The Lantern Bearers

chapter 2: what is she?

It was such a bizzare sight that i couldn't comprehend. She was breathing in a deep sleep, she was emitting a low yellow glow, and my detectors were going bonkers the closer i got to her.

I scanned the surroundings with my eyes and seen a toxic anomaly bubbling on the floor in the corner across from her, a ripple anomaly outside the window in the air, and the black grass down below on the ground floor of the building. I would put on my gas mask and scan my geiger counter over her general vicinity. It read that there was no radiation and she wasn't emitting any heat of any kind. Just what was she?!

I heard the night dragon bandits outside, closing in on my location. Knowing the ripple was outside the window, i peeked outside of it, using the ripple as a shield. One of the morons shot at me and hit the ripple, making it pulse and launching the bullet back at equal velocity. He cried out in pain as he was hit in the shoulder and fell to his knees.

"You dumb fuck! You shot a ripple! You NEVER shoot ripples!! They send your shit back at you like a mirror!" Said a goon.

"Dammit....how could i be so reckless- ssss rrrrgh!" Said the wounded goon.

"Hey bearer!! We know you're up there and using the anomalies as traps! But we know your batteries will run out soon! All we have to do is make sure you don't escape! If you come down, we will just take your shit and you can go back to the haven you came from! We know you have a beretta 92, clips, and ammo on you! That's a pricey, deadly piece!" The ring leader yelled.

He's right, i snagged the gun straight from the safe. Guns are hard to come by in this age of darkness. You would be lucky to find a functioning gun, let alone bullets. Finding a gun safe was like finding a treasure chest. The beretta 92 is a classic pistol made in 1975 and has been in service since 1976. The clips i have hold up to 10 rounds. It's a reliable pistol to say the least.

"Fuck off! I'm keeping what's mine!" I said, flipping them off.

The ring leader would shrug and laugh as he directed everyone to simply stand around for me to run out of light.

See, when the darkness eats someone, they only eat flesh and bone. It leaves clothing and stuff like that behind, keeping the rest intact. It is best to not shoot the lanterns, if possible, because you can take them apart and assemble it into your own, replacing worn out parts for better parts, and dead or dying batteries with more charged or fully charged batteries.

If my light goes out, all they have to do is just take what they want, including the girl.

Speaking of light, the girl's light was more than efficient at keeping the darkness away, so i turned off my lantern to preserve battery. If i wanted to, i could just do a reversal and wait out the bandits, due to this.....thing, giving off natural light.

I quietly sat down within the light and started tending to my injuries. I had seven bullet wounds, most were shallow and didn't go deep, but my clothes were definitely drenched in blood and i started feeling sick and weak.

I opened up my first aid kit and started cleaning them up with alcohol, groaning and gritting my teeth the entire time because it burned. The worst part was yet to come though, the worst part was extracting the bullets. I wadded up some cloth and put it in my mouth and bit down as i grabbed some tweezers out of the kit. I would then proceed to dig into the bullet hole in my arm and try to put out the bullet. I chomped down in pain and emitted muffled screams as i tried to work the bullet out. It was agonizing to say the least, but i finally got one out. I had to take a moment to collect myself before i black out.

Without noticing her, she was wide awake and squatted down to my level. I jumped in fright and cut the inner part of the wound with the tweezers before i was finished.