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Day of Darkness by © moon_grace How they came to be or from whence they hailed was never information privileged to the masses. Large yellow taxis crept through a gauntlet of bodies all bent on one determination--Escape. All seeking to elude the atmosphere of impending and imminent doom that consumed the very air feverishly. Air breathing in and out the lungs of those who stood upon the ramparts waving madly down to the garish automobiles whose lights flashed VACANCY. ”Taxi! Taxi!” Came imploring screams of the throng and my scream mingled amongst the crushing crowd of bodies and arms. On the street, an army of arms waved in the air in meager attempts to hail one of the parade of cabs that all knew intuitively was coming to an end. Arms stretched heavenward from those below in the streets. Arms stretched downward hailing from those on the ramparts above. Beings of a choreographed bizarre dance of desperation danced to the gripping fear that annihilation would soon begin and be over as quickly. None felt a glimmer of escape in the last moments. I was there on the rampart above standing alone. I had a friend with me. I do not know who this friend was, whether male or female. We were physically separated in the second I hailed the cab. It was mine. MINE. I knew it. I could feel it with all the energy of my being. I shouted down to the driver, “Just a second! I have a friend… we will be there!” My elation too soon plummeted to fathomless sorrow like the child who receives the dream toy of a lifetime and within the first five minutes of ownership realizes as it is tragically broken. Broken and not to be amended. Broken with no mystic’s trickery to turn the clock back to that fleeting time of joy. The driver didn’t bother to disguise his disgust. He did not have the time to wait. He pointed to another of the waving throng and they jumped inside my ride to freedom. Gone. Sweet passage to freedom, to life itself, gone. Part of me crumpling inside realizing escape is not there and knowing it was not meant to be. Still, despite its incessant beating, my heart knew this was as it should be. I could not, would not leave the faceless, nameless friend behind.  The sun was going down now as its last rays began to slip behind city buildings that blocked the horizon and plunged the city block into a man-made dark hollow.  No more light. Recognition silently crept over the crowd. We were to be the shadow people. Hollow and ready to give up, I remained on the street now. Waiting and realizing the struggle was over. I waited with the calm reserve of a drowning man who knows the eventual outcome is nigh as he makes a conscious decision to close his eyes and stop struggling against the waves. Fluid fills his lungs and carries him downward in a macabre spiral into the swirling deep. The crowd began to thin, leaving to experience the last few minutes of life before the ending came. No one voiced the ending. There was no need. It was a given like the morning sunrise. There was no time to debate or speculate upon it. A large tarp-covered cattle truck pulled up. Another escape? It groaned to a halt in the middle of the road. The driver never stepped out. Never even attempted to choose who would ride or be left behind. He remained behind the wheel, silent. There was not a questioning from the crowd as they began to clamber for the last refuge on wheels. Something was not right. Too easy, but I tossed aside misgivings as friend and I became the last two standing on the back bumper clinging the back supports.  I remember thinking, “If he sees us, we’ll be made to get off.” I yelled to friend, “Duck your head down! Keep it beneath the tarp so he can’t see us through the ack window!” We rode through city streets that eventually opened into uninterrupted countryside. We did not go at a fast pace as might be expected for those escaping an unspoken doom. We rode at a casual pace. More and more uneasiness engulfed me. Finally, we reached the driver’s destination as the truck ground to a halt inside a large warehouse hanger. There was no way to run from the confines of the warehouse walls. I slipped silently off and stretched with the rest as the driver got out and waved, “That’s it folks, as far as we go for now.” There was no mention of what we’d escaped or what the next step was. Friend slipped away, lost in the crowd never to be seen again. I marveled that the loss of friend did not elicit any response of remorse or turmoil within me. I squatted quietly behind the barrels I sought refuge behind. The others milled around openly laughing and talking. It became a more social occasion than an escape to them now. They felt safe. They laughed and sang, exchanged greetings and shook hands around. I observed from behind the barrels. Evening and time wore on till the dark of night. Suddenly, a mother noted her child missing. Also missing was the driver. There was no alarm as mother made her way through the crowd seeking. She was sure her child had just hooked up with some other children somewhere in the throng. When scanning the crowd did not produce the lost child, the mother decided to go down a staircase no one had noted earlier. She descended. The crowd had grown anxiously silent as all realized the child was no longer with them. Silence soon punctuated with the unearthly visceral screams of a mother who has found her child…found her amidst another group with her flesh being consumed. Flesh Eaters. A wave of telepathic knowledge spread across the crowd. The driver had driven slowly. He was one of them. He hadn’t needed to be threatening. The crowd had willingly given itself over in attempt to escape. We had jumped from the hope of freedom into the bowels of danger we so desperately sought to escape. Pandemonium ensued. Running and mobbing attempts to hide once more as again danger was real. I was not compelled this time to invite danger into my heart. With the matter-of-fact feeling one has when putting a key into a lock and soon finding the door opened, I surveyed the crowd. I found an exit. A large glass door opened to the outside. I marveled the crowd had not discovered it. Through the opening, I saw the night stars outside. Just outside the door was an overturned canoe off to one side. In the distance was a field of two hundred yards, neatly mowed and clear of vegetation before it hit the tree line. The length of the field was too great to attempt crossing without discovery. I stepped quietly unobserved through the glass door to the outside. Behind me came screaming as the Flesh Eaters were now making their way through the crowd. I remained calm as the voice in my head said, “Under the canoe. You will be safe under the canoe.” A knowing washed over me. Those who would come after me would head for the tree line to search. They would not stop at the canoe by the door. I climbed beneath it suspending myself upon the racks that held the boarded seats in place. There, I remained. No clue what was to come. I hadn’t a care for the future. I knew, I knew suspended beneath the canoe, I would come to no harm. No harm as I awakened. Take care out there.. moon_grace.