To Imagine...

Imagine 18: When Darkness Falls

Though the darkness surrounded everything, we ran and we knew where we were going. We were in a corridor with only two immediate directions: straight and right. We ran around the right turn immediately.

We were rewarded with glowing light.

From the moment we had entered that oppressive dark we had knownthat this is what awaited us.

The glow was beautiful and golden, the walls a more faded golden than the light, with red markings lining it randomly. It was beautiful. We stepped ahead and followed the hall to the left, through an open gate that lead into a larger room, though the ceiling was hardly higher. Loxi and another, far more gray person greeted us, Loxi exclaiming and jumping on me. In all of the excitement, I missed a lot of what was going on. Everyone was talking, but she was the only one talking to me. Each word was rushed but excited, talking about how I never showed up so she had to leave before Dark. Her journey had been much easier during the end of the day with little excitement, simply grey, but I knew she didn't mind it half as much as walking through the Dark. That's why she left first, and left David and Glenn to wait for me if I showed up.

I'm glad that they did, but no one had mentioned who had pulled me out of the Dark. My memory between collapsing at the edge and leaving the building to walk down the road was blank--I vaguely remember a man behind the counter and perhaps that it was a store. That would make sense, given that this was a way point for travelers. Perhaps they had let me rest on the upper floor, and then guided me out when we left. Though, while that sounds plausible, I left the building laughing at something that the man inside had said.

I couldn't remember it for the life of me.

As the flurry of excitement moved from one thing to the next, all of a sudden I realized why we were here. Things began to appear all around the room from nothing, and we all began looking at what we might have. We were mostly unequipped, but I got excited when I realized that I had brought two knives with me. One was relatively impractical, one small knife that wasn't too sharp, but another I still held--much sharper, much deadlier. Glenn was often the main line of defense, but this time I watched him shoving things in his backpack, and he communicated that he would stay in the back to protect what he had.

Loxi picked up a weapon as well as Glenn, who showed on a machete--I was immediately jealous, but I did not complain. I'd be fine. As far as I could tell, Loxi had looted a small crossbow--not impressively lethal, but enough to really piss someone off. It suited her. In fact, I was surprised that we all got weapons this time. Sometimes we were lucky to get even practical items.

The moment that we all picked up a weapon was the moment we all rushed out of the next door in the cramped room. The grey individual followed out last behind me. I hardly noticed.

We were met with a pile of rubble that formed a wall in front of us and to the left. It began to subside after a few feet, and I saw to the right there was a path into a large room--more than a dozen times the size of the room we had been in.

The center of the room was relatively clear, though the ground was just about made up of rubble. I was the first the try and run out--a projectile immediately knocked me off my feet, cursing as I fell onto my back. A small bit of rubble protected me as Loxi dragged me back, and as I crawled backwards with her I noted a fat post that could also be used as protection to get closer to whatever that was. More accurately whoever that was.

Hushed conversation was exchanged in just a moment and then Loxi glanced around the wall of rubble, locating the target. It was trapped in rubble from the hips down, but was situated in the center of the walls behind this one. She loaded a bolt and gave me a nod. I responded in kind.