. Had I fallen asleep on my desk at work? It wouldn’t be the first time I’d catnapped among the mountain of charts. I raised my head, scrubbing my hands over my face. For all of two seconds there was sweet oblivion—then the swell of horror came crashing in like the final wave over a drowning man. I’m in enemy territory. There’s no one here I can trust.

  I rocketed out of my chair. It crashed to the floor behind me. I slammed my back to the opposite wall, palms flat, heart racing.

  I scanned the room, it was empty, except for him—ConRad.

  “You’re all right. You’re fine,” he whispered, sitting rock still, hands in surrender mode as if calming a wild animal.

  I didn’t believe him. Something happened. I was changed. My skin felt unfamiliar, and my very bones seemed to have laid within someone else’s body.

  “What happened?” I shook my head, tears blurred my vision. Why was I crying?

  “Do you need to lie down?” Concern flashed in ConRad’s eyes. “Aura said you’d be tired.”

  Aura? Who was Aura?

  Then the synapses in my brain began to fire and I started to remember—the gray old woman, the soul-sucking black eyes.

  “What did she do to me?” My voice cracked as I wiped the tears off my cheeks.

  “Kris, please . . .” His voice trailed off as he stood and took a step toward me.

  “No, don’t touch me!” I yelled, raising my palm to fend him off. “Don’t come any closer.”

  Why was I acting like this? What was wrong with me? I didn’t trust ConRad, but if he really wanted to hurt me, he would have done so already. But I couldn’t help feeling threatened . . . exposed. I needed a few minutes to reconstruct my defenses.

  He froze, eyes widening by my response. “Kris, you are safe here. I wouldn’t hurt you. You’re under my protection now.”

  “Whatever,” I said, my voice caustic. “All you’ve done is harm me. I don’t believe you.”

  He paled as he took in my words, heightening the contrast of the blue of his eyes against the white of his face. “Of course, that’s how you would see it.”

  He bent and righted the chair and gestured for me to take a seat. “Sit. You look about ten seconds from crashing to the floor.”

  I felt like it too. Now that my heartbeat dropped from dangerous levels, black clouds crowded the sides of my vision. I found my chair and sat, taking deep breaths to prevent myself from passing out.

  ConRad took his own chair and mirrored my breathing. “Aura did a special treatment on you, something we cal cethy. Bl retrieval. She has special powers that allow her to access information from people.”

  “Was this the mind-invasion you threatened me with earlier?” I tried to keep the edge out of my voice. I didn’t want him to know how betrayed I felt by his actions.

  “Yes, but she did this in a much kinder way. More of a coaxing than an invasion, the other way can be much . . . harder.” There was a slight clenching of his right jaw muscle, but otherwise he was motionless. I’d begun to read him better—the more agitated he became, the stiller he was.

  “She read my mind?” The thought made my throat thick.

  “That’s an oversimplification, but . . . yes.” His eyes settled on mine with the last word, letting me know he wouldn’t hide behind excuses.

  I wouldn’t have believed him, except I sensed I’d been invaded on some level. Like I’d been stripped naked and left to weather the elements alone.

  Everyone has their weakness—the thing that they’re most afraid of. Some people don’t even know what theirs is—but I knew mine. It was the belief that became the foundation of what I built my life on—don’t let ’em in. Even though I was a medical intern, I’d kept myself free from emotional attachments. Feelings for patients were kept in their place. Outside of work there was no time to foster emotional attachments. Keep things simple; that was my motto. No one gets inside my head without my permission.

  My hand fluttered up to touch the sudden throbbing at my temple. I was sick of being vulnerable, sick of being left out in the cold. I didn’t know how to protect myself, and worst of all I didn’t know who I could trust.

  “How could someone do that, especially without my consent? I need answers. Where the hell am I, and why am I here?” My voice had lost its calm demeanor, instead bordered on hysterical.

  She’d been in my head. What had she seen?

  The room spun and closed in on me. “Who are you? Who are all these people? What are you doing hiding inside a mountain? And what is that creature that attacked us?”

  “Alright, alright . . . calm down. I know you have a lot of questions. This all seems very strange to you.” He pulled his seat closer and took hold of my folded hands. “We don’t have all the answers, but let me start with wha ctarericalt we believe might have happened.”

  ConRad’s thumb ran along the inside of my wrist, then he stopped his administrations and lifted his head, pinning me with his stare. “We believe that you might have traveled through space and time.”

  Well, duh, but I kept my mouth shut.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but we’ve heard tales of people doing this in the past. I didn’t believe it, but now . . .” He was close. I could feel his breath as it fanned my cheek. The man had no concept of personal space—I needed room. I broke his hold, twisting to release his grasp on my wrist. He got the not so subtle hint and sat back in his chair.

  I, on the other hand, needed more than a hint. I needed the truth.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s what you’ve come up with? Okay fine. So if I traveled in time, where am I now?”

  His eyes narrowed at my tone. He could’ve probably counted on one hand how many people stood up to him and lived to tell about it.

  “You want answers?” The man who had gently caressed me was gone, in his place was the Commander bent on getting what he wanted. “How’s this for answers? This is your future.

  “Look around,” he said, crossing one ankle over the opposite knee and circled his finger in the air. “Pretty isn’t? Sometime after 2020, scientists learned how to harness atomic power. With that knowledge all the new satellites were equipped with UFCs. With more power and longer range we were able to make contact with IL—intelligent life. They came, they conquered, and the human race nearly died in the process.

  “The war, the Global War, surpassed anything ever seen in the whole history of mankind.” ConRad stood and began to pace the small width of the room. “Our planet was destroyed, billions of people were killed. Most of our technology was lost, not just decades of it, but centuries. It was as if the world was thrown back to the late eighteen hundreds. The aliens’ consumption of raw materials caused the Earth’s core to heat up. We know that most of the land is underwater, but we’re not sure how much. What remains is one mass of land that barely supports the few thousand people left—or at least that’s how many we think are left. Earth’s settlement may be located north of the equator, but with so much of the planet uninhabitable, we just can’t be sure. According to legends, at one time there were huge blocks of ice floating around the northern part of the planet, but I don’t see how. All I do know is that w
e inhabit the only dry land, and there’s only water as far as the eye can see.”

  “Oh God,” I said as a new thought struck me, “tell me this isn’t Earth. Tell me this barren, cold, dark place isn’t home.” Tears welled up in my eyes. How could humans let it get this far? Why didn’t someone step in and urge caution?

  “No, thank the goddesses. The planet you saw outside this compound is a whole other story. We don’t have to get into all that today. I know you’re tired.” He seemed drained also, the lines on his face had etched in a little deeper, the corners of his mouth pulled a little tighter.

  I had passed over the boundary of tired long ago and now seemed to be smack in the middle of delirious, but the need to have answers was too great. Knowledge was power. I couldn’t stand the thought of being vulnerable any longer. “No, I want to know, need to.”

  He stopped pacing and zeroed me with his gaze. “It’s why I live in this God-forsaken mountain like a rat in a hole. It’s because this hell is a portal planet, a way to travel through space. Dark Planet is the last defense against the aliens. The main function of our society—or what’s left of it—is to protect the portal. If the aliens are able to break through, then the whole human nation will perish. I know I keep saying that, but it is true. It’s a numbers thing—we don’t have enough bodies left to sacrifice again.”

  I cringed at his use of the word sacrifice, as if the aliens were some type of gods needing atonement.

  “So that’s it, the sordid truth of why we are living like animals and getting our butts kicked by giant cockroaches with teeth.” He’d turned and faced the wall, hands on hips as if the retelling of history made the facts more gruesome.

  I couldn’t believe what he was saying. Intelligent life? Global War? Billions of people dead? I put my head in my hands, squelching the childish desire to cover my ears. If everything he said was true, then the Armageddon that my grandfather warned about had happened; the world as I knew it was gone. I felt a churning in my stomach that had nothing to do with the persistent cloak of fatigue that had been draped over me since my late-night visitor.