Lights in the Fog

[helterskelter]

 

The night was bleak, and the fog had laid thick over the sea port, yet very little sound was too be heard. The citizenry had been evacuated from the surrounding area, so the port was solely occupied by the military. The enemy was coming, the warships were gone, so it had been decided that an ambush was to be manufactured, hopefully catching the enemy unawares as they sought to gain more ground on the planet.

“I don’t like this night one bit, something isn’t right.” Matthias mumbled, his jacket collar turned up high in a vain attempt to keep out the cold and damp. He checked his las carbine for what seemed like the hundredth time that evening to Piotr. 

“Whether you like it or not, we are here. We keep watch, we stand ready. That’s all you have to worry about for now.”

Matthias made a grunt of displeasure, and shuffled impatiently, he was uncomfortable and would have much rather been in the warm, settled nicely by the fire with his feet up and dry. As it was the sea air mingled with the mist and permeated everything, the salty breeze bringing fresh moisture to already wet soldiers.

Then in the darkness, a light, through the haze, a muted yellow white, diffracted in the fog. All the men turned. Unsurprisingly Matthias was the first to speak up. 

“He’s got the right idea”

The commander, however, was not in the mood for disobeyed orders.

“Well then, you can go tell whichever Fugging numbskull who turned it on, to put it out! We’re under orders. Radio silence, no lights, we need whoevers coming to think no ones here so we can get the drop on them, and we aren’t going to do that if some spineless fool needs to have his night light one. Its not bedtime at mamas house, this is a warzone! Go shut it off. You go too Piotr, thank that mouth on Matthias.”

Piotr cuffed Matthias round the back of his head, and started toward the light, Matthias rolling his eyes set out to catch up just behind him. Between them all that could be heard was the rush of the sea, and the splash of the puddles as they walked, ahead of them only the light in the mist, around them only the darkness in the streets. 

As they drew nearer to the light Piotr stopped, and put out his arm to still Matthias. “Wait, I thought I heard something.” They listened and still naught but the wash of the sea.

“I don’t hear squat, what is it?” Matthias said.

“I heard… something. Like a splash in the water.”

“If you hadn’t noticed, its wet. There are puddles everywhere and its cold, maybe it’s one of the other men trying to stay warm!”

Piotr shrugged, and continued on. Closer to the light they came and it almost seemed to sway gently on the breeze, it was almost alluring, like the light of an Angler fish in the deep drawing in prey, Piotr mused to himself somewhat darkly.

Then something changed.

The road beneath their feet seemed overly wet, even given the night, but still they went on. Then Matthias felt something warm drip on his face, startled he brush feverishly to get it off.

“What the Frag is this?” he asked, looking at his hands, in the mist and the bleakness of night he couldn’t see much but whatever had dripped on his face was most definitely not water.

“Piotr, somethings not right, im telling you man.”

Piotr turned as he was walking. “Look, we’re almost there now will you just be quiet for” and it was then he tripped, and fell face first to the ground, his carbine skittering through the puddles in the street. He clambered after it and instead of finding the cold hard plasteel, he found something warm. And limp. He pulled at it, and it rolled over to face him. Dead eyes stared at him through the fog, a body lay in its own blood most likely from the dark, glistening smile on his throat. Piotr recoiled and started backwards, scrabbling away in shock.

“Matthias we need to go, now. Matthias? Matthias??”

He got up and turned. There was the light. And there was Matthias, floating, no, more like dangling before it, his head at an awkward angle to his body, and Piotr slowly felt the trickle of warmth, the warmest he had been all night but no drier. 

As Matthias dropped, dead eyes stared at him through the fog, stared down at him, and the light shone, a shimmering sea green giant was before him, and faster than Piotr could open his mouth to scream, its hand shot out and turned his throat to a bloody red mess.

He fell hard, splashing down in a pool of blood made from the deaths of many men, a death soon to be his, and as the life drained from him his eyes moved up. The light moved on, and behind it dozens more stalked through the mist. 

[Brother Lunkhead]

NIce work brother