I used to want to save the world. Now I’d settle for just saving my family and myself.
We ran into the night, our breaths coming in short sharp gasps, hearts racing against the strain. An oppressive atmosphere of darkness began to overtake us inch by inch as we tried to out race it to shelter.
“What will we do once we reach the base?” Sean wheezed out. Neither one of us were used to this type of punishment. A little manual labor, sure, but this run for our lives stuff, no way.
“With the others waiting for us there, we should have time to plan, and they have news for us anyway”, I replied as I pressed a hand against the stitch in my side, trying to push an extra burst of speed into my legs.
My attention was snagged by a poster on an old telephone pole as I ran past it. The words “Help us, protectors” stood out to me in stark relief, the letters almost arranging themselves right in front of my eyes. What in the world? I thought as I almost stumbled to the ground when I tripped over my own feet. Sean grabbed a hold of my arm and pulled me along with him, keeping me from falling to the pavement until I could get my feet coordinated again.
“Be careful Sis, this isn’t the time to fall.”
There was no time to think about what I thought I saw as the base came into view; base being a loosely worded term as it was simply a friend’s medium sized brick house. Sean loudly called out “Open the door, we’re here!” as we ran up the walkway to the door.
I looked up to see Talina anxiously waiting for us to make it over the threshold. “Hurry, it’s almost on you!” she cried.
I dared a look behind me as we ran all out only to find it had indeed almost reached us – only a few precious inches were left. We got to the doorway and through it, Talina slamming the door, locking the deadbolt behind us.
“That was dangerously close,” said Talina as her blue eyes met mine. “Why weren’t you paying attention to the time?”
As I tried to catch my breath, Sean updated her. “We were helping Mom and Dad, so they didn’t have to take a chance at getting the stack of supplies over to the depot in time. We thought there would be enough time to make it there and back. The darkness came upon us earlier than we had expected and couldn’t get back home. That’s when we decided reaching the base would be faster.”
I watched Sean as my breath calmed and heart beat settled more towards the normal rate. My twin brother has such a responsible personality. We only helped our parents on his say so, I wasn’t so willing to chance the darkness. Yep, I’m officially a scaredy cat. If the world was other than it was today, he would probably be going into a public service job of some sort, helping humanity with their everyday struggles, and I’d be just an introverted game geek.
But the world is so vastly different today from the way it used to be. Not so long ago, everything was normal. People went about their everyday simple, or for some not so simple, lives, not realizing everything was going to change in an instant. That day, a little over 2 years ago, when morning became night and the sun had set completely, the real darkness began. Randomly, people who were out in it became akin to mindless. They could no longer talk, respond to anyone, or even care for their own selves in any given capacity. Anyone could be next, there was no rhyme or reason to it and the experts couldn’t figure out why some were spared and some weren’t. Wives were struck instead of husbands, sons instead of daughters.
As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, a few months ago, people began disappearing when the darkness came. Gone in the blink of an eye while you were watching them. Nobody was safe.
We don’t know what caused it yet, or how it came to be here, but we all have to live with it, we can’t stop it; we’ve tried everything. The scientists are the only ones left who might find a way to help humanity.
Looking around the entryway, I watched the other people there with us. Talina, our resident scientist, tall and sinfully beautiful with her blue eyes and jet black perfect straight hair. She was perfection on a stick. Chris, our military man, who only ever had eyes for Talina even though he was highly sought after by most of the female population. His blond stylish hair, arms wrapped in tattoos, and piercing brooding gray eyes make for a striking presentation. Wyatt, my best friend Kimmie’s beau since forever now, was almost six feet tall, lean and lanky with a swimmer body type – not that he’ll get anywhere near a large body of water ever since that fiasco at the pond…well that’s definitely getting off topic. Kimmie is my very best friend since grade school. Short in stature but so very tall in kindness and the sweetest person in the world. She doesn’t come across as much initially with her girl next door appearance, but then she opens her mouth and mesmerizes you with her voice. Ab-so-lute-ly stunning. Then you have Sean and myself, twins who look alike, are opposites in personality, but would do anything to protect each other and our friends and family.
I came out of my thoughts to realize that everyone was staring expectantly at me.
“What?” I asked defensively, trying to unobtrusively pat down my frizzy mess of a hairdo. Ok so I’m a little insecure, who isn’t? Insecure isn’t even the word Sasha… Shut up brain!
Sean laughed at my expression, joining in Kimmie’s giggles. “You weren’t paying attention at all were you? Talina asked you if the depot has enough supplies to last until next Wednesday because she will have some things to add to the next shipment if there’s room.”
“Oh! Yes they should be good until then. They seemed to have acquired a few more handfuls of people to care for and our parents wanted to make sure they got extra in to help tide them over until the next large shipment.”
“Ok good.” Talina started walking towards the kitchen. “Let’s get some food into you both. I’m sure neither of you have taken the time out for yourselves and eaten dinner. I don’t know what your parents were thinking, taking the risk by sending the two of you out. Well that’s neither here nor there, I’m glad you’re here I have some exciting news to tell you.”
Glancing at Sean, I smirked. “She knows us so well” I said as my stomach began to make itself heard – very loudly.
Linking his arm in mine he snickered, turning me towards the kitchen. “Come on Sis. Let’s get you something to tame that monster growl.”
While we ate quiet conversation moved around the room, everyone tactically agreeing to keep things light until we were finished which was perfect since running for my life sure made me starving! I still tried to get Talina to spill her exciting news, but that was like trying to shove a square peg into a round opening. Just. Not. Happening. So in the meantime we kept the banter as light and relaxing as possible.
We were eventually joined by others at the table as the news played softly on the television in the background. The large round table allowed us all to be facing each other, and made it easy to pass around information. It was the perfect planning room, probably the reason we all decided on Talina’s house as the base to begin with.
Everyone looked over at her as she cleared her throat and began to speak. “Ok, I know you’ve both been busy with your parents, so you may not have all the latest news. The Darkness has been appearing earlier and earlier ever since 3 days ago. The scientists don’t know what happened to make things change. No one has been able to measure exactly when to expect the next appearance; the time increments are all over the place and we can’t find a pattern yet. First it was 10 minutes, then it jumped to a couple of hours, then it’s down to maybe a couple of seconds’ difference.”
“Oh we noticed the time change. It almost caught us away from safety tonight!” Sean interrupted.
“But did you know, not only has it changed the time it appears, but what it does if it catches anyone out in it?”
Our shocked silence greeted that question.
Opening and closing my mouth a few times, I was finally able to spit out “What do you mean? What has been happening?”
Talina glanced around at everyone before continuing. “We were able to finally get some data about what happens to the people now that are caught out in the darkness.” She stopped there to let us stew over that.
Chris said gently “Stop making them wait, and tell them. I think we’ve all had enough dramatics lately.”
“Pfft. You always have to spoil my fun!”
Chris was too slow to get away as I punched him in the arm. “Ouch! That wasn’t gentle!”
“It wasn’t meant to be!” I told him and chuckled.
“Anyway, before Chris gets in a snit over me taking too long, I want to tell you what we found.” Everyone seemed to lean closer and closer, the anticipation building as we waited. Talina finally said “One of our trackers came back online after it was exposed to the darkness.”
Almost everyone began talking at once, voices getting louder to be heard over the other person. I glanced over at Sean and realized we were the only two people in the room not shouting out in surprise.
“What?! How is this possible?”
“Your instruments must be wrong!”
“Calm down people” I said but was stoically ignored. I looked over at the television screen to let them continue their tirade for a little while longer. The television had a newsbreak on, they were showing the typical protesters – it looked like the Pro group this time. The Pro group believes the darkness is the next evolution for humanity. I don’t know if they are any better than the group that believes Armageddon has come. The tv went to a snowy screen again as I shook my head at the protester signs saying to walk out into the darkness and let themselves go beyond this life. As I watched the fuzzy screen flicker, I could almost see something. Narrowing my eyes I tried to focus more on the white and black snow on the screen. I could see something at the edge of my vision – almost as if there were letters, then words printed in the fuzz. This is not possible. Staring intently at the television screen, my eyes narrowing further and my head tilted sideways, I began to make out letters and then the words:
P….r….o….t….e….c….t….o….r…s
….H….e….l….p…….U….s….
I stood up and walked absentmindedly over to where the television sat, my brother Sean looking over to see what had ensnared my attention. “How did....?” I began then trailed off.
“What’s up Sasha?” asked my brother, as he joined me in front of the television.
“I thought I saw words in the screen, but that can’t be possible, could it?” Staring into his green eyes, so much like mine it was uncanny, I wanted him to tell me I wasn’t going crazy. But you’re already crazy…...Shut up brain!
“There’s no way that happened Sasha, you’re losing it” he scoffed slightly at me.
Leave it to my twin to be sensitive and supporting to the max. Or was that to the min? Snickering to myself I saw the tv doing it again. “THERE!” I pointed and yelled loud enough to startle him and everyone else in the room, stopping all of the other conversations. Sean stared at the screen, tilting his head to one side then the other side as he squinted to try to glean what I was seeing.
“Nope, sorry Sasha, I just don’t see anything there. Have you been getting enough sleep?” he turned back to me and asked worriedly.
I have been sleeping a little badly lately, nightmares keeping me away from that restful state of sleep that replenishes your body for the coming day. I never remember what the dreams were about either. I just wake up drenched in sweat, heart racing and an overwhelming feeling of panic almost strong enough to make me run mindlessly into the night screaming. They started a few days ago. “I’ve been fine, why, are you having trouble sleeping?” I asked him in a quiet voice, wondering if I was all alone with these nightmares after all.
“No, I haven’t slept well at all. I keep dreaming but I don’t know what I’m dreaming about. I almost feel like I’m remembering things, then they slip away.” Solemn green eyes looked into mine, reading deep into my half of our shared soul. Or at least, that’s what it’s always felt like for the both of us. Growing up we could finish each other’s sentences, knew when the other was hurt or excited, even practically read each other’s minds. 20 years and we’ve never been separated for any length of time, never felt the need to be.
Me too Sean, me too, I thought. Were we both having the same dreams?
Kimmie chose that moment to get in between the both of us, grabbing each of our arms, startling me out of a vague uneasiness and brought me back to the present. “I almost forgot to tell you! I’m free to go with you to your place in the morning. We can get started on the plan for clearing the new building the Advisors needs so they can move the sick people into. They are overcrowding the current ones until we could get a handle on the darkness time changes.”
The Advisors, ugh. So full of themselves, thinking they know everything about everything. How did we get roped into this anyway? Oh yeah, Mom and Dad asked. Sigh….the things I do for my family. Sean laughed as I rolled my eyes skyward. He knew exactly what I was thinking.
“Ok, enough about my slow decent into craziness” I began.
“Ha! Who said it was slow?”
“Very funny Chris! As I was saying, back to what Talina was explaining about the tracker coming online after it was exposed to the darkness. We need more information to take home to everyone there, please continue.”
She gave me a quirk of lips that was almost a smile. She seemed to be enjoying shocking everyone with her news. “We managed to get a tracker on a Pro-Darkness volunteer that was scheduled to be exposed last night so we could try to gather more data on what is happening, if we could. The tracker went offline for a count of 25 seconds the moment the volunteer disappeared, but suddenly went back online. We couldn’t go after it of course until morning hit, but as soon as it was light out a few of the crew went to retrieve it. They found the tracker… somewhat disheveled.”
“Um, what exactly do you mean by that?” Sean wondered.
“Here let me show you.” She got up from the table and went to another room to retrieve the tracker. Everyone’s eyes flitted around the table but no one broke the silence while we waited for Talina to return.
Just as the tension had built to a breaking point, she came back with a mangled something in her hand. Reaching across Chris, she set it on the table so we all could see what shape it was in.
“You were able to get a signal from that….that thing?” Kimmie’s voice rose in pitch as it sank in how messed up the equipment was. “Holy smoke in a can!”
Quiet laughter joined mine around the table, Kimmie’s unconscious attempt at easing the tension a success.
“Yes, it was weak, but it was there. Now for the strangest part – the software on the tracker was altered. It looks like someone, or something changed it.” Talina’s blue eyes met mine as I thought that through to the conclusion she was waiting for.
“You’re saying you believe all those people that were caught out in the darkness are actually altered in some fundamental way, like human re-programming?” Sean’s question was greeted by complete and utter shocked silence around the room for a count of two heartbeats, then all hell broke loose. My head flitted from one person trying to be heard to the next. I couldn’t make heads or tails out of anything they were saying, it all jumbled together.
“Everyone quiet!” Chris’ deep strong voice didn’t need to yell to make himself heard above the cacophony of noise, and all eyes turned towards him. “Now, if we need to start raising hands like you did in school just say the word, but I thought we were all adults here. Well, the twins are barely out of school, but we’ll admit them to the club.” That brought a releasing round of laughter, if only it wasn’t at my expense.
“Ha-Ha Mr. Funny Man.” I scowled at Chris.
“Only teasing Sasha, you know we love you both. In all seriousness though, I know everyone wants clarification, so lets all let Talina finish.”
“Thank you Chris.” Talina’s soft smile lit up her face and Chris’ reaction made my heart melt a little.
“To answer your question Sean, yes, that was exactly what I was getting at earlier. Our brains run like an extremely complex and vast software program and I believe someone or something is trying to alter the programming….but I can’t tell if it’s meant to be beneficial for us or not. It’s entirely possible someone is just trying in their own way to communicate with us, they could be figuring out how to control us, or even worse, possibly annihilate us. Right now with the data we have so far, it’s too soon to tell you one way or the other what’s happening and what their intentions are.”
“Ok then what do you need from us?” Kimmies’ face had an unusually somber look. She was such a normally happy go lucky type of person it was strange to not see a smile on her face.
“There are several things I need help with, and it will take all of you working together to achieve what’s needed.” Talina glanced at each of us in turn to make her point crystal clear. “You will all need to pair up for this, so there is always someone spotting for you.”
“Kimmie’s with me!”
“We know Wyatt” everyone said together. I rolled my eyes as I said “It’s me and Sean, Wyatt and Kimmie, Chris and Talina…..duh obviously.” Barely out of school is right…..shut up brain!
Talina smiled around the room “Alright then people, lets track down some information with what we know now, or are at least guessing at better. Well, make that in the morning, I’m beat and need some rest before I begin.”
As people left the room to go get some rest before the new day dawned, Sean came over to me.
“Do you have any idea where to start tomorrow Sasha?”
“I sure do. Lets get some sleep, it’s been quite a day.” I hugged Sean and Kimmie goodnight and found my way to a bed. It didn’t take long to get ready since I was wiped out from everything that’s been happening, and the emotional roller coaster I’d been on the last few days. My last thought before my head hit the pillow and I was out for the count was to wish to be nightmare-free tonight.