A large bolt of lightning shot across the sky, lighting up the desert landscape. John could feel the hairs on his arms rise from the static build up in the air. There was something primal about lightning, it made him feel both afraid and alive at the same time.
“I’m not sure I like the look in your eyes right now.”
John turned to Salem with a smile.
“It’s like Dr. Frankenstein witnessing his creation coming to life or something.”
Chuckling he turned back to watch the lightning, adjusting his head against the pillows they put in the truck bed.
“I’ve always liked watching lightning, where I grew up storm clouds weren’t terribly common, and lightning was even rarer. The handful of times we did get thunderstorms I would watch them for hours.”
“What do you like about it?”
“It’s like nature is growling.”
Salem titled her head.
“It’s hard to explain, but nature is usually this force of good for most people. It brings rain, the sunshine is nice, and a cool breeze every now and then feels good. But every once in a while, it decides it’s feeling aggressive and lets loose with hurricanes, floods, blizzards, and other nasty weather.”
He nodded towards the lightning.
“But there’s something that’s different about lightning when compared to the others. It’s almost like this powerful energy that nature is no longer able to contain is suddenly being let out, like it has a darker side.”
“So nature is an emo?”
John chuckled.
“Not exactly the bad ass portrayal I was going for.”
She giggled and nestled her head in his arm. They were quiet for a moment as several more bolts scattered across the sky.
“Do you ever feel that way sometimes?”
John looked down at her.
“What way?”
She looked up at him curiously.
“Like there’s some darker side that you have to let loose every now and then?”
“I suppose,” said John thoughtfully, “nothing serious of course, just a part of me that wants to be a little destructive.”
“Do you ever let it out?”
He hesitated, wondering if he should talk about it.
“You’re not going to scare me off, I’ve already seen your podcast collection.”
John chuckled recalling the look on her face while they were dating when she saw his massive collection of true crime podcasts.
“Fair enough, I do sometimes.”
“How?”
“At work, every now and then when I fumigate or bug bomb the place I like watching the cloud spread out slowly, knowing it’s going to kill a swarm of termites or other critters lurking in the house.”
Looking down he saw she was still watching him curiously, so he continued.
“I don’t know, it’s like knowing that I have that kind of power is kind of cool. I can create a toxic cloud that kills everything it comes into contact with.”
“Do you wish you could control lightning the same way?”
“That’d be pretty cool…not sure when I’d use it though, maybe I could charge my phone or something.”
“You wouldn’t want to use it for something destructive?”
“Are we talking setting a forest on fire or lighting up a bunch of people?”
“You live in a world with no moral repercussions for your actions and you can use lightning. What do you do with it when you get those dark feelings?”
John thought about it, there was a dark thought that kept popping up in his mind but he kept pushing it back down.
“My job would get a lot cooler.”
Salem giggled for a moment and went silent.
“What about you?”
“Being honest?”
“Sure.”
She was quiet for a moment and John wondered if she too was pushing down some fleeting dark thoughts.
“It sounds morbid, but I wonder what it’d be like to see the arcs jump through a crowd of people.”
John was surprised by her honest answer, especially considering it had been the dark thought he had been trying to repress.
“I get where you’re coming from.”
“Not that I want to kill anyone or hurt them, but if there was a way to do it without being evil. I think it’d be pretty cool.”
They both lay there in silence for a while and John noticed that she’d fallen asleep on his shoulder. He thought about waking her up and going home but a bolt of lightning ripped across the sky and he decided to wait and watch the storm a little longer.
#
The flashes of lightning cast bizarre shadows over everything as John and the team walked through the ruins. Everyone’s eyes were peeled on their surroundings and he shared in their paranoia. Multiple times he wanted to ask questions. What were the ruins? Was the sky normally full of lightning? But he chose to remain silent.
A particularly loud crack of thunder sounded directly above them and John briefly wondered if they were at risk of getting electrocuted.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” said Nel as if reading his mind, “for whatever reason the lightning never strikes the ground here.”
“Is it normally like this?”
She nodded.
“Something about the atmosphere creates a perpetual lightning storm. According to the original research no one’s sure if it was naturally caused or manmade.”
“Manmade?”
“Apparently whatever society lived her before was highly advanced, hundreds of years beyond Earth. Some research suggests they were looking into methods of controlling the weather, but its hard to tell if it was conjecture or something they actually pursued. My money says they tried and failed miserably.”
“And that’s why the city is in ruins.”
“Actually no, as I said the lightning never touches the ground.”
“Then what happened to the society?”
She shook her head.
“No one knows, all documentation and record keeping just drop off about a hundred years ago. There were no remains, aside from what was already in cemeteries, it’s as if everyone just disappeared.”
“Is this why this place is off limits?”
Nel tilted her head.
“When everyone was talking before I got the impression this world isn’t exactly Darkshield recommended or something given there’s a quarantine.”
“Well,” she said slowly, “it is off limits, but not for the reasons you’re thinking.”
“Then why is it?”
“Cut the chatter,” growled Marcus ahead of them, “save it for when we aren’t out in the open.”
John was about to make a retort but Nel gave him a look and he remained silent. Instead he thought about what she had said.
Looking around it was hard to imagine that there was a society more advanced than mankind on a distant planet, dimension, alternate Earth or whatever this place was. He wondered what it looked like when the society was in its prime and the sky wasn’t full of lightning.
Though if he was being honest the current state was kind of cool. If he temporarily ignored the impending danger he was in by being here, what mysterious event caused everyone to vanish, and the fact that it likely couldn’t support life all that well, it was kind of neat in its own way.
It certainly made the thunderstorm he was reminiscing about earlier look paltry by comparison.
Marcus suddenly stopped and the team stopped almost a split second after, save for John who got another couple of steps in before realizing what was going on. He ignored the smirk Barney shot him and scanned their surroundings.
“Alright we’re coming on the Center so I want everyone to be on watch. If anyone sees anything out of place immediately notify the group.”
“Such as?”
Marcus glowered at John.
“Just follow our lead and don’t get in the way.”
John frowned back and glanced at Nel who gave him a sympathetic shrug. He was sure she meant it well but the way it came across suggested that even if he knew it wouldn’t matter.
He shook off that line of thinking and kept his eyes peeled on their surroundings.
After a few minutes of walking down crumbling streets and dilapidated structures they came across the Center. John didn’t need to confirm that’s where they were heading, it was the only structure in town that looked new.
It was a large domelike structure made almost entirely out of metal and it reflected the lightning flashes in bizarre and intricate ways. He was surprised to see that lightning seemed particularly concentrated around the top of the dome to the point that as soon as one flash ended another occurred creating a constant light source. The structure reminded him of the center of a plasma globe and it was truly spectacular.
He looked down to see Dimitri and Nel both grinning at him before turning back to surveil their surroundings.
“Hold,” commanded Marcus under his breath resulting in everyone simultaneously halting with a slight delay from John.
An unspoken exchange happened between Marcus and Barney with the second man shouldering his rifle and approaching. Marcus turned to the side and Barney opened the backpack that was underneath the body bag holding Sasha.
After a moment of fishing he pulled out a small orb with a thick layer of flat black discs resting on top of it. Balancing it on the ground he tapped the center of the orb and then tapped a watch looking thing on his wrist.
The discs on top slowly petaled out into four smaller discs forming a sort of box around the orb. They then slide open revealing the discs to be four small propellers.
“It’s a drone,” whispered John to himself.
Sure enough the propellers started whirring and the device lifted off the ground at blinding speed. With the crackling of thunder above them it was hard to hear the spinning of the blades. In seconds it shot upward and towards the Center.
Looking at Barney he was intrigued to see the man staring off into space and not moving. Every now and then his eyes would dart around, but the rest of his body remained still. John glanced at Nel who met his gaze and walked over to whisper to him.
“We all have special contact lenses that allow us to interface with some of the devices we have. Barney is piloting the drone with his thoughts and eye movements.”
“You’re kidding. That sounds so cool.”
Nel smiled.
“It’s even cooler to fly one, if we come out of this and get you the right permissions we’ll have to set you up with a neural chip and code a lens for your eye-.”
She stopped, seeing the strange look on his face.
“What is it?”
“Neural chip? As in a piece of tech embedded in my brain?”
She frowned and gave him a long glance.
“It’s the size of a grain of rice and it’s embedded in your skull, not your brain tissue.”
John blinked in disbelief.
“Oh yeah, because that makes it better.”
Rolling her eyes she stepped away to resume a watch on their surroundings. John shook his head wondering at the sanity of these people. Though he had to admit controlling a drone with his eyes would be pretty cool.
“See anything,” whispered Marcus.
Barney ignored him for a moment before John heard a soft buzzing and the drone landed at his feet. Blinking a few times he quickly picked it up off the ground.
“Nothing, just the four life signatures consistent with the Gray Matter team.”
“Alright people,” said Marcus a bit louder, “we’re going to hoof it to the Center. If there’s no one around I want to take advantage of making it across the open space before we have company.”
As soon as Barney stashed the drone in the backpack Marcus was jogging towards the Center and the team quickly followed. John started following as well wondering how on Earth he was going to keep up considering how far it was.
#
John was sweating profusely and his legs were shaky as the team finally came to a stop at the entrance of the Center. He leaned against one of the many columns forming a ring around the base of the dome and heaved aggressively.
“Think you can keep it down,” asked Marcus in a tone that was both firm and amused, “we aren’t exactly in safe territory here.”
John tried to control his breathing, but his body wouldn’t let him so he shook his head.
“Negative, do me a favor and shoot me.”
Marcus struggled to hide his grin.
“Stay on your toes in there. When we reach the core Nel will approach and ask the questions, they seemed to like her better last time.”
“What about the rest of us?”
“The rest of us will guard the entrance to the core and stand by in case there’s any issues.”
He was about to leave when John held up a hand.
“Sorry,” he said as his breath finally came under control, “to avoid being a liability is there anything I should know about the Gray Matter team?”
Marcus frowned thoughtfully.
“Gray Matter was the first team to investigate this planet. Standard protocol has the team spend a week to gather what information they can and report back. We’re trained to look for possible Anomalies and collect information on anything that might be valuable to Darkshield.”
He looked at the crumbling archway leading into the heart of the Center.
“Gray Matter didn’t report back for ten days. Darkshield sent in a second team to find out what happened to them.”
The way he said that seemed significant and John took a guess.
“You were the second team.”
Marcus nodded.
“Long story short, Gray Matter discovered a piece of organic tech found here in the Center. The only way to interface is to insert your body into the machine. For whatever reason four members of the team inserted themselves into the machine and they’ve yet to come back out again.”
“Wait, what?”
“Look,” said Marcus in frustration, “I get you have a lot of questions, but we need to get in and get out. Now that you caught your breath we need to get moving again.”
And with that he passed through the archway. A small light suddenly appeared from his head and John wondered where it came from. Looking over he saw Nel catch his eye. She handed him what looked like a basic headset.
“Try it on, it’s a backup so it’s not as top of the line, but it’s better than nothing.”
Placing it on his head John nearly jumped out of his skin when he looked at the darkness and a light clicked on somewhere above his forehead. When he looked back out into the lightning illuminated ground the light clicked off again.
“It detects light levels and does the rest. Ours are connected to our neural chips so we can turn them on and off at will. If we need to go dark you’ll have to take the headset off.”
And with that she pulled a folded up headset from her chest rig and placed it on her head. Stepping past him the dark interior was lit up by her light.
Not for the first time John wondered if he should ask for a weapon. He didn’t entirely understand why Marcus had felt the need to disarm him, but he’d been hesitant to ask for a firearm ever since.
“Scared of dark?”
John looked over at Dimitri who was watching him closely.
“Unarmed and out of shape? No not at all, why do you ask?”
Dimitri grinned as Barney and Cybil entered the building without giving either of them a glance.
“Marcus appreciated your help with the Dog-Spider and the Order. But he does not fully trust you not to cause trouble if you are armed.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It is more for your own safety, not so much ours.”
“Why would-.”
But John knew exactly why, it was the same reason he had disarmed Conrad in Darkshield. He was losing it and there was no telling what would happen next time. Hell he was damn close to turning into Sarah when he had his breakdown just before coming here.
The more he thought about it the more it made sense he shouldn’t have a weapon. But that didn’t change the immediate problem.
“The Center looks a little run down, but it has defensive capabilities so there shouldn’t be any surprises inside. We’ll also be safer if something does show up to cause trouble, like more soldiers of the Order.”
He put a hand on John’s shoulder and walked past him into the building.
“Come Watchdog, you’ll be safer with me.”
John frowned at the nickname and wondered what defensive capabilities the man was talking about. It didn’t take long to make a decision and he quickly trotted after the man, his headset lighting up the room as he walked.
#
He wasn’t sure what to expect inside, but it certainly wasn’t what they came across. The interior was full of round rooms and circular corridors. It was hard to determine where one chamber ended and another began and there was no telling where they were going.
It bothered John on some level that the interior was so pristine, as if it had been constructed a few days ago and hadn’t sat crumbling the last hundred years. It made him wonder what it was made of, but touching the walls made him nervous for some reason.
They were ribbed and had abstract designs. It was like someone had sat down with a massive pottery wheel and carved out the inside but didn’t bother with uniformity or precision. It had the odd effect of making the walls feel alive and he caught himself staring at them to see if they’d move or pulsate.
“It makes me think of intestines,” said Dimitri as if reading his thoughts. “something alive and organic, as if I’m entering a living thing.”
“Is it a living thing?”
Dimitri scoffed, but just as quickly looked around thoughtfully.
“I suppose it could be. The four team members we are seeing have been…plugged in. I never wondered how the machines even that did, it’s not as if they had ports. And how would the machines know to connect with them?”
“Ports?”
“You know,” he said motioning to the back of his head, “like in the movies.”
“Then how did they…plug in.”
“You would have to ask Nel, I’m just a soldier.”
John started looking for her, but Dimitri caught his attention again.
“I want you to know something.”
“What’s that?”
Dimitri opened his mouth to speak but then frowned as if something had occurred to him. He shook his head and John wondered what the man had been about to say.
“I do not know what you did, but I don’t think you are bad person.”
John was about to ask him what he meant when it occurred to him.
“I appreciate that, but I can’t be all that good.”
“No one is,” said Dimitri looking ahead at the rest of the team, “we all have our darkness.”
He looked at the ground for a moment and John was surprised at how tired the man suddenly seemed. It was as if all of his strength and a few years had been sucked away with whatever thoughts rolled through his mind.
“I do not think you deserve death or a life contract. But if I were you I would pick the contract.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“You lend your abilities to Darkshield, they find something for you to do until you’re no longer useful.”
“So I become a slave?”
Dimitri tilted his head side to side.
“Let me ask this. After everything you have seen, would you want to go back to normal, could you?”
John studied him for a moment. The man had a point, a giant tech corporation was studying things and people of great and terrifying abilities. It also sent men and women on suicide missions to strange places that may or may not be part of their reality. The fact these things even existed showed he had next to no understanding of the world he lived in and he had been in blissful ignorance before.
“Exactly,” said Dimitri slowly, “even if Darkshield considered it acceptable for you to go into public knowing what you know, you would always be alone. And it is not good to be alone.”
“So I work for Darkshield? What would I even do?”
Dimitri shrugged, then studied him for a moment.
“You have good instincts, and you have survived this long. That’s valuable.”
“Not dying is valuable?”
“You are the only person I know to go to Shelf and come back alive. Without gear…and wearing those ridiculous clothes.”
John glanced down at himself and blushed. With all the craziness he had completely forgotten he was still wearing Nel’s too tight sweats and the hospital gown as a grungy shirt. The smell of himself also came wafting back.
“People that stubborn are valuable. Believe me, I know.”
John was about to ask him what he meant by that when he noticed a shift in the room. Looking ahead he watched as the team stepped through an archway into a large antechamber. As he approached, he was awestruck by what he saw.
The room was far larger than any stadium he had ever been in. The air was chilly and hummed with energy. In the center was a large pillar of metal that had countless wires and cables sprouting out of the top and bottom. The cables snaked across the floor and ceiling like vines and disappeared into the walls. It looked like a mechanical tree that had become overgrown with parasitic vines.
A few feet into the room and a series of lights flashed lighting their path. They were a soft white that bathed everything in an eerie glow.
There was a series of mechanical clicks and John watched with growing alarm as what looked like turrets rose out of the floor.
“Tardius Mori,” said Nel calmly as she and the rest of the team continued walking.
The turrets quickly descended back into the floor. John looked questioningly at Dimitri, but his eyes were on the pillar ahead of them.
As they drew closer the pillar lit up and three large orbs appeared out of the center. They slowly descended the pillar until they rested a dozen feet off the ground. The team stopped a few hundred yards short of the orbs.
“Careful Nel,” said Marcus with a murmur, his eyes on the orbs.
She nodded as she handed her gun to him and dropped her backpack. Rolling her head on her shoulders she took a breath and calmly proceeded to the orbs.
Once she was a few feet away they hissed and opened slowly like a pair of eyes. John’s eyes went wide when he saw the contents of the orbs.
In each orb was the rough semblance of a person, though the top orb held two people. They were a person in the sense that they had four limbs, a head, and human-like proportions of those items. But what made John hesitate in classifying them as people was the machinery.
Large tubes entered their body through their nostrils, mouth, and the sides of their stomach. Various liquids of different colors flowed through each tube, though he couldn’t be sure if they were putting liquid in, drawing it out, or both.
The rest of their naked bodies was covered with a lattice of cables, wires, and metal. Their emaciated bodies were more machine than they were flesh and what flesh remained was white and thin. Their eyes glowed a dull white and John couldn’t tell if they were mechanical or organic.
Their bodies hung in the large orbs as if their arms, legs, and head were held back and their torso was allowed to fall forward. It sort of reminded John of mermaids on the front of pirate ships. He couldn’t identify the genders of any of the individuals.
The three orbs were stacked on top of each other. The top orb held two people who were either hanging really close together or were interwoven in some manner, it was hard to tell with the wires. The bottom orb rested a little behind the center orb and the occupant stood a little taller.
The middle orb held his attention most, the occupant’s eyes were zeroed in on Nel whereas the others stared at the back wall passively. A series of small white lights illuminated on a panel on its neck and the being spoke in a flat, mechanical voice.
“Hello Nel, it is a pleasure to see you again.”
“Hello, do you know why I’m here?”
“To seek information.”
“That’s correct.”
“We offer it freely you need only ask.”
“What’s happening to Darkshield?”
“Be more specific.”
John heard grumbles from the team.
“Is Darkshield suffering an attack?”
“Yes.”
“Who’s behind the attack?”
“Members of a death cult known as the Order of Light.”
“Why are they attacking Darkshield?”
“Unknown.”
“What is their goal?”
“Unknown.”
“What are they currently doing?”
This time the being paused and John saw a few lights blink on and off on the pillar.
“They’re performing a variety of actions simultaneously. We know of a few and the rest are unknown.”
“Will you share what you know?”
“Several teams are in the process of infiltrating the Darkshield facility and either releasing or harnessing Anomalies. Their actions are being delayed by possible surviving personnel in the facility, Anomalies, and the fact that the facility is rearranging it’s layout at random.”
“Why is it doing that?”
“Presumably to delay their efforts.”
“How is it doing that?”
“Unknown.”
“What are the other members of the Order doing?”
“Exploring offworld locations known to Darkshield personnel. Their intent is to gather technology beneficial to their cause and to eliminate the Darkshield personnel who are offworld.”
“How many Darkshield teams are intact?”
“Unknown.”
Nel tilted her head back to stare up at the ceiling a moment.
“Do you know of any surviving teams?”
“Surviving teams do exist.”
“Can you tell me which teams have survived?”
“Crimson Ghosts.”
“Anyone aside from us?”
“Unknown.”
Nel was about to speak again when the figure in the center suddenly turned to look past her and towards the team.
“There is a stranger among your number.”
“His name is John.”
“Please have him submit for scanning.”
A turret suddenly popped out of the ground to his left. John gave a worried glance at the others, but Marcus merely gestured towards the object.
Turning to it John was about to step closer when it suddenly lunged towards his face and metal clamps fastened themselves around his wrists and head. A sharp pain blossomed on his wrists and a bright red light flashed in his eyes.
John started thrashing around when the turret suddenly released him and he fell backwards and hit the ground. Dimitri was at his side helping him up.
“What the hell was that?”
The turret dropped back into the ground and the being’s eyes flashed red before returning to their normal dull white.
“New data created for individual designated as John. Comparing it to known records.”
The red light returned for a flash. John waited for the being to say something, but it remained silent for several seconds.
“Detecting…inconsistencies.”
“What do you mean,” asked Nel frowning.
“He is both in our records on multiple occasions under different files and simultaneously not in our records.”
“What does that mean?”
“Unknown.”
John was unnerved as all four beings suddenly looked over at him, their eyes flashing red.
“Compiling data into a singular file designated John Inigma.”
All of their eyes flashed red.
“Error, data corrupted.”
This time their eyes flashed red over and over again like blinking headlights. This continued for several seconds before it stopped.
“Data compiled, John Inigma being reclassified.”
Their eyes flashed.
“Data indicates John is not Anomaly.”
Another eye flash.
“Data indicates John is not John.”
There was another eye flash, but this one was longer.
“Data corrupted.”
Several turrets suddenly sprang out of the ground and centered on John.
“Whoa what’s going on,” asked John with concern.
“John’s data cannot be compiled, data is corrupt.”
Their eyes turned solid red.
“John reclassified as threat to Center.”
As they spoke the turrets projected dozens of little red dots all over his body.
Author’s Note:
I hope you’re enjoying Darkshield: John’s Arc 2. A new chapter comes out free every week and next week’s chapter will be available on November 23, 2020.
If you enjoy receiving it in serial fashion than feel free to support the project through Patreon. You can find a community of readers like you who enjoy this world I’m creating and want to see it grow by providing whatever support they can. My Patreon page can be found by clicking here.
Finally, if your finances are tight right now or you have mixed feelings about the book and aren’t sure you want to support a weirdo, then keep reading for free as the chapters come out every week. I’m doing this for fun and I’m appreciative of anyone who’s coming along for the ride.