Kyle West - Darkness

“Never heard of it,” Anna said.

“Well, I thought it was fitting.”

We hovered at a safe distance from the mass of clouds. Apart from that movement, nothing stirred in the air. It appeared as if…

Suddenly, everything rocked as the ship dropped to port. Red lights flashed. A terrible shriek sounded from outside the ship.

We had been attacked from above.

The ship was falling, fast. I held onto the dash for dear life as the mountains reached up for us. Something chewed on the bridge from above. Covering the upper right corner of the windshield was the pointed end of a wing.

“Mayday, mayday!” Ashton said.

“Ashton!” Makara shouted. “Engage retrothrusters!”

“I am!” he shouted back. “They’re not responding.”

Another crash jolted the ship, from further back. The ship spun ever downward. No sound came from the speakers.

We had lost contact with Gilgamesh.

I suddenly heard a series of pecks slam into the hull of the ship. I thought at first that it was the dragons. But I then realized it was Gilgamesh firing on us in an attempt to kill the dragons.

“Still going down!” Ashton shouted. “There’s too many of them!”

“We need to abandon ship,” Anna said.

I realized she was right. Aeneas wasn’t in a nosedive, but it would be soon. As more and more flying bodies slammed the top of the ship, it became increasingly clear that this was a fight we couldn’t win. We had to reach the ejection pods before it became impossible to even walk to them. They weren’t far — just off the main corridor leading to the bridge.

We unstrapped ourselves from our seats. Before turning for the corridor, I saw the form of a dragon spin down to Earth, spewing purple blood. Makara had at least shot one, but she still had dozens more to kill yet. That nuke had not killed off as many as we had thought.

I pulled Anna along, pushing her in front of me. She ran toward the corridor.

I reached a hand backward to assist Ashton. The old man gave me his arm, and I pulled him toward the corridor.

More dragons slammed into the hull from above, forcing the ship further downward.

“Come on!”

Anna pushed me into the ejection pod. Ashton lost his balance and was about to fall backward into the bridge from which we had climbed. I grabbed his arm, and Anna grabbed my torso. Together, we pulled Ashton into the pod. I slammed the door shut.

A second later, I was pushed back into the door as the pod shot out from the ship. I floated upward inside the pod, then slammed into the ceiling from the drop. From the port in the door I saw only misty gray.

A pair of hands pulled me backward, forcing me into a seat. I felt straps cover my body and snap into the buckle. Anna tried to do the same for Ashton.

“Help me lift him into the seat,” Anna said.

I helped pull on Ashton. As we fell down and down, somehow, someway, he managed to strap himself in.

“Now,” Anna said.

She pushed a button near the door. Suddenly, the pod lifted up again. She had deployed a parachute.

I could see nothing outside from the port. I could only hear the wind, whooshing by…

From somewhere distant, I heard a crash and explosion. Aeneas had fallen, crashed into some mountain where it would rest forevermore. We floated downward. I felt my breakfast come up, and forced it back down with great difficulty.

A few seconds later, a massive thud jolted us all. Our seats bounced up and down on springs, obviously built with suspension.

Then the pod started to roll. But it only rolled once before sliding to a stop.

Our panicked breaths filled the pod, clouding the window.

“Everyone alright?” Anna asked.

I nodded, though there was little point to such a gesture. It was too dark to see anything. We were pointed away from the sun, and the clouds were so thick that little dawn light found its way inside.

“Ashton?” I asked.

He was quiet, his head slumped to the side. A trail of blood snaked its way down from the corner of his mouth.

“Oh no…”

Anna unstrapped her safety harness, making her way to the scientist. She placed two fingers on his neck, waiting a moment. Another.

“He’s alive,” she said. “He must have passed out from the G-forces.”

From above, I heard the wail of dragons. At least three shrieks sounded as they circled above.

“They know we’re here,” I said.

“So does Gilgamesh,” Anna said. “These pods have tracking devices built in. As long as we stay here…”

Ashton stirred. “That is not advised.”

“Ashton!”

I unstrapped myself from my seat.

“I’m fine,” Ashton said. “Thanks for asking.”

“We need to move,” I said. “Those things could knock this pod down this mountain for good.”

“How do you know we’re on a mountain?” Anna asked.

“Because we’re surrounded by them.”

“Now, don’t fight, you two,” Ashton said. “Let me just get this door so we can get our bearings.”

Ashton stood up on unsteady legs, reaching for the latch. Frost had already collected on the outer shell of the pod.

“Must be cold out there,” Ashton said.

“Like I said,” Anna said. “It would be best to stay here until Gilgamesh comes.”

“If it comes,” I said. “We have no idea if they’re okay, too. We need to get out and see what’s going on.”

“Unfortunately, all of our cold weather gear was on that ship. We wouldn’t last thirty minutes out there.”

Anna had a point. At the same time, oxygen was also a commodity, and this pod sure didn’t have a lot of that.

“We can’t stay in here forever,” I said. “This air’s already stale. We need to get out and scout around. Hell, maybe the ship didn’t crash too far away. There might even be supplies we can use.”

“I don’t know, Alex. I guess it’s worth a try.”

I nodded, and reached for the latch. It felt colder than ice on my bare hands. I took a deep breath, and opened it up.

And was greeted by an image of frozen Hell. Gray ice covered everything, and a tall precipice was only a few feet away, falling seemingly into colorless infinity. It took all of my gumption to step out of that pod. I was rewarded by slipping and falling on my butt, only to slide further toward the ledge.

“Whoa!”

I reached out, grabbing a rock that felt hot to the touch. No, not hot. Cold. So damn cold that it felt like a stovetop.

I switched to my other hand to take some of the pain off. Already I felt my bare fingers going numb.

“Alex!” Anna was standing in the doorway. She was too far away to reach me.

“Hold on,” I said. “I’ve got this.”

I reached my other arm up, pulling myself along the ice to where I was sitting on the rock. The pod was just a few feet up the ledge, sitting atop some more rocks — an island in a sea of ice. If we had landed just several feet to one side or the other, the pod would have surely fallen off the cliff and we would have died.

Well, that death probably would have been less painful than what we were about to face now.

I saw ahead about a hundred feet in every direction before thick dust cut off my vision. The harshest of all winds, like the devil’s breath, blasted me from the side, chilling me to the bone.

We wouldn’t last an hour out here.

“Get back inside,” Anna said.

That was easier said than done. I had to cross the ice again, and if I fell, I might not be lucky enough to catch myself this time.

There was no way I was staying out here. The dragons were gone for now, but the cold was my worst enemy. If I could get back in the pod, we could wait for Gilgamesh to pick us up. If there was a Gilgamesh left.