His eyes drifted to the sky as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She pushed back, leaning her head against his neck, both of them ignoring what was clearly in front of them. He fought against the despair that was pushing into his chest, the eagerness to submit.
Not again; why can’t it go back to the way it was?
Sitting in the backyard of his newly assigned military housing, for a brief moment the war felt far away. In this home with all the conveniences of their previous life, he wanted to ignore the metallic balloons flying high in the sky, but there was no mistaking what they were. This was The Darkness. It was back.
Jacob felt her tremble against him. He forced his head back, prying his eyes open and taking in the sight of the bright golden balls of light drifting across the sky. They slowed, and the vapor trailing the burning globes quickly dissipated. No longer shooting stars, they now appeared solid, glowing bright, their bodies sharply in contrast against the night sky. It was hard to discern if they were small and floating low, or very large and soaring extremely high. As the UFOs lost altitude, they spread out, some slowly fading over the horizon as others settled directly overhead, eventually stopping right above the remote military base.
Jacob felt Laura press close against him under the blanket. Her arms shook; not from the cold, but the fear. Porch lights came on in the neighboring townhouses. Voices interrupted the silent night as people entered their backyards, searching the sky. He could hear the murmur of their speech, sensing the building panic. Months ago such an event would be cause for excitement, but not now. A phone rang from inside. Laura tensed and went to stand. Jacob put a hand on her leg, stopping her. “We have a phone?” he asked.
Laura grinned softly. “It only works inside the base, but all of us have one.” She pulled away, removing the blanket from her legs. “I have to answer it; they only call in emergencies.”
She stood and looked up at the sky before moving toward the house. Jacob was swiftly on his feet and following her through the sliding glass door, taking a last look at the alien globes before passing inside.
The old-style phone tolled until Laura lifted it from the cradle. Not speaking, she pressed the receiver to her ear. He watched as her flat expression changed to worry. She put a hand over the bottom of the handset and stared at Jacob. “He wants to speak to you,” she said.
Jacob sighed and proceeded into the room, already dreading the message on the other side of the phone line. He took it from Laura and felt her hand on his back as she moved past him to the window, her eyes returning to the sky. Jacob turned away to face the wall, pressed the receiver to his ear, and swallowed.
“Jacob?”
“I’m here.”
“This is Rogers. Do you see what’s happening?”
Jacob nodded involuntarily. Of course I see it, how could I not? he thought to himself. “Yes. What is it?”
“They don’t know yet, but these objects have taken out every satellite we had left in orbit. They’ve cast a virtual net over the entire planet, slowing and dropping in altitude, destroying all of our eyes in the sky—”
Laura stepped away from the window, turning to face Jacob. “They’ve stopped,” she said. “They stopped moving.”
“Europe… Asia… it’s everywhere, all reporting the same phenomenon—”
“Come on, Rogers, we could use terms like that a year ago; this is The Darkness, and you know it. Why did you call?”
“Listen to me. Get your family ready to move in a hurry, okay—”
“Wait, what are you saying… what do you know?”
“Nothing yet; nobody’s saying anything, but have your family ready to go. We’re bugging out. I’m headed to the hospital to find James. We’ll stop at your place on the way back. Listen to what I said—have a bag packed, and be ready to go.”
“Come on, tell me what you think. What do you know?”
“If you were assaulting a base and were getting ready to bomb the hell out of it, what would you do with your troops just outside the fences?”
“Well… I’d move them away, get them in cover.”
“Jacob, be quiet and listen now. The Deltas… they started backing away from the walls less than an hour before these things showed up. It’s like a button was pressed, and they all turned around—”
“Wait, where are they going?”
“Away, Jacob. We can’t track them because they took out our satellites. They are turning and moving away. At first, command thought they were just retreating to the wood lines, but then we got word from other bases in NATO, and holdouts out west. All of the Deltas are pulling back from major installations. Anywhere globes have been spotted, the Deltas have withdrawn. There isn’t a lot of time… have your family ready. I’ll see you soon.”
The line went dead with a heavy click. Jacob held the phone in his sweaty palm, turning it in his hand, wondering about the warning. Debating in his mind, Why else would the Deltas move away? They’re going to bomb us.
He carefully returned the receiver to its cradle and paced across the room. Stopping next to Laura, keeping her back to his chest, he put his arms around her.
“Are you leaving again?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. I need you to pack a bag for us.”
“Us?”
She reached down and grabbed his hands, pulling them tight around her waist. “It’s already done. The men from your unit showed me how to pack a bag in case we had to leave in a hurry. It has clothes, some food and water, even extra ammunition for the rifle… I packed everything they put on the list. It’s in the hall closet.”
Jacob smiled, impressed with her. “We aren’t the same people anymore, are we?”
She shook her head and sighed. “I don’t want to be caught like that again,
