20060526
11)Darkest Darkness

I heard beeping… I wished someone would shut it off. I hate beeping in the morning when I’m trying to sleep.
Someone walked into the room lightly, as if not to wake me. I stifled a smile and continued breathing evenly to appear still asleep, in hopes of receiving a backrub. She always did that to wake me up.

“You said we were going to the park. It’s almost noon,” she shut off the alarm and began to rub my back exposed above the covers. She did always know I was awake.

“It’s not just a park,” I mumbled into the pillow, knowing she didn’t really care. I figured I’d wait until she stopped before getting up to get dressed.

**********

“I know its not really chips!” she said as we passed several shops as we walked down to the train station, “I just don’t like fish that much.”
We stopped outside a shop that had every imaginable curiosity on display. She kissed me again as we stood there, and it went on like that for a while until someone came out of the shop with a gasp. We just laughed as we stepped out of the way, “I love you, you know.” She smiled her beautiful smile and replied in kind.

**********

“Hey, Theo said he wanted a souvenir. I was going to get him something nice. Any of your friends want anything?” I asked her as I walked into the shop.
“No, they all wanted things from Hawaii, so I already got everyone something,” she walked around the shop looking at things here and there, not all that interested. There was a stand full of cricket bats near the counter. I picked-up one to test its weight. Knowing my friend was a sports buff, he’d probably like it. I bought it and a backpack- in case there was anything else I found on our way that I wouldn’t want to hold in my hands.

**********

The trains were more colorful than I was used to from home, but the ride was enjoyable. The tunnels were narrow and sturdy, a bottleneck of sorts. We took a train out of Waterloo station to Salisbury, then a short bus ride out to the site. I had always wanted to visit Stonehenge. The mystery and magic of the place was appealing to me, and I thought it would be nice as a day trip. She actually seemed to be looking forward to something I wanted to do for once. She did enjoy the fresh air.

**********

“You know these stones can’t be found anywhere around here for miles?” I asked her, already knowing she didn’t- and that she probably didn’t care.
“Oh?” she said, half interested, “A storm’s coming in.”

There was a mass of dark clouds rolling quickly toward us from the city. I hadn’t expected rain.

I had a friend who knew a guy and we were actually able to get inside the ring of stones. It was a broken ring, but amazing none-the-less. They were actually doing an excavation of sorts, based on some archeologist’s findings. I lightly touched the stones with lintels still intact, as if my light touch could disturb these that had stood for centuries.

My friend’s-friend that had gotten us in came back from talking with the archeologists to try and fill us in on what they were doing.

“In recent years, they have found evidence that leads them to believe that there was a structure built around the stones here at Stonehenge. No remains have ever been found on the surface, but they think that underneath the ground there may be some support for the claim. Echo-electrical technology was implemented, but they couldn’t read very deep before the readings were obscured. They are digging to look for a floor of some sort. We are truly lucky to be here if the find anything. This day will go down in history!” my friend seemed excited, like today would be his defining moment. I was hopeful for his sake.

“What’s echo-electric technology?” she asked me quietly.

“They focus electricity through sound waves. It’s relatively new technology that they won’t use in the States. They say it is potentially harmful,” I explained. I knew a lot about it, as the government had me assess the technology for use in military applications. I had to finish my report on the HARP project as soon as we got back from our honeymoon.

The man we were with also showed us a sample of the bluestone the inner “horseshoe” was made of. He explained that it was anomalous in that it appeared dark blue when it was wet or freshly broken, but it eventually faded.

Just then the archeologists struck something and they let out a yell. The bustle was amazing as they cleared masses of dirt with mechanized shovelers. They were infinitesimally accurate, so there was no fear of harming the structures.

A floor-like mass of stone could be observed where the outer-most stones once stood. It was unbelievably smooth and level, to the point that it was hard to believe it was anything other than man-made.

The edges were the one thing that stood out to me. They were unevenly, perhaps unnaturally, rounded.

“Why would everything be so angular and straight and that be so… not?” I asked out loud, as everyone stood astounded at the find.

“It looks melted,” said the fellow we were with, yet no one heard him. They began to celebrate the find as that of the century and to cheer for themselves.

We went along with it, but I was troubled. I knew there was no volcanic activity here, seeing as that was the only plausible way to melt several feet of sandstone to that extent.

“What on earth could do that?” I asked, just as the storm reached us. I expected a torrent of cool rain, but instead was met with a wall of hot air and the sun being blotted out behind the clouds. We heard screams further off down the path toward the welcoming center, but barely over the excited bustle of workers and archeologists.

Just then I saw a large dog crest the hill from the direction of the center, and assumed that it had frightened some people. Then I saw several more following close behind. Wild dogs would avoid a place with this many people, but that was the only explanation. The animals rushed toward our group on all fours. I alerted the men standing around who quickly prepared for the implausible siege. The shovelers rolled out on their treads like mech-warriors, wielding sonically charged axes and shovels. They felled a few of the things while the rest headed for the group of us.

What had just been a party was now a battle ground with people being pounced on and having their throats ripped out or hamstrings severed. Everyone began to fight back as they closed in on us.

I realized now they weren’t dogs, but more like huge komodo dragons with spikes. And they were agile like cougars. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but regardless I did my best to shield my new wife with my body. I wielded the cricket bat like a club, swatting at any that came too close. Some of the security guards from around the site wielded handguns or electrified batons. The handguns seemed to throw the things off balance but do little damage. The batons at least seemed to be truly hurting them.

I moved to one of the arches and helped her climb on top of it. I stayed on the ground to continue to help others around me. A shoveler was thrown back on top of one of the fallen stones, which shattered under its weight. As I watched the man inside get pulled from the wreck by his arm and promptly killed, I was tackled by a creature. I landed near the crushed stone and fended its snapping jaws off with the bat it had pinned between us. I searched with my other hand for something to injure it with and found a piece of sharp stone lying on the ground. I rammed this into the thing’s head with ease, killing it quickly.
I snatched a longer stone spike from the ground and began killing the things in the surrounding area. I remembered my wife and ran back to the stone she was on top of, where she lay with her eyes closed and tears streaming down her face. I stood in the center of the arch and observed the carnage around the area. These things were dragging people off, back in the other direction away from the standing stones. Some others were pacing in a semi-circle of the place I was standing, as if some barrier stopped them from coming any closer. The only explanation I could imagine was some inherent magic in the stones stopped them from attacking me.

The man we were here with lay dead on the ground with his throat ripped out. I said a prayer in my head and hoped they would leave me be for now. I helped my wife down so we could wait until they were gone. I gathered any shards I could, and put them in my backpack.

**********

We could only move small distances at a time. The streets were crawling with demons. She was waiting for me in a small hideout that I hoped would be safe while I ran down to the market to loot it for any food that may be left. There were others around, but it was best to stay in small groups. I scrounged for what I could and hurried back to where I had left her.

**********

I lay there in a pool of blood, my own mingled with theirs. All of the stone slivers I had salvaged were embedded in their skulls and through their spines pinning them to the ground. I had come back to find our makeshift home filled with demons and no sign of my wife. Had they killed her? I wasn’t sure. The lack of a body led me to believe they had taken her for some wicked purpose. I had killed them all and now waited for my own deserved death for having failed to protect the only thing that mattered.

**********

Beep. Beep. Beep. I hate the beeping.

“Xander! Xander! Wake up!”

The voice brings me back to reality, if you can call it that. I am face to face with Somsien who had been shaking me by the shoulders. This is the second time I’ve awoke in a hospital bed here. The heart monitor is beeping wildly.

“What? What?” I say impatiently.

“You haven’t been conscious for days, and you already have an attitude. Man… You were screaming your head off from a nightmare; I was trying to help you out.” Somsien says, sitting back down in his chair, shirtless. The scars on his arms were readily apparent in the bright light of the hospital wing.

The memory of what had happened flooded back into my mind, “How did we- What- Is Dahvid okay?” The questions came too quickly to process them.
“He’s fine. He helped carry you back here. You’re a heavy kinda guy with all that armor.”

Dahvid walked in with some food on a dish, “I hope you like mushrooms!”

The meals consisted heavily of mushrooms and other easy to grow vegetables. We had no meat except from the rare can, seeing as how we ate any animals almost immediately.

“What the hell happened?” I ask trying to piece things together.

“First things first… You know that time you stopped me from killing myself?” Somsien asked tentatively, like he wasn’t comfortable talking about it.
“Yeah, I remember. What’s that-” he cuts me off.

“I’ve killed myself before. Not tried. Did. I can’t remember the details perfectly, the shrink says they’re repressed. I remember a drug overdose on acid, and a hunting knife. That’s where these scars came from,” he held up his arms like they weren’t obvious, “I remember the feeling of death, and the suffering in that place. I had just a taste of hell, but somehow they brought me back. They saved me in the hospital somehow. Something like the drugs stopped my heart, so I didn’t bleed to death like I should have.”

Dahvid seemed uncomfortable, like he had heard this all already. He wasn’t one to believe things he couldn’t see, but he changed a lot after the demon invasion.

“I think I was imbued with some… power. Some incarnate evil that was warped inside of me. When the demons arrived I lost my mind. I can’t remember where I went, what I did. When you saved my life that day, I was different. The voices stopped. But the other day on the battle field, when I was covered in acid, with the mixed scent of flesh and metal burning, the voices came back. But they spoke with one voice. My voice. The raw energy I released killed that demon, since it was nearly dead anyway.”

He seemed so fervent; I could see an almost maniacal light in his eyes. I was nearly worried until it subsided.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. Just know that I’ve discovered a new power within myself. This… flow of magic, which I am just starting to figure out. When we are all rested, they said we should go back out, and try and find any others. I just wanted to tell you, but I am late for a training session.”
He patted me on the shoulder, then got up and left the room. I think he scared himself a little and that’s why he left so abruptly.

“Why isn’t he in a cell somewhere? Shouldn’t they have locked him up for everything he did?” I ask Dahvid who seems as confused about his rant as I.
“I explained to them what happened. They agreed to judge him not guilty after hearing your report,” he ate some of my mushrooms as we both sit and think.

I could only marvel at the whole situation. Suddenly my dreams from earlier rushed back and I grabbed Dahvid’s arm.

“We have to go to Stonehenge!”