The yelling around John was muffled and distant as if there was cotton in his ears. He knew he should be paying attention, but his attention was focused entirely on the thick cluster of red dots centered on his chest.

Each second that passed seemed both eternal and instantaneous. Sweat formed on his brow and it was getting hard to breath. The dots on his chest felt warm as if they were slowly building to incinerate him. The idea that death was coming and it seemed there was nothing he or the team could do to stop it was settling in.

Then he noticed the stain.

His eyes drifted from the cluster of red dots to a small black stain on the hospital gown. It was shaped in the rough approximation of a dog…or maybe it was a cow. Either way something about it held his attention and wouldn’t let go.

Then the gears started turning and what the Gray Matter team just said started moving the gears even faster. When things finally clicked into place he shook his head and laughed under his breath.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he murmured to himself, “a big fuss over that?”

With a smile he looked up and tuned into the yelling going on. It seemed every member of the team was shouting something to either Nel, each other, or the creepy cyborg things that stared at him with red eyes. He noticed there were brief flashes of white every now and then as if some processing was going on in the background.

“Hey computer,” shouted John above the din.

The team slowly grew quiet and turned to him.

Reaching down John pulled the hospital gown off of his body and threw it to the side. The cold air immediately chilled his skin, but he ignored it.

“Try scanning me again.”

The central individual’s eyes flickered white a few times. One of the turrets next to John grabbed him. John hissed as it pricked his wrists again and blinked as the harsh light flashed in his eyes. Now that he had the gown off he felt a brief warmth flash across his body.

As the turret released him he massaged his wrists where needles must have pricked them and watched the cyborg thing expectantly.

Its red eyes turned white.

“New data created for individual designated as John, flagged as potential threat. Comparing to known records.”

It’s eyes flashed red.

“Detecting inconsistencies with recently compiled file. Detecting match with preexisting files.”

Nel glanced between John and the thing.

“What does that mean?”

“New data indicates John is not anomalous and John is John.”

More red flashes.

“John is determined to be relatively safe.”

The turrets surrounding him descended back into the ground and the warmth on John’s chest faded to be replaced with cold air. Looking down he was glad to be rid of the dots, but also felt exposed and self-conscious in a room of fit individuals.

“What was the issue before?”

“Unknown,”

“Try scanning the hospital gown I was wearing,” he said before Nel could ask more questions.

The cyborg thing flashed red and a turret rose out of the ground near the gown. It hovered over and quickly scanned it with a flash of red light.

“New data created for item designated as John’s Hospital Gown.”

Another flash.

“Detecting organic matter consistent with offworld entities and residual anomalous particles. Inconsistency with John’s file identified. John is not threat. John’s Hospital Gown is.”

There was a flash of red light that blinded John for a few seconds. When he looked back he was stunned to see the gown was nothing more than a pile of ashes.

“Threat eliminated. John’s Hospital Gown file deleted. John’s file updated with new data.”

The turret dropped back into the floor. John looked around to see everyone looking between him and the entity. Nel had a small smile on her face as she turned back to the Gray Matter team.

“Glad we could figure that out. Can I return to my questions?”

“Yes.”

“What is the best tactic for regaining control of Darkshield?”

“Unknown.”

“Ok…what is recommended course of action for Crimson Ghosts?”

“Unknown.”

“If Crimson Ghosts wish to survive what is the best course of action?”

“Assimilate with the Center.”

“Ok, second best option?”

“Teleport to a random offworld site.”

Nel rolled her head on her shoulders.

“If Crimson Ghosts wish to retake Darkshield from the Order what is the ideal strategy for doing so?”

“Unknown.”

“Why unknown?”

“Too many variables.”

Nel bite her bottom lip in thought for a few seconds.

“If Crimson Ghost want weapons sufficient for dealing with the Order and hostile Anomalies in Darkshield where do we obtain them?”

“Unknown.”

“Explain.”

“The Center is not fully aware of all possible anomalies that may or may not be present in Darkshield facilities. The Order similarly possesses technology derived from unknown anomalies making effective counter measures impossible to determine.”

“Is it possible to teleport to the armory of Darkshield?”

“Unknown.”

Nel sighed and John could understand her frustration. It reminded him of when he was a kid with a Magic 8 ball and the thing would show ‘Ask Again Later’ a few times in a row.

“Explain.”

“Armory’s location is indeterminate due to randomization of its location. It is possible to teleport to location of where the armory was originally, but it is unclear if armory will remain there.”

Nel frowned.

“Teleporting to the armory was possible?”

“Yes.”

Nel turned to Marcus with a strange look on her face.

“What is it?”

“Well, I asked on the offhand chance we could pop into the armory, get the weapons we need, and meet up with security personnel. Though I didn’t think we could. Now that I know it used to be possible I wonder if the Order used that as the point for their incursion.”

She turned back to the white-eyed cyborg thing.

“Where did the Order enter the facility?”

“Multiple points of entry,” the eyes flashed, “multiple containment cells, research and development labs, armory, and other unknown locations.”

Nel closed her eyes and hung her head.

“Are there any Darkshield personnel still alive?”

“Yes.”

Her head popped back up.

“Who?”

“Crimson Ghosts.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Anyone else?”

“Unknown.”

Running a hand across her face she turned to the team.

“Anyone have any ideas what I could ask?”

“Safe point for us to infiltrate,” queried Marcus.

She shook her head.

“Even if they knew of a spot they won’t know where it is anymore now that the layout is randomized.”

A thought suddenly occurred to John.

“Could you ask them if security guard Conrad and an anomalous person named Avarlon are alive?”

Nel looked at him thoughtfully before turning.

“Can you confirm the existence of a security guard for Darkshield named Conrad and an anomalous individual named Avarlon?”

“They exist.”

“Are they currently alive?”

“Unknown.”

She turned back to the team.

“Anything else?”

When no one said anything Marcus sighed and answered her.

“I think that’s as much as we’re going to get here. Thank them for their time and let’s move out.”

“Thank you for your answers.”

“You are welcome.”

“May I have the new password for our next visit?”

“Oculis Clausa.”

“Oculis Clausa confirmed.”

The orbs slowly closed and started ascending back up the pillar. Nel walked towards the team with a look of frustration on her face.

“Went about as well as expected.”

“Well they did give us somethings to go on,” responded Marcus.

“And which part was that,” asked Barney sarcastically, “that Darkshield is completely overrun, the inmates are running the asylum, or that John is John?”

“We know their efforts are being delayed. That gives us a chance to coordinate with whoever’s still alive and mount a resistance.”

“Sounds sketchy to me.”

“Me too,” admitted Marcus, “but we have no other choice. If Darkshield falls then we’ll have an even bigger mess to clean up. I like our chances of containing this thing and regaining control of Darkshield’s facilities rather than have it bleed out on a global scale and trying to regain control of that.”

“Still a suicide mission.”

“Then write your will Barney,” said Marcus irritably, “or assimilate with those freaks, but I’m heading to Darkshield.”

Without waiting for a response he turned and walked towards the corridor they came through.

“Anyone joining me will prepare for a blind jump to Darkshield.”

It only took a second for the team to start following Marcus, John was surprised to see that even Barney was quick to begin following him.

“How about you,” asked Nel as she came up next to John, “you joining our team or theirs?”

John glanced at the pillar.

“John would prefer to remain John.”

She smiled and glanced down at his exposed torso. John gritted his teeth and willed himself not to blush.

“You look a little cold.”

“Any chance you have a kid’s sized t-shirt to match these sweats?”

She laughed and patted his shoulder before walking past him to follow the team.

 

#

 

Walking through the corridor John started thinking about what they were heading into. Marcus was prepared to take the team on a suicide mission to regain control of Darkshield facilities not knowing if any allies remained, what weapons they’d have access to, or what horrors they’d face.

Yet what Marcus had said to Barney about the threats contained there bleeding out on a global scale. He was still trying to wrap his head around Darkshield and what it was, and he was sure he only could see the small picture, but what he knew terrified him.

The Mannequins alone were a major threat. He wasn’t sure how they reproduced, but it was apparent that they could take on the appearance of anyone living or dead. Imagining a handful of those getting out of the facility and reaching large cities was terrifying.

Then there were beings like the Ripper who could not only take on someone else’s appearance, but also be impervious to damage.  He also imagined there were likely creatures similar to the Dog-Spider or the Memory Fishers he encountered in the Shelf.

The idea of a horde of other unimaginable threats bleeding out into the regular world produced terrifying images of death and destruction in his mind. He wasn’t entirely convinced Darkshield was any more moral than the Order, but at the very least they were shielding the rest of the word from greater evils.

Thinking about it all made him want to agree to help in any way he could but thinking through that prospect made him wonder what exactly he could do. He could hold a gun and shoot it, but he wasn’t trained, he wasn’t fit, and he certainly wasn’t experienced in dealing with these threats.

The more he thought about it the more he wondered what on earth he was doing tagging around with this team.

“Nel,” he said as a thought occurred to him, “why is your team called Crimson Ghosts?”

She gave a strained smile and John saw similar reactions from the rest of the team.

“One of our earlier missions we were sent to investigate a dimension that contained humans very similar to us. The heads at Darkshield hoped we’d be able to establish an alliance that would benefit both sides.”

Looking at the floor she shook her head.

“Unfortunately the people we encountered were absolute savages.”

“What do you mean?”

“Blood sacrifices, endless wars, slavery, cannibalism, and atrocities I won’t even mention. One of the bastards killed a member of our team and got a hold of her teleportation device.”

“Doesn’t sound good.”

“No, can you imagine the horrors a bloodthirsty tribe of savages would do if they ever figured that technology out? How many people would die if they got their hands on more sophisticated weaponry and began roaming from dimension to dimension conquering, slaughtering, and enslaving everyone they came across? Darkshield immediately gave us the order to do what we could to recover the device and were in the process of sending us backup.”

Her face turned grim.

“We attempted to secure the device stealthily, but we were caught in the center of one of their strongholds. Our only way out was through everyone.”

“Why didn’t you use the devices to teleport out?”

“The energy requirements are tremendous and they only work in certain areas of any dimension we travel to. We’ve been to some dimensions where we had to trek for weeks to find a spot that would let us teleport out. I know we make it look easy, but the technology is very finnicky.”

She shook her head.

“Anyways, we slaughtered nearly everyone in that stronghold during our escape. We lost the other members of our team in the process until it was just Marcus, Barney, and I. Exiting the stronghold we encountered two other teams sent to help with the retrieval. They said we looked like a couple of blood covered ghosts walking across a battlefield full of bodies.”

Taking a moment as if reminiscing on that horrible memory she turned to John and smiled thinly.

“Ever since then the team was called the Crimson Ghosts and it’s stuck ever since.”

“At least it wasn’t Pink Fairies or something lame.”

The look on her face told him his joke didn’t stick so John coughed and changed the subject.

“So we had a close one with Gray Matter didn’t we?”

“They’re like that, I don’t know if you noticed but they seem to be more computer than they are human.”

“It was like watching you talk to one of those voice-activated assistants that were big a few years ago. You’d ask them to pull up a song and they’d put something in your shopping cart.”

She smiled.

“Our team, before we became Crimson Ghosts, was dispatched when they put out the distress call. When we arrived they were how you saw them. While the rest of the team wanted to put them down I took a chance and tried having a conversation. Found out they know a lot about things.”

“I was going to ask you about that, how do they know about what’s going on?”

“My theory is that the original Gray Matter team had some illegal communications technology on them to stay connected with Darkshield employees.”

“Like your lava lamp,” asked John in a whisper.

“No, more sophisticated. Of course, my other theory is that the Center itself is a giant communication relay of some kind that collects data from across the cosmos.”

She shook her head.

“It’s strange, sometimes they’ll have deep and intricate insights into what’s going on and other times they’re completely oblivious. It’s likely they have more information than what I gathered but finding the right way to ask the questions needed to get that information is tricky.”

“I noticed, sometimes they’d give you vague answers without asking and other times you had to prod them a little to get what you needed. It’s like whoever programmed them wasn’t very thorough.”

“Or their human brains interfere with the processing in some way.”

John shuddered and Nel nodded sympathetically.

“I’ve seen and done a lot of horrible things in my line of work, but those four still freak me out every time I see them. I’d argue against visiting them ever again, but their intel has saved us a number of times.”

“Do you think they gave us enough to make it into Darkshield alive?”

She looked at him thoughtfully.

“Have you decided to come along?”

He took a long moment to think his answer through.

“I’m not sure exactly what help I can provide, but it’s obvious you guys need whatever help you can get. I also have a friend or two on the inside that might be more useful.”

“I was curious when you had me ask Gray Matter about them.”

“Conrad is the only reason you and I are standing here talking, without his help I’d be lying in a pool of my own blood with my throat slit. He’s a pretty good shot and saved my life a number of times. Avarlon…she’s another story.”

“You said she was an anomalous individual?”

“Basically she was a tree-lady.”

When Nel failed to give any kind of reaction he raised an eyebrow and kept talking.

“She was made of…nature and had the ability to command plants to do things for her. She was able to subdue…I think you called him the Ripper?”

Nel’s expression darkened.

“What’s his story?”

She looked at him icily.

“We’re not going to talk about it.”

When the silence became too uncomfortable and it was obvious she wasn’t going to discuss him at all John continued.

“Anyway…she was able to keep him contained, keep a purple orb contained, and fight a small army of Mannequins. If she survived she’d be a powerful ally to have.”

“I agree, if she can accomplish even half of what you said I’d feel much more comfortable having her on our side. Unfortunately, finding her will be entirely up to chance.”

They walked in silence for a few more yards. Several questions about the Ripper buzzed in John’s mind, but from her sour expression and the cold look she’d given him earlier he didn’t dare bring it up.

“Everyone stop.”

John looked ahead to see Marcus and Barney on their knees with their rifles at the ready. The other members of the team quickly drew their weapons and dropped as well. John went down to his knees wishing yet again he had a weapon of some kind.

“What is it,” whispered Cybil.

“Quiet,” hissed Marcus, “there are voices echoing down the corridor.”

The team went deathly silent and sure enough John could hear murmurs echoing from somewhere down the hall.

“Take up positions in the side halls.”

The team quickly scattered and John was at a loss for where to go. He opted for following Nel down a side passage.

“Any chance I could have-.”

She wordlessly drew a handgun from her hip and handed it to him. It was quite a bit smaller than the one he used on the Dog-Spider and he frowned as he took it.

“What’s with you and small things?”

She shot him a quick confused glance before it clicked and she rolled her eyes. John awkwardly tried to hold the weapon with two hands before opting to hold the gun with one hand and rest it in the palm of his other.

“Lights off.”

Everyone’s lights went off except for John’s. Cursing under his breath he quickly swept the headset off his head onto his neck and the light flickered off just as a beam of light entered the far end of the tunnel. With it came a bitter voice.

“Damn thing’s gigantic, we’ll be searching this place for hours.”

“For the last time be silent.”

“These cyborg freaks are plugged into a pillar at the center of this place, you really imagine they’re going to be a threat?”

“We don’t have a lot of intel on them and that lack of intel is a concern.”

“I just don’t understand why we couldn’t use the probes to wander down these corridors for us and map-.”

The man speaking suddenly cut off and John felt a chill creep up his spine.

“What is it?”

“I thought I heard something.”

“Mind’s playing tricks on you.”

“Something doesn’t feel right, form up.”

John heard the complainer grumble under his breath before going silent. There was no sound for several seconds before John heard a boot squeak on the floor that sounded like it was right around the corner.

“Lights off,” murmured the man who John determined was the leader.

The faint glow in the corridor kicked off and John was disturbed by how dark everything suddenly became. His mind started playing tricks on him and he imagined the walls of the place pulsing as they slowly closed in on him.

It also occurred to him that he wasn’t sure what the plan was. Were they supposed to stay in the shadows and wait for them to pass or were they meant to ambush them?

He aimed his gun into the shadows before foolishly realizing he wasn’t entirely sure where Nel was and he could be aiming the gun at the back of her head for all he knew. Lowering the weapon it also dawned on him that he wasn’t sure who the men were. He could be readying to open fire on another team from Darkshield for all he knew.

The combination of utter darkness, lack of sound, and paranoia was starting to get to John and he felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead and his heart hammered in his chest. Any second he waited for a light to kick on revealing his location and the men to start firing on him. Even worse his mind started imaging what else might be wandering these strange halls and he pictured fleshy creatures crawling towards him in the darkness.

A scream suddenly ripped through the silence and everything descended into chaos.

 

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.

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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.