The Darkness by R.M. Carroll
© 2004
The wind blew, strong and hard through the abandoned streets, paper flew along in small, cyclonic bursts. Nothing moved on the black streets, no signs of life in the tall buildings that were still visible as the last bits of fading sunlight bounced off of the very tops of them. The city felt empty, dead.
“Try the radio again.” Kat whispered as she reached over me to pick it up off of the floor. I grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her back with a jerk.
“Ow you bastard!” She yelped but she moved back away from the radio.
“You know that those batteries are all we have left.” I hissed at her as she looked at me with those sad puppy eyes that at one time made a man melt and bend over backwards to give her whatever it was she wanted. That was before the world moved on though, back when living people occupied this city instead of the graveyard that lay down there at street level.
“But what if there’s another broadcast?” She whimpered as she wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them up close to her body. She really was a beautiful woman, obvious why she’d made it as far as she had on the show, too bad she’d never make it to the big time now for her shot at fame. No Ryan, no Paula, no Simon, all gone, all dead. No more American Idol, no more Fox, no more television, no more Hollywood.
It was by chance that I’d found her; it wasn’t long after the chaos had first started. The first thing that had happened was the lights had gone out. Not just streetlights or ceiling lights. All lights, even flashlights and candles dimmed and then died as whatever had fallen upon the city wove it’s magick through everything that was capable of giving light. Panic ensued, followed by chaos as the looting began, as civilization returned to its primal roots as gangs of men raped women, people killed each other over the smallest things, a can of food, a bottle of water.
Kat had been cornered in an alley, three men in a loose semi-circle around her as a fourth forced himself onto her, as he tried to rip her pants down and off of her body so he could rape her. I had been happening by, my intent was to get the fuck out of this city but there was something about the girl in the alley, the shouts that came from her. She wasn’t screaming hysterically, in fact she was yelling in anger and hatred as she tried to fight the man trying to have his way with her while the others looked on and laughed. There was something about the whole scene that made me snap.
I strode into the alley, the baseball bat in my hand; I had picked it up on the sidewalk a few blocks back, worried for my own safety as things continued to get worse as nightfall set in. I walked with a purpose, unnoticed by the three who were there cheering on the fourth. The first one didn’t even realize I was there until the baseball bat connected full swing with the back of his skull and he collapsed in a heap to the pavement.
“What the fuck?” The one next to him said in surprise as the bat caught him flush in the mouth. I heard the teeth shatter, saw the blood explode from the corners of the mouth and heard the snap of his neck from the force of the bat’s swing. I was on the third one before he even had a chance for his brain to translate what it had just witnessed.
“Jesus.” He managed before the bat caught him in the throat. He gagged once as his hand went to his crushed windpipe and he staggered backwards trying his best to breath through his nonexistent throat. The last man had managed to roll off of the woman and he did it with a scream as his hand went to his face. Something was sticking out of his eye, a piece of plastic of some sort.
“You bitch!” He screamed as he ripped the plastic from his ruined eye, the fluid and blood splattered outwards as the spork came free with a wet smacking noise.
“What the fuck is this?” He said as his one remaining eye widened as he looked down at the fork/spoon combination.
“It’s a spork.” I replied for her as I swung the bat in a solid blow that caught the last thug, the fourth member of the little rape group right between the eyes. He fell backwards, the light suddenly extinguished from his eyes as the blow from my bat killed him.
“Who….” The woman began as I looked down at her, finally remembering she was still there.
“Who are you?” She asked as she tried to cover herself up with the remains of her shirt. He never did get her pants off but the shirt was ruined.
“My name is Jacob.” I replied as I pulled off my jacket and handed it to her. She looked up at me, surprise in her eyes as she took the jacket in her shaking hands.
“Are you alright?” I asked her as I watched her closely. We needed to get off of the streets, I wasn’t sure why but something in my guts told me that it was necessary to get indoors and soon.
“I’m Kat.” She said as she slipped the jacket over her shoulders and zipped it closed to cover her breasts. She was beautiful, even in her current condition I could see her beauty. Her hair was long and red, dyed red, not a natural red head. Her features were Latino and she had a great body, perfect breasts, not too large and firm, her hips were narrow, her legs perfectly shaped. I found out later she was a contestant on American Idol, was all set to make her TV debut in only a few weeks. Of course that’s back before we discovered that there wasn’t going to be any TV debuts, not ever again.
“Well Kat, I can’t explain why but I think we need to get inside, very soon.” I told her as I looked around the alley for a doorway. When the door to my left opened and a man slipped out, his eyes wide as he headed into the streets I grabbed the door before it was able to close and I held it open for her.
“Care to join me?” I asked her and she only nodded her head as she bit her lower lip. She ducked into the building and I followed suit. I stopped just long enough to make sure the door was pulled closed, I couldn’t explain why but I had a really bad feeling that things were about to go from terrible to down right apocalyptic in the next five minutes or so.
We went up about five stories, high enough that we could look down on the city streets but high enough up that I could watch for anyone showing interest in our location. I had forgotten about the transistor radio that I kept in the inside pocket of my jacket until the squelch of static filled the room.
“Jesus Christ!” I cried as I spun around even as the loud squelching noise stopped abruptly.
“Sorry.” Kat said sheepishly, her eyes averted from me as she stared at the radio in her hand. “I…I was just hoping to find some information, ya know? I mean there’s like no lights anywhere, even the little light that I know should be here on the radio doesn’t work.
“Just leave it off, we’ll listen later to see if there’s any news.” I spoke softly to her, I felt bad that I had snapped at her but I was pretty sure that these next few moments, as the sun went away completely was going to be a telling time. I wish now that I had been wrong.
I stood looking out the window, making sure that most of my body was covered by the wall as I looked down at the mass of humanity still running around in the streets. Even though it was dark I could see them, fighting, running raping and pillaging. It was disgusting how quickly humanity returned to their savage roots.
When it first started to move through the streets I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. It was blackness, total and absolute, it rolled down the street like a fog bank as it slid over the cars and pavement. It crept forward at a slow but steady pace that went unnoticed at first, at least until the scream started when this black fog began to roll over people on the street. The panic spread fast, so fast that a lot of the people on the far side of the block actually began to run before the fog lunged over everyone. I can’t think of any other way to explain it. One second it had crept the next second, once people realized something bad was coming for them it moved like lightning, the screams became multitude as I fell to my knees and threw up.
“Jacob?” Kat called to me in a weak and terrified voice. She hadn’t seen it, she’d only witnessed my reaction to what had happened and I could tell she was terrified. She crawled across the floor towards me, stopping about a foot away as she eyed me warily. She was still in shock from her rape attempt and this only compounded matters for her.
“Yeah, I’m ok.” I said hoarsely as I waved her off lamely. The screams had stopped, abrupt and at their crescendo. I needed to get up and look, to see what was going on out there but I was afraid to, terrified as a matter of fact. Yet I knew I needed to, I had to know what was going on. The first thing I thought as I slowly slid up the wall was that I had fallen asleep reading the new Stephen King novel and was dreaming all of this but as the cold glass pressed against my cheek I knew that this was real. I looked down on the street and caught glimpses of movement among the inky blackness of this darkness. I wasn’t sure what it was that saw, maybe it was too dark, or maybe the primordial part of my brain prevented me from seeing what was going on, blocked it as a way to help me keep my sanity.
I talked it over with Kat and we decided to wait for sunrise before we tried to make our way down to the street to see what was left. It was then she told me about her movement through the ranks to be one of the finalists on American Idol. I could tell she was a pampered girl who always expected to have her way; she was in for a rude awakening, there were no butlers, no maids, and no servants. Sleep came and went, both of us dropping off for a while only to come awake with a scream on our lips.
That was what should have been a week ago. Finally we’d searched the building and found the vending machines on the eighth floor. We found the little yappy dog on the stairwell leading up to the sixth floor. I’m still not sure if the dog or the cheetos tasted better, all I know for sure is the food is gone, just like the sun is gone. It never came back after the darkness fell. I catch glimpses of movements from time to time down on the streets and a low moan like some zombie reject from Romero’s dead movies will rise up to us. The radio is dead, batteries drained but we never heard anything but static after that first initial broadcast, the one that advised people there had been an explosion at the big government facility to the north and that was the reason for the power failure. The report had also said that the smoke was ‘thick and black and seemed to be pouring from the building’.
I’ve been sleeping with Kat and we made love earlier for what will probably be the last time, I’m going outside you see, I can’t stand being cooped up in this place with no food, I have to go out. I wrote our experience down as I remembered it; forgive me if I left any gaping omissions. I’m going to leave this journal with Kat in case anyone should find her or if this mess clears up and the sun comes back. I don’t think it will though, I think we fucked up this time, I mean really fucked up and there’s no fixing it.
If things go well I’ll be back and I’ll add to this journal, I’ll tell my story of what it was like on the outside. However if this is my last entry then I hope that this will help anyone who finds it to understand what it was that had happened that night, even though it’s technically it’s still that same night. If this is hard to read then I apologize, I did write it in the dark after all. Farewell and I hope to add to this soon.