DarkLight Redemption: Post-Human Universe - Book One

Chapter Twenty-Five

I am surrounded by utter darkness. Then explosions and collisions sear my eyes and rack my body. Somewhere in the shadows of the cosmic fireballs, I see a figure moving.

It's small compared to the planets and stars forming, but still massive in its own right. It's also the only thing that's clearly a living entity. There's another flash, and the figure has simply vanished.

I feel as though the universe is expanding around me. Once the sheer infinite vastness of it becomes too much for my mind to perceive, there's blackness again. It only lasts for a moment, and then the sun is shining down upon me.

I sense solid ground under my feet, but as I look around, I see only plants, trees and stones. I'm still adjusting to this primal Earth when I hear a mighty roar. I look to my left, and in the distance, I see a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The beast is running toward me, but when I try to fly away, it passes right through me as if I'm nothing more than smoke. So I follow it with my eyes and see it run into a large grouping of smaller dinosaurs and snatch one up in its jaws.

Two more T-Rexes run in from the other side and pick off meals of their own. Then the ground begins violently shaking, and the T-Rexes turn their attention to the sea. The brilliant sunlight begins to dim, and I see an enormous monolith rising up from the ocean.

The monolith turns out to be the same figure that was moving amongst the birthing pains of the cosmos, and it is now blocking out the sun. I feel my muscles melt and my bones collapse. The dinosaurs and I are all engulfed in darkness, and the helplessness that I feel practically has me in tears. I fall to my knees, and I notice that the three apex predators seem to be bowing before the shadow from the sea.

I hear the meteor streaking through the sky before I see it. It penetrates the shadow's back and punches through its front. The world is bright again and brighter with each passing millisecond. Just before the fiery celestial body impacts with the ground in front of me, I'm pulled into darkness again.

Then I'm surrounded by other humans, but these humans are wearing very little clothing, which is all made from animal pelts. They grunt and make gestures at one another, dozens of them near me, but they do not speak. I realize that they're Neanderthals, and that I'm now a few million years removed from the dinosaurs and the great shadow.

There's a sense of familiarity with the Neanderthal standing beside me. I look at him, but I don't recognize the face. The eyes, though, meet mine even though I'm as non-corporeal in this place as I was in the last. That's when I realize that these eyes belong to the man I know as Roman Lawson.

Another earthquake, and I know what's coming next. I want to cover my face or crawl into a cave somewhere, but I can't stop staring at the ocean in the distance.

The view has changed, but I somehow know that I'm standing in the same exact spot as I was when the T-Rexes bowed and the meteor impacted.

Again, the shadow rises as innumerable waves of seawater roll off it. Again, the sky is blacked out, but there's no bowing this time.

The Neanderthals, previously peacefully milling about, now turn on one another. They begin tearing into each other with a ferocity the like of which I'd never even imagined.

A symphony of yelling, snapping, growling and cracking fills my ears. Limbs are ripped off, skin is pulled open, and organs are yanked out. I recoil in abject horror as the Neanderthals devour each other.

The creature that will one day be called Roman Lawson gouges out the eyeballs of a female and eats them like grapes. My chest and throat tighten as I scream soundlessly.