Sinister Shadows

by Simon Smith-Wilson

  ‘Guys...’ muttered Terry, his voice was full of worry.

  Aiden and Basil turned to face him.

  ‘Where is the fat guy?’

  Only now did Aiden realise that the guy from the bar wasn’t there. The handgun was no longer sat on Aiden’s hip. He waved the barrel left and right, scanning the area for the signs of the fourth member of their group, but he was nowhere to be seen. Aiden was certain he had been here just a moment ago. The guy walked with such heavy steps due to his large stomach. How could someone that big disappear without a sound? Aiden suddenly felt very small, as he stood in the valley. It felt like the walls were watching him.

  ‘What do we do?’ asked Basil.

  ‘We push on,’ said Aiden.

  ‘What about the fat guy?’

  ‘I have a feeling that he is in the same place as the boy and his father.’

  ‘I don’t like the feel of this. I’m heading back,’ said Terry.

  ‘Yeah, me too,’ added Basil.

  Aiden watched the two of them start off on the path they had just walked. A big part of him wanted to turn tail and run, but what about the boy? If Aiden felt this frightened, how the hell did that kid feel? There was no option. Aiden continued on alone.

  ***

  Gravity pulled at his legs, as a sickening sensation twisted his insides. Ryan didn’t dare look down or look up. He didn’t want to know how far he had to go. His eyes were firmly fixed on the cliff face in front of him. Every step he made came with a fearful grunt that he was about to fall to his death. Sheridan was fifteen foot below, making steady progress down the jagged cliff face. There were enough handholds to make it a steady climb down. Her mind continued to repeat her goal as if were some kind of empowering affirmation that fuelled the fire in her heart. The evidence she gathered here would help to bring down Omar. Would taking down that murderer help her father rest in peace? Would her conversations with her deceased father come to an end once justice had been served? That thought alone was a horrible realisation. The thought of losing her father again made her want to cry. She had just got him back again, but could she really go back to the base and act like nothing had happened? No. Omar had to be arrested. Her father had raised her to be a good and honest person. Once they reached the bottom, they would have all the evidence they needed.

  ***

  Sweet little moans leapt forth from the woman’s lips, as she rode him hard and fast. Matthews reached up with foreign hands and cupped her breasts. They felt so soft and untouched. The feel of her nipple between his fingertips was nearly causing him to blow his entire load inside of her. The bed springs protested beneath them, as the woman rocked her hips with such sexual grace. She reached up, grabbing handfuls of her own hair in a delirious display of orgasmic pleasure. Matthews wanted to call out, but he didn’t even know the girl's name. This woman didn’t even know that Matthews wasn’t the man that she loved. He was just taking a joyride in this person’s body. Deep down in the core of his heart, he knew that this was wrong. This was not something a good person did. The wetness and warmth of her mound consuming his throbbing shaft were all that was needed to force away those worrisome moral cares. There was no way in hell he was stopping. The room could be on fire, and he wasn’t going to stop. This woman was sexy, and he wanted to fuck her. Yes. He wanted to fuck her. Any man with eyes would want to fuck her. It didn’t matter if she thought he was someone else. He wanted to fuck her, and he was going to fuck her no matter what.

  A heavy hand thumped on the door.

  ‘Don’t stop,’ he told the blonde woman, as she looked towards the door.

  ‘Okay,’ she smiled, riding him faster.

  ‘I know you're in there, Craig,’ yelled a voice from outside.

  ‘Don’t stop,’ Matthews told her, gripping her hips with both hands.

  The woman forced her body weight down, letting him penetrate her as deep as possible.

  ‘He wants to see us.’

  The woman dropped her hands onto his chest, rocking back and forth, moaning into his ear. He could feel her muscles gripping his manhood, and that was all that he could take. Matthews let out a deep groan, as he erupted like a volcanic display into the warm embrace of this woman’s most private area. A woman that could easily have been his daughter in another life due to the fact he was twice her age. He grabbed her ass, squeezing hard, as he pushed up off the bed, making her take all of him.

  ‘I am not fucking around. He wants to see us now!’ The male voice said, this time angrier than before.

  ‘You should go,’ she whispered into his ears, rocking her hips to a standstill.

  ‘Can’t I stay with you?’ panted Matthews, completely forgetting what he was supposed to be doing.

  ‘You can have me later, baby,’ she kissed him on the lip, licking her tongue into his mouth.

  ‘Craig, I mean...’

  ‘Shut the fuck up!’ Matthews roared. ‘I will be out in a minute you fucking cock blocker.’

  The woman laughed as she cuddled into him, panting heavily.

  ***

  At the end of the path was a cliff face. ‘Is that it?’ asked Aiden, turning his head this way and that. He didn’t know what he was expecting to find, but a dead end wasn’t it. The lights of his space suit shone upon the ragged surface of the rocks, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about this place. He glanced up towards the sky above. Stars were sprinkled against the deep black of space in the foreign sky. There was no possible way to climb up. The only answer was to head back the way he came, but where had the boy and father gone? Suddenly, the sound of gunfire filled the air. A rush of adrenaline surged through his body, as he ran back the way he came. Aiden hit the communication button on his tablet. ‘What’s happening up there?’ The gunfire was coming from the direction of the vehicles. The only reply he got was static in his headset. An agonising scream echoed through the canyon, as a horrifying howl from some unknown beast filled the air. And then Aiden was face down in the dirt. ‘What the fuck?’ He looked down at his feet, but they had disappeared beneath the ground. His fingers scrambled to find something to grip, as the solid ground turned into some kind of sinking sand, but how was that possible? He had walked this way only a moment ago. Panic filled his heart as the pressure of the sinking sand dragged him down beneath the surface. Aiden attempted to keep his head up, but it felt like a thousand hands were pulling him down. The sound of gunfire ceased to be, and the world around him fell into silence. Darkness consumed him, as Aiden was dragged beneath the surface. One final thought filled his mind, is this what had happened to the father and son?

  ***

  Yellow police tape flapped in the wind, as clouds of dust swept across the vacant dig site. Kimberly switched off the engine of the truck, double checked the seal of her spacesuit and opened the door to the vehicle. Gabriel was standing on the ridge, overlooking the place where so many of the survivors of the crash had been murdered. ‘What are we doing here?’

  ‘My laboratory is here,’ explained Gabriel, as he looked out across the world. ‘This was once a planet of such beauty and knowledge.’ His eyes narrowed, and for the first time he gave away a hint of emotion. Sadness was there for Kimberly to see. ‘This was the centre of information for every being in the known universe. It was a place for evolved species to reach incredible discoveries. This was a place for beings to grow in ways they could never dream of.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘We happened,’ sighed Gabriel, waving a hand in the air. Suddenly, the ground began to shake, nearly knocking Kimberly off her feet. Down in the pit of the dig site buildings began to rise out of the ground, as incredible purple lights pushed back the darkness. The ground crack, the sand parted. Within a matter of moments, a town appeared below them. The buildings were constructed with giant colourful seashells. A salty scent filled the air, somehow working its way into her spacesuit. The energy in the air felt different. This place felt alive. If only the people who had been working on the dig sit
e knew what laid beneath. ‘I was part of a group that wanted to break away from the laws of our people. We had spent thousands of years on this world, teaching others. All we wanted was to go out into the universe. Every being no matter how great and knowledgeable they may still needs to change frequency and learn something new. They didn’t see that there was always something new to learn. I wanted to explore the worlds that were young. I wanted to see how new worlds formed. I wanted to help them grow, nurture them, but our leaders didn’t like that.’

  The two of them began to slow walk down towards the shell buildings. ‘There was a war. Many of my comrades were killed, whilst others were locked away for all eternity. We were losing. We never wanted to fight, but “He” did. He loved violence. He was a monster.’

  ‘Who is he?’ Kimberly asked. ‘Does he have my son?’

  ‘No. He doesn’t have your son, yet.’

  ‘What is he?’

  ‘He is a being that massacred billions of people. We need you to exist. He killed everyone because he was losing. Without life, how could his enemies win?’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘I exist because you can see me.’

  ‘I still don’t get it,’ admitted Kimberly.

  ‘If you were not here I would not be here. When you crashed upon the planet, you woke me from my slumber. For thousands of years I have not existed, but then you arrived Kimberly. You saw me. I am sorry for using you like I have done, but I needed to stop him. I should have killed him when I had the chance.’ Kimberly still didn’t truly understand what Gabriel was going on about, but she listened nevertheless. ‘He killed all the beings on this planet and fired weapons of mass destruction through the universe. Thousands of worlds were destroyed, forever silencing the followers of the others that are like us. Our beautiful world was cast in chaos, as our leaders disappeared one by one. I managed to trap him in my laboratory. He had been my friend, but he turned into a monster. I had to stop him, and I did. I trapped him here on this dead world, but he managed to free himself by using the survivors that crashed on the spaceship, too.’

  ‘If he is really this dangerous how can we stop him?’

  ‘We can stop him,’ said Gabriel, in a matter of fact way. ‘And by stopping him, we will stop the ones that have your son. They are working together in an attempt to flee this world. Once they are able to get out into the universe, they will spread like a virus to millions of worlds. It will be a war without end. They will truly become a God that constructs the laws of life to how they want, crushing anything and anyone that opposes them. We must stop them all now. My laboratory holds the key to this.’

  Kimberly looked towards the towering seashell cast in the beautiful purple light. What was she getting caught up in here? And what did her son have to do with it? Why would he be involved? The more she learnt about what happened on this dead world, the more confused she became.

  ***

  Ryan scanned the last of the decaying bodies, resting upon the mountain of bones. The majority of the bones belonged to unknown alien creatures. Many of the bones looked like they had been here for a very long time. Ryan reviewed the map on the tablet attached to the forearm of his space suit. Six blue identification chips were still showing on the map. Two of them belonged to the peace officers, but where were the other four? The young man started the unsteady journey down the horrific mountain of the dead. Sheridan was already marching across the circular pit towards one of the tunnels carved into the wall. There was something about this place that felt off for Ryan. The circular design didn’t feel natural. It reminded him of the Coliseum he had seen in the history videos in school. The mountain of bones was clearly constructed by something or someone. What type of creature would do that? They knew nothing of the animals that lived in this world. It took Ryan nearly a minute to walk across the length of the circular pit towards Sheridan. His eyes examined the size of the perfectly carved circular tunnels. They were not jagged or rough, but smooth on the interior.

  ‘The survivors are in there,’ said Sheridan, the torch of her spacesuit revealed nothing but more darkness awaiting them.

  ‘I don’t like the feeling of this,’ replied Ryan.

  ‘The proof you need is at the end of this tunnel,’ whispered the voice of Sheridan’s father.

  ‘We have come this far,’ she told Ryan.

  ‘Yes, but we can rustle up Matthews and a few of the others to help us. What is the mountain of bones doing out there? Who created these tunnels? Whatever lives in here is clearly big to need twelve foot high tunnels and obviously eats meat. This is not a good idea.’

  ‘You must keep going,’ insisted her father.

  ‘Go back to the truck, Ryan, I don’t need you for this,’ said Sheridan, heading into the tunnel.

  ‘You are being stubborn and risking both of our lives.’

  ‘I am not making you come with me.’

  ‘Yes, you are. You know I won’t go back without you.’

  ‘Ignore him, Sheridan. The answers you seek are just ahead.’

  ‘Either come or go, but from this point on we move with silence,’ she told him.

  ***

  A glass dome of the observation chamber looked up at the starlit sky above. Matthews noted how this camp was different in design to the other one. All the different rooms connected to the large circular central dome room. From above it must have looked like a glass octopus sprawled out upon its belly. He followed a shaved head guy across the dome, boots echoed off the cold hard floor. The camp looked devoid of life. So far the only people he had seen were the woman he fucked and the guy in front of him. Electric fences surrounded the base like the moat of a castle, forcing back any potential alien threats. ‘You know you shouldn’t keep him waiting,’ said Doug.

  ‘I was busy.’

  ‘I know you like the girls pussy, but there is a time and a place. You know what he is like.’ Matthews didn’t know who this guy was talking about, but he didn’t like the sound of it. The naked woman in the room of mirrors had told him he could stop a crime before it happened, was this what he had been sent to stop? ‘The plan is going ahead. He is tired of playing second fiddle. We have to be ready to act, so you can’t have your dick stuck up inside that whore.’ Matthews caught sight of an incredible winged beast cutting through the heavens high above the base, the thing looks like the size of a jumbo jet. ‘Whatever you do, don’t piss him off,’ insisted Doug, as he stepped in front of a metal hatch and buzzed the intercom.

  ***

  Machines moved as if they had a mind of their own. Robotic arms came down from hidden compartments in the ceiling, lifting the sparkling boulders from the conveyor belt and dropping them down into chutes the size of a Killer Whales mouth. Things that looked like dustbin-shaped remote controlled cars zipped by Kimberly’s feet, sweeping up any dust and debris that touched the dark blue stone floor. Conveyor belts crisscrossed all around the factory, disappearing off in different directions. They carried all sorts of different things. Crates were being taken down to a lower level, whilst barrels of luminous green liquid were heading up to some processing room above them. Things that looked like projectile weapons were moving off into a hidden side room. Little aerial robots hovered over the various items, scanning them with little red lasers as if conducting some kind of monitoring operation. Kimberly could see big lumbering machines that looked like metallic trolls in the distance. They were using all sorts of unknown tools to fix a large rectangular machine. The conveyor belt attached to it was stationary.

  ‘What are you making here?’ she asked the obvious question.

  ‘Weapons, cures and everything in between,’ Gabriel replied.

  ‘How come the others didn’t find this?’

  ‘It was concealed from them.’

  ‘But wouldn’t they have heard all the noise down here?’

  ‘No. I designed this factory to remain hidden from our enemies during the war. Humans wouldn’t be able to find it.’ Ahead of them a pair o
f metallic doors awaited, Kimberly wondered what other things she would see within this alien base.

  ***

  ‘It is just a little bit further,’ her father informed her, as they walked by the skinned animal carcases hanging from the metal spikes attached to the cave roof. Sheridan looked back at the distorted energy field that had just walked through. It looked like a shimmering heat wave that you would see on a summer’s day, but it was actually a force field of some kind, which allowed for a breathable earth like atmosphere within the underground network of tunnels. The barrel of her handgun scanned the archways carved into the cave wall. All sorts of various rooms had been constructed. The doorways looked big enough for a human to walk through. Had the survivors built this place?

  ‘This doesn’t feel right,’ said Ryan, dragging his heels behind her.

  ‘Ignore him. It is just up ahead,’ said her father.

  Sheridan paused in a doorway, looking at a flat slab of rock constructed to look like some kind of table top. Pools of blood covered the floor. Metallic tools that looked more like torture devices were attached to hangers on the far wall. An aura of death hung over the whole place. It was the type of sensation that made your bones tingle and your stomach twist. Sheridan could feel that this place was off. The atmosphere didn’t feel right. If there were survivors in here, why hadn’t they come out to meet them? Why hadn’t they even heard a single sound?

  ‘I think we should head back,’ she said.

  ‘No!’ Her father protested angrily.

  ‘About fucking time,’ replied Ryan, clearly shitting himself.

  ‘If you go back now then it has all been for nothing,’ said her father.

  ‘I think we have enough evidence to arrest Omar.’

  ‘Good. Let’s just go.’