The Darkness

My eyes open but it’s dark, too dark to make anything out. My head throbs as I lay on the cold, damp concrete floor. Confusion sets in as my thoughts scream inside my head.

“What happened?”

“Where am I?”

I reach my hands out slowly and begin to feel around. My fingertips trembling as my heart begins to pound, only making the thoughts in my head louder.

“Hello?” I shout.

“Is anybody there?

The sound of my voice echoes out into the darkness, but no one returns my call. I collapsed face down to the ground in a panic. My heart beating uncontrollably as I take shallow breaths, hyperventilating.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I cry, as tears begin to swell in my eyes.

Just then I feel someone reach out and place their hand on my back. The hand was cold, just like the room, but rough and callused. I was shirtless but hadn’t noticed until now. I flipped over and pushed myself across the floor away from the dark figure next to me.

“It’s okay, you need to calm down” the man said in a whisper.

“If they hear you, they will take you away”

“Who are you?”

“What do you want from me?” I yelled at the man, swinging my arms in his direction, but not making any contact.

“I told you to stay quiet,” said the man.

“It’s not me you should be worried about, it’s them.”

“Who is them?” I chime back into the darkness still not able to make out the mysterious man completely.

“I’m not sure” he replied.

“But I know that you need to keep your voice down, or they will come for you.”

“Now I’m going to come closer, please don’t swing at me.”

The man reached his hands out again searching for me, making contact with my legs.

“Let me show you something” he whispered.

I grabbed his hand and he pulled me to my feet.

“What is this place?” I asked in a quieter voice.

“I’m not entirely sure” replied the man.

“Just follow me though and I’ll bring you to the others.

“The others? How many people are here?” I asked.

“Too many” he replied in a somber tone.

Clutching my hand, the man began to walk us into the darkness. I could feel his body swaying back and forth as he swung his free hand out in front of him searching for something. It seemed like we had been walking forever until I heard it. His hand hitting a metal chain link fence.

“Okay, now we follow this down to the others” he said as he directed my hand to the fence.

The fence was just as cold as the floor, but I grasped my fingers through the weaves and pressed my head against the metal, letting out a sigh of relief.

“What’s on the other side of this fence?” I asked.

“No one knows” the man replied.

“Anyone who’s tried to get through it has been gone when we wake up.”

“What do you mean when you wake up?” I replied.

“When we get to the others I’ll explain more.”

“For now, let’s just move, I don’t like being in this darkness” he said as he put his hand back on mine and pulled me forward.

Against the fence our pace picked up, I could tell the man was much more comfortable, or rather certain with his movement, or perhaps just truly afraid of being in the wide-open darkness where he found me. Either way I was glad to not be alone.

The further we walked the more I could make out of the room and the man. Ahead of us there was a red light on the ceiling. It was faint at first and revealed the long silver haired man guiding me. He was much older than me. His body was shirtless, and his pants were tattered, torn and dirty. He looked so frail and beat down but none of that was evident back in the darkness.

I could also make out the silhouettes of about a dozen other people, all huddled together around the red light glowing from the ceiling. Each person in the same shape and tattered clothing as the old man. As we approached, the rest of the group turned to us with hollow eyes and spoke nothing.

“What is this? Why are we here?” I whispered to the old man.

He simply shrugged and said, “I don’t know why we are here, but we are here because this is where they come from” and nodded towards the red light.

The red light was on the ceiling above a large sliding metal door behind the chain link fence. The fence had a small, locked gate directly in front of the door. On the wall next to the door was a camera and I could make out a few small air vents.

“This is where they drop off the food, water and take the bodies away” he said nodding at the gate.

“And those vents up there is where they release the gas.”

“The gas?” I murmur.

“Yeah, that’s what makes us sleep and how they are able to get in and out,” said the old man.

“If you’re being too loud or caught trying to escape, they gas us all and remove you. If someone dies, they gas us all and remove the body.”

Then the old man looked up at the red light and said, “Every now and then the light flashes off and on for each person here.”

“What happens when it flashes?” I replied.

“Nothing, just flashes," he said.

The old man points over to the side of the room and motions me to sit down with him.

“Save your energy kid, if you want to survive.”

“I’ve seen so many people come and go from this place, and I can tell you that standing there under that light like the rest of them is going to make your stay here a lot shorter, and not in a good way.”

“How long have you been in here?” I asked.

“Not sure, it’s easy to lose track of the time, but long enough to know what not to do” the old man replied.

Just as I sat down next to the old man, the light went out.

“Here come the flashes, never seen them so quickly after a new member joins the group,” said the man.

The light slowly turned back on red.

“That’s my flash” he chuckled.

“It flashes once for each person in the room, and I’ve been here the longest, so I get the first flash."

Just as quickly as the light came on it went out again. Red flash two, three, four came and went.

“This will be over soon and hopefully our rations won’t be long after, it’s been a while since they dropped off anything other than you” he said.

Five, six, seven, eight flashes off and on as my eyes fixate on the light with every flicker. Silently counting them in my head. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve come and go.

“This next one’s mine then, huh? I said to the old man jokingly.

Green. The light flashed green.

The old man grabbed my hand immediately.

“I’ve never seen it flash green before,” he said as we both stare up into the emerald glow.

“What does green mean?” I asked him in a panic as my heart began to pound in my chest again.

“I don’t know,” he murmured.

Then the vents on the wall began to hiss.

The old man looked at me and said, “I think they found what they were looking for.”