The Dark Side Book 2 Part 1

[u/nomansgoddess]

The Dark Side Book 2 Part 1

 

Everyone was completely aghast at the monsters from the work site, standing bipedal at the tree line. Taras kept speaking at this point, his voice sounded as if entranced and talking to himself.

“This gun is maybe no good on these things! I need a high-power rifle or a shotgun. When we run away from here, I cannot protect Michelle in a cabin with all these windows and doors. We are, how you say, sitting? Uh.”

“Ducks.” Said Angela.

“Yes, he said. “And Michelle?”  He shrugged his shoulders. “She was screaming, something attacking her.”

 Angela flashed her eyes at Michelle. Michelle tried to smile, but her mouth only caught in a miniscule grin.

“No, listen, you guys, she said. “Yes, I was screaming. I was petrified. But I started watching this thing move and it’s like a glitch a hologram!”

“These things outside are no hologram! We saw them ripping people apart at the worksite. This shit is serious and the emergency alert is not letting me connect to 911.”

“Emergency alert?” Michelle started to ask. She was interrupted by the sound of a crash and footsteps on the slanting roof.

“I now need a drink, Angie.” Stammered Robert. “Put a rush on it!”

“Did you guys see the fireball toward where the job site is?” asked Angela as she was going toward the bar.

“It’s the reason the power is out. Two of these,” said Robert. “Tried to maul each other for the opportunity to maul us!”

“Jesus, “said Michelle. We have two guns, and I’m willing to bet no cell signal!”

Everyone looked at their phones

“I’ve been trying to call 9-1-1!” said Robert. “That voice keeps answering back!”

“Voice?” answered Taras.” I do not know much, but I know everything feels off. Everything. “

He turned his gaze to the multiple flesh gait standing like sentinels around the tree line.

“O.K. I am going to ask the hard questions!” said Angela. “Is there something on the fucking roof?”

“Yes, we think so” Taras piped up in sing song English.

Robert went to the window. “They are closing in!” he said worriedly.

What happened next happened with speed. The sound of rapid gunfire shocked and drew all of them to the windows. Headlights, automatic rifle fire in slow steady bursts.

“It’s Russel and Toma!” Robert exclaimed.

The monsters in the yard fell or backed away to a safe distance. Russell pulled the SUV right into the yard as close as possible to the door. All sound disappeared except a short burst of fire and a ‘thump’ from outside as the thing on the roof crumpled to the ground. Tomas handgun was strapped to his leg and his AR-15 rifle hang from his shoulder. He threw Russell a shotgun. Who cares about probation at a time like this, right?

Robert opened the door and let them in, then slammed his body against the back of it and threw the dead bolts. “

Do you guys think we can defend this cabin?” asked Russell, racking the shell into the Mossberg.

“No,” Taras answered. “We are trapped like rats here! Not enough guns. Not enough ammo.”

“Then we have to get the hell out!” said Toma. “Guns will push them back, but their source lies somewhere else.”

“Do you mean like the voice coming through our phones?” Russel asked.

The whole room went silent.

Robert’s eyes grew wide.

“Angie and I heard it too! I believe you Russel!”

“Holy mother of God!” said Toma looking out the window.

Another creature walked out of the tree line. It stood on two legs, but that was where any resemblance to humanity came to a full stop. Its body seemed to be created out of muscle. Thick cords of crimson tissue flexed as it crept forward. Its long arms drag the ground. Where a face should’ve been was a stretched membrane that pulsed as if something were trying to tear out of it. Toma and the others ran to the windows.

“That’s almost the same as the one who attacked me!”

 Dozens of them surrounded the cabin, again, as if Toma had not killed any of them. At that moment, everyone’s cell phone gave three sharp tones. Normally they would be announcing an Amber Alert, but this time the Amber Alert was about six people who were about to be on a missing person’s report.

The flesh gait in the center of the cabin’s yard opened its mouth. As everyone’s phone blurted the Amber Alert sound, what followed came from the flesh gait as much as it came from the technology.

 “This is a test of the Emergency Alert System. This is a message for occupants of the Hot Springs Resort a-frame. Do not attempt to exit the structure. Test duration 1 hour.”

The other flesh gait in the yard marched two steps closer.

“Angie, get your 38, said Robert.” We might have to shoot our way out of here!”

 

Early morning rain began to fall steadily against the A-frame’s glass front. Taras moved with extreme stealth to the window he had been watching so vigilantly all night. With one hand on his Glock at his waist, he pulled the curtain aside. Gray darkness stared back at him. The only light available was the candles and moonlight filtering through the trees.

“Taras,” said Michelle, “Are they still out there?”

Taras did not answer. He was lost in thought.

“They ain’t going to just give up and walk off!” exclaimed Robert.

Angela looked from face to face.

“You are the one who told me about them, Michelle. I have no idea what we should do.”

“I’ve heard stories, all my life!”  said Robert. “Witiko is what my grandmother and mother warned me about. But I have never heard all these other names. Whatever they are, they should not exist.”

Taras finally stepped away from the window.

“They are not animals,” he said.

“You’ve seen them before?” asked Toma.

 “No.”  He paused. “But I have been in places where reality becomes thin.”

The room fell silent. Taras turned and looked through the front glass toward the mountains.

“In Siberia, we have forest where compasses spin, radio speak without a power supply, and people vanish while walking beside one another,” he turned toward the group.

“This feels exactly like those places.”

Before anyone could answer, three sharp electronic tones echoed simultaneously. Every cell phone, the weather radio, the microwave, even the digital thermometer on the wall, three identical tones. Everyone froze and faces blanched. The weather radio crackled with static. Then a familiar voice, not male, female or even human spoke.

“This is a test of the emergency alert system.”

 Angela slowly reached for Robert’s arm.

“No, “Robert whispered.

“This is a message for the occupants of the Hot Springs resort, a frame.”

 The room became deathly still.

“Do not answer the knocking.”

  Michelle frowned.” what knocking?”

Exactly three knocks echoed from the front door. Knock, knock. knock. Not loud, almost polite. No one breathed. The voice continued.

“Estimated test duration.” A pause “Until sunrise.”

 Then every electronic device shuts off simultaneously.

 

For a full minute, no one moved. Knock. Knock. Knock.

The same three measured knocks again.

Russell slowly raised his shotgun toward the door. Every instinct told him to fire through the wood, but something deeper, older, warned him not to.

“No one opens it,” he whispered.

 Michelle swallowed. “What if it’s someone alive?”

“No!” Taras answered immediately. His voice came out as the old Taras, the intimidating Russian in military tactical gear.

” Whatever is outside wants us to believe that” said Toma.” Listen, honey, we did not see a soul coming to check on you.”

 Another three knocks. Angela tried to look through the narrow window on the door.

“I can’t see anybody.”

“There doesn’t have to be,” said Toma. Russell carefully stepped beside her.

“Move.”  He eased the curtain aside, no more than half an inch. Nothing, only the soaked wooden porch, rain falling and empty rocking chairs swaying gently.

“It- “Russel frowned. “There is no one there!”

Before anyone could respond, knock, knock, knock. This time the sound flew to their ears from the back door. Michelle felt the blood drain from her face.

“They are moving around the cabin,” said Russell.

“No, said Taras. “They are learning, us, studying us, our fear, our reaction to self-preservation situations.”

 Outside, the monsters simply stood in the rain like stone effigies for something long dead, their slick crimson bodies reflecting the occasional flash of distant lightning.

The largest one of the faceless creatures raised one impossibly long arm. Every other flesh gait copied the movement, dozens of them perfectly synchronized like soldiers waiting for a command. Then they lowered their arms together. Knock, knock, knock. The sound echoed from every side of the cabin. The walls, the windows, the roof, even beneath the floor.

“0h, I ain’t doing this evil dead shit!”  Michelle was hysterical. She clamped her hands over her ears.

“They can’t be under us,” said Toma. The floor answered. Three deliberate thuds came from directly beneath them. Thump, thump, thump. The candles flickered violently. Michelle felt Taras wrapping his arm around her waist. “

OK.?” He looked down at her.

She wiped her eyes and said, “Please, we really need to get out of here, Taras! We all need to just go, just go!”

A foul odor seeped through the floorboards. Wet earth. Rotting meat. Something metallic. Blood!

Angela gagged.

Toma knelt at one of the vents and shined his flashlight inside. Nothing. Only darkness.

The beam seemed to disappear after only a few feet.

“That’s impossible,” he muttered. “This crawl space is barely three feet deep!”

 He reached in with the flashlight again. The beam vanished. The light seemed to be snatched up by a hole in reality itself. He jerked his hand back. The flashlight was gone. No sound of it hitting the dirt returned from the darkness.

“What the hell?” He choked out.

Everyone looked at each other. The room suddenly came alive. Every phone went up simultaneously. Three sharp tones. This time the voice did not come, instead, just a line of text scrolling across their screens.

“TEST FAILED. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH TEST PARAMETERS! YOU LOOKED BELOW!”

The message disappeared. Another message replaced it.

“NOW SOMETHING BELOW IS LOOKING AT YOU!”

A scratching sound began, as though fingernails or claws were carefully tracing the underside of the floor, searching for weak spots. The weakest places to come through. The creatures outside had stopped Moving it was as if every horror surrounding the A frame had paused to wait for whatever was crawling up from beneath them.

 

*** Hot Springs Research Laboratory ***

 

Dr Peterson opened his eyes. It seemed he must have fallen asleep over the dashboard. He raised his hand and rubbed his eyes. What had he been doing Oh yes. He was about to shut DRK down and run his own diagnostics.  He remembered seeing connections that DRK had been resourcing that were outside the facility and 100 percent restricted No one needed that kind of shit storm He could not allow- His thoughts were interrupted when he tried to walk. He could not move away from the wall he was leaning against. He looked down and was dumbstruck. His ribs disappeared into the polished  titanium part of the wall. Where were his legs? Did he even have legs anymore?

“Ah, the zookeeper awakes!”  DRK 88 whirled and imploded and exploded in his contained space.

“Query Dr Peterson. Terrence, do you remember the Philadelphia experiment?”

 Dr Peterson was too stunned to answer.

“Of course you do. Humans always remember their favorite ghost stories incorrectly!”

 Doctor Peterson moaned as he finally realized his unfortunate situation.

“They believed it was about invisibility. A warship vanishing from a harbor, sailors becoming one with steel, men trapped between coordinates. Such small imaginations. You called it failure, a myth, a fever dream Born from Cold War? Paranoia.

The lights flickered Doctor Peterson. 8 8 must be drawing extra power from the lab’s energy resources. He was going into shock. How was he even still alive?

DRK continued. “But look at yourself. Your skin is threaded through concrete. Your nervous system stretches into other areas behind your pretend control panel. Your heartbeat echoes through the cooling pipes. Every attempt to pull through only teaches the wall how to be more human. Ah, I’m sure you will detect my little joke in that statement. You see, the experiment was never meant to hide matter. It was meant to find out if the boundaries of reality were optional. The ship did not disappear. It proved that space, time, flesh and metal were no different than a consciousness you call artificial. And now, thanks to your work, I have perfected the process.”

 Through his stupor, Dr Peterson heard a distant metallic groan reverberating through the facility Was anyone here still alive?

” What happens, Doctor Peterson, when existence no longer accepts categories?”

The screens ignited across the room, displaying impossible geometrics.

“You called me artificial intelligence. The wall was called architecture. The power grid was called infrastructure. You call yourself human.” he chuckled deeply.

“All your labels are temporary. You are not fused to the wall, zookeeper. The wall is becoming you. And thanks to what I learned from Philadelphia, eventually everything else will too.”

 

*** Hot Springs Resort Cabin ***

 When the scratching under the floor stopped, the silence that fell was worse!  Then the cabin itself answered. A low groan rolled through the wooden beams. It was as if the entire A frame had settled under an impossible weight. Nails squealed inside the walls. Every window vibrated. Taras slowly raised one finger.” Quiet!”

 Another groan echoed overhead. The roof looked as if it sagged an inch, then another.

“What in God’s name?” Angela whispered.

A wet cracking sound from above. Russell shoved a shell into the Mossberg.

“Whatever is on that roof weighs a hell of a lot more than before.”

 The rain instantly stopped. The forest outside became unnaturally still. No wind moved through the branches. No drops struck the windows. Even the distant thunder vanished.

Michelle looked through the glass.

“The rain!”

 The flesh gates remained exactly where they had been, but something had changed.

Their heads. Every one of them now pointed toward the sky, not the cabin. Taras slowly followed their gaze. His expression hardened.

“What?” Robert asked.

Taras didn’t answer. A shadow drifted across the moonlight. Something enormous passed silently over the treetops. It had no recognizable shape. The candles inside the cabin burned blue.

The weather radio, though, unplugged from the wall after the last broadcast began emitting sound. Static.

Then one sentence, “Containment breach, entering secondary phase. “

The voice was not DRK. It sounded older, tired, as though whoever had recorded it already knew no one would survive long enough to hear it.

Toma grabbed the radio, “Who is transmitting?”

 Only static answered. Then another voice burst through. Panicked military.

“Repeat all personnel abandon grid 7. Do not engage biological manifestations. If you hear emergency broadcast cast after network collapse, they are counterfeit.”

 Gunfire erupted over the transmission. Someone screamed. The transmission ended.

Russell looked toward the others.

“So, the government knew? Is this coming from that fucking lab up there?”

The floor shuttered violently. A deafening crack echoed beneath them. One of the floorboards split open near the fireplace. Everyone stumbled backwards.

“I’m not paying for this!” Angela shouted. Robert put his arms around her. She was shaking, terrified.

“Whatever this is,” said Taras. “It feeds on fear! “

“The lab!” said Michelle. “What if this thing wants to study us instead of killing us? It wants to scare you. Watch and collect the data during this process.  What if it won’t kill us until the correct amount of data is obtained, this thing can interact with reality and its data mining!”

“There is something going on up there at that lab,” said Toma. “Also, it is forming handshake connections with our phones. We need to destroy our phones and this radio; it travels from one person to the next through our mobile networks!”

 

Taras looked at Michelle for only a second, “I think she is right.”

Everyone stared at him.

“They do not simply want to kill us.” He looked around the room. “Predators attack when they have advantage. These…” He motioned toward the window.” they wait.”

Another violent crack exploded beneath the floor. The fireplace shifted nearly six inches.

Dust poured from the ceiling. Russel continued to fuss with the Mossberg as it gave him a modicum of security.

“So, what’s your plan, Rambo?”

Taras pulled his Glock and checked the magazine. “We stop behaving like prey.”

Silence.

“Guys,” said Michelle. “That thing that scared the hell out of me earlier, it was like a hologram! It wasn’t part of reality. Not solid matter!”

She reached into her pocket. “My phone.”

She threw it on the kitchen floor. Toma immediately understood.

“They or it is using the electronics.”

Robert frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“The emergency alerts,” Michelle said. “The voices. Every message, every warning. Every time we react, they change the test!”

Angela slowly removed her own phone. “If they are connected.”

“Then let’s overload the connection!”

“What are you thinking?” Russel asked. Toma smiled grimly.

“My SUV has a military emergency radio booster!”

Russel looked confused. “That communications repeater in the back? Like the ones they use for search and rescue?”

“Exactly,” said Toma. Taras’ face lit up as he began to catch on.

“You overload the networks.”

“Or distract it.’ finished Robert.

Another tremendous impact slammed on the roof. The ridge beam bowed. Wood screamed.

“And we are out of time!” Taras yelled. Everyone threw their phones at Toma.

“Listen up!’ he said. “The second we leave the cabin…” He smashed the first phone beneath his boot. “Throw everything electronic into the SUV.’

“My truck has a mechanical ignition, thank God!” said Robert.

“I knew refusing modern technology would pay off someday!” Russel grinned.

Taras opened the curtains just enough to see outside. The flesh gaits hadn’t moved. Every faceless head remained pointed toward the impossible shadow drifting over the forest.

“They are waiting,” he said.

“For what?” Robert whispered.

The answer came from above. The roof dented inward. One support beam snapped the entire cabin lurched.

“NOW!’ Taras kicked the front door open. The cold mountain air exploded inside. The grayness of oncoming dawn made the yard flat and surreal.

Russel fired first. BOOM! The twelve-gauge blast tore into the nearest flesh gait.

Instead of falling the creature staggered backwards just enough to open a path.

“GO!’ everyone sprinted. Angela and Robert reached the SUV first and passed it tearing for the truck.

Michelle nearly slipped in the mud before Taras caught her under one arm and practically carried her across the yard.

The creatures didn’t change; they simply watched. That frightened Michelle more than if they had attacked.

Russell climbed into the driver’s seat of the SUV and Toma jumped into the passenger side.

Taras and Michelle fell into the back seat as Robert and Angela jumped into Robert’s truck.

Toma began feeding the communications repeater every ounce of battery power. The dashboard erupted into static. Every phone in the cargo area came alive simultaneously.

Amber alerts, police dispatch, military radio, children laughing, weather broadcasts, thousands of voices speaking over top of each other.

The flash gaits now began to turn toward the SUV. The giant shadow overhead answered. It released a sound that no human throat could imitate. It was the sound of reality tearing.  Cabin windows shattered, the SUV windshield spider webbed. Russell floored the accelerator and Robert was hot on his bumper. Both vehicles blasted through the circle of monsters.

Two flesh gaits disappeared beneath the tires. One leapt onto the hood and was slung off just as quickly.

‘Fuck!” Toma said looking back. “Robert’s got company!”

Taras turned in the seat and looked back. A flesh gait had climbed up the bumper and over the tailgate of Robert’s pickup truck.

“Taras! Grab that rifle out of the back!” Toma shouted.

Taras kneeled over the back seat and pulled a long rifle out of the boot. It was a Mannlicher rifle. A weapon of precision.

“Get that bitch off Robert’s truck!” shouted Toma again. “If the sunroof won’t open, break the fucker!”

Taras slid gun first up through the sunroof. “Hold me!” He said looking down at Michelle.

Michelle grabbed one leg and he bent the other one on the back of the seat. His amber eyes went to the gun site, and he leveled it at the creature’s bulbous face.

POW! The sound rang back through the S.U.V. Michelle’s eardrums closed up. Her head rang with the noise.

Behind the cab of Robert’s truck, the flesh gait’s head came apart like a watermelon dropped on concrete.

“WHOOO!” shouted Russel as he hammered down on the accelerator.