by Jason Wilcox
“Give me a gun,” Caden yelled over the noise.
Without hesitating, James tossed him a large gun that looked a lot like a high-powered rifle but lighter. Unexpectedly, he also tossed Caden a pair of colored glasses. Without saying another word, James followed his men. Other soldiers were outside as well, running in the same direction.
Not wanting to be left behind, Caden threw the glasses on, grabbed a large knife off the table and ran after James. He clipped the knife onto his pants without missing a beat.
Everything glowed brighter with the glasses on. The edges of shapes and objects seemed to stand out. A green digital outline was around every living thing, even around Tagen, who surprisingly was right next to him. He obviously had been there the whole time. However, his form was different. He wasn’t oily black any longer. Instead, he was ghostly looking.
Seeing Tagen by his side made Caden feel more confident in the dark soul, like he could trust him. The dark soul could’ve run for it with all the chaos, and no one would’ve probably noticed.
“Thanks for staying with me.”
Tagen almost tripped but quickly caught his footing. He appeared to hold his head a little higher and have an extra prance in his step.
Up ahead, Caden could make out James, but he was moving with incredible speed. Not only was he moving fast, he seemed to blink out of sight. Caden thought he was losing his mind at first and rubbed his eyes while he ran, but as he watched, most of the men around him that had on the same armor were doing the same thing. Their speed was so fast, that Caden, instead of outrunning them, was only keeping up. He had so many questions.
As they came around a corner of the building, he could see what was going on. There was a large crack in the dome. From where he was, it appeared a large boulder from a surrounding hill had slammed into the side of it, but as far as Caden understood, the barrier was supposed to be able to take incredible blows without breaking. Something wasn’t right in what he saw.
James’s team was going to be the first one there, which didn’t surprise Caden. His friend was always eager to get into the fight, however, Caden didn’t see anything to fight yet, just a broken barrier. Many of the soldiers making their way there were slowing down once they saw there was nothing there to fight.
Even James slowed down, allowing Caden to catch up. Large poisonous bushes surrounded the area where the barrier was broken. A breeze whistled through the opening, rustling the leaves.
From Caden’s right, he could hear Tagen sniff at the air. He came out of shadow form and sniffed again. Hissing he spoke up, “We’re not alone.” He hunched down and got closer to Caden.
A branch blowing in the wind screeched across a metal pole. Guns were raised, pointing at the hole in the barrier.
“What do you think’s out there?” Caden said quietly to James. He watched the bushes closely, looking into the dark gaps between the leaves. Movement could be seen, but it was hard to tell if there was something there or if it was just the branches.
“I’m not sure if anything’s out there. That boulder is big enough that there’s a chance it could’ve hit a weak spot in the shield and caused the wall to crack. The General already knows that they’re finding weak spots that need to be fixed.”
The boulder was at least twice the height of Caden but looked fishy to him. It leaned against the strangely colored barrier. Pieces of it had broken off and were piled at the bottom of the large fracture. “Tagen seems to think something is out there.”
Hearing the comment, Tagen gave another sniff and hissed at the opening. His muscles flexed under his black oily skin. “We need to get out of here,” he spoke without looking away from the crack.
“He sure is a fearful creature, isn’t he?” James asked with a slight chuckle in his voice.
Tagen looked at James and hissed, barring his black teeth. “I know when to run and when to fight.”
“Maybe we should listen to him,” Caden suggested, putting a hand on James’s arm.
Ignoring them, James looked to his men. “Todd, take the right. Dave, take the left.” He turned to the rest of the men and gave a quick sign with his hands for the rest to follow him. “Phil.” The man closest to him perked up. “Go back and get a team on the double to start fixing this. We need it done before night sets in.” With a nod, Phil, a tall lanky guy, ran off.
The troops moved in closer. Caden followed beside James. His heart beat faster. It was similar to old times with SDS, and Caden loved it.
Tagen pulled at Caden’s shirt. “What if they think I’m one of them?” Tagen whispered, looking worried.
“Stay close to me at all times.” Caden kept an eye on where they were going. “I believe the whole base knows about you and who you are. As long as you’re close to me, you should be fine,” he whispered back, trying to keep the conversation quiet, feeling a little embarrassed by it.
With a growl, Tagen whispered, “You better be right. I would’ve preferred to stay in that room rather than come out here.”
“Just stay close!” Caden snapped.
Tagen wasn’t paying attention any longer. He was looking ahead, sniffing at the air. “Mauldrin. We need to get out of here.”
Cracking his neck, Caden looked over to Tagen, trying to give him a look of dissatisfaction. The breeze picked up, causing the branches to screech along the metal poles again. Something moved in the bush, but this time Caden was positive it wasn’t a branch, it was darker and bigger.
Todd, the soldier on the right, moved closer to the bushes, his gun aimed and ready. With his foot, he kicked the closer branches and then stuck his gun in, looking around. Finally, after a little searching, he looked back to James and shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m not seeing much,” Todd yelled out. Dave was close to his side of the bushes as well.
A strange howling scream, that sent shivers down Caden’s spine, filled the air. Todd turned quickly only to have something grab his leg and dragged him into the bushes. He screamed in pain.
Soldiers sprinted to help him but were too late. He was gone. They dove into the large bushes, even a couple shots were fired, but Caden couldn’t tell if they found anything. More soldiers were joining in the search and more shots were fired. But Caden couldn’t see what was going on; the bushes were too high and too thick.
Another scream-like howl bellowed from the bushes followed by screams from soldiers. There was one last shot.
“We got him,” a soldier yelled.
Wanting to see what was going on, Caden made his way there, but stopped abruptly when he noticed a black creature outside the dome wall, its head tilted, staring at him. It looked like a dark soul, but there was something strange about it. The creature had wires pressing into his body covering him entirely, making a crisscross design. Black blood oozed where the wire cut into his skin.
The strange looking dark soul opened his mouth showing sharp black teeth, but instead of screaming, he just stood there staring at Caden. Nobody seemed to notice him with everyone’s attentions focused on the bushes.
“Run.” Tagen tugged at the back of Caden’s shirt.
Caden took a couple of steps closer to the dome wall, tilting his head at the odd-looking dark soul. The creature didn’t move, he kept his mouth wide open and didn’t take his eyes off Caden.
“Caden!” Tagen moved closer. “He’s not afraid. He’s not even bothering to be in shadow form. It’s not a good sign.”
“Flee if you desire,” Caden said halfheartedly. Tagen was right. The dark soul was a solid, black shape in the glasses, not the ghostly figure Tagen had been when he was in shadow form. The behavior was peculiar. He began walking towards the dark soul, quickly lessening the gap between them, holding his gun in a ready position.
Something to Caden’s left caught his attention. Another dark soul, with the same metal wire on its body, came from behind the boulder. The creature stepped through the severed wall, smiling and staring at Caden as he came through.
Caden bro
ught his gun up and pointed it at the creature. A scream, which was partially muffled by the barrier, drove his attention back to the wall. The dark soul that had been there was now gone. Everyone in the bushes and around Caden stopped to look. They finally noticed the dark soul at the broken part of the boundary. The black creature didn’t take his dark red eyes off Caden.
“Get him!”
Right then, someone in the bushes took the first shot. It was a clean shot, hitting the creature straight in the chest with a green looking laser weapon. But it did nothing, didn’t even faze the creature. In fact, if it did anything, it made the dark soul madder. With lightning speed and agility, the dark soul was on the soldier before he could take a second shot, knocking him to the ground. The area lit up with green shots hitting the dark soul, but all of them were absorbed somehow.
Caden even lifted his gun and let a shot fly, hitting the creature smack in the head. It at least knocked the dark soul off the soldier, but once again, the bullet of light was absorbed, doing no harm.
Slowly lowering the gun, Caden could feel his heart begin to pound. The hill past the dome was speckled with a large number of dark souls running as fast as they could towards them.
“James, there’s more!” Caden yelled.
“Get me explosives, fast!” James demanded, seeing what Caden saw. Someone had thrown the same type of net Tagen had been in over the dark soul in the bushes, trapping him. The creature screamed a couple of times, throwing himself all over.
Caden turned to see James pulling pins out of grenades. “Clear out!” Caden barked to those that were still close to the boulder. Men moved out, while James chucked grenades at the bottom of the large boulder. Five dark souls came in just as the grenades went off, knocking them forward and doing serious damage to their bodies. Unfortunately, their wounds healed almost instantly, but the dark souls backed up slightly, staring at the soldiers around them.
Someone snapped off a shot, hitting the middle dark soul in the arm. Multiple screams rang out as the dark souls charged. The area lit up with green shots, but none of the shots did more than knock the creatures around. Caden was part of the fray, shooting off multiple rounds.
Dark souls dove at the soldiers, attacking violently. Two of them came at Caden. James was next to him, shooting at their attackers. Tagen was nowhere in sight. The green bullets did nothing but annoy the dark souls.
One of them leapt into the air, claws outstretched at Caden. James moved in front of him, and his armor almost smacked Caden in the face. Using his gun like a baseball bat, James tried to hit the dark soul, but the creature moved with incredible skill and knocked both James and Caden down. James jumped up but was picked up and tossed to the side by a dark soul. The other dark soul came in with claws ready to kill, slicing at Caden’s face. He went to block the blow with his arm but no blow came. Instead, a thud followed by a couple of screams.
Jumping to his feet, Caden saw what had happened. Tagen was on top, aggressively attacking a dark soul, while another dove at him. Tagen had saved Caden.
Claws sliced across Tagen’s back, and black blood spattered the ground. He screamed and tried to attack, but the dark soul below him bit into his neck and dragged him to the ground. Both dark souls bit and sliced into his skin. Tagen screamed in pain, which sent a feeling through Caden he had never felt before.
As if something jolted his heart, Caden’s chest beat hard, and everything around him seemed to move one step slower. His eyes began to burn and his blood felt thick and heavy. Everything lost its color and became black and gray. People’s movements were slower and blurry.
Not wasting time, he ran at the dark souls attacking Tagen. Both of them seemed surprised by the attack. He drew his knife and stabbed into the closer of the two. The creature screamed out in pain.
“Ca…d…e…n!?” James’s voice sounded muffled and choppy.
The other dark soul sliced his claws at Caden, but the movement seemed slow and Caden was able to dodge with little effort. He pulled the knife and sliced the blade through the dark soul’s throat, decapitating the creature. Droplets of black blood slowly made their way to the ground.
From behind, the other dark soul dug claws into his shoulder and pulled him backwards, but Tagen, bleeding and all, jumped up and tackled him. Caden was caught off guard. Tagen was the only thing with appropriate coloration and that moved normally.
Tagen ripped the wiring off the dark soul and bit into the neck. Caden turned away not wanting to watch the gruesome scene. He closed his burning eyes and took a breath. His thunderously beating heart slowed down and the new sensations faded.
“Caden?”
He opened his eyes. Everything was normal again, except Tagen who looked ghost like in his shadow form, was still devouring the enemy.
“Caden?” James said again, moving closer to him. “What happened to you?”
Not able to speak yet, Caden blinked and looked around. The other dark souls had been captured in nets. However, everyone’s attention was lost on something outside the dome. Hundreds of dark souls with the wires on their body, stood along the dome wall. One of them was on top of the boulders and crouched down. He held a metal tube.
“Caden! I need to know what happened.”
“Do you not see the dark souls?” Caden found his mouth extremely dry, which made it difficult to talk.
“Yes, I see them,” James began. “But I’m concerned about you. What happened?”
“You should be more concerned about why they aren’t coming through that boulder.” Tagen wiped black blood from his mouth. “If they choose to go into shadow form, they’ll come right through that rock.”
“Yes, yes. I know,” James snapped. “Caden, I’m not going to ask again. If you don’t tell me, I’m ordering my men to lock you up using any means necessary.”
Caden finally turned to look at James. “Excuse me?” He wanted to pop James in the mouth. “You won’t be locking me up.”
“Then tell me what happened.” James went back and forth looking at him and Tagen.
“I don’t know what happened.” Caden turned his attention back to the dark souls.
“You went into shadow form,” Tagen said, “And it’s about time.” He went back to eating the dark soul, making horrible noises.
James let out a sigh. “That’s what it looked like, but…” He let out another sigh. “I…I just can’t believe it.”
A handful of the dark souls began to scream, which spread through the crowd. The only one that wasn’t screaming was the one sitting on the rocks, still overlooking the men in front of him.
“I think you better stop worrying about me for the moment.”
The dark soul that sat on the rock put the metal cylinder down and the screaming stopped. All the dark souls, including the one on the rock, turned and ran off into the woods. The small pipe sat with the sun shining on it.
James moved close to Caden. “Caden, take this seriously. If the general hears about this he will lock you up.”
“It’s nothing James,” he whispered back. “I’m not even sure how it happened, so let it go.” Caden had questions himself, but now wasn’t the time to be worrying.
“What if you’re slowly becoming one of them?” James looked at Tagen who was still enjoying his meal. “What if he’s aiding you, because he’s waiting for you to finish the process of becoming one of them?”
With a growl, Tagen stood up with teeth showing and gave James a look of anger. “You don’t know anything.” His red eyes blazed, and James tightened the grip on his gun. “You think you know so much about my kind, but you don’t. You don’t even know what is out there. Your ignorance is sickening.” He looked at Caden. “He would have to be in a dark matter cell in order to still be changing. What’s done is done. His shadowing has nothing to do with me waiting around for him to change. If that was the case, and I knew he was going to lose his mind, I would’ve left him long before now.”
Screams came from the three dark souls tha
t were being dragged away. One of the commanders ordered the soldiers to retrieve the pipe. They quickly set off on their mission. Other soldiers brought out dark black bones dripping with black ooze. The skull looked like a dog’s. Caden realized what had attacked the soldiers in the bushes had been one of the dark soul dogs.
James took off his glasses and ran a hand over his face. “Okay, look. How about we at least get you down to the lab to run some tests and find out what’s going on.”
“I’m not going to a lab, James.” I can’t believe he just said that. Send me to a lab! What a terrible idea. That will surely get me locked up.
Taking a couple steps, James lowered his gun and looked at the pipe. “I have an idea.” He spun around. “Caden, I’m only trying to help. I want to make sure you’re okay. How about I take a blood sample from you and have the lab work it up. I’ll tell them it came from someone in the prison.”
Soldiers in a large truck pulled up to the rocks and got out. Three of them walked to the cylinder and cautiously investigated. Caden thought about James’s proposition while he watched the men. Finally, one of them picked up the cylinder and pulled out a piece of paper. James put a hand to his ear as Caden could see the soldier holding the paper saying something.
“It’s a note,” James spoke up since Caden didn’t have an earpiece in. “It says our weapons are useless, and they want their property back.”
Both Tagen and Caden looked at one another, knowing it meant the sword, but it would be too dangerous to say anything.
“What about my offer? Are you going to take it?”
Soldiers brought equipment to fix the hole. Large pieces of strange thick fabric were piled on a trailer, and a small crane pulled up along the dome wall.
“Okay, James.” He looked at his old friend and remembered back when he had been in a similar situation asking James to implant a T-13 chip because Robert ordered it. James trusted Caden then, now it was Caden’s turn. “As long as you don’t let anyone know it is my blood.”
