The Eternal Eclipse

By Zach

The Darkness

There has been a darkness eternally covering the Earth

we live on for fifty years. The Sun, our Sun started
emitting dangerous rays of radiation. Our best scientists
tried to create a way to stop and the only way was to
create an artificial eclipse. The machine was very
advanced with one side able to mimic UV rays and the
other to blot the Sun. To power the massive machine they
used solar panels on the side that blotted out the Sun.
However, this would not go how they expected it to,
sending the machine that doomed our imperfect world.
The machine had a self-detonation after it stopped
picking up high levels of radiation. However, this would
not happen. The Sun did stop radiating the solar rays but
the machine did not explode. However, this would not last
as instead of exploding it stopped giving off UV rays. The
fake sun stopped giving us the artificial light Sunlight.
Despite the sun being blocked it's supposed the machine
gave off very faint UV power to produce enough heat to
keep the Earth from going into an eternal age of winter.
Leaving us in a darkness that would never end. This would
leave us, humans, in the dust with nothing left. This is
truly the end, not when the Mayan calendar ended. There
were no higher beings because if there were, why would
they leave us here? We all thought it would be a world
war that would end it, or extraterrestrials would control
us and take us one by one, but no. It was us, humans, that
doomed us. We left ourselves no hope. It has been fifty
years since the incident. Humanity has fallen, all power
has been lost, and the military is practically gone. Now
humans are at the bottom of the food chain. Natural
Selection has chosen the other animals over us, but most
cattle and farm animals are gone. In contrast, the
predators have evolved further than we have ever
thought, evolving their brains and strength
simultaneously. We the humans have lost all hope…

All…Hope…?

Prologue

The darkness is broken with an unarmed man lighting a

lantern in an empty field or is it? The man quickly
crouches down, throwing the lantern giving enough light
to see a massive large shadowy silhouette. It slowly
rises from the ground, has four large arms, and is
bipedal. The man quickly tries to crawl away but the
creature's head snaps around. It slowly walks toward the
man and when he notices it is too late. There is no fight,
no scuffle to run or survive, the man stands up and
extends his arms out, ready. The creature extends its
arms out as is the man but it unhinges its jaw and puts
the man's head in its mouth and SNAP!

A chattering group of people is silenced when “LISTEN!”

A man says to the group in a small room that looks like a
sort of war room repurposed into some sort of meeting
room, “WE’VE SENT A DOZEN OF OUT PEOPLE OUT THERE
AND ONLY TWO HAVE RETURNED!”. He says slamming his
hand on the old war map, shaking the small pins on a
paper map to represent small checkpoints or
settlements. Everyone now has a worried look on their
faces knowing that sending out normal civilians is not
enough, “We all know what we need to do.” he says,
“B-b-but we need-” someone else says before getting
cut off, “LISTEN! It’s not like if one them gets down here
the can defend us.” the man says as everyone begins
looking amongst themselves, “Ok. As the Council of the
Fallen we shall vote upon this. Say, ‘I’ if you agree with
this man's statement,” another man says pointing his
hand at the man who first suggested sending a guard, “I”
more than half the council said, “Then it is decided. We
shall volunteer a guard to go out for the base.” the other
man says, “Ok now then, since that’s been decided…who
will we send out?” another man said, “I believe we should
send an Evones or one of our most elite.” the first man
who brought up the idea. As he took out a folder
containing a rooster of the guards, in particular, he took
out a specific piece of paper labeled, ATLAS. “No. I’m
sorry but he’s the head of the guard, we can’t just send
our best man out there,” another man said, “Well we
don’t have much of a choice. He’s the only one here with
real experience and you know what he can do.” The man
said holding the folder. After saying the statement it went
quiet, “Well this has been fully decided now. This marks
the first part of this meeting. Get someone to call him
over now.”

“OI, ATLAS!” Someone calls to you, “YES?” you yell

drowsy after just waking up. Getting up and out of bed
and uniform and quickly take your dog tags. “Yes, Elias?”
you ask Elias as you walk out of the barracks and see him
sitting on a bench to the left of the door, “Ummm…What
was it…? Oh, ya. The council has called for you.” Elias
says, “Oh, great what did I do wrong this time?” you say
to Elias, “Alright whatever it is I’ll see you after.” you tell
Elias as you walk away further down the hallway.

Chapter 1
A Light in the Eternal Darkness

Walking down the hallway you see the doors to training

and another to the armory. You are currently in the
military/guard district which consists of the armory,
training, barracks, and guard cafeteria. The place you
are in is the Fallen bunker, a repurposed war bunker into
a place to survive. Ever since the power disappeared
we’ve had no simple way to power the place but luckily,
the place had a gasoline generator. We haven’t been able
to use it in a while, unfortunately, when we ran out of
gasoline. Instead of powered lights, we’ve been using
lanterns for light since then. However, since the fall
most real military weapons such as guns have gone
obsolete without ammo. Since then most humans have
switched to the same blades their ancestors used.
However, very few weapons do have decent ammo
supplies such as magnums, pistols, snipers, and very few
sub-machine guns. In particular, you carry a bolt action,
a Remington, and a 1911 pistol. You also carry a blade as
do most of the guards in case of emergencies…well not
emergencies but if one of the creatures gets down. You
continue walking down and stop by the armory to get
your weapons.

Opening the door you see several weapons hanging on the

wall and multipule sword stands. The is a square room
that has a door that splits off to the left into a firing
range. It has another door that splits off to the left into
an emergency weapon locker room. In the center of the
room, there's a large pillar with shelves on it to hold up
the sword stands. On the other side of the pillar, there’s
a weapon wall and the wall adjacent to it. On the shelf in
front of you, there's your blade in its sheathe which you
take unsheathe and twirl in your hand. You hang the
sheath on your belt and put your blade in it. You go
around the pillar to the gun wall and take your weapons.
Exiting the room, you go back to heading to the council.
Walking through the circular hallways you make it to the
warehouse part of the bunker. Following the signs, you
make it to the meeting room where the council greets
you, “Hello Atlas we have a special errand for you.” one
of the members says, “Let's cut right to the chase.” As
you further into the room one of them stands up and
places their finger on the old war map, “We need you to
go to a military base,” as he turns to you, “In specific, we
need you to go to the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas,” he
says to you, “We’re in Washington and you want me to go
to Arkansas,” you say knowing how long the trip maybe,
“We know its a two thousand mile journey but we’ve
heard there are chemical weapons.”. After hearing this
you get a slight understanding of why they're sending you
but are still panicked. You thought it was a simple
expedition or supply run but a two-thousand-mile
journey is way more than you thought. A few moments
pass as someone speaks up, “You may now go Atlas, you
are dismissed.”

After packing the few rations you could bring you said
your goodbyes and farewells. Walking to the exit you
notice everyone waving at you as you finally leave.
The cold air washes over you as you turn to close the
door but see that the people who were waving at you are
now gone. Fortunately, the council let you take a couple
of extra things such as a flashlight, headlight, and extra
batteries. Walking around reminds you of that one time
but…you told yourself you’d think about it again on
purpose. Leaving the place fully you turn on your
headlight and finally leave the place. The empty fields
remind you that they’re not always empty, remembering
the stories from those who have ventured out, “Be
careful if you’re ever chosen to go out there, 'cause if
you do, watch out for empty fields like the one we’re
under now. You may not see them but there are
Shadows.”. Slowly traversing the field you try to be as
quiet as you can but unfortunately, you step on a piece of
glass. Why is there a piece of glass out here? You think to
yourself. However, as you look forward you see a lantern
thrown on the ground…with blood on it? You would soon
figure out why there is as you see a figure with four arms
begin to stand up.
Frozen in fear you don’t move and quickly turn off your
headlight. However, you shake it off and slowly unsheathe
your blade. Getting into your stance put the blade tip on
the ground and keep your left hand close to the hilt.
Quickly turning the blade so that the sharp edge is facing
the left side and quickly turn it and slash the Shadow. It
notices you immediately and swings two of its arms at
you but you quickly evade. Passing forward and readying
yourself you perform a mezzano by slashing across its
chest. It steps back and recedes into the shadows, as it
does you turn on your headlight to reveal its location.
Angling your head down on the empty field you dart your
head around waiting for it to leave its light-up shadow.
Eventually, it jumps out again and swings at you managing
to scrap a little skin off but nothing fatal. However, just
because natural selection choose wild animals to evolve
didn’t mean humans didn’t evolve. The main reason they
choose swords was that they learned they weren’t
completely left in the dark. Stepping back a bit you
prepare yourself. Closing your eyes, and trusting
yourself, you put your trust in your blade. Opening your
eyes, your blade glows with a black energy. You were
born with a special power, you don’t know how or why but
you’re different than others. You can summon the power
of the Darkness. You strike the Shadow and the energy
courses through it causing it to dissipate. After twirling
the blade once more in your hand you slide it back into its
sheathe. You sigh in relief. You continue, walking away
from where the Shadow once fought you. Seeing a road
cutting through the field, you know to follow it, as it leads
to the city.

You’ve heard from scouts that it’s a dangerous place but

Shadows don’t appear. However, you’ve heard of
something else more dangerous than Shadows are there.
What you call Lumbers are there, tall, lanky, and
dangerous rein. No one knows where they came from or
what they could’ve evolved, they have mask-like faces
with smiles almost creeping up their eyes. Their eyes are
white with black dots for their iris and pupil, but you’ve
heard stories of ones with no eyes or the opposite of
that. They have white chitin armor, but people have also
reported seeing black liquid cover parts of the body with
the ones with no eyes, or the opposite of the eyes. They
also reported that they did attack them unlike the ones
fully covered in white chitin. Not only just