Dusk Falls

Prose - 2024 Alumni Creative Writing Contest - Honorable Mention

The sun had long since sunk over the horizon and its residual light faded quickly. Electric lights turned on throughout the camp like pinpricks of light blazing in the black landscape. Rihanna reached inside her backpack to pull out the plastic leather sensory helmet, but her fingers grabbed only air. With a growing sense of terror, Rihanna fumbled around in the pack. There was a hole in the bottom, more than large enough for a helmet to slip through at any point during their trek on the long, bumpy trail. No- this couldn't be happening. It must be somewhere in her supplies. She shook out her bedroll and scrambled around through her camp supplies. She breathed quickly in and out through her nose.

"Master Jaraby! I can't find my helmet. It's lost." She said, hoping desperately that her master might have brought an extra; even one that didn't work well would be better than nothing.

He sat by his solar cook stove, its battery still charged enough from the daylight hours that he could warm the food he was stirring. "Are you sure? Have you checked all your supplies?"

"I'm sure." Rihanna said. Jaraby threw his spoon into the pot. His face clouded in irritation. "Clide! Donar! We have a Code Blue over here."

"Coming, Boss!"

As her master's two companions moved out of the shadows, he said to her, "I told you to be careful with it. I have no room to carry extras for stupid slaves to lose. If you go mad- there is certainly no one here who can help you. The best I can do for you is to shoot you in the morning before it gets too bad. And I didn't even get any real work out you. It'll be a waste of 600 marks-not to mention the bullet."

"But- I- surely there is someone here who has an extra helmet!" She was panicking now, her breathing rapidly getting out of control. "Please!" She shouted into the dark camp, where most of the men and the slaves were reclining on bedrolls, having already put their helmets on. "Does anyone have an extra helmet?"

There was only silence. Clide and Donar loomed over her. Each of the burly, sweaty men grabbed one of her arms.

"Where should we take her?" asked Clide.

"Take her a mile or so away from camp- We can't have her getting desperate and stealing people's helmets or messing with the water supply. I don't need any more liability on this trip. There were a few of those tall skinny mounds about a mile east of here- You could probably sling a rope around one of those. That's what we had to do last time."

Rihanna began to struggle. "No!" she yelled.

Try keep your voice calm, try to sound reasonable, she told herself. "I don't need to be taken away from camp. Please don't leave me out there in the dark." Clide covered her mouth with his hand and pressed her tight to his side. She kicked and tried to flail her arms but she was so small compared to his huge frame that she was wasting her energy.

"I'm not walking all the way out there and back," said Donar. He scratched at his beefy arms and glowered at Jaraby. Shadows highlighted his sloped forehead and low brow. "This place gives me the creeps. Just kill her now. I can do it if you don't want to."

"I don't have to answer to you idiots. Just take her out there." Said Jaraby. He stood now and the three men faced one another. They ignored Rihanna.

"Yes, you do." Said Clide. "You may be the guy with the marks, but out here that starts looking less and less important, doesn't it? So why don't you give us one good reason why we don't just shoot her now and spare us a trip?"

For a moment, Jaraby's face contorted in rage and Rihanna noticed his hand twitch slightly towards the gun she knew was in his front pocket. But then his face softened and his lips curled into a smile, though his eyes remained beady and tense.

"Guys, guys- settle down. Settle down- I'll explain. It's just good business sense. Yes, we'll probably just have to shoot her in the morning, but what if she makes it through the night? Every once in a while they make it. We don't want to have to buy a new slave for next time if we don't have to, right? How about this- you two take her out there tonight, and I'll go check on her in the morning and do whatever has to be done. Deal?"

The two thugs looked at each other. "Deal."

Rihanna bit down on Clide's hand and beat at him with the palms of her hands. "Hey! The little brat bit me. Cut that out!" He let go of her face and slapped her, holding her easily out in front of him with two meaty fists. Her face stung fiercely and she hung there, flailing with futility.

"Don't make this any harder on yourself than it has to be," said Jaraby. "Who knows? Maybe you'll make it through the night. Personally, I'm rooting for you- I'd rather not waste any bullets."

Clide and Donar picked up two of the solar flash-lights and tied a rope around the girl's wrists and waist. Clide took the beginning of the rope in one hand and Donar took the end so that Rihanna was between the two. The small party followed the blue canyon walls away from the camp. The light beams of the flashlights cast eerie glances at blue fossils in the pitch darkness.

There was no moon on this planet. No stars. When the sun was down, there was no light of any kind provided by the heavens. This was one of the reasons why the sensory helmets were so important. Sure, humans had figured out how to leave their home planet, but they hadn't counted on their bodies not being able to handle the differences. It was bad enough that the days were longer than they were used to, but the animal bodies of the humans were conditioned to expect certain sights, smells, and sounds. An area like the Indigo Canyon at night- with no light, no sound, no smell- it sent their bodies into a tailspin of fear and strangeness. The darkness would have been bad enough, but the sounds…they were indescribable.

The mules didn't seem to mind it, in fact they seemed happier here than on Earth, but the humans couldn't take it. The sensory helmets were simple but effective. They blocked off the outside noises, gave a dim scarcely perceptible light, and an almost imperceptible odor. But it was enough to soothe the humans’ bodies into feeling like they were at home. Enough to blot out the terrors of the night noises.

Clide and Donar tied Rihanna to the pillar-like rock a mile away from camp. They ignored her struggles, and soon all she could see, or hear, was the panting of her own fear-filled breath.

The night was already dark, but it would get darker, Rihanna knew.

And that’s when the chittering began.