The gun suddenly felt heavy in John’s hand as he watched the blue fidget spinner slowly twirl on the floor. Conrad was in his own world of internal hysterics and John could hear him muttering something about blood.

They had been standing there for quite some time and the fidget spinner kept going. It never sped up, never slowed down, and certainly never stopped. Just a lazy twirl, like a windmill in a gentle breeze. Watching its slow movements was oddly hypnotic and gave something for John to focus on other than the death, horror, and insanity of the hell he was trapped in.

“John!”

John looked up to see Conrad staring at him. The man had a bit more color in his face and his eyes seemed less glazed over than they’d been when he had the gun in his mouth a short time ago.

“We need to go.”

John smirked and turned back to stare at the fidget spinner.

“Go where?”

“Anywhere.”

“The hallway with the locked door, the elevator that won’t move, or do we try and sneak past the fidget spinner of death?”

“We go through the door behind the desk,” Conrad responded in little more than a murmur.

John looked up and sure enough behind the blood splattered desk was a small red metal door.

“That wasn’t there before.”

“I know.”

Playing back the memory of entering the room John was confident he didn’t notice a red door. Had there been one he likely would have suggested going through it instead of visiting the hallway of death. James might not have even wanted to go there and Conrad would have certainly made a comment about it.

“That’s not possible.”

Conrad snorted.

“Oh yeah, that’s what’s most absurd about today.”

Glancing back at the fidget spinner John decided the man had a point. Looking at Conrad he could see a spark in the man that wasn’t there before when he was crumpled up on the floor.

“Here,” said John, offering the sidearm.

Conrad stared down at the offered gun before looking up at John hesitantly.

“Are you sure I should have that right now?”

“If you still wanted to kill yourself you’d have thrown yourself at the chest bursting fidget spinner.”

John wrinkled his nose and emitted a chuckle.

“Never thought I’d say that phrase in a million years.”

It took a second but Conrad slowly grabbed the gun and gave a small quick laugh of his own.

“Never thought I’d be asking people if they were ‘real’ but here we are.”

There was a small pause as Conrad noticed the scalpel in John’s hand.

“Did you get that off the good doctor?”

“Felt better having a weapon on me, now it just seems silly.”

Conrad reached down and removed a utility knife from his belt and offered it to John.

“I’ll hold the scalpel so you don’t cut yourself and you can have this,” he frowned in thought, “unless you want the baton?”

“What about the taser?”

“It’s busted, all of my electronic gear shorted out or whatever remember?”

“Then why did you give it to James if you knew it was broken?”

“Because I knew he’d use it on me.”

John wasn’t entirely sure he understood the logic in that. But ultimately Conrad had walked away unharmed from his confrontation with James so maybe he had a point.

“I’ll take the knife.”

Conrad handed it over hesitantly.

“The baton will give you more reach.”

John snapped open the blade, there were a few more generic tools on the device but the knife seemed the most important at the moment. It was a nice two-inch blade and incredibly sharp as if it were brand new or Conrad had sharpened it that morning. The same logo on Conrad’s bulletproof vest was on the handle of the pocket knife. It was a black shield with the letter ‘D’ that looked like half of a lunar eclipse.

“I like knives better.”

Realizing how that must have sounded he looked up to see what Conrad’s reaction was. The guy merely shrugged his shoulders and holstered the sidearm.

“Suit yourself.”

After Conrad fastened the scalpel to the holster where the knife had been he turned to stare at the door. John joined him in staring. It was a simple metal door, the kind that would lead to a restricted area or perhaps have an alarm attached.

John had to catch himself a few times from imagining that the door led to safety. They were ten stories below ground in the belly of some sadistic tech company or whatever the hell it was. Based on their most recent experiences the door likely led to some new twisted trap of death and mutilation.

“I keep imaging there’s going to be like some army of mannequins, robotic octopus, exploding rubber ducky or some bs like that.”

John sighed and adjusted his grip on the pocket knife.

“I know what you mean.”

“Should we get it over with?”

When John nodded Conrad raised the sidearm and aimed it at the door. While it made John feel better he was with someone who was armed it was becoming apparent that it wouldn’t solve all of their problems. Even with the knife he felt like he was preparing to walk into hell armed with a bubble wand.

Conrad reached the door and angled off to the side waiting. When nothing happened Conrad looked back at John and motioned to the door.

“Pop open the door and I’ll cover you.”

John frowned but moved forward nonetheless. He wondered if this was part of a smart tactical move or just Conrad wanting him to be a meat shield for whatever was behind that door. In any case John knew they’d have to go through the door eventually so he might as well be the one to open it.

As soon as his hand was on the push handle Conrad suddenly snickered.

“What?”

Conrad shook his head apologetically.

“I was just thinking of saying I would cover your ass but I felt like that would be insensitive right now.”

John blinked a moment trying to understand what he was saying. When it clicked he growled and turned back to the door hoping his face wasn’t red.

“Keep it up and I’ll shank you with your own knife for your pants.”

“Sorry, go ahead.”

Shaking his head John gripped the knife in his hand tightly and in one quick motion swung the door open and backed away.

Conrad’s gun snapped up immediately before he slowly lowered it in disbelief.

“What the hell?”

Through the red door was a massive garden. The room was easily two stories tall and filled with trees, bushes, flowers, draping vines, and all manner of vegetation. On the ceiling were rows upon rows of LED lights and the sound of trickling water could be heard somewhere deeper in the large room.

John was hit by a blast of humid air that made sweat stand out on his forehead almost immediately. He wiped it distractedly as his eyes took in the bright colors and lush greenery.

Conrad stepped past him and into the room, his head on a swivel as he took in the surroundings.

“This place is huge. I can’t even see the walls on either side.”

John followed him in using one hand to quietly shut the door behind them.

Conrad was reaching out to touch what looked to be a fern. His fingers brushed through the leafy fronds and he shook his head.

“It’s real. I think these are all real plants.”

“Well wh-.”

John went deathly silent and Conrad raised his gun when someone started humming deeper in the garden. The pitch told John it was a woman and it sounded like she was quite a distance away.

“You know what,” said Conrad licking his lips, “I vote we go back to the lobby. We’ll use the knife to take the elevator apart piece by piece and climb our way out.”

John reach back and put a hand on the pull handle. He gently tugged but the door refused to budge. Turning around he gave it a firm yank but it wouldn’t move.

“Problem.”

“What, what is it?” asked Conrad glancing at him.

“Door’s locked.”

“What do you mean it’s locked?”

John pulled on the handle to demonstrate.

“Try pushing.”

John rolled his eyes and gave the door a gentle push to show it wasn’t going to move.

Lowering his gun Conrad quickly came over and tugged on the door himself. When it didn’t magically open for him he quickly holstered his gun and gave a series of quick yanks with both hands. When the door refused to open he drew his sidearm again and aimed it at the locking mechanism below the handle.

“Whoa,” hissed John trying to keep his voice low, but loud enough Conrad would pay attention.

“What?”

“You sure that’ll even work?”

“It might.”

“Well I’d rather not have our backs to a door we can’t open when you fire your gun and draw the attention of who…or what might be in here.”

Conrad considered this a moment and lowered his gun.

“Ok then what’s your plan?”

“There has to be more than one entrance to this place, let’s find another door.”

Conrad turned to look into the depths of the garden.

“I’m not real keen on exploring the haunted Kew Gardens.”

“Any better ideas,” John gave a quick glance at the gun, “aside from exposing our location and potential ricochet?”

Turning to stare at the door John watched nervously as he waited for the man to make up his mind and pull the trigger. Just when he was convinced it was going to happen Conrad cursed and holstered the gun.

“Alright, but my vote is we stay away from the humming.”

“Agreed, lets make our way to the left.”

“Why the left?”

John gritted his teeth.

“Because it’s Tuesday.”

A ghost of a smile came across Conrad’s face before he started walking along the wall to the left. John watched him go for a moment before shaking his head and following.

The unspoken plan had been to hug the wall until they found a door, but a few yards in and they encountered vines draping across the concrete walls. John marveled at the fact that there was even concrete considering most of the rooms and hallways hadn’t been. It was probably for this reason the vines were growing down the walls, having taken root in the cracks and crevices of the concrete.

Very quickly the vines became even thicker until it was apparent that hugging the wall wasn’t going to work. Conrad took a beat before stepping through a cluster of bushes and onto a narrow path between different forms of shrubbery.

As they were walking the humming remained the same volume. John couldn’t recognize the tune being hummed but the sound was pleasing amidst the trickling water and gently rustling leaves in a breeze he couldn’t feel. Given the horrors he’d experienced so far the moment should have been relaxing, but it made him more nervous.

Conrad suddenly hissed in pain and gingerly touched his right shoulder. Immediately he jerked his hand away and started shaking it before wiping his hand on a nearby wide leafed plant.

“What’s wrong?”

Hands fumbling with his buttons, Conrad hissed over his shoulder.

“I forgot about the pepper spray, all this sweat is making it seep through my shirt and onto my skin.”

His hands stopped when they reached the bullet proof vest and he paused, hissing through his teeth.

“Now what?”

“It’s fastened down, I rip this off it’s going to make a lot of noise.”

“Any chance you could ignore the pain?”

Conrad said something under his breath. Though John couldn’t hear what he said he understood the context and decided the man had a point.

“So what do you want to do?”

“Cut the spot off me.”

John examined the pocket knife for a second and found a scissors tool. Folding the blade in he switched to them and approached Conrad.

“Don’t touch it, just cut out a patch.”

“Do you want me to take the entire sleeve off?”

“No just a patch.”

John was going to ask him why but decided it didn’t matter. Instead he carefully pulled back the tainted patch of shirt and started cutting around it. The fabric was tough so progress was slow.

“Kind of crazy.”

“What is?”

“Don’t take it personally, but when I first met you…what an hour ago? I was a second away from putting a bullet in your head.”

It bothered John how nonchalantly he said that.

“Why?”

“I thought it was suspicious that you were strapped down to a hospital bed. It wasn’t cuffs like maybe you were a criminal, but leathers straps like you were someone who was insane.”

John was busy digesting this when Conrad continued speaking.

“I wasn’t sure what or who was real and I didn’t want to risk you being one of those…things. But I also didn’t want to leave you just strapped to the bed helpless in case you were real. So yeah, I was really tempted to do the lesser evil.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Conrad was quiet for several seconds.

“You were ready to die.”

John wasn’t sure how to respond so he stayed silent.

“I mean the way you said it. To just ‘put a round in your head and be done with it’ or however you said it told me you were ready. Like that wasn’t the first time your life was on the line. It reminded me of how my grandmother was when she was dying of cancer. It’s a strange acceptance that I don’t think something that isn’t alive could imitate. How do you have an emotional disregard for a life you don’t have or couldn’t appreciate?”

John stared at the man’s shirt for a second deep in thought. It bothered him that Conrad believed he wasn’t afraid of death. Since escaping that hospital bed he felt like he’d been constantly worried for his safety. But now a new thought was rattling around in his head that was shaken free by Conrad. Why did it matter?

His current goal was to escape this house of horrors but then what? When they found a working elevator or staircase or whatever that led to the real world and he hopped on the next bus out of town where would he go? What would he do? He had no job, no family, Salem was in the ground, and anyone he even remotely knew of or cared about thought he was a monster. What life was he fighting for? The mere need to exist?

“You alright?”

He realized he’d stopped cutting the shirt open and he returned to the task.

“Just thinking about what you said.”

From the silence it was obvious Conrad was waiting for him to continue. When he stayed silent Conrad broke it.

“I didn’t touch a nerve did I?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if I remember right you said you were waiting to die in a hospital before you woke up to the crazy doctor. Were you dying of cancer or something?”

“Nothing like that.”

Before Conrad could pry further John snipped the last part of the patch and gently tugged it away. He could see through the man’s undershirt that there was a blotchy red spot from where the pepper spray had started burning him.

“All done, how does it feel?”

Conrad rolled his shoulder a little.

“Still burns, but not as bad. I think airing it out should help a little too.”

John flicked the patch onto the floor. He was going to kick it aside when he remembered he was barefoot and decided to leave it where it lay.

“Damn that stuff is evil. I mean look what it did to the plant.”

John looked up and saw him gesturing to the wide leaf plant they’d been standing by. The leaf Conrad had rubbed his hand on was shriveled up and slowly turning black.

“At least you didn’t catch a face full.”

“Actually when I became a security guard we had to-.”

He suddenly froze mid-sentence and tilted his head to one side. He swiftly drew his sidearm and aimed it into the trees off to their right, his eyes sweeping the area.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t hear anything.”

John was about to ask him what he meant when it clicked, the humming had stopped.

The lush foliage instantly became sinister as he realized just how easy it was for something to hide behind the vines and broad leaves. The path they were on was so narrow that plant leaves were touching them from both sides. Something could be standing in the bush in front of him and he wouldn’t know it.

“Let’s get moving.”

Conrad dropped to a low stance and started down the path at a steady clip. John quickly switched back to the knife and imitated him, staying right on his back.

Every time a plant they passed by rustled they’d both freeze, waiting for something to jump out and attack them. After what seemed like an eternity the wall curved and the path turned with it.

“That wall was like the length of a football field.”

“Let’s hope it’s not that far to the door on this wall.”

“If there even is a door.”

John shot him a glance and saw the man watching the plants around them.

“You want to go back and shoot the door be my guest. I’ll take my chances with another exit.”

“Ok, then let’s move.”

Conrad followed the new path to the right moving faster than he had before. John followed him worried about how loud their footsteps were and the leaves they were rustling.

They had gone several yards when there was an explosion of greenery. One minute he could see Conrad ahead of him and the next the man was swallowed up as a cloud of leaves and vines burst forth from the nearby plants.

John stopped in shock as Conrad started screaming. He fired a shot that went high and hit the ceiling, but for some reason he stopped shooting and simply kept screaming.

“Conrad!”

He lashed at the wriggling vines with his knife but he may as well have struck concrete. The vines he struck paused momentarily before continuing to writhe around.

John was frantically trying to think of what to do when everything suddenly stopped. The leaves that had been swirling around like a cloud suddenly dropped to the ground and the vines stopped slithering. John didn’t realize how loud everything was until it stopped and the silence was almost worse.

“Conrad?”

“I’m here,” came the muffled reply.

Heaving a sigh of relief John craned his neck to try and see him through the dense foliage.

“What’s going on? Are you alright?”

“I’m not hurt if that’s what you mean,” he said with a grunt as if he was trying to move, “But these things have me pretty tight.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well all I can see is green and every inch of me has a vine wrapped around it. Even my finger is pinned against the trigger.”

“Are you being crushed?”

“No, just… restrained.”

“What is….it doing to you?”

“I have no idea it’s just holding me in the air.”

“Alright, hang on I’m going to try to get you out.”

John took a second to study the thing currently holding Conrad. The vines had formed a sphere of sorts that were being supported by the nearby trees and vines hanging down the wall. Experimentally John dragged the knife against one of the vines holding the sphere upright.

“Ah,” cried Conrad from inside, “the thing’s crushing me!”

John jerked the knife back in surprise. Just as he was about to start hacking away at the thing in desperation Conrad spoke again.

“Ok it stopped.”

John looked at the vine he’d tried slicing with his knife. There was no indication the knife had done anything.

“I think it got mad when I tried to cut one of the vines.”

“Well don’t do that again because that sucked.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

There was a lengthy pause from inside the sphere. Just as John was about to panic that something had happened to Conrad he responded.

“Try pulling it with your hand. But go slow and stop when I start screaming.”

“Ok,” said John reaching out, “I’m touching the vine now.”

The second his hand touched the vine the world erupted into chaos. One minute he was standing upright and the next he was being dragged into the air and vines were swarming over his legs, arms, and body.

Within seconds his world was green as vines slithered lazily over his face before coming to a stop. Every inch of him felt like someone had taken a mass of rope and tied him up like a mummy before suspending him in the air.

Conrad’s voice was even more muffled now.

“I was jostled a little but nothing really happened. Were you able to pull one away?”

“No,” hollered John, “But we have a problem.”

“What?”

“Now I’m tied up in the air.”

Conrad emitting a string of words that would make even a sailor blush.

“Can you move anything?”

The way Conrad said it suggested he knew the answer. John wiggled around experimentally but found he could only flutter his eyelids and even they stuck now and then to the vines lying on his face. He was surprised he could even breath with how tightly compacted they were.

“Not a muscle.”

“Ok…”

Conrad descended into silence, likely trying to puzzle a way out of their current predicament.

From what John could tell the plants didn’t seem intent on harming them in any way, merely keeping them restrained. The initial panic he felt died down somewhat but claustrophobia from being unable to move or see was settling in.

As the moments dragged on dark and horrific thoughts crept into John’s mind as he imagined the two of them slowly dying of thirst as they were suspended in these vine-like cocoons.

A random thought of him turning into a butterfly entered his mind and he wondered if maybe he was running out of oxygen.

“I hear something.”

John strained to listen but couldn’t hear anything.

“What is it?”

Another string of curses emitted from Conrad and he could hear the man grunting and growling.

“Conrad what is it?”

Though Conrad didn’t answer, John didn’t need him to because he could hear it himself.

Humming.

Even though it was muffled through the vines John could tell it was the same humming from before. The only difference was that it was steadily growing louder.

Like Conrad was likely doing John struggling against the vines holding him in place. He briefly remembered the knife, but he had no idea where it was and considering how effective it had been he wasn’t sure it would be helpful anyway.

While deep down John knew he couldn’t escape from the vines he kept thrashing and writhing as best he could hoping something would happen. Because as much as the thought of slowly dying in the embrace of these plants was, the thought of facing whatever the humming was seemed much worse.

John wasn’t prepared for the humming to stop and the ensuing silence was far worse than before. The humming had gotten loud, as if the source was mere feet away when it stopped and now it was gone.

Listening intently John’s mind played a kaleidoscope of horrific visuals as he imagined what would happen next. Was it a wild animal of some kind that would feast on them as they lay suspended in the air? Was it some writhing monstrosity that would insert a proboscis into his body and drain him like a grape?

A strange image of a cluster of mannequins cobbled together into a large amorphous body entered his mind. He imagined a mannequin identical to Sarah resting in the middle of the pile of bodies, humming and staring at him with her creepy eyes.

He was so caught up in his imaginations he jumped when the vines suddenly started to release him. Before he could comprehend what was happening he was tumbling onto his head into a pile of leaves and limp vines.

“That looked like it hurt.”

The voice was raspy and had a slight accent as if the woman, at least he assumed it was a woman, was born in England but raised elsewhere. It was oddly soothing and grating at the same time.

“Let me help you up.”

John felt hands crawling under his shoulders and he flailed about. While the vines that where holding him up had gone limp the ones around his body still held firm. He felt like a worm writhing on the floor.

“Oh dear, hold on.”

There was a sudden warmth on his forehead that slowly traveled down his face. John lashed out as best he could trying to ward off the warm feeling traveling down him.

“Relax,” said the mysterious woman in a commanding voice.

The tone was said with such intensity that John became compliant. The warmth quickly traveled down his face, across his chest, all the way down to his feet before fading away. Once the last remnant of warmth was gone the vines on his body immediately went limp. Soon the hands were back pulling at the vines on his body.

“So sorry about that. These are glacier vines, they are drawn to warmth. Silly things don’t realize they’re perfectly warm in this environment.”

The vines on his hands were released and he used them to continue freeing himself. The vines were several layers thick on his head and again he marveled at his ability to breathe earlier.

“I’ll be right back, I’m just going to free your friend.”

John heard the woman walk away with the soft rustle of leaves. Conrad must’ve heard the exchange and was waiting silently as he didn’t make a sound. At least John hoped he was, the alternative explanations for why he was suddenly silent weren’t good.

A sudden gunshot rang out and the woman emitted a loud gasp before sighing huffily.

“Young man if you fire that weapon again I’ll let these vines find warmth in places you don’t want them looking.”

Conrad replied in a terse manner, but a clatter of metal told John he’d dropped the gun to show he was behaving.

“That’s better,” the woman said, a bit of relief in her voice, “Now wait a moment while I set you free.”

At this point John peeled back the final layer of vines on his face and light struck his eyes. He blinked a few times and shaded his eyes while he waited for them to adjust.

When he could see clearly again he cast his eyes towards Conrad’s location and found himself fixated by the woman pulling at the vines encompassing Conrad.

She was tall, probably seven feet in height if she was standing and rail thin. Her body was all sharp angles and straight lines as if she’d been crafted out of sticks. Considering her skin was a light gray color and the texture of bark the idea didn’t seem so farfetched.

Her eyes were a deep shade of green and her gray lips twitched slightly as her hand traveled across Conrad’s vine covered body on the floor. Her hair was pulled back into a rough ponytail and appeared to be made of dark green moss.

She noticed John looking at her and smiled.

“Hello there. My name is Avarlon.”

Her smile was pleasing and John found a certain warmth to it. Part of his mind was still trying to comprehend the woman or thing he was looking at and the other found himself wanting to trust her.

A loud crack disrupted his thoughts and Avarlon’s mouth opened in surprise. She took a staggering step back and revealed a smoking hole in her chest where a liquid the color and consistency of tree sap started pouring from.

Conrad was lying wide-eyed on the ground, his hands still extended and the gun aimed at her chest.

The woman touched the liquid slowly trickling from her body and turned her shocked expression to Conrad. Her comforting and kind features were now twisting into a frown and her green eyes flashed dangerously.

The vines surrounding Conrad suddenly swarmed over him and the gun clattered from his hands as he screamed.

“Seems I need to teach you a lesson.”

 

Author’s Note:

I hope you’re enjoying Darkshield: John’s Arc 1. A new chapter comes out free every week and next week’s chapter will be available on September 14th 2020.

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