The first time that really hit me that the world had changed was in mid-March, just shy of a month after the Black Sun.
Even though it had been raining for most of the morning it had become a nice and sunny afternoon. I normally would have gone out for a walk, maybe stayed out long enough to watch the sunset. But I knew that the recent rain would have left my favoured paths as muddy bogs. That was why I was watching television while munching my way through a bag of nachos.
Of course, there were rumours all over the internet about supposed superhumans popping up, people performing impossible feats, getting into fights that defied conventional understanding. But I just told myself that it was the sort of hysteria that came after something as world-shaking as the Black Sun. For a few days, the world had thought it was going to end, that there was going to be death across the world on a scale that hadn’t been seen since the dinosaurs were wiped out. There was all that fear, all that despair, and then suddenly the lights came back on and it seemed we had a stay of execution.
The outpouring of relief had led to things like massive street parties, religious services being held in places like stadiums or concert halls, and even a few life-affirming, and highly controversial, public orgies.
Loads of people suddenly thinking of themselves as special or superhuman was something I could see happening in the wave of relief that came in the wake of salvation. Having just survived death everyone felt the urge to try to live life as hard as they could. These rumours of superheroes and villains seemed to me more like people high on their survival going a bit crazy and acting on wild impulses.
So, there I was, watching online episodes of some old sixties sci-fi comedy cartoon. Something that predicted that by the twenty-first century we’d have flying cars that could fold into a briefcase, businesses and apartment complexes floating in orbit, and moving sidewalks everywhere. Funny what they got wrong, but weird what they got some right. There was video calling being so popular, or how much computers were in charge of everything. All in all, it wasn’t anything special though, just something to watch while killing time.
I was just watching a scene where the unreasonably intelligent youngest child was tinkering with a robot when the screen flickered, and the show was replaced by an image of a town in flames. There was a sign beneath the picture saying ‘Emergency Broadcast: Town Destroyed by Confirmed Supernatural beings!’
Newsflashes are a somewhat overused plot device in cartoons and films, but in real life, they are very rare. Truthfully up until that point I’d never seen one before in my life, only heard of them, so I felt a certain sense of . . . unreality as I stared at the screen.
This feeling wasn’t helped by what I saw playing out before me. Right there, on my television screen, was something that belonged on a cinema screen, not in real life. The camera taking in the image was shaky, but it was steady enough that you could make out what was being recorded.
As the image played a man’s voice sounded out, his tone controlled and professional.
“Good afternoon, we interrupt our scheduled program to bring you this breaking news. Earlier today the following recording was released onto the internet from the American town of Oldergate in New Mexico. The images and the damage shown have both been confirmed to be genuine.”
The town shown seemed to be somewhere hot, the streets had a dry and dusty look to them, and what plants I could see seemed to be parched, the few patches of grass in the picture stiff and brown. There was no sound though, so I supposed that the microphone of whatever camera was being used had somehow been damaged. All in all, the juddering soundless picture seemed to be oddly unreal.
It was only about half a minute long. It showed a tall muscular form, wearing nothing but a Greek armoured kilt, dashing out of the dust cloud thrown up by a building collapsing. His skin was deeply tanned, and his dark hair was cut short to stand in spikes from his head.
What was more eye-catching was the way that shadows seemed to darken into pools of blackness around him before moving in unnatural ways, as they slithered across the ground. In an instant, black tendrils extended from them, reaching up and trying to grab him. The tanned man proved no easy target though, moving at insane speeds to duck out of their grasp and evade their attempts. The tendrils tore into the ground and buildings about him as they missed him, punching through bricks and concrete as easily as a knife through paper.
Then a tendril caught him, wrapping around his ankle in the instant that it struck. The man tried to break free, but more tendrils took the opportunity and grabbed onto him. For a moment it looked as though he was going to be cocooned in them, then there was a flash, and the area was consumed by a spreading wave of fire. The person with the camera shuffled to the side, just managing to avoid any of the flames. The picture stabilized to show a second figure appearing, this one surrounded in an aura of lightning so bright that all that could be seen was a vague outline of a figure within. The new figure crashed into the tanned man, who had raised his arms in defence. There was a flash, the camera showing a wildly spinning picture as it went tumbling, then the picture cut out.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The clip began to rerun, then shrank to fit into the top left corner of the screen while the rest showed a news presenter sitting at a desk. He wasn’t someone I recognized, but the harried look on his face was oddly genuine as opposed to some of the composed expressions presenters always seemed to have plastered on.
“As you can see, this recording lends validity to the many rumours that have dogged the internet worldwide over the last few days.” The presenter stated, gesturing to the image beside him.
The picture beside him changed, no longer showing the clip but instead switching to show the town once more. The ruins left behind now gently smouldering. With the clouds of dust gone it was far easier to see just how much the place had been torn apart.
“In an effort to verify the truth of the released recording extensive tests and comparisons have been made to learn the reality of the situation.”
The picture turned to men and women carefully measuring blast holes and taking samples of the charred remains of a badly melted car. It all looked very professional and official.
The image on the screen was replaced with an official-looking woman in outdoor clothes standing in the ruins of the town next to a table that had been set up. She was facing the camera while holding up a chunk of concrete. A caption at the bottom of the picture identified her, but I didn’t bother to read it, instead, my attention was captured by the stone in her hands as she separated it into two pieces. What was weird was that the two faces that made up the divide were as smooth as glass.
“As far as we can tell this was caused by one of the so called . . . shadow blades,” The woman said as she showed the two smooth sides to the camera. “What is extraordinary is the smoothness of this cut! It has already been measured, and under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be possible to recreate this kind of division, even with cutting-edge technology.”
“Could you explain that a bit more?” A voice from off camera questioned.
“Making a cut as straight and smooth as this one is possible with things like lasers or water saws, in a laboratory environment with the appropriate equipment,” the woman explained. “However, neither of these methods could duplicate the cleanness of this cut. A water saw would leave behind marks while even the best laser would leave some signs of burns or melting. This . . .”
As she spoke, she pressed the two halves back together, showing how the division was all but invisible once it was properly lined up.
“. . . Is too clean, it is as though the two parts were separated without any sort of intervention. I think that a more detailed laboratory test will show that the cut goes down to a near molecular level.”
“Do you have any idea how this was achieved?”
The woman’s face took on a distinctly harried look.
“No! as far as we can tell this was cut by a SHADOW, do you understand? A SHADOW, something that should have been a difference in illumination levels got up and sliced concrete apart! Since we’re clearly dealing with something that modern science can’t explain I’ve got no valid answers. As far as we can tell the shadows that . . . that man . . . person . . . thing, was using are as close to being two-dimensional as makes no difference, except for when they weren’t, because they can apparently do that!”
She paused for a moment, then visibly collected herself.
“I . . . I don’t know what’s going on here, but I can tell you that this isn’t just some hoax, not with things like this . . .” she waved the two bits of concrete. “We’ve also got sand that was melted into glass, concrete that’s been shattered by multi-ton forces, a bird that seems to be partly petrified! The number of resources needed to do all this . . . And this isn’t the only site.”
She seemed to slump in place, putting the stones down on the table beside her.
“There are other sites?”
“Oh yes! As soon as we had confirmation of this one, we’ve received reports of at least two others.”
The picture of her shrank down until it was only in the corner as the original news presenter returned.
“As stated, the situation in Oldergate is not unique. Ever since the Super Eclipse reports of supernatural events have begun to appear. With this, the first recorded evidence, there is much debate about what the next step should be. Please continue to watch, this channel will release more information as it becomes available.”
And then, just like that, the screen switched back to what I’d been watching before.
I’m not entirely sure how long I just stared at the screen, not seeing the show there, but rather mentally repeating the newsflash I had just seen. What I do know was that by the time I came back to my senses something completely different was playing on the screen before me. I remember going into the kitchen and getting a beer out of the fridge, my hands shaking slightly as I did so.
I remember looking out at the street, seeing cars go by, people walking past, some fellow on a bike that didn’t seem to be dressed up warmly enough for the day. Did they know?
I’ve always been something of a sci-fi and fantasy nut. I liked my superhero films, my Japanese cartoons, my giant robots, my alien cultures, my dragons and spells. I liked books, I liked comics, I liked short videos on the internet. I even had an iPod to listen to audiobooks and podcasts while I was out on my hikes. It was fun to immerse myself in these stories of weird and fantastic things.
But when that was reality, when what you thought was rock solid started to crumble . . . that was when you began to feel exposed, vulnerable, frightened, and that was just the start of it
Little did I know that for the world, and me in particular, there would be more shocks to come. Oh, so many more.