The Long Dark

by Billy Farmer

  “What is your name?”

  “Oliv… Olivia,” she said, crying.

  “You think you know who has my things?”

  “Yes…” She said, crying. “It’s either – It’s either Jack or Aadesh. They were the only ones outside the Commons… when you people showed up.”

  “Tell them how afraid you are.”

  Olivia pleaded with us to bring them their things. That’s probably all that is needed to be said about that. She can’t be held accountable for what all she was forced to say.

  “If they haven’t brought me my things by the time you count to thirty, I am going to kill you. Okay?”

  “No… please,” Olivia begged.

  “COUNT!”

  Olivia reached thirty. The woman was good for her word. She shot Olivia. I fell to the floor, unable to watch any longer.

  I don’t remember much after that. There was yelling, and maybe more gunshots. There might’ve even been more executions. I didn’t really think about anything else. I just remember staring into the darkness. There wasn’t much effort needed for that. Just look. Accept it. Move on.

  I settled into a quiet meditation. In it all, I lost track of time. An hour might’ve passed. It could’ve been a week for all I knew. I just remember things being quiet after a time. No snorts, sniffs, cries, or other things fortunate people never hear. Just me and the dark silence of being alone.

  ***

  Snapping to attention, I heard footsteps outside the lean-to. Quiet footsteps. They were the kind of steps someone took when he was hiding from something. The footsteps stopped directly in front of me. I heard fingers probing the same places mine did earlier. Someone knew about the fake wall. Maybe someone told them about it. I slowly raised the gun up to fire.

  The door slid open. “Don’t move,” I said.

  “Oh shit, man!”

  I knew instantly who it was. Shit. “Aadesh, I almost killed you.”

  “If I knew how to shoot dis damn ting, I would have most certainly tried to kill you also,” he said.

  “Get in here.”

  “I am wery glad to see you, Jack. Eweryone is dead. It is derrible oud dere… all our dead friends.”

  “We should probably be quiet.” I paused for a moment. “But I’m glad you’re alive, Aadesh.”

  “I believe dey have all left the premises. I heard wehicles being starded, and dem moving away wery quickly. I am not sure to where, dough.”

  “I didn’t hear any of that… I just... What are you doing, man?”

  He walked over to the wall and retrieved something. He then lit it up. “I am glad I lefd dis in here--”

  “Put it out,” I yelled. “The sniffers will smell it… and we’ll--”

  “Chill, bro. I’ll put it oud,” Aadesh said, taking a long hit before throwing it to the ground and stomping on it.

  After several moments of awkward silence, he was ready to talk again. I wasn’t. “Dey killed eweryone but us…” his voice shook, and I thought he was going to cry.

  “Aadesh, bro… I can’t talk about this right now, okay?”

  He coughed and spat. “I’m sorry. But it is horrible, Jack – wery horrible. Why would dey do dad?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Jim tried to hide in the drill shack…” He stopped.

  I looked at him. “I know you need to talk about this, but I can’t. Not right now, anyway.”

  “Okay.”

  Aadesh had a terrible chemical smell to him that was making me sick and dizzy. “Dude, you’re flammable. I can’t believe you lit that joint.”

  “I am wery sorry I didn’t dink before I lid id. Our friends were murdered.”

  I deflected away from our friends. I couldn’t think about it. “Did you hide in the mud pits?”

  Looking down he shook his head and told me how he climbed into the mud pits in the drill shack to hide from the attackers.

  He was freezing. He was soaked and needed to get dry and warm very quickly or things were going to be very bad for him. Until that point, I hadn’t even realized how much I was shaking. “I’ll go to the supply room in the Commons. That’s where the kerosene is. We’ll get warm and figure out our next move. Are you sure they’re gone?”

  “I heard a woman yelling at someone on a phone or radio or someding. I did nod know whad dey were saying, but dey were raising dere voices with one anoder. It was right after dat when dey left the premises. Dey left wery quickly and were not happy to have done so.”

  “There are some blankets on Sam’s cot. Wrap yourself up, and I’ll be back as quickly as I can with the kerosene.”

  “Is dat a good idea?”

  “We’ll find out, won’t we?

  Shivering, he said, “Okay.”

  ***

  On the way over to the Commons, I made sure to give the area where I thought Olivia and the others had been executed a wide berth, but there was no way of escaping the carnage of what had happened. There were at least ten bodies scattered not thirty yards from the lean-to. One of them was face down in the snow, with his rear end sticking up. I didn’t see Olivia, but I knew she was there.

  Upon entering the Commons, I was greeted with just enough light from the two still burning kerosene heaters to see the shadowy forms making up the macabre scene inside. Bodies were everywhere, all of which were lying in one life-snuffed-out pose or another. Near the supply room, which I had locked to keep people from getting at the kerosene, there was a clump of bodies just outside. As I fumbled trying to find the correct key, I refused to think about why there were so many bodies just outside the door. I knew, of course, they were almost certainly trying to hide in the supply room, but I didn’t let myself dwell on it at the time. I would do enough of the dwelling later.

  I quickly hand-pumped enough kerosene to fill the small container and was on my way back to the lean-to when I heard what I was sure was moaning to my left. In a room full of stillness, you notice movement. A man stirred just a few feet away. I turned the lamp to its lowest setting and moved cautiously to where he was lying. I didn’t recognize him, and instantly regretted not bringing the rifle with me. “Who are you?” I asked.

  He began to speak but stopped, grabbed his stomach, and coughed mucous all over himself and me. After the coughing had subsided, he began to speak, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. After another fit of coughing he spoke again. This time in English. “I couldn’t do it,” he said, repeatedly.

  “Couldn’t do what?”

  “I couldn’t kill for the Order.”

  “Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about, bro. What the hell is the Order?”

  “You have to leave. I’m going to turn… they, made me drink it.” He began coughing again.

  “I don’t understand--”

  “You have to go. NOW!” he yelled. “Don’t you understand,” he began to sob, “I’m going to turn.”

  “Why… Why did you have to kill my friends?”

  He opened his mouth like he was going to speak. Before he could say anything he began to retch violently, the back of his head pounded the floor in sickening fleshy thuds. A geyser of vomit erupted from his mouth. He began to choke on his own rancid liquids. I tried to turn his head, but it was locked in place, his muscles so tight the skin on his neck was pulled up in tight furrows. Not knowing what else to do, I pulled him to his side, hoping to keep him from choking to death. The choking stopped, but for whatever reason, he still couldn’t breathe.

  I let him fall to his back. His head pointed towards the ceiling, but his terrified eyes sought mine as he gasped for air that wouldn’t come. His face began to turn an odd shade of gray. Don’t die, I thought. I needed answers. And then he went still. His terrified eyes closed. His body seemed to relax.

  “You can’t die, dammit,” I said aloud.

  I moved closer, trying to hear any signs of breathing. My face was mere inches from his when his eyes jerked open. The lack of oxygen had also damaged his eyes. They were t
errible to look at, gray and lifeless. I yelped as his hand grabbed my hood and pulled me so close I could feel (and smell) whiffs of breath carrying inaudible rasps of unformed words. I fought to get away from him, but his vice-like grip wouldn’t give. He was trying to tell me something. “Don’t drink… water… Ruuun,” he finally managed, before falling completely still and lifeless.

  The Commons was completely still. I could hear and feel my heart beating out of my chest. For me, in that dreadful instant, there was a reckoning. That not only had my friends been brutally murdered for a reason I couldn’t explain, something else much more ominous loomed in the cold darkness of that night. I might not have known what it was, but I somehow knew it was out there. I shivered as I took one last look at the man who had created more questions than answers. I grabbed my things and began walking towards the lean-to.

  When I entered, Aadesh was pacing feverishly. “Jesus Christ, man, I didn’t dink you were coming back.”

  “Sorry.” I began trying to pour the kerosene into the heater, but my hands were shaking so badly most of it ended up in the floor.

  “What is wrong,” Aadesh said, his teeth chattering.

  I looked at him like, like dude, really. I then pushed the igniter button on the heater. There was a poof sound and then glorious heat filled the room, as I cranked the heater up to full blast. Something felt good, at least.

  “Jack?”

  I showed him my shaking hands. “It’s bad.”

  Aadesh nodded. “Derrible.”

  “One of the attackers was still alive.”

  “Did you have to--?”

  “No. I think they poisoned him. Apparently, he didn’t have the stomach for killing our people.”

  “Too bad de others did.”

  “We have to leave.”

  “We do nod have a wehicle, Jack.”

  I nodded. “The problem isn’t leaving. I have an idea for that. The problem is finding where we need to go.”

  Aadesh walked over to one of the delivery bays and began to point. “We know in which direction Barrow lies. If we direct ourselves on the course in which I currently point, we will come upon Barrow or some close vicinity dereof.”

  “Yeah, but how do we stay on the correct heading?”

  “I don’t know ewerything. I know dat is,” again pointing with his index finger, “roughly da correct heading. Dat is all I know, okay.”

  “We have no choice. After we warm up for a bit, we’ll go see if there’s any juice in the battery Avery used to fire up the heater. If there is, we’ll try to take the front-end loader.”

  “Da one dat is used to clean the Patch of snow?”

  “Yes.”

  “I believe it only has seating for one, correct?”

  “We’ll put you in the bucket.” He looked at me skeptically. “Do you know how to drive it?”

  “No. But I’m not sure I want to ride in de bucket.”

  “Well, there is always walking?”

  “I’ll ride in de bucket.”

  ***

  We went about the task of getting everything together we thought we needed, including the ten blankets Aadesh believed necessary for him to not freeze to death. Whatever, I thought. If that kept him from griping, and we could fit the other things in there, he could take whatever he thought he needed.

  I had the battery in the loader and was ready to give it a try. The lights switched on. That was a good sign. I turned the key, and a plume of smoke came out of the stack as it came to life on the first try. "I'll be damned," I said out loud, “the damn thing runs!” Aadesh gave me the thumbs up, and he began to quickly load things into the bucket. I had the rifle and the bag I took from the man plus a few odds and ends in the cab with me. Everything else, including Aadesh’s rifle, was with him.

  I oriented the bucket a few feet off the ground and in such a manner that he could lie down without worrying about rolling out. I did a quick check of my gear in the cab and was getting ready to put the front loader in gear when I saw someone moving towards the driver’s door. I was getting ready to let Aadesh know how stupid it was to get out of the bucket without letting me know when I noticed it wasn’t Aadesh.

  Instead, it was the guy I found sick in the Commons, except he didn’t seem to be sick anymore... not exactly, anyway. His head moved in crazy directions as he came closer and closer to the cab. “Fuck this,” I said out loud while also closing the door. Without warning, the guy began trying to get to me in the cab. Luckily for me, he wasn't coordinated enough to climb the three steps necessary to access the door, or smart enough to reach for the door handle that was easily within reach of his grasping hands. All he could manage to do was pound with his fists on the bottom of the door.

  I switched the loader into gear and goosed the gas. We lurched forward. I saw Aadesh now standing up in the bucket and pointing ahead of us. His eyes were wide with fear. I pointed to the guy pounding on the cab door. He waved and pointed frantically ahead, ignoring the seemingly bigger problem I was dealing with. I put my hands in the air letting him know I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. Then I saw exactly what he was talking about.

  Through the powerful lights of the loader, I could see figures slowly emerging from the dark. First one and then two, three, and finally I lost count at ten. The leading edge of the group was almost on Aadesh, and he was making sure I knew how bad of a predicament he was in. He also made sure to let me know, because of his highly animated gestures, that he wanted to get the hell out of the bucket. I yelled for him to “Stay in the fucking bucket!” I then raised it up several feet in the air, out of their reach. His wide eyes relaxed, albeit only slightly.

  I don’t know why, but I tried to reason with the dude pounding on the cab door. “Get the hell away,” I said, gesticulating that he should move away from the rear wheel that was coming very close to squishing him. His big, black eyes never broke their perpetual lock with mine and, undeterred, he continued pounding until he was simply not able to match the pace of the front loader. His gray face contorted as he fell away from view, and his body was a scant hindrance to the big wheels as he passed under.

  I turned my attention to the other attackers, while also slowly increasing the speed of the loader. One of them was quick fodder for the front left wheel. Another spun in circles, confused about what he should be doing. Some of the others were simply too slow to react to the loader as we sped by. There were two of them, though, who managed to time things correctly and jump on both the right and left front fenders, in something that seemed way too coordinated for my liking.

  The one on my left was especially adept. In a couple motions, he used one of the steps of the cab as a foot peg, leaping off it and landing squarely on the fender. The one on my right, although in a much less agile manner, grasped onto the fender and willed himself up.

  I remember their gray faces vividly. There was evil intent in their eyes. While they didn't exactly look inhuman, they looked just enough different that I wasn’t going to be too upset if they also found themselves under the big wheels of the loader, especially since the one on the left was now trying to climb the bucket arm up to where Aadesh was.

  I pantomimed that he should use the gun he had to try to shoot the Sniffer nearest to him. He looked confused as hell. The idea of actually using the gun to shoot someone seemed to hit home hard. He fumbled with the rifle. The other Sniffer was stuck on the fender, not sure of what he should do next. We would concentrate on the other one first, assuming Aadesh didn’t shoot himself in the process.

  With one hand on the control throttle, and the left side of my right foot pressing down on the seat so the safety switch wouldn’t cut the engine, I opened the cab door and yelled out to Aadesh. “Shoot him, dammit!”

  The Sniffer looked at Aadesh, then back at me before settling on the closest target, Aadesh. He went back to trying to find a way to get him.

  At least by that point Aadesh was holding the rifle in a firing position. The gray was close enoug
h that he could just put the tip of the barrel on the Sniffer’s head and fire. He got part of that correct. He used the tip of the barrel to poke the Sniffer. Except that he couldn’t put enough force behind it to dislodge him from the arm.

  “Shoot him!” I yelled.

  Finally, a shot was fired, and the Sniffer fell to the ground. Aadesh had shot him in what looked like his neck. Wherever he hit him, he was now off the loader. Aadesh, looking very pale, ejected a vomitus spray, followed by a long string of words I wasn’t sure made any sense at all. I couldn’t make sense of them, anyway. Besides, I was still worried about the Sniffer who was somehow still managing to ride out the rough terrain on the fender.

  I serpentined the loader, trying make him fall off, but he was holding on for dear life. With all my attention being paid to the hitchhikers, I hadn’t noticed the lights approaching quickly from behind us. Aadesh’s eyes got wide again. He saw the truck speeding to my left, going way faster than he should have been on the ice. The window was down and the man had a gun aimed in our direction.

  Luckily for us, the truck was going too fast and the driver hit a snow bank, which caused the shots to go high. The big diesel nearly spun out of control, before the driver managed to correct his steering. They were behind us again and preparing for another pass. Aadesh, to his credit, had his rifle up and ready to fire, and I was preparing to shoot mine as well. I kept my foot on the gas, while I let the loader go wherever its misaligned steering led us, leaving my hands free to fire the weapon.

  The truck caught up to us again. Aadesh held the rifle close to his face, trying to line a shot up with the scope. He fired once and fell back into what I hoped was the bucket. I didn't see him fall to the ground and I didn't think he was shot, I just knew I didn't see him. The guy in the truck fired several shots, most of which looked to be in Aadesh's direction.

  In that same time, I had my gun aimed at the door of the man firing at Aadesh. They didn't seem to think I was a threat, or maybe they didn't see that I had a weapon. I pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. "What the shit," I yelled, panicking. I couldn’t figure out how to make the damn thing work, and the darkness of the cab made it nearly impossible to see. I cried out in anger. The gunman was now firing unchallenged. The cab erupted. The glass in the cab was shattered. Some of the shards stuck my in the neck.