Master of Shadows, Chapter 7: The Desolate City

The next morning Jack was the first one to wake up. As he slowly came to his senses he opened his eyes and yawned. He had spent the night trying to sleep on the cold, metal floor of a ruined building and had little to show for it. The night had not been a comfortable one. He felt tired.

“Oh, the pain, the pain of it all,” Jack muttered. Nearly every muscle in his body was aching. He stiffly stood up and attempted to stretch. “That’ll teach you to go on a four-hour hike! I was definitely not prepared for that much exercise.”

Jack glanced around the room. Their flashlights and emergency survival kits were lying a few feet away from them, right where they’d left them the night before. Jack noticed that his wife Lily was still asleep. She was usually an early riser but the previous day’s activities had exhausted her. I’m afraid we’ve got another long day ahead of us, Jack thought to himself. Let’s hope the Raptor is nearby. I don’t know how much more of these long hikes we can take.

After deciding to let his wife sleep a little longer he stepped outside and looked around. The weak sun had risen and filled the city with a tired gray light. All around him for miles were giant skyscrapers of all shapes and sizes. The buildings were in various states of disrepair. Many of the structures on the outskirts of the city were little more than a battered frame, but towards the city center there appeared to be structures that had fared much better. I wonder if these are any supplies in this strange town, Jack thought. We’ll have to do a little looking around as we hike through the city. At least it appears to be deserted! I don’t see any evil monsters lurking in the shadows.

Jack walked back into the building and saw that his wife was still asleep. He walked over to her and gently shook her awake. “Honey? I think it’s time to get up. We need to be going.”

His wife slowly stirred. “Must we? Can’t I stay in bed a little longer?”

“You’re not in bed,” Jack pointed out. “You’re lying on the floor on an alien planet.”

Lily’s eyes flew open. She sat up and then grimaced. “Oh. I remember now. No wonder I’m so sore. Why didn’t you bring a sleeping bag or something? Even a pillow would have been nice.”

Jack smiled. “The next time this happens I’ll be sure to bring adequate supplies. It’s not all bad, though. If we can make it to the Raptor we might be able to find all the supplies we could ever want. I bet they’ve got real beds there.”

“And working showers, I hope,” Lily grumbled. “I feel awful. That gritty black dirt is all over me and I feel like I haven’t showered in a month. And my hair is an absolute mess! Do you realize I don’t even have a comb?”

“The sooner we get going, the sooner we’ll reach civilization,” Jack said. “Would you like some breakfast?”

“That would be wonderful,” Lily said dreamily. She stood up and stretched. “I think I’ll take some homemade wheat pancakes, with lots of syrup and butter. Don’t forget to add a side of bacon, a fried egg, a piece of cinnamon toast, and a nice tall glass of orange juice. That would hit the spot!”

“Boy, it sure would,” Jack replied. He opened his emergency survival kit and rummaged through it. “Unfortunately, all we’ve got are these ration things. Unless there’s a restaurant nearby I doubt either of us are going to be seeing pancakes today.”

Jack removed two rations from his kit. He gave one to his wife and took the other for himself. His wife opened the vacuum-sealed bag and removed a small square of a black substance. She sighed. “Are you sure there’s nothing else to eat?”

“I’m afraid not,” Jack said. He removed his ration from its bag and bit into it. He chewed it for a while and then swallowed. “It’s not so bad, really. There’s probably lots of vitamins and nutrition in it. It’ll keep us from starving.”

“If you say so,” Lily replied. The two of them finished their meal and then shared a bottle of water. After they were done with breakfast they left the building and started hiking down the street.

The hike was much easier than it had been the day before. The roads that led through the city had cracks in them, but no deep pits like they had encountered in the desert. To Lily’s relief there was very little black sand and no sign of the eerie blue lights. The only sound was the wind whistling through the giant buildings.

“Which way do we need to go?” Lily asked.

Jack consulted his compass. “I think if we stay on this street and keep going in that general direction we should pass through the city and come out on the other side. The Raptor shouldn’t be too far from that.”

“Do you think we’ll have trouble finding it?”

Jack shook his head. “I doubt it. I bet when it landed it made a huge gash in the ground. There’s probably a trail of debris out there that will lead us right to her.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“What do you mean?”

Lily paused before replying. “Well, I was kind of hoping we could use her to get off of this planet. As in flying her back into space and to the nearest spaceport.”

Jack laughed. “Honey, her flying days are over. Did you see what she looked like as she fell to the surface? There’s no way she could ever reach space! That’s just not going to happen.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Lily asked. “I don’t see any other spaceships lying around! As I recall the Molly didn’t survive either.”

“We’re going to call for help,” Jack replied. “All we have to do is make it to the ship and use it to send out a distress call. Somebody will then come and rescue us. It’ll be fine.”

“I hope so,” Lily replied.

The couple continued walking down the long, wide road. Jack noticed that the buildings were growing larger as they approached the center of the city. There’s a lot of skyscrapers here for such a tiny place, he thought. The city can’t be more than fifteen or twenty miles wide. We should easily be able to cross it before it gets dark again – even if we’re still sore from yesterday’s hike.

Lily suddenly spoke up, interrupting his thoughts. “Who is feeding our dogs?”

“What?” Jack asked, startled.

“Our dogs! We left them at home, Jack. Who is taking care of them?”

“Um, your parents, probably,” Jack replied. “I’m sure our disappearance is all over the news. I bet the next day they found out that we were missing and have taken care of everything for us. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“I can’t help it,” Lily said. “They’re going to be so worried! They’re not going to understand.”

“We’ll get in touch with your parents as soon as we can and let them know we’re safe and sound,” Jack promised.

“Oh. I guess they’ll be worried too,” Lily said. “But what about your job?”

Jack sighed. “We can think about that when we get back to Eagle City. Right now we kind of need to focus on our own survival. One thing at a time, dear. One thing at a time.”

For the next hour the couple continued to walk down the city streets. Eventually the hike became too much for Jack and he came to a stop. “I am worn out. Can we stop for a minute? I need a break.”

“Me too,” his wife replied. “All of my joints are killing me.”

Jack looked around. “There’s a building over there. Want to go inside and get out of this cold wind?”

“Sure,” Lily replied wearily. The two walked into the massive structure. As they walked inside Jack looked up at it. The building towered high above them. It looks at least a hundred stories tall! Jack thought. I wonder what it was used for.

Once they were inside they entered what appeared to be a lobby of some sort. The ceiling was easily forty feet high. There was no furniture anywhere to be seen.

Lily plopped onto the ground and groaned. “Would it kill them to provide a chair or something?”

Jack shrugged. “There could have been chairs here a long time ago. Maybe they just disintegrated over time, and all that survived was that blue steel.”

“That doesn’t help us very much,” his wife replied.

“Is that an elevator shaft?” Jack asked, pointing. He walked over and took a closer look at it. The elevator doors had long since disappeared, but Jack could see a dark shaft stretching high above him and down below him. What he saw at the bottom of the shaft excited him the most. “Come look at this!” he exclaimed.

Lily wearily stood up and walked over to her husband. She gingerly stuck her head into the shaft and looked down. Her eyes widened. “Is that light down there?”

“Looks like it!” Jack said excitedly. “I wonder if there’s a way to get down there?”

“I don’t recall seeing any rope in that useless survival kit,” Lily commented.

“No, but don’t most buildings have a stairwell beside their elevators?”

“Sure, back home they do. But what do we know about alien planets? Maybe they didn’t believe in climbing stairs.”

Jack scanned the room. He spotted a door to the left a few feet away. He rushed over to it and pulled it open, only to be disappointed. “It’s just a closet,” he said, sighing.

“But what about that door?” Lily asked, pointing. To the right of the elevator was a door with a small opening for a window in it. Jack walked over and pulled it open. “Eureka!” he shouted. “I see stairs!”

Lily walked over to him and the two entered the stairwell. Sure enough, a flight of stairs led up to higher levels and down to lower levels. Jack leaned over the railing and looked up. “It looks like they go up forever,” he commented.

“Probably. But do they go down?”

Jack turned his head and checked. “Wow. I see at least five or six flights below us! It looks like there is some kind of light on the lowest level.”

Lily frowned. “Are you sure that we should be checking this out? Aren’t we supposed to be on our way to the Raptor?”

“This won’t take long,” Jack promised. “I just want to see what’s down there. We might find something that’s actually helpful.”

Lily sighed but said nothing as her husband started walking downstairs. After a moment she followed him. The two walked all the way down to the lowest level. There, just as Jack had predicted, they saw a faint white light.

“It’s coming through the window in that door,” Jack said, pointing. At the bottom of the stairwell was a door that looked like a functional airlock. Beside it was a small control panel. The panel appeared to be on and functional.

“That’s quite a door,” Lily said. “Looks like it’s closed pretty tight.”

“Maybe it’s preserved whatever is on the other side,” Jack said thoughtfully. He walked over and pressed one of the buttons on the panel. When it did nothing he pressed another button. All at once the airlock made a hissing noise. The doors parted, revealing a small room just beyond them. At the far end of the room was another set of airlock doors.

“Cool!” Jack said. He walked into the room.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Lily asked dubiously.

“I don’t see why not,” her husband answered. “Don’t you want to see what’s on the other side of that door?”

“Not really,” Lily replied. “But I guess I’m about to find out anyway.” She walked into the room and stood just behind Jack. After she was safely inside he pressed a button on the inner airlock, and the door behind them slid shut. After a moment the door in front of them slid open.

Jack gasped. The doors had opened into a large, well-furnished room. A white light seemed to permeate the room, coming from no obvious source. Holoscreens dotted the walls, and there were a few desks and chairs tastefully positioned around the room. The floor was covered in some sort of carpet material and the walls were a gentle white color.

Jack was the first one to step into the room. “I don’t believe this,” he said.

His wife followed him when something caught her attention. She went over to a nearby screen and looked at it carefully. “Hey, Jack, come here! This one has got some kind of writing on it.”

Jack walked over to her and stared at it. “Boy, it sure does! Only that’s not any language I’ve ever seen. Do you even recognize those symbols?”

“Nope. Can’t say that I do.”

As Jack studied the screen he noticed that it had evidently sustained some damage at some point. Occasionally the screen would flicker and there were parts of it where the picture had faded. Jack reached over to touch one of the buttons on the screen but his wife grabbed his hand.

“Don’t even think about it,” she hissed. “You are not going to start randomly pressing buttons on an alien planet. You have no idea what is going to happen.”

“I guess you’re right,” Jack conceded.

They suddenly heard a noise behind them. It sounded almost like a series of chimes. Jack whirled around but saw nothing. “Is anyone there?” he asked nervously.

Lily grabbed his hand and pointed to the floor. “What is casting that shadow?” she asked.

Jack stared in the direction she was pointing. On the floor was a long, black shadow – but there were no nearby objects that could be casting it. As they watched the shadow began to move in their direction.

“Ok, it’s time to go now!” Jack shouted. He and his wife ran toward the airlock. Jack slammed his hand on the close button bu t nothing happened.

“Oh, this is bad, this is very bad,” Jack said. The shadow continued to approach them!

“I told you we shouldn’t have come down here!” Lily hissed. Jack began randomly pressing all of the buttons on the control panel. None of them did anything.

When the shadow got ten feet away from them it stopped. All at once a noise filled the room.

“What is that?” Lily asked.

“It almost sounds like a language,” Jack said. “I don’t think it’s Ahmanyan, though.”

“I don’t like it,” Lily said. “It sounds like somebody is breaking glass. Or dropping plates onto the ground. The sounds are all sharp and pointy.”

All at once the lights in the room went dead. The shadow was lost in darkness, and the airlock doors slid shut. Jack slammed another button and the doors that led to the stairwell opened. Jack grabbed his wife’s hand and the two of them raced up the stairs, out of the building, and onto the street.

Once they were outside Jack stopped for a minute, panting. “Let’s not do that again,” he said weakly.

“You know, if you had listened to me in the first place -”

A noise suddenly drowned her out. Something that sounded like wind chimes began to ring in the distance. The noise appeared to be coming from everywhere but had no obvious source.

“Oh boy,” Jack said. “We’ve done it now! We’ve got to get out of here.”

Jack and Lily began running down the street. They both panted heavily. “We’re never going to make it,” Lily complained. “We’re at least an hour from the other side the city! We won’t be able to keep this pace up for long.”

“Look at the buildings!” Jack hissed. “They’re glowing!”

Sure enough, the blue steel of the buildings had started to glow in the daylight. The glow was an uneven flicker, but it was noticeable.

“I thought it only did that at night,” Lily panted.

As suddenly as it started the sound of chimes stopped. The city became completely silent and the glow disappeared.

Jack stopped and tried to catch his breath. Lily caught up to him and stopped as well. “What are we going to do?” she asked.

“We could panic,” Jack said, as he struggled to breathe. “Or maybe just try to get out of this city of nightmares as soon as possible.”

“That works for me,” Lily replied.

After a moment’s rest the two of them resumed jogging toward the outskirts of the city. Over the next several hours they continued to intermittently hear strange noises in the distance. Occasionally Lily thought she saw a shadow, but whenever they looked there was nothing there. By the time they made it to the other side of the city their nerves were completely frayed.

“Our imaginations are killing us,” Jack panted as he stopped again to rest. “Everywhere I look I think I see something.”

“Unless it’s not your imagination,” Lily replied. “We don’t know what’s out there. I’m sure that the shadow being brought the Third Treasure to this planet for a reason. I doubt it was just for entertainment purposes.”

Jack groaned. “I am so sore. When we get home I’m going to settle down in a chair and not move for a week. I have had it.”

“Then let’s keep going,” Lily said. “The Raptor has to be somewhere nearby. Right?”

Jack struggled to his feet. “Right. It shouldn’t be far from here. Once we get there we’ll be home free.”

After an exhausting walk the couple finally made their way out of the city. The natural depression in which it was located extended for some distance beyond the city limits, making room for a large tract of smooth land before the ground gave way to the black desert.. Fifteen minutes after passing the last building Jack began to notice bits of debris on the ground. He reached over and picked up a torn piece of metal. It had red paint on it. Jack smiled despite his weariness. “This doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen on this planet so far! The ship must be somewhere nearby.”

They continued walking. A bit further on Lily noticed a long scar in the ground about a hundred feet to their right. The gash continued on toward the north and was almost twenty feet deep. When she saw it she pointed it out to her husband. “You don’t think that was made by the Raptor, do you?”

“Why not?” Jack asked. “I can’t think of anything else it could be.”

Lily frowned. “That’s a pretty deep gash, Jack! I thought starships had landing gear. It looks like whatever made that hole just plowed into the ground out of control. Are you sure there’s going to be a ship left to find?”

“Something must have made that scar. Let’s follow it and see what it is.”

To Jack’s surprise the scar extended for almost half a mile. As they approached the end of it they could make out a red starship that had embedded itself in the ground. From a distance the ship looked mangled, but as they approached it they saw that it was a complete wreck. The Raptor was almost unrecognizable. The wings were gone and the body was badly battered. If they had not already known that it was a starship they would not have been able to tell what its original form was.

Jack and Lily walked up to the wreck. Jack saw the look of dismay on his wife’s face and tried to think of something encouraging to say. “At least it’s not a total loss, dear. The outside looks pretty rough but the interior might not be so bad. I say we try to find a way to get on board and see what we can find.”

“Are you sure it’s safe?” Lily asked.

“Do we have a choice?” Jack replied. “Do you know of any other way off this planet?”

“Ok,” Lily sighed. “After you.”

Jack climbed over the dirt and debris that surrounded the ship. The hull plating had been ripped away from much of the vessel, allowing fairly easy passage inside. Jack eyed the ship before they entered it. “It looks like the lower two levels are buried in the dirt, if they still exist at all. The other three levels look ok, though. My guess is that the top level is the most intact.”

“Isn’t that the level with the bridge?” Lily asked.

Jack nodded. “It is. The only problem is that the bridge is at the front of the ship. I don’t think that part of the ship exists anymore.”

“How encouraging,” Lily replied. “There goes any hope of sending out a distress call! Do you have any other bits of good news?”

Jack bit his lip. He didn’t quite know what to say. The loss of the bridge was devastating but he couldn’t bring himself to give up. “I know it’s a setback, dear, but let’s not panic. We’re still alive and that’s a blessing right there. Let’s take this one step at a time.”

Lily grabbed her husband. “No, seriously. Listen to me, Jack. That ship is a total loss and you know it. If the bridge is gone then how are we going to call for help? And even if by some miracle we can find other communications equipment on board, how are you going to get power to it? That ship was the only hope we had and it’s now scattered in pieces all over the ground. What are we going to do?”

“I’ll tell you one thing – we’re not going to despair. Losing hope is not an option. And we’re not going to give up either. I say we get on board, see what the situation is, and go from there. The Raptor is a Starman-class starship, after all. You never know what you might find tucked away in a corner. The game’s not over yet.”