Inner Light

       No one remembers a life without the howling winds from the north, bringing about the Earth’s endless winter. Everyone used to be so caught up in their daily commute, social media, and paying bills that they forgot about the things that mattered in the world. News of the initial solar flares were ignored, just like every disaster on the news in those days, and before they could respond, humanity was left in the dark. At first, they were in the dark due to the fried power grids. Then, they were in the dark due to the sun, dwindling in its power billions of years before it was expected to without a notice, or even remorse for the chaos it caused. As if the lack of light, electricity, and warmth wasn’t enough in an effort to decimate humanity, a different kind of darkness was unleashed shortly after the weakening of the sun.

             Although rarely documented, but nonetheless documented, instances of dark entities prowling on humans have flooded history books and tall tales throughout the ages. Whether it was due to lapses in solar activity, or an abnormal amount of constructed obscurity, creatures born of darkness have always been present just beyond the dimensional confines held together by the sun’s strength but have just been known under different guises throughout time. Demons, vampires, shadow people, and other hideous nightmares can probably be attributed to this new scientific breakthrough, but the generic “shadow monsters” is what the survivors have decided to stick with. Once the initial wave of people perished due to technical mishaps, being able to cope with a reverted state of living, or just adapting to the blood freezing in new global average temperatures, everyone else falsely assumed that the worst had passed and that they were finally safe. The ones most prepared to live in the harsh wilderness with experience in the tundras of the world could have never been ready for the onslaught of predatory shadows that surfaced once the sun dimmed. The amalgam of shadow monsters slinked and scurried from the base of abandoned skyscrapers and forests alike, searching for anything that was alive in their vicinity. The humanoid shapes howled and moaned in an amorphous group, dragging themselves through dirt and snow and climbing on each other to reach unthinkable heights, like the furious tentacles of some long forgotten and angry deity. From a distance, they looked like an opaque fog was setting in, until you noticed the clawing hands at the edge of their reach struggling to maintain a grip on the earth as they moved and rolled over each other in mass. The monsters overcame vehicles and people like a river of black acid consuming everything in their wake. You could hear the crunching, the cracking, and the screaming of anything unfortunate enough to be trampled by swarm of arms and teeth hungry for more.

             Those who were resourceful and intelligent found that these monsters feared light and fire, maybe as a result of an aversion to anything resembling the sun, or something beyond our current ability to comprehend. In any case, any remnants of light proved to be humanity’s greatest hope in coexisting with these feral shadows and is a truth that was quickly accepted by the surviving “clans” that managed to live in these conditions for the initial years after the dimming. Jack, a rugged former park ranger, is one of these surviving members of society that was savvy enough to begin leaving hustle culture in the past, long before the dimming began. He’s someone who quickly embraced his inner caveman, resorting to eating raw meat and keeping a tight knit group. It’s difficult to pinpoint his age as the past few years have hardened him with wisdom and terror beyond what any man has had to endure, and even then, he has not succumbed to the cold or darkness. His keenness for his surroundings allowed him to stockpile lantern oil, lighter fluid, and heavy snow attire to persevere in the dead ice planet. Aside from the warmth that comes from being prepared, the love of his sister has continued to burn, stronger than ever even, and has allowed him to push forward against all odds. Maisey, unlike her brother, is a delicate flower of a soul who was too young to process what was happening during the day the sun began to flicker. She’s also aged beyond her years in the time since the dimming and has developed an uncanny resilience to seeing in near pitch darkness. Jack says she’s like an owl, gracefully moving through the snow, incapable of drawing the attention of the shadow monsters even if she tried. Because of this, she’s often tasked with stealthy tasks such as fetching supplies from overgrown depots or scouting ahead in unexplored territories. The rest of the clan consists of Pearl, an optimistic doctor that had retired months before the dimming; and Damian, a silent man, much bigger than Jack, with a tattered and incongruous past that no one wishes to dig deeper into.

             “I’m ready, how’s the floor looking?” asked Maisey, eagerly waiting for the order from Jack to rush in and retrieve the goods as soon as the coast was clear. The team was overlooking a dilapidated warehouse from its second-floor balcony, lined with shattered glass, and abandoned offices. Although it was noon during the commencement of the operation, it was as bright outside as a cloudy, moonless evening.

             “Not yet, just waiting for the shadow to circle around the back. I know you’re the best at evading them, but we’re not taking any chances,” responded Jack as he scanned the premise with his night vision visors. The gurgling mass of inky bodies, smaller than normal, meandered through the warehouse floor avoiding inventory shelves and spots of dim sunlight that peered through the holes in the ceiling of the crumbling building. Once they were completely out of sight, Jack gave the order:

             “Go.”

             Without hesitating, Maisey rappelled down on to the first floor using her makeshift grappling hook and sprinted into the jagged stacks of crates. The hope was to find non-perishable foods, winter wear, and fuel; and Pearl was also constantly on the hunt for medical supplies, but anything always helped. As soon as Maisey entered the stockpile, an echoed cry shook the room:

             “Please, help!”

             It sounded like a middle-aged man, not too far from where the clan had spotted the shadow creature venture out to. Maisey must have clearly heard it too, but she did not turn back to regroup with the clan. Jack grunted, dropping some of his heavier gear to scale down and run into the darkness. The clan knew that this was not going according to plan, and although they’d usually stay out of the face of danger, they knew Jack would not leave Maisey alone down there, and none of them could afford to lose either of them. Pearl and Damian followed suit with the bare necessities, leaving a flare by the bulk of the supplies upstairs.

             “Help!” exclaimed the man again. Jack shook his head, urgently signaling to silence the fool. The gibbering conglomerate of shadows resurfaced, hellbent on pinpointing the location of this weeping man before Jack or Maisey could. The man was lying in a clearing to the north of the warehouse where the walls had collapsed, and the interior of the maze melded with the heavily forested exterior of the frozen wilderness. Maisey had reached him first, and Jack was close behind with the rest of the clan trying to keep up as quiet as they could and avoiding line of sight with the shadow creature as it weaved through the pallets of wet cardboard and layers of old snow.

             Maisey was preemptively tending to the man’s leg wounds. Jack noticed a slanted metal shelving near the man with scattered crates and cans of meat at its base. Unfortunate accident to fall on a climb with no one around. Before he could address the man, Jack noticed the swarm of interconnected shadow bodies turn the corner from the distant shelves, dripping beyond the inventory like a wall of water before regrouping into a solid mass. Jack, Maisey, and this hurt man couldn’t see much into the darkness except the clan’s flare as a mere speck in the background, the beady red eyes of each of the heads of this shadow monster, and the steam cloud emanating from the exhalation of each of the mouths on the creature. Maisey looked back at Jack who had his index finger placed against his mouth and his eyes wide open. The wounded man caught glimpse of the shadow monster and dug his arms into the snow, trying to pry himself away from the situation as his leg bled.

             “No, no, stay away!” yelled the man, just before Maisey was able to gag him. It was too late. The shadow monster honed its attention towards them and began to stampede with arms flailing and a discordant symphony of pained and ghastly moans that grew louder as it accelerated. Jack gripped his baseball bat and rushed to cover ground between Maisey and the raging monster.

             “Come on!” he yelled as he braced himself for impact. If he stalled enough for Maisey to escape, he didn’t care about the outcome. Just as there were inches between the monster’s grasp and Jack’s face, a beam of white stadium lights shot out from behind Jack, piercing a hole through the monster’s core. Damian had ignored Jack’s order and lugged the heavy lights over – which explains why it took him so long to arrive on the scene. The shadow monster winced in pain and retreated far behind the wall of light and out of sight. Jack fell to his knees and dropped his bat, sighing deeply and wiping his forehead.

             “Your disobedience is greatly appreciated Damian. Don’t do it again,” said Jack. Damian nodded and shut the lights off before mounting them back on his back.

             “Thank you, thank you so much!” yelled the man. Jack shook his head with reserved anger, jolting the man into a state of fear and silence, realizing how thoughtless he’d been in the face of the monster.

             “Pearl is there anything we can do for his leg?” asked Maisey.

             “Hmm,” she said pensively as she neared from behind Damian and inspected the pool of blood where the man sat, “I think we can wrap it up tight in the time being, but he’ll need to remain sheltered for an extended period,” she added. Jack looked away begrudgingly.

             “Don’t be stingy with the supplies Jack, this man needs our help, and I won’t leave him out here to perish,” said Pearl gently. Jack peered back to where the monster had attacked from and shut his eyes before sighing again. He set down his light pack and addressed the group:

             “We’ll camp here for the time being. We don’t know what’s beyond the woods, but the warehouse seems unoccupied for the time being.” The injured man looked relieved but knew that as soon as Jack said they were leaving, he’d be on his own again. No one protested, and he and Damian went to retrieve the rest of the supplies they’d left behind.

             Several hours passed, and the group set up camp. The dimmest of light could keep the creatures at bay, so the bonfire would suffice in maintaining their safety as long as someone was there to tend to it. Late into the evening, spectral lights similar to the aurora borealis of Earth before the magnetosphere was rearranged, but much starker in color and brightness, appeared just beyond the edge of the forest to the north. Maisey nudged Jack, who’d been lost in thought tending to the fire, and pointed towards the lights. His eyes grew as he picked up his visor to get a clearer look.

             “Well, I’ll be damned,” said Jack as he got everyone’s attention.

             “We haven’t seen the guiding lights in months,” said Damian excitedly. Jack began to gather his belongings, and the man who’d gotten used to their presence protested:

             “Wait, wait, you guys can’t just leave because there’s a bunch of spooky lights leading into the forest. I can’t, I can’t even walk yet!”

             “We have no choice,” said Jack, “we’ve been following these trails for months now and they’ve always led us to safety or good fortune. We’d almost lost hope that we’d see them again, yet, there they are. We are not going to stop following them just because you’re with us.”

             “That’s, that’s absurd! Are you all just going to leave me then?”

             “Relax now,” said Pearl, “we aren’t going to leave you. We’ll have Damian or Maisey search ahead and come back with the safest route forward – and only if they don’t spot a shadow.”

             The man trembled, more so now from fear than from the cold.

             Damian clutched his backpack, took one of the torch lights, and descended into the clearing to follow the aurora’s trail.

             “You’re all, cra-crazy,” said the man, standing up using the makeshift crutches Pearl gave him. Blood rushed down his leg and stained the bandages as his weight pressed down into the caked layers of snow.

             “Sir, you’re in no condition to be-“

             “No, no, stop! I won’t be corralled into the jaws of the shadows because you all insist on following these lights. I won’t go!” he yelled as he stormed south into the confines of the warehouse.

             Pearl began to follow the strange man until the group heard a distressed yell come from the woods in the north.

             “Damian!” exclaimed Maisey. Jack stood still, in the middle of camp watching Maisey rush out to the north, and Pearl run out to the south. Thoughts rushed into Jack’s mind: he can’t leave Pearl alone with the deranged man, but he can’t leave Maisey venture out alone into the woods, but technically she’s running towards safety if Damian is out there, but what if Damian is too hurt to help? What if he ran into the shadow monster? He can’t let Maisey rush into danger, so he turned north and ran, hoping for the best in Pearl’s situation.

             Being able to see only five feet out, Jack swooshed through branches and trunks, evading brush and thicket as it swatted across his line of sight. The elevation shifted slightly, and he caught himself from tripping beyond another clearing several yards from the warehouse where he found Maisey standing in front of an injured Damian and facing the shadow monster closing in. The bodies of the shadow monster slithered towards Maisey, spiraling into the air and ready to fall on her and Damian until she lit her emergency lamp, creating a protective bubble of light ten feet around her. The raspy moans and clawing arms circled Maisey, but she felt safe enough to tend to Damian while they patiently waited for the light to dim.

             “Get away from them!” yelled Jack, swinging his light in the air. The shadow monster recollected itself and began to trail between Maisey and Jack now. The black mass of faces and arms between Jack and Maisey looked like drowning bodies in the snow, clutching at the light.

             Damian was groaning in pain, clutching at his waist, unable to stand up from the snow. Maisey juggled between keeping the lamp light out and trying to hoist Damian up so they could slide over to Jack as fast as they could. The more she struggled, the more the source of her light flickered, which attracted the monster away from Jack. Her eyes watered, and the steam from her breaths intensified and obscured her sight out beyond her field of light.

             “Look at me Maisey, everything is going to be all right, just keep your eyes on me,” said Jack, inching his way towards her. She locked eyes with him, not letting go of Damian even though she couldn’t budge him any faster. The howls and slobbering mouths jumped closer towards Maisey as her light continued to flicker. The intervals of darkness began to increase to the point that the monster was beginning to claw at Damian’s legs, ripping portions of his clothes and equipment away. Blood trailed from Damian as Maisey continued to drag him closer and closer to the edge of the forest where Jack was carefully parting the sea of monster appendages. The flickering continued, and it’d be less than a minute before her light source shut off – she knew it, Jack knew it, and the monster knew it.

             “Maisey, you’re going to have to jump,”

             “I can’t…I can’t just leave him,” she whispered through muffled tears.

             “I know,” Jack responded, holding back tears of his own, “but I can’t lose the both of you.” She understood what she needed to do, and just before her light was consumed by the darkness, she leapt from where Damian was laying and rolled into Jack’s lit circle and into his arms. She closed her eyes and clutched her face to turn away from the river of ichor that consumed what remained of Damian. Behind his muffled screams and silent last breaths, a stream of light emerged and pierced through the pile of bodies, repelling them in all directions.

             “What…just happened?” asked Maisey. Jack froze, analyzing the aurora that was growing and rising from where Damian was set to rest.

             “I think I finally know what we’ve been following for months now. Let’s go find Pearl and see where Damian wants us to go.”