We kept moving along, each step taking us closer to the dim light. The smell got more potent as we neared the ledge, an acrid sulfur smell that threatened to bring tears to my eyes. My throat started to stuff up, and each breath was harder to push through.
“We should stop,” I said, but Mary kept going. Slate set a hand on my chest, and I coughed, a burning sensation filling my lungs as I did so.
“It’s lava!” she called back. “We’re in a volcano. Or on one.”
“On one?” Slate called.
“Look up!” Mary’s words hit us, and we both gazed toward the roof, only there was no roof. We could see that now, under the dim glow of the lava down below. I could make out a few twinkles in the distance.
“We’re outside.” I was surprised. It was so dark. “What did the Theos say?”
“Stop the dark, I think,” Slate said.
Mary was back beside us. “Bring them light. End the dark. Only then will you move on. That’s what they said.”
“Bring who the light?” I asked, knowing we didn’t have that answer.
“That’s what we’re going to find out, but I have a feeling ‘they’ aren’t beside this volcano. Let’s go the opposite way.” Mary took the lead.
“Have you ever seen such a black night?” I asked them both.
“Never. I remember being in the middle of the desert in the war. No cities for a hundred miles in any direction. Clouds were so thick, we hadn’t seen the sun in days. One night out there was terrible enough to make an atheist a praying man. This is bringing it all back.” Slate’s eyes were wide as they darted around.
“The goggles,” I suggested. “Let’s try them on.”
I took one of the pairs and slid them over my head. The lenses formed against my face, just like the underwater breathing mask had done.
It took them a moment, but the surroundings became visible. “Turn your lights off,” I said, and soon Mary’s and Slate’s jumpsuit lights flicked off, leaving us blacked out. The goggles activated, illuminating the people around me in a green light, much like night vision. Slate’s and Mary’s eyes looked dark, their skin a pale green.
“Let me try,” Slate said. He put the other pair on, and I visibly saw the relief on his face when he could see.
“Too bad we only have two,” Mary said.
The ground was dark, flat, bare. I didn’t see anything but rock near us. “You can have my set,” I said, about to take them off.
“It’s fine. Lead the way, and I’ll take a turn later.” Mary smiled, and I stretched out my hand, feeling her fingers grab mine. I kissed her lips then, the salty taste of sweat and energy bar still on them. I leaned in and whispered in her ear. She patted my chest with her other hand. “I love you too, Dean Parker. Just don’t lead me over a cliff.”
“Right about now, I’d like to lead you home.” We began walking away from the lava, the overpowering scent dissipating more with every step.
Fifteen
“We need to find somewhere to camp.” I stopped, looking around the barren wasteland for signs of shelter. We’d been walking for hours, and in my head, I kept expecting a sun to rise, giving us daylight, but it didn’t change. The darkness was perpetual on this black world.
My feet were aching, the socked padding of the jumpsuit not enough to keep my arches free from rocks and debris. The other two hadn’t complained yet, so I shoved my own grievances down deep.
The lower half of my legs and feet were covered in gray film. It was ash, we’d decided. The few tree-like plants we’d passed were dead, no signs of life left in them. This world was depressing.
Bring them light. The phrase started playing in my mind on a loop, until I was humming a tune to go along with it. I wondered if the other two were hearing it too, but I didn’t want to ask. I didn’t want to make it real.
“This place is getting to me,” Mary said. Her hand was still on the small of my back, letting me lead her, since she couldn’t see a thing. She said her sight had acclimated just enough to see us as blobs and the ground as a slightly different shade of black. “It’s like being in my grandparents’ cellar. My grandma would keep her canned goods and preserves in there and said there couldn’t be any light. The door had a seal around it, and there was no window. I remember playing hide and seek with a cousin one day, and I got stuck inside. I couldn’t see a thing, even after squinting in the dark for what seemed like forever.”
“How old were you?” Slate asked.
“Maybe six. I never went near that room again. Grandpa said the door seals acted like a vacuum or something.”
We kept moving, happy to have some stories as a distraction from the monotonous journey. I kept looking for somewhere to stop and began to worry we’d never find what we were looking for on the planet. That we’d run out of our measly food and water before figuring it out. “Anyone else feel that?”
“Feel what?” Slate asked.
I decided to be honest with them. “The despair. The second-guessing every move. I’m losing grip over here and it’s only been a couple hours.”
“I feel it.” This from Mary.
“Me too,” Slate said quietly. “Let’s stop for a while. There’s a place we can shelter.” He pointed to a spot a hundred yards to our right, and I saw a rocky outcropping and a few tall dead trees. It was better than being out in the open.
Soon we were laying out our few possessions. Slate found a tarp at the bottom of the pack, and he made a crude shelter. It wasn’t raining, but every now and then, we felt ash falling from the sky and preferred to keep it from landing on us while we slept.
We removed our goggles and used the LEDs now, making it easier for Mary. I actually felt some of the cloud over my brain lift as I took the night vision off. Mary and I spent ten minutes dismantling a dried-out dead tree beside us before stacking it and making pieces of it into kindling with a folding knife out of Slate’s jumpsuit pocket.
“Good thing someone had the foresight to bring a knife and lighter,” I said. “We really need to stop leaving supplies at every world we visit. We’ll be naked by the time we end up meeting the Theos.”
I expected at least a chuckle at this, but the two just solemnly kept working. With the shelter done, Slate came over and lit the small pieces of wood, and I gave a small cheer as it caught, sending smoke into the air as the rest of the kindling took. It felt so much better to have something as simple as a fire and a shelter. I was starting to think more clearly.
“We may have gone too far.”
“Coming to this world or our recent walk?” Mary asked, and both were reasonable guesses.
“The Theos wouldn’t likely make us walk for hours and days to accomplish a goal, would they?”
“Atrron wasn’t that close, but we had our scooters. They wouldn’t have known that we weren’t on foot.” Slate poked idly at the fire, which was now crackling as the timber burned.
I hadn’t thought about that. “But at least on foot, we still would’ve seen the ball of orange leaves in the distance. Here, we can’t see anything. There has to be a sign. I think we’ve missed it.”
“You could be right, boss. Do we double back?” Slate asked.
Mary shook her head. It was nice to see them again with the light of the fire. Mary looked tired, and I tried to imagine we were back home at New Spero, sitting by our firepit. I almost checked my lap to see if Maggie was in it. I found myself missing my new little dog. She’d given us her love so freely, and all I did was continuously leave her behind. At least she was with her family. With Carey.
Emotions threatened to overwhelm me, and I turned from the other two, wiping my eyes. What was going on? This place was getting to me more than I knew.
“Let’s call it a night and figure it out in the morning. Or whatever time of day it’ll be,” Mary answered.
“You two go ahead. I’ll take first watch,” Slate said.
“Do you think a watch is necessary?” I asked.
“Strange dark alien wo
rld that feeds on your insecurities and makes you a little crazy in the head? Yeah, I’d say we could use someone on watch. Besides, I’m a little wired right now. I’ll come wake you in a few hours, boss. Then we can trade off.”
I agreed, and Mary and I headed into our tarped-off lean-to.
“I don’t like it here,” she said after we lay down, our heads resting on the folded pack.
“I know the feeling. We can start with fresh minds tomorrow. Love you.” I kissed her quickly and felt her left arm and leg drape over me in our normal sleeping position. Before I knew it, her breaths were coming slower and deeper, and I let her sounds carry me to sleep.
____________
I bolted upright in alert. Mary rolled off me. “What is it?” she asked, panic thick in her voice.
“I don’t know. Shhhh.” I strained my ears, trying to hear the noise again. I really hoped it had just been a dream.
A few seconds later, and I could hear Slate moving around by the fire. The only other noise I could make out was the soft cracking of a mature fire.
“I think you were dreaming,” Mary said, urging me back down from my sitting position.
“You’re probably right…” I didn’t finish before a screech rang through the air.
“What the hell was that?” Mary asked, getting up herself. We exited the tarped area and found Slate standing at ready with a pulse rifle tight in his grip. He passed the other one over to me, and Mary reached for the Theos bow, activating the string with the touch of a button.
Firelight danced over us as we stood still as statues, waiting for the sound again, or any signs of movement. The scream carried to us once more, this time sounding like it came from another direction.
“We’re surrounded,” Slate said matter-of-factly.
A rustling sound was coming toward us, and I felt the grip of the rifle dig into my palm as I held it up high, ready to fire. Another screech, but much farther away than the noise coming at us. Slate looked poised as he scanned the area, but we were unable to see far with the muted light of our fire. It was like the whole world sucked any light into oblivion.
More noise, like boots on pavement coming at us. “It’s coming.” The quiet words escaped my lips.
The steps stopped just outside our light’s range. “What do you want?” Mary asked, knowing whatever it was, it wouldn’t understand her.
Words flowed back to us, clearly in an unknown language of chirps and clicks. The translator back under the shelter relayed it to us. I hadn’t even known one of them was still activated. The words were choppy, as if it was deciding what was being said. All I made out was… “light. Turn off light.”
“Light?” Slate asked. Another loud scream hit my ears, this time closer than before.
“I don’t think whatever is right over there,” I pointed beyond the firelight, “is the cause of the wail. I think it’s telling us to put out the fire. It’s drawing in the creature.”
“Crap, you’re probably right.” Slate and I set to extinguishing the fire, using ash and a few logs to bash it out. We had no liquid to spare, so it took longer than we wanted. I heard a few more sporadic words translate, including light and good.
Another wail from the watching creature hit my ears, and I cringed with the ferocity of it. I didn’t want to meet whatever was making that sound.
When there was nothing but the tiny glow of burning embers left, footsteps approached. I threw on the goggles and held my rifle in my sweating hands. The green vision came into focus, and I nearly fell back when I saw the local in front of me. It was over six feet tall, multiple wide eyes staring back at me from a flat face. There were just holes where our noses would be, and a thin slit for a mouth. It was hairless, and when I looked down, I saw it had six legs.
It quickly brought to mind a man mixed with a spider, much like a centaur was a person’s upper half sitting on a horse. It was an uneasy sight, and I explained what I was seeing to Mary and Slate. Soon Mary was standing beside me, with Slate’s borrowed goggles on her face. She had the translator with her, and she spoke.
“What is it?” she asked, the translator relaying her words into clicks. The being’s eyes widened, and it chirped back.
“Darkness,” it said, then, “Come.” It turned, and we gathered up all our stuff to follow behind. As we packed, a few more screeches bellowed through the flat landscape, and we were ready in record time. All signs of sleepiness were washed from my previously foggy brain, and I wanted nothing more than to find a portal and hop back to New Spero.
“Boss,” Slate said quietly in my ear, so Mary wouldn’t hear. His left hand gripped the shoulder of my jumpsuit. “Stay close. I don’t like the dark.”
“I will.”
The alien moved nimbly, and we had to power walk to keep up with it. Slate stumbled a few times, but I was there for him to hold himself upright.
“Where’s it taking us?” Slate asked.
Mary repeated his question with the translator. The response was short and sweet: “Safety.”
“Safety from what?” Mary asked.
What we got back was a series of quick clicks that didn’t translate.
“So much for knowing what’s making those screams out there,” Slate said.
“It might be better not knowing,” I said, starting to sweat now as we trudged along in the dark, my legs and shoes covered in a thick black stain of ash.
“Why do I feel like we’re going to find out what’s out there before this stop on our Theos chase is over?” Mary asked, likely not expecting an answer. I hoped she was wrong, but I had to admit my gut agreed with her.
I couldn’t see too far in the distance, as the night vision range was limited, and ash continued to rain down on us in a constant flow, making the visibility even worse.
Another screech rang out, this time from behind us, and much closer than before. “Boss, I don’t like this.” I looked back at my wide-eyed friend. He was normally as tough as a rock, and as infallible, and it was unnerving to see him scared. Everyone had a weakness. His was the dark. I was about to take off my goggles and pass them over to him when the six-legged alien stopped in its tracks. It turned to us, chittering lightly.
“Silent,” came the translator.
We all stood still, making no sound but our anxious breathing. The creature turned away again and starting walking quickly, not saying a word, just trusting we would tag along.
I looked past him and had a hard time controlling my reaction. On the edge of my green vision were hundreds of insect eyes glowing back at me.
“I hope those are its friends,” I said, my voice shaking. I’d never liked spiders. Even as a curious little boy, I was terrified of them. Growing up on an acreage, we had our fair share of large jewel spiders hanging their hats on our sheds and barn in the autumn. My father tried to explain their value to the ecosystem, but all I saw were small fuzzy monsters. Now I was seeing huge fuzzy monsters with faces, and a lot of them. Not only that, it seemed there was an even greater threat coming up behind us. It was either go with the horde of spider aliens or take our chances in the dark with a screaming devil we hadn’t seen yet.
“Slate, what do you think?” I whispered and turned my head to hear his response. He wasn’t there.
“Slate!” I called out and instantly received a scream from the darkness behind us.
“Where is he?” Mary asked, her bow unslung.
Before I could think of what a bad idea it was, I ran back to where we’d come, my rifle held up, ready to fire at anything that wasn’t Slate. “Slate!” I called again, getting no answer.
“Dean, over here,” Mary called from my right. I sprinted to her side and saw what she’d found: Slate’s pulse rifle. I picked it up, holding it in my left hand. Despair at bringing him there threatened to take over, and I had to isolate the thought from my mind. We would find him.
Our six-legged friend hurried to our side. “Come. Come,” its chits translated.
The screaming monster b
ellowed again, this time from farther away. It had Slate.
Sixteen
“Right smack dab in the nest.” I sat in the darkness of our hosts’ underground tunnels. We’d followed the Raanna, as the translator told us they were called. It could be a bad translation, but it was good to be able to think of their species as something other than “spider-monster.”
“We need to get out there and find Slate,” Mary said, echoing my thoughts.
“What are they waiting for?” I asked, for the fourth or fifth time. Dozens of the Raanna scurried around through the pitch-black corridors, and we watched them pass by the doorway to the large hall we were in.
Mary held my hand, an act that felt out of place in our current situation, but comforting at the same time. We were both nearly sick to our stomach at the loss of Slate, but the Raanna assured us they could help.
“I’m getting tired of sitting here.” I got up and called to the creatures as they passed the doorway. “Excuse me! Excuse me!” My translator spit out their words, and a couple stopped, looked in the room but kept moving. Back against the wall, I slid back down to the ground beside Mary and waited.
It was only a few minutes later that a group of six Raanna entered the room and beckoned us. They must have understood we had goggles on that allowed us to see in the dark. Did they think our eyes really looked like that? Round bulbous goggles? Maybe they thought of us as being insectoid like themselves. Maybe that was why they were helping us. I’d been so preoccupied with the oddness of the whole adventure that I hadn’t seen it on their eyes. They were also wearing protection on their faces.
“Your eyes. Do the covers allow you to see?” I asked.
“See in dark. Once live above,” one of them said. This one had a large scar across his face that ran down to his chest. I got a good look at them now, trying to understand the biology of the aliens. Their six legs were hairy and thin like a spider’s, but their top halves were very much humanoid. Two thicker arms jutted out at their shoulders, and the scarred one was missing his left hand.
The Survivors: Books 1-6 Page 75
