"Hello...?"
"Hello..." replied the echo.
"Anyone?"
"Anyone...?"
Parker shook his head. "Not again." This last shift had apparently returned him to New York once more, but to a version of Manhattan that was...well...a bit different. Quite different, actually...and that was an understatement. The crater dug into the heart of the town, the massive hole that existed in the previous reality, appeared to be absent this trip and that seemed to initially be a plus. In fact, several familiar buildings, their silhouettes littering the city skyline, surrounded Parker including the ever-present Times Tower he could clearly see towering above. That should have also been cause to rejoice.
Sadly, it was not.
The issue with all of this seemingly apparent good news was the city's lack of life once more, its state of disrepair, and worse yet, the odd color. A sad truth which was the catalyst for Parker's nervous tension and displeasure.
Everything around Parker was dark. Not due to any lack of luminance, per se, but bathed in some sort of black paint and trimmed in glowing, slowly pulsing red lights. From the park benches to the windows on the buildings. It was as if Dracula himself designed the city using painting instructions from the Rolling Stones to create one brooding teenage emo version of the Big Apple. It was horrible. Honestly, Parker was afraid to put little Broadway down on the street for fear something might snatch it into the shadows and suck the blood from its tiny body.
Parker paused as something caught his eye.
"That's interesting," Parker said and stopped in the middle of the intersection of 44th Street and 7th Avenue. He noticed a singular circle of light about the size of a manhole cover formed on the asphalt in front of him. There was no light source near where he stood and more interestingly, no streetlight above him. This light appeared to come from heaven itself. Parker followed the beam vertically looking for its origin eventually peering straight above into the night-time sky. He discovered the cloudless sky was nothing more than a dark canvas devoid of all stars...except for one singular pinprick of light forcing its way through the dark to terminate on the concrete at his feet.
At the center of this spotlight existed a small tuft of grass growing up through a crack in the asphalt. Parker knelt down and touched a green blade with his pointer finger. He grinned wondering if the plant was growing purely out of spite or in willful defiance of its dark surroundings. Parker thought of the Negexis Agent. "The Flood of Darkness is coming..."
Parker considered the grass and how much he felt a kinship with the plant...at least for the moment. Then, he remembered the light and once again looked up in confusion...
"Attention Planet Earth! It's that time again!"
"Holy shit! What is that!?!!" The ominous digital voice sent Parker scurrying for the cover of a concrete construction divider. The heavy barricade and others like it surrounded several stories of scaffolding attached to a building that Parker thought belonged to one of the television studios back on his Earth.
A trio of musical hornlike booms executed in tandem with three pulses of red light that rippled around the corners and tops of the tall buildings sequentially. The noise set Parker's bag into a flurry of activity. Broadway was clearly as startled as Parker was.
"That's right, Planet Earth, we have not one..., not two..., but three new players!"
More music, more flashing lights.
"So, are you ready!?!!"
And more music and more flashing lights.
"You are? Then it's time fooooorrrr...Roach Hotel! Let's Play!!!"
YOU ARE READING
Voynich Shift - Season One (COMPLETED)
Science FictionParker Raymond recently inherited his estranged grandfather's large plantation home in Savannah, Georgia. The Spanish Moss hanging from the estate's large oaks, its massive gardens, and a near endless bank account were, in the end, not what captured...
