DARK
(C)opyright 2006 By Mark Edward Linehan
Standing in the middle of madness, I couldn't help but think to myself how lucky we were that it was so late. Traffic had thinned out after midnight on the night that the world died. Two cars had collided as every vehicle around stalled simultaneously. A jeep had collided recklessly into a small compact that was unlucky enough to be in front of it. The force of the collision had sent both cars spiraling and rolling wildly off the bridge, seeming to leap intentionally over the jersey barriers and vanishing into the black. From all around my car I could hear the sounds of vehicles skidding into each other. I braced myself for impact as I brought my car to a fast, but hopefully safe, stop. No ensuing jerk into my seat told me that I had got off easy. From the sound of it, you would have thought all the cars in Boston had started a demolition derby.
The wind was cold enough to bite through my overcoat as I climbed out of my station wagon. Being at the crest of the Mystic river bridge didn't help matters much either. It immediately struck me how exceptionally dark the world had become. I wasn't able to see Boston to the north or Revere to the south. Where there should have been a bright radiant skyline, was a mass of vague murky shapes looming up against a moonlit horizon. A chill unexpectedly ran down my spine and I wasn't sure if it was the cold or the sudden feeling of helplessness that swept over me. As I peered out upon the world from the Tobin bridge it seemed as if God had thrown a switch and turned off the modern world.
A young, terrified looking couple wandered out of the obscurity in front of me. "What's happening?" The girl asked of no one in particular. Her boyfriend pulled the girl close and they ended up standing directly in front of me, just staring dumbfounded.
"Any idea what's going on?" The young guy asked me. He tried to sound calm but made a poor job of it. I heard the same shakiness in his voice that I was feeling inside of myself. I noticed other people wandering from the surrounding dark as well. Everyone seemed to be congregating towards the peak of the bridge. The young girl was looking at me expectantly. The look I was getting made me think they had some bizarre notion that I might have some answers. I assume that looking much older than they were, they just instinctively looked to me for some sort of guidance.
I just sighed. "No." I mean there really wasn't much else I could have said at that point. I was in as much shock as they were. The girl, visually shaken, seemed to be in the worst state of the small group gathering together. Tears were streaming down her round cheeks catching what little moonlight there was. Her eyes were pleading for answers.
"An EMP or some kind of massive solar flare." A tall well dressed businessman stated confidently. I thought about this for a moment. I knew what they were. Electro Magnetic Pulses; but I thought an EMP strong enough to kill every drop of juice as far as we could see would have to be the byproduct of a nuclear attack. Somehow, I thought we would have noticed a nuclear explosion. Even a small one, I grinned to myself. A solar flare seemed slightly more plausible, but strong enough to have knocked out everything?
"Maybe." I replied without enthusiasm. I was a man of few words for a change.
"Will it stop?" The girl asked timidly. "I mean will things come back on soon?" her voice was quivering with fear. Unfortunately for her, no one had an answer for this. So we all stood, staring from the bridge out into the night, even though there wasn't anything to be seen.
"I think we need to decide what we are going to do for now." I broke the silence after a minute. "I mean, are we going to stay where we are and see what happens, or are we going to get off this bridge?" The gathering crowd began to murmur amongst themselves at this. "Personally, I don't like bridges and this one is a whopper. ..So I'm thinking about walking to the Chelsea side of the river."
"Ya wanna go walking in Chelsea in a blackout?!" A round balding man laughed from the crowd. "I don't even wanna walk there during the day if I don't have to."
Blackout? Now there was an understatement. I looked up then, noticing the incredible sparkling sky, and I thought that I hadn't been able to see that many stars in the sky since a river trip in northern Maine. That was two hundred miles from the nearest town. Yeah, this was one hell of a blackout.
"Well, we could just keep walking on the highway until we get to a place we want to get off." The businessman suggested. I guess that was the best idea, because they just started walking. The young couple, the businessman and the round man. A few others stayed where they were, probably convinced the power would come back on soon enough, and maybe they were right. Then again maybe they were wrong. I started walking with the group south out of Boston.
The young couple sidled up to me as we walked. "I'm Todd." The young man offered. "This is Melissa." The girl was terrified. She was clinging to her companion as much from fear as from the strong wind that coursed across the bridge. She was dressed for summer like the rest of us, but she was not dealing well with this cold snap.
"Kevin." I introduced myself in return. I waited for the other two men to say something, but they weren't in a talkative mood. "Where are you guys from?" I asked Todd and Melissa. I didn't really feel like talking at that point either, but I could tell the two of them were in need of a distraction.
"Saugus." Melissa replied, trembling against her boyfriend's arm.
"You realize we are going to get to the other side of this bridge, and everything is going to come back on, right?" I did my best to sound humorous for Melissa's sake. I don't think I succeeded very well.
"I'd still like to know what the hell is going on." The round man grumbled. I nodded in response, not immediately realizing the foolishness of nodding my head in almost complete blackness.
"Yeah." I answered after coming to my senses. "We all would."
Each of us seemed to materialize in and out of the dark as we trundled, disorganized, down the incline of the massive steel and concrete structure. Moving towards and away from each other, glimpses of various colored shirts and pants appearing and disappearing from view. I had been hoping that as we came down the slope of the bridge, it would warm up, or at least lessen the effect of the wind. Instead, it seemed to grow colder as we progressed.
"I'm freezing my ass off!" the businessman growled through gritted teeth, as if reading my mind. "New England weather, feels like it's forty degrees and it's God damn June!"
"Probably some kind of a massive cold front sweeping down from Canada." The round man shot out suddenly, as if struck by an epiphany, making Melissa jump. "Some huge storm probably caused all of this!" He shouted, I could just barely make out his arm sweeping through the air, motioning to the world around him.
"Maybe." I said. It definitely was too cold for June, that was for sure. Even for New England it was too cold. I could remember spring days where the temperature soared to eighty at noon only to crash down to thirty by midnight. This was beyond even a New England summer night though. I knew that had there been enough ambient light, I would be seeing my breath come out in thin clouds.
"Is it getting darker?" Todd asked sounding as if he had just asked the dumbest question in the world. A shiver ran down my spine though, as I realized he was right. It had gotten darker somehow. The stars seemed just a little dimmer, and even the moon seemed to be weakening in brightness.
"Oh, Jesus, what the hell is going on?" The round man hissed loudly. "Oh Christ. Christ." The panic surfacing in his voice was nerve wracking, and it was certainly not helping.
"Alright, just relax man." I said reassuringly. "Let's just focus on getting off this damn bridge." I wondered how much panic was in my own voice.
"Don't fucking tell me to relax." The round man barked at me. "This aint right. This is pretty damn far from right."
No one replied to him. He was absolutely right, and the realization of it was sending groping tendrils of fear through my stomach.
"Todd? Todd, what's happening?" Melissa was outright crying now. Sobbing loudly.
"I don't know baby. Stay calm Melly, I'm right here. Just hold onto my arm." Todd soothed her. I couldn't really see it, but I heard him kiss her quickly.
I guessed we were about halfway down the bridge when we first saw the shadows. I passed it off as an optical illusion at first. Even in the complete night of our surroundings, there were strange glimpses of black. I squinted against them, but they weren't something I could focus on. I decided to ignore them for now, passing them off as my eyes playing tricks on me. Until the businessman spoke up.
"What the hell are they?" The businessmans voice cracked and he stopped walking. The round man, peering around, stumbled into him, forcing the businessman to let out an almost feminine yelp. "Do you see those?" For a moment, I actually thought he was going to start crying now too.
We had all stopped walking then. The dark shapes had now cropped up on both sides of us. Their oily black shapes slightly visible against the dark space off the bridge. "Posts?" The round man asked hopefully?
"Signs." Todd said flatly, trying to convince himself as much as anyone else.
They could have been any number of objects along the bridges girder and cabled sides. When they started moving around, I thought I was going to scream. They weren't moving in unison, as if from the wind. Some were moving up the incline of the bridge while others went down. Some weren't moving at all. The ones that had gained motion were not sliding or maneuvering in any form of inanimate manner. They seemed to rise and fall slightly, moving with purpose.
"Oh no no nooo." Melissa cried pitifully into Todd's shirt, as she buried her face against him.
"Who's there?" The round man tried to demand but his voice lacked any authority and it came out sounding more like a hopeful request.
None of us were ready for the response. It came on as a noise that seemed to rise up from these strange shadows. It was a rasping sound at first. Somewhere between the static of white noise and the high pitched buzzing of heat bugs.
"Jesus." The round man hissed nervously. His mouth had pulled down into a sneering frown. "What the hell is that noise?"
"It's them!" Melissa whined, pointing at the nondescript shapes.
It was a terrible sound, and the longer I heard it, the more pronounced it became. There was something else as well. A vocal quality, hidden within the rising din. Something akin to a chorus of unintelligible whispers. The hair on the back of my neck was standing on end. As a group we had all subconsciously moved closer to one another. Almost to the point of standing shoulder to shoulder. Everyone stared into the night, desperately trying to see something that hinted at more than blackness.
Slowly the shadows had stopped milling back and forth along the edges of the bridge. They seemed to be standing still now, but the bizarre lack of color and light made these beings look as though they were pulsating. As if they were growing and shrinking slightly. They were not advancing towards us which was somewhat of a relief if that was possible. I was intently trying to focus in on one of them, but overall my mind was occupied with the plethora of sounds. This is what insanity sounds like! I thought suddenly. I wasn't sure why that had occurred to me, but the concept seemed to come into me from without. As if the thought had been forced onto me by the noise itself.
A terrible idea swept over me then, sending a wave of cold fear down my entire body. They are taking over our minds. This is some form of hypnotic suggestion. I fought back the urge to block my ears and as I looked around I saw that, except for Todd, the rest of the group was doing their best to cover their ears. The round man had yanked up the shoulders of his sweater and was pressing the cloth into his ears with his thumbs. The businessman had simply jammed his index fingers in his ears, and apparently thought that squatting down low to the ground would help. Melissa's hands were cupped over her ears and Todd was trying to help her by adding his hands on top of hers.
That is what love is. I thought I would smile for a second at this. If I wasn't in complete fear for my life at that very moment, I think I would have applauded Todd. His selflessness. He was bearing the cacophony, eyes squeezed closed and his head cocked to one side.
I forced myself to listen. The unimaginable blackness of the creatures did not lend them to giving any hint of recognition or association with anything. Their overall form was abstract, and each of them different, both in size as well as overall shape. So I studied the only thing that had a presence. Their voice, for lack of a better term.
The underlying whispers were what I was trying to discern. I thought the rest of it seemed to be just an overbearing and distracting tactic, meant possibly to make us more susceptible to what they were really saying. I also fought with the notion that I had no idea what I was talking about and I was just wrought with cascading paranoid theories. The sound of insanity! Occurred to me again.
"..wait.."
The word seemed to materialize in my mind more than my ears, but I was sure it came from them. I glanced over at Todd, but he was far gone from himself at this point. His eyes had glassed over, tears streaming down his face, and a combined look of confused pain was all that showed for an expression.
I looked over at the round man, and the same vacant stare and appearance of suffering was on him as well. The businessman seemed somewhat worst off. He was down on one knee now. His mouth was drawn agape in what should probably have been a scream, but there was only silence. His eyes were open wide, staring towards me, but not really at anything specific as far as I could tell.
Melissa seemed calm though. Her eyes were closed. Naturally. Not held tight in a grimace. There was no apparent pain on her face, but her face was awash in tears, all the way down to her turtleneck sweater. She's taking this awfully well. I mused for some reason. Was I slipping out of sanity? Was I losing my power for controlling my own thoughts, or were these creatures instilling these strange response into my mind?
"..wait.."
It came again. I was completely sure of it this time. "Wait?!" I hollered at the shadows as if this was the most ridiculous suggestion I had ever heard. "Wait for what?! What are you doing to us?!"
"..wait for.."
I strained to listen. To somehow filter out the screaming whine that seemed to carry the whispers within it. For what? For what?
"..deliverance.."
"From what?" I whispered, although I could not even hear my own whisper. To where? To who? I felt tears coming on now. My eyes gained the sensation of being filled from behind, ready to spill over and down my cheeks.
To my right, Melissa stepped away from Todd. His hands grabbed at her sweater, but without really trying. His hands now clamped down over his own ears as Melissa walked slowly towards the shadows.
"Hey! HEY!!" I screamed at her, but she didn't so much as blink in acknowledgement. She was going to them. The urge to grab her myself came over me, but my body would not move. I could only watch her take each slow step away from us.
"..deliverance.."
I heard as the creatures finally moved again. They came onto Melissa in a swirl. Their form seemed to change from a pitch black silhouette into almost a mist as they wrapped around her. Then the night was filled with the sound of Melissa's voice. In what I couldn't believe was even more terrifying than what had been accosting my ears.
It started out as a low moan, a reverberating groan of discomfort. She held the tone like a twisted note in an opera from the devil himself. She continued for a few seconds and then her voice suddenly grew in intensity, and her pitch rose steadily. Dramatically. It became a flesh crawling scream that made me think poor Melissa had suddenly become aware of what was going on. Then, as if she were nothing more than a feather, Melissa shot upward and away from us and was gone into the surrounding dark sky.
The strength seemed to suddenly run out of me. My legs shook and for a moment I thought I would collapse, but by sheer willpower I managed to stay on my feet. I could feel my own face contorting in agony now from the pandemonium of noise. I was crying freely now as well, but they were tears brought on by the agony of the discord rather than sadness. I could almost feel my cognizance slipping away from me as if it were a physical thing.
Then I saw the round man begin to move forward. I hadn't noticed before, but his hands had fallen to his sides now. His sweater still puckered up in two peaks where he had been pulling on it. He drew himself into the dark beings and now it was his turn to cry out. His voice shook violently as they swept over him. The round man cried out gutturally, sounding eerily like someone having an unwanted and painful orgasm. He lifted slowly off the ground at first, black figures entwining around his torso, and then his voice snapped up shrilly, screaming frantically, sounding more like a terrified young girl than a middle aged heavyset man. Then the round man was gone. Likewise vanished away from those few of us that remained.
I looked over at Todd and the businessman. Todd was already showing the start of that vacant expression that had been the downfall of Melissa. The businessman was simply squatting, frozen with fear, mouth hanging open as if he were on the verge of yelling. At this point fear completely gripped me. Like a vice, it clamped its cold hands around my heart, and I was finding it difficult to breathe. Logic told me to run, but another smaller voice somewhere behind that of common sense, told me it would be futile. I found myself wanting to just stand my ground and wait my turn. I couldn't ever remember such a sensation of internal conflict before. My heart and soul were screaming for me to run while my mind told me not to bother. Stay here and who knows what will happen. Surrender.
I flashed back to when I had quit smoking for some reason. Possibly my mind trying to take me away from the evil darkness of the bridge. I spent many a month after finally succeeding at giving up the habit, spreading the word, preaching the gospel of the ex-smoker like a devout born again Christian trying to save the souls of their family. I was so proud of myself. From that point on I was confident about anything to do with habits. I knew that since I was able to quit the cigarettes that I could do anything. That I had complete control over my mind and my body. Nothing external would ever be able to control me again!
A light seemed to flash on in my mind then, bringing me back to the events unfolding around me. Nothing external would ever be able to control me again! That was the key here. This felt exactly like the nicotine, whispering it's lies into my mind, even while my body knew that I was killing myself. Then my foot moved. Just an inch or so, but felt like it had been pulled from wet cement. I gained some strength back in my leg and no longer felt like I was ready to swoon over at any moment. My mind, my body! I screamed inside my mind. It was my old battle cry! "My mind, my body!" I screamed at the shadows. Even as Todd was beginning his final walk away from me. I wrenched my other foot back just slightly, and I was free!
I began to step backward slowly, carefully. In front of me, Todd was almost to the shadows. I turned my head. I knew what was coming next, but I also knew that I did not have to watch it happen. When he started to bellow mournfully, I broke away and started to jog slowly, back up the incline of the bridge. By the time his voice broke into a shrill I knew I had made only a short distance. So I began to run with everything I could muster up. Tears running in rivulets, my heart pounding in my chest, my ears and my hands. I wondered, almost humorously, if a heart attack would be a better way to go than in the clutches of those monstrosities. I didn't care. I knew that if I was going to die, it would not be because I gave up. If they wanted me, they were going to have to take me.
Obviously, I never saw him go to them nor did I ever hear him begin to moan, but I knew all too well what happened when I heard the distant piercing shriek of the businessman. This brought a new cold wave of fear across my chest, but it also spurred me into picking up my speed.
I was running for my car. I'm not sure why, but without thinking about it I knew that was my goal. Perhaps, subconsciously, I longed for some familiar territory. A fortress of solitude amidst a world I no longer recognized. My shoes were slapping against the pavement as I ran, echoing off the huge steel supports of the Tobin bridge. I couldn't hear anything else. Part of me wanted to turn and look behind, but a larger part of me didn't want to look back and see a wall of blackness, shrouding out the darkness of the night sky. As if not seeing them made them not there.
As I came to the apex of the bridge I saw the jumble of cars, scattered in strange angles ahead of me. My station wagon was there nestled between a number of wrecks. I was going to make it to my car. I knew it in my heart.
You must come with us. The whisper in my mind came on smooth. Soothingly.
"The fuck I do!" I yelled at no one in particular.
It is over.
"Over?" I wouldn't accept that. I'll lock myself in my car. Did I really believe that would help?
You just don't know it yet.
Truth be told, I wasn't sure what I knew anymore. I only knew that I had to get into my car. Somehow, it was where I belonged.
..but you will..
I got up to my car, and the world turned back on.
Headlights dazzled my eyes suddenly, blinding me for a minute. I stumbled against the side of my car and went down on my knees, just beside the door. The blare of several car horns broke the silence, and I clamped my hands over my ears.
Kneeling there next to my car, I waited wondering what their black shadow hands would feel like on my skin. Would they grab my arms and simply haul me away? ..but I didn't feel them come on. I opened my eyes unhurriedly, taking in the lights around me. Could I still get in? I wondered. As my eyes opened, I looked at my door. Half thinking it would be locked if I tried it, but then, as I gazed into my car, I realized it didn't matter.
I was kneeling, looking into the drivers window; and I was also sitting in the drivers seat. My head leaning unnaturally against the steering wheel, a sheen of blood rather than tears was covering my face.
The shadows came over me then. It was bitter, just icy cold. I refused to bawl for them though. They couldn't make me scream.
© Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved By Mark Linehan
No part of this work may be copied, distributed or used in any way, shape or form without express written consent from the author, Mark Edward Linehan. This work is protected by Copyright.
