One Minute to Midnight (2 page)

"What was in the crate?" Klactu
asked.

"It was a secret. None of us know."
Sergeant Garcia said.

"The answer to that question may save
every human on this planet. Void may have been in there and if he
was, then I know he's dormant." Klactu said.

"How do you know he's dormant?" I
asked.
"Because you are all alive. I have to stay close until he makes a
move, but once I know for sure where he is, you have to give him to
me. The last time he woke up, he destroyed an entire planet."
Klactu said grimly. The pilot turned our chinook back toward the
base. Klactu began to shimmer and fade, and his presence on the
helicopter appeared digital like a holographic image.

In the underground lab, one of the
scientists, named Lyle Petrie, was holding the orb and staring into
the pupil with curiosity. The bloodshot eye stared back at him with
the indifference of the dead, but as Lyle held it closer he began
to hear a high pitched whine that was slowly growing to the
velocity of an ear piercing shriek. The pupil grew wider, drawing
him into its darkness until there was nothing but the black inside
his mind. The other three had been taking care of other varied
tasks in the laboratory when their colleague suddenly dropped the
orb onto the lab table and began holding his head, shrieking in
pain. He smashed one end of a test tube and jammed it in his temple
until the end was flush with his skull and then he dropped over
onto the floor, twitching as death slowly took him. This was what
one of the survivors recounted to me when we got back to the cave,
and I couldn't help but wonder if our new friend Klactu was aware
that his prisoner waking up.
We arrived shortly after the incident and the entire base was under
high alert, although at the time I had no idea the extent of the
hell that was about to break loose. The chinook landed on the
elevator pad and we were lowered down into the hangar area. I could
hear a high pitched squeal, and people were bending over with their
hands over their ears as I watched a white and red orb that looked
like a human eyeball float through the air. Some had fallen over
dead, while others gouged out their ear drums with pencils, and
screwdrivers to stop the pain.

"We're getting the hell out of here,
before that damned thing gets us, too!" Our chinook pilot, being an
experienced combat veteran, flipped on the ignition and we quickly
rose whisper-quiet through the cavern as insanity ensued below.
People were shooting at each other, taking their own lives, blowing
up vehicles, and all the while the orb drifted through, that eye
that was looking in every direction.
"I think we found Void the Omniscient." I said.

Fires raged and screams filled the
cavern. Void began to drift upward to the opening we were rising
through.
When we reached the outside again, the flying disk was hovering and
as I watched it Klactu was next to me again.

"I must take Void into custody, and
since my partner is dead I cannot do this alone. Had he not
awakened, this would be much easier. Will you help me?"
I wanted to answer, but suddenly my mind became filled with visions
of battles and death. I watched entire towns become engulfed in the
fires of war as the eye grew larger than the moon, and I know he
had willed it to happen. Void the Omniscient glided through my
visions like a great nightmare and I could see the remnants of
planets he had laid to waste. Endless oceans of bodies piled like
mountains to the sky and Void watched like a battlefield general as
people ripped each other apart. The horror of these images made me
nauseous and I could feel the fabric of my sanity stretch, and I
also knew that Void was coming for me.

"Are you here this time, or is this a
holographic projection?" I asked. Klactu put hand on my temple and
the noise quieted, the visions faded and I could concentrate once
more.

"I'm right here, but you must be
strong of mind to survive the confrontation with Void. Put this on
now." Klactu placed an amulet around my neck. It had a crooked pole
and a dragon winding from bottom to top and in the dragon’s eyes
were two red jewels. "He will use your worst fears against you, but
with this amulet, you can fight through the illusions and
concentrate." Klactu finished.

This is where the story
goes off the tracks and way into the weeds. If your listeners have
trouble believing this, then I don't blame them, but it
did
happen this way and
I'd testify in court to it. That amulet began to glimmer and glow.
The helicopter vanished and I was standing on the doorstep of my
childhood home, but it was placed in some far off land. Two moons
hung above me, their gleam like midnight suns in a sea of sparkling
stars. I was ten years old again and I knew my mom was at work and
my father no longer lived with us. The old house loomed like a
specter and it seemed that the bedroom windows upstairs were like
the eyes of a monster movie boogey man watching me, the front porch
a grimace of disdain.
It was very dark, but I knew there were things with huge claws and
teeth hiding in the woods behind me watching, waiting, and hungry
for flesh. I'd have to go inside the house. I was scared to go in,
and in the shadows abided an unnamable horror. I took a step toward
the front door and the wind picked up, blowing around me with icy
fingers. The first step groaned as my foot pressed upon it. My
heart beat fast as I considered running away. The doorknob gave a
loud squeak as I turned it slowly with my trembling
hand.

The door, as if suddenly caught in a
vacuum, was sucked back from my hand and crashed against the inside
wall with a bang. I was small, only a child now, and had forgotten
my teddy bear Ralph who was in the bedroom upstairs. As I moved
forward something coughed in the kitchen, which was straight ahead
through two rooms. The darkness seemed to swirl in that room and I
could tell that any number of seething terrors was gathering to
attack just beyond the space where light and dark met. Hideous
abominations lurked as I stood frozen with fear in this old house
reeking of sour milk and cat urine. In my mind's eye I could see
the gnashing teeth, scales, and black wings of legions of dragons
and hellhounds. I could feel their cold stare as sure as I'm
standing here today. A black tentacle slithered out from the
kitchen reaching for me as it became longer.
"Grandma?" I called. There was no reply. The bear. I had to get the
bear.

I ignored the warning of grandma's
kitchen and ran for the stairs leading up. That's when I saw the
old man. He was an ancient and terrible being from a far off world,
standing between my bear and me.

"This is where you die." The man
said.

He shape-shifted into a wooden totem
resembling human form, like a carving from one thick tree. His
fingers grew long, like vines, and then his feet became rooted into
the floorboards as the tendrils crept down the stairs toward me.
The man's head, like the top of a tree, grew many branches
oustretching until the stairwell was full and impassable. Behind me
were the snarling, insatiable growls of unseen demons, but I dared
not look back because I knew if I did, they would attack me. I felt
despair as the old man laughed in my head and for a moment I
thought I'd never leave that house, but then my amulet began to
glow and a voice told me to ignore the illusion and keep moving. I
remembered that Klactu had placed the talisman around my neck and I
charged the tree punching it with my fists. It absorbed my hand
pulling me in and I could hear the click, click of claws from some
ancient and terrifying cat monster ascending toward me from below.
I looked back just as the tree pulled me in and saw only Void the
Omniscient and his cold, dead eye, staring at me. I went into the
tree head first, but as my amulet touched the bark it exploded in a
torrent of sawdust, freeing me. Void screamed inside my head. I
smiled and ran for the bedroom as he followed.

I rounded the corner and
my bear was lying in the bed. Void followed and I could hear the
sharp din of
him
in my head, like the whine of a broken compressor. I ran to
my bear and grabbed him as Klactu stepped through the bedroom wall
to face Void. Klactu held out a device resembling a garage door
opener and pressed a small black button. It emitted a solid green
beam which caught Void in the air. When it did, I could feel the
whine inside my head decrease to a whisper and then fade away. Void
was trapped and I was back inside the helicopter once more as
Klactu held the evil orb in his beam.

Klactu must have had an elemental link
with his ship, because it hovered beside our helicopter and a panel
opened in the side exposing a padded hole. Klactu used the device
in his hand to guide Void over to the compartment in his ship and
then, once the enemy was deposited, the panel slid shut.

“
There. He’s dormant once
more. Thank you for your help, Nathan.” Klactu said. He turned to
me with a tight, awkward smile, and then vanished without another
word. His entrance and exit from my life had been the most bizarre
experiences I've had. The only evidence I have from that encounter
is the talisman around my neck. Klactu allowed me to keep the charm
and I think it may be a communication device of some type, because
at times, when I'm wearing the amulet, I can hear him speak to me
like a whisper.
We went back to the base and aided in cleaning up the mess, but
most of the people affected by Void the Omniscient had begun to
stumble around in confusion, having forgotten what had happened.
After about ten minutes, all of them, including Sergeant Garcia,
believed that we had suffered a terror attack and in their memory
the armed forces underground deflected an attack by militant
islamists. I was the only one who remembered the truth, and maybe
it’s because of the amulet that Klactu gave me, but I never forgot
the horror of Void or my encounter. I can only imagine that there
was some influence by Klactu on the minds of my compatriots that
made them forget what they had just experienced.

Interviewer: Thank you
Nathan.

Nathan: No problem, I’m
happy to tell my story.

Three months later…

Nathan was exiting his car after the
interview with a documentary crew for YouTube, when he began to
hear a whisper of a dialog in his head. It seemed to be coming from
light years away, and the voice was muffled.

"Nathan, its Klactu. It’s time for you
to go. They're coming for you." Klactu said.

He stopped and looked around for the
owner of the voice but there was nobody there. Suddenly a black car
pulled up beside his house with darkly tinted windows.
"Go through your house and into the back yard. Go now if you want
me to help you." Klactu instructed. Nathan did as instructed, but
as he entered the living room, he looked out the window and two men
with black sunglasses got out of their car, followed by another
very tall man with almond shaped eyes and a more bulbous head than
his cohorts. Nathan knew that he was not human.

Nathan saw the tall man look his way,
and fear shot through him like a bolt of lightning. Whoever these
guys were, they were not the welcome wagon. He turned and ran
through the house, kicking open the back door. Twenty feet in front
of him rested the hull of Klactu's craft.

"Your choice. Stay here and get
captured for opening your mouth about your little experience with
Void, or go with me."

"Who are these guys?"

"The boogey man and his minions, if
you don't come with me. You have to consent to board, that’s one of
my rules." Klactu said.

"I consent!" Nathan said. The amulet
around his neck began to glow, the eyes two brilliant rubies
smoldering with fire. Nathan felt himself pulled along as he
vanished from the back yard and appeared in the passenger seat of
Klactu's ship. The alien looked over, smiled, and nodded a warm
greeting.

"Time to go." Klactu said, just as all
three men exited the back door of his house. Klactu pressed a
button on his panel and a bolt of blue light shot out, vaporizing
all three of them and destroying half of Nathan's house. The entire
structure went up in flames as Klactu aimed for the sky and in an
instant they were space-bound.

"Why'd you save me?" Nathan
asked

"You helped me put Void away for the
rest of eternity and for that I'm grateful. I knew the gorgons
would come for you if you ever talked about that day, so I left the
Amulet of Fgiris around your neck to keep track of you."

"Thank you for saving me." Nathan
said.
"Just don't make me regret it. So, where should we go first? The
sun is rising on Mars in a few hours, and we could just catch it.
Interested?" Klactu asked.
"Let's do it!"

Nathan sat back and watched the stars
fly by as he and Klactu cruised the cosmos on an intergalactic
joyride.

a day in the life of a
gamer

Three friends who play an online game,
centered in middle earth, realize the game is coming to life. Will
they survive the fight?

"I need heals man! Tony, where you at dude!?" Willy yelled
through his computer microphone.
"Right here, bro. Sorry! Had to go let the dog out. She was
scratching at the door, and pissing me off." Tony replied. The two
gamers lived three blocks from each other and rarely left the
house, except to go to school.
"Where's Scott? We need him to tank this next dungeon. He's so
geared he could run this thing himself, without our help. Only
three more levels and I’ll hit seventy. His dwarf paladin is geared
to the teeth and can take some serious hits! We either need to get
him or we have to look for a random tank." Willy said.