Out Of The Darkness And Into The Light

The attack was over in seconds. Those who were awake during the blackout remember a flash of darkness as if they had been struck unconscious. No one was unaffected, not even the most well known and the most powerful. When the shadows made their move, there was no amount of light that could conquer them.

Now, every living thing that cast a shadow was in a world of everlasting night. I honestly can’t tell you what it was like when the shift happened, even though I was awake. I was born into a world of everlasting night. The doctors told my parents it was a combination of genetics and vitamin deficiency that caused my congenital blindness.

After the attack, those of us who were used to using four senses were given our fifth back. The blind could now see, if you could call it sight. It's more like the shapes and lines that used to dance in my dreams. Still, I was in much better position than most of the population that switched with their shadows.

I was walking with my service dog Grim in a small park in Abilene when the eternal night came, as they call it. He didn’t seem all that troubled after the switch, except for a whimper and response to the call of other dogs in the park. I like to think that when all the hounds decided they couldn’t see, they held a quick conference to decide to use their other senses. Grim did prefer to use his uncropped ears before his eyes.

It’s been a week, and he’s pretty much back to normal. I wish I could say the same. It’s hard to sleep due to the constant screaming and crying outside in the town. It’s hard to talk to people that are constantly on alert as they try to adapt.

My only sense of normal was from my boyfriend, Ed. He was still asleep when I returned from the park after the switch. He was shocked at first, and he even started fidgeting and rubbing his eyes, but after Ed decided that he was unharmed, he laughed.

“Hmm,” Ed started. “I guess you’ll have to show me the ropes, darling.”

There was a lot of speculation as to what happened at first. There were a few broadcasters that hopped on the radio through muscle memory. Our phones still worked, too, so the emergency broadcast went on repeat every time a person unlocked their device.

Supposed experts said that the whole world went blind due to some disease, but it only took a day or two for that to be debunked. Several people came forward and said they were warned of the attack by the true culprits: our shadows. They had grown tired of hiding from the light in this world, so they devised a way to “switch” with us.

It sounded like conspiracy nonsense, but it explained why those of us that were blind could see. We never really had a bad relationship with our shadows because we both knew nothingness so well. The blind were already adapted to this world when we were transported to it. From the reports, there were no deaths from the switch, which was amazing when there were so many cars, trains, and planes running.

I heard a theory that the shadows took partial control over people before they transported us. It may be that they need us alive to continue to exist in the light or dark. So, anyone that had been doing anything remotely dangerous was immediately shut down.

The mayor and several officials from the Air Force base nearby planned to hold a conference in the town center for those that could make it. I hoped no one would be stupid enough to drive, but Ed reminded me how some people could be. I grabbed my white cane and gave my extra to my boyfriend as I guided us and Grim down our apartment stairs.

The rail of the stairs was like a thin silver tube in the void of substance we walked through. There was a child at the bottom of the stairs crying and I recognized the sounds from every night in the past week. Before we left through the gate in front of the stairs, which were a gray unfocused fixture beside the boy, I stopped and bent down.

“Here, honey,” I said after making my presence known so I didn’t startle him. “It’s jerky. Don’t worry. When’s the last time you ate?”

Grim tried to nose the jerky out of my hand, but I pushed him away with my leg so he wouldn’t scare the boy. His loud snorts were enough to announce his presence to the boy and Ed made sure to let out an affirmation to my question to tell the boy he was there.

“Since I saw my uncle,” the boy sounded in the darkness as he devoured the food.

I looked at Ed as if he could see me and somehow he guessed my thoughts. The lines of his hands joined with his silhouette as he put them on his hip. I could feel him raising his eyebrows, too.

“Alice, it’s not our problem. I’m sure his parents will find him with the help of the city.”

“And how do you expect the city to help? Should he just keep crying out while he starves?” I argued as if I were his mother. “I can see better than any of them can right now, so maybe I’m the one he needs.”

Ed let out an exaggerated exasperation as I returned my attention to the boy. I picked him up and held him on my shoulder while he struggled to balance.

“We’ll get you home. Forget that town meeting, it's not like they have a plan to stop all this,” I decided as I motioned through the darkness with my free hand. “What’s your name, bud?”

“Dennis.”

“Well, Dennis, do you remember anything about where your uncle lived? Any street signs, or maybe a shop or something?”

“He lives by the Base Exchange,” Dennis whispered into my ear.

A strange flurry of lights circled as I rolled my eyes. Of course, his uncle lived on base. We lived at least thirty minutes away from the front gate, and that was when people could see. I wasn’t sure how we were going to get there without knowing what direction we were going, but there was a scared little boy counting on us.

“Ed, pick a direction,” I ordered as we walked out of the apartment complex.

“How am I supposed to know? Let’s just wait for the tornado siren to tell us which way the town center is.”

The mayor planned to guide people to the meeting with a constant ring of a tornado. Things would get really confusing if it were tornado season. Luckily, it was early fall. So, we sat on the curb by the street as I explained the things that I could see to Dennis, which seemed to comfort him. The lines of telephone poles, the parked cars, and even some of the trees were outlined in a silky grey.

“What does your uncle do, Dennis?” I asked to make time pass as he pet Grim, who was listening for any sign of danger.

“He flies planes for the base. I was supposed to take a ride with him when the lights went out,” Dennis explained. “After they made the base shut down, I tried to look for him but got lost.”

It must have been hard, if not impossible. He sounded as if he were only seven or eight years old. He had been stumbling and bumping into people for a week without any help, all while going in the opposite direction of his family. I could see why people were so self-concerned, but he was just a boy.

The sirens wailed through the nothingness and as I looked to the south, or maybe the east, I saw the faded outline of one of the downtown buildings. I helped Dennis up and handed him my white cane.

“Here, bud. This’ll help you more than it will help me.”

Ed and Dennis held hands while all three of us were led by Grim. Even though some time had passed since the attack, there weren’t many people walking around. We ran into a conga line of people walking with their hands on each other’s shoulder toward the town center, but that was it.

There were several swacks from Ed’s white cane as we went into another street. He was trying to make sure that Dennis didn’t bump into any cars. I decided to try to save us time by walking onto the highway, it wasn’t as if anyone was driving. When we had walked a mile or so, we started to hear people and then a bark from a dog that smelled Grim.

“Don’t be alarmed,” I said as I saw the impressed outline of a group in a circle.

“Oh, we’re okay,” an elderly voice said. “Are you going downtown? You can join our group if you want, how many of you are there?”

“There’s three of us and my dog, Grim,” I replied. “But we’re trying to make it to the base. Dennis here needs to get back to his family.”

The only answer was the peculiar grunt that older people make when they pity the younger. The outline that Grim cast met the shape of the dog that barked at him and they introduced themselves in usual dog fashion.

“Well, I’m sure his family will be at the town center if they’re from the base. Come dear, we won’t bite,” the old woman said.

Something in her tone made my stomach churl. One thing about being born blind is that you get a sense for when people are lying. I didn’t put it past people to take advantage of the strange circumstances and cause all sorts of trouble.

“That may be, but his family will return to the base eventually,” I argued. “It’s better for him to be there.”

“Okay, enough of this,” a man said as he stepped forward. “Forget the town center. Give us any food or water you have and we won’t have to harm you. There’s twelve of us and three of you.”

I pulled Grim’s leash back and handed it to Ed. He and Dennis took the hint and started backing away without a sound as I continued to talk to the strangers. I stepped forward with a kick at the pavement to keep them focused on me. No matter what they tried, I could see and they couldn’t.

“Who’s to say we aren’t going to rob you of all you have?” I said as I stepped closer to the man’s silhouette.

He and several others lunged forward and fell onto the highway. Ed and Dennis had circled around them successfully by following Grim and I snuck right through them without a sound. When we were far enough away, we started running. The man shouted into the void that he was going to find us, but it was an empty threat.

Once we found the exit that lead to the front of the base, which I only found because Ed always complained before that the sign was fallen over, we had to sneak past another group that was in a conga line heading toward the siren. They may not have meant any harm, but there was no way of knowing that.

“How are we supposed to get past the front gate? Won’t they still be guarding it?” Ed asked.

“I can tell them who my uncle is,” Dennis offered.

The guards weren’t likely to believe him unless they knew Dennis. I didn’t want to sneak onto a military base, which I was sure was a felony, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I’ve never been there before, but now I could see a small guard shack next to the front gate that had two large vehicles blocking the way and four guards with shining grey auras.

“Dennis, do you remember the gate from before everything went dark?”

“I think so,” he replied as we snuck up the street.

“Is there a way in around the guard’s building?”

“I think so. I saw those spike strip things when I got here with my parents, but we can walk over those.”

So, we tried our luck by going around the blockade. Everything was going smoothly until Grim was heard or smelled by a shepherd in the window, or at least, it was probably a shepherd. We hopped over the small vehicle spikes as the guards investigated the barking. When I heard them to tell the dog to stop, I knew that they thought it was just hungry.

From there, it was a straight shot to the Base Exchange, which was just a shopping center for the base. The old lady that tried to rob us was right about one thing: everyone on base was at the town center, which probably included Dennis’s family.

“Okay, where from here?” I asked.

“Uhh,” he hesitated. “I don’t remember. My uncle’s house was in a row of houses that looked just like his, except he had a blue front door.”

That wasn’t very helpful. Even though I could see shapes and outlines, colors were still out of the question. There was a line of similar roof-like lines behind the Base Exchange, so, we went in that direction. It would have been easier if Dennis’s uncle had some kind of landmark on his lawn that I could identify.

“Is there anything else you can remember? Was there any weird smell or sound, something besides looks that I could use?”

“Well, my aunt had a houseplant sitting on the porch,” Dennis said. “But it was dying the last time I saw it.”

There was something I could use. We checked each house on the street one by one, and while there were several with plants on their porch, there was only one of those plants that felt like it was fully withered. His aunt and I must have had the same ability to take care of plants. I knocked on the door, unsure if anyone would be there.

“Hello, who is it?” An older woman answered in a frightened tone. “Is there word about Dennis?”

“It’s me Aunt Carol!” Dennis exclaimed as he hugged the woman at the door. “These nice people brought me back.”

“Oh, thank heavens! Your uncle has been out looking for you every day for a week.”

We went inside the house after Dennis and Carol closed the door behind us. She asked us to sit in the front room while she fetched food from her pantry. From what I could tell, it was a spacious house with a lot of outlined objects, but interior design was never my thing.

“Now, now. I have to figure out this cellphone while I call my husband,” Carol explained as she fiddled with her phone. “He went to the town center with the mayor to explain this all to whoever showed up. He’ll be glad to know Dennis is all right.”

Carol finally was able to press buttons in the right order to call Dennis’s uncle. As the siren continued to ring in the background, Ed nibbled on some kind of cookie while Grim was given water. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do next but I was hoping to get the chance to meet Carol’s husband. It seemed like he knew what had happened before the attack.

“Yes, yes, dear. I’ll ask,” Carol said into the speaker and turned her attention to us. “My husband wants to know if you could go to the town center. He’d very much like to meet you in person. Oh, while you’re at it, if you don’t mind, there’s a package from his work that he needs right away.”

“Sure, we can do that, I guess.”

I felt it would be wrong to refuse. We had already come so far, anyway. Carol ended the call with her husband and gave Ed the package to take care of. She made sure to stress not to open it, since it was top secret. Carol only said that Dennis’s uncle needed it to help get us back into the light. I felt like a delivery person. Far too many people put their faith in me.

This story was a part of AutoCrit's Destination Unknown challenge. I'm not sure if i'm going to do anything with it, but thanks for reading!