John's Lawn

Back for more I see, it seems some of you have found an interest in my experiences and retellings from my last posts, so I’m back at it again. I’ll be the first to say that lighthouse duty at a government run location isn’t exactly the best. It sounds cool, sure. I mean, I get to see things on the daily that most people wish they could see just to make their lives a bit more interesting. But the only reason I’m still working here a year later is the pay. I would love to go back to normal civilization and just relax without having to worry about dying every night, but I digress. So without further ado, let’s get back into this.

By this point I had only been working for around five, maybe six months. I know it’s a big time skip but not much happened in the middle. Not to mention, some things have been happening at the lighthouse lately so I’m trying to get you all up to speed. I was on a specialized workout routine that had been in pretty much every shipment since my first week, the results were good, but I was still no Bill. I wasn’t waking up sore which was ideal considering how my first night had gone. But, as usual as this day was, something seemed to be a little off since my night shift. Bill had been unusually coy. Hell, he didn’t even yell at me when he woke up. But as the day progressed, he seemed to get more worried.

“BILL!” I shouted over the sound of gun fire, “BIIIILLLL!” I shouted once more. I decided to wait for him to stop shooting. On my third day he nearly shot me when I tapped him on the shoulder so I decided yelling was a better option. I did one more set on the bench press before he was finished. “Hey, Bill!” I only sort of shouted.

“What is it kid?” He responded, not quite as patronizing as I was expecting.

“What’s going on with you? Everything alright?”

He let out a deep, somehow gravelly sigh, “We gotta turn up the power tonight, we’re both on guard duty. Higher ups want some stronger shades, and these bones ain’t what they used to be.”

I began to understand his nervous demeanor. He was legitimately worried about how that night was gonna go. “Are they sending us back up or anything?” I waited for a response, but his unchanged facial expression answered regardless. “Did they at least send some special equipment last shipment?” I didn’t actually get to see any shipments that came in at the time since I was still just a liability.

“There are a few things we got, but it ain’t gonna be of much use. We have a few syringes with a formula that temporarily increases the speed of our bodies healing process. Extra rations since the process burns through calories like a motherfucker. We also got some extra ammo, but that’s about it aside from the usual stuff.” 

He glanced down at his pocket and my eyes followed, an implicit question holding my eyes in place. He spoke up, “There was something else, but it takes a few days before you’ll be on your feet again, so you’ll have to wait till tomorrow. It didn’t come with this delivery, it was a special order I made while you were asleep last night, so don’t bring it up to any suits.”

I gave him a nervous look, finally taking my eyes off his pocket, “What do we have to turn it up to?”

“Ten.” He said, absolutely no emotion in his voice, “Last time, I barely made it out by the skin of my teeth. But I’m older now, you’re gonna have to stay on guard tonight. We won’t be gettin sleep as you know, so drink as much coffee as you need to to stay alert.”

“I won’t let you die. I’ll have your back.”

“Just make sure you’ve got yours.” He said, before going back to training.

I figured he’d let me know before we’d need to get ready. So I just went a little lighter with my weightlifting and made sure not to overdo it.

By nightfall, we had already prepped practically everything. We ended up cutting training a few hours short just to make sure we’d have everything we need. Bill had a duffle bag full of different supplies, mostly medical. He even had a fanny pack for the syringes and some of the other more valuable medicines.

We each had two spare magazines. Now typically, we get one per shipment, if we run out of ammo, well that sucks for us. So seeing the two extra worried me.

“So, I’m guessing something bad’s gonna happen tonight if they gave us so much spare ammo.”

Bill sounded a bit anxious, “We’re expecting the same amount we do every night, the problem is their strength. The shades coming for us are gonna be stronger than you think possible. They tend to kill any of the fuckers that are weaker than them. There are gonna be some intelligent creatures coming and we need to outsmart them. Death is ever present here, you know that, tonight… Tonight is gonna change your whole view of what’s dangerous. Just stay on guard, we’ll need it if we wanna survive the night.”

We sat for a half hour or so after Bill upped the strength of the lighthouse and waited. We didn’t really talk, just sat looking for any sign of shades. But our earpieces didn’t go off, and nothing was on the island.

“It’s too quiet, give me a sec.” He said, going to the wall to the right of the main control station. Opening what I had assumed was a gun cabinet, he pulled out some type of binoculars that almost looked like the normal store bought kind, but not quite. They had an impossibly blue tint to them, like it was the most perfect blue imaginable. I guessed they were some type of special night vision binoculars and waited for him to say something.

About 30 minutes later, he finally finished rotating around the entire perimeter of the top floor, “What in god’s name is goin on right now. They all throw a party or somethin?”

I added what little insight I had, “Maybe it’s linked to the full moon?”

He thought for a moment, then my ear piece started going off. By now, the break in between beeps had become second nature to me. By that I mean subconsciously, I was able to tell how far away they were. If it didn’t go off again by second two, I knew that meant they were still a ways out. Same for if it didn’t go off again by one. But by the time second four passed and there wasn’t another beep, I realized something else had to be going on.

The lighthouse wasn’t attracting shades like normal, even cranked all the way up to ten, that was worrying. If Bill was telling the truth about the stronger shades killing off the weaker ones to get here, that meant something else had to be killing off the ones that were supposed to be showing up.

“You think it might be something stronger?” I asked, voice cracking.

“I think something else might be goin on. I think there’s a reason the government asked us to turn it up tonight. Let’s wait it out, I’ll keep checking around to see if anything pops up. Might be a sensor problem or somethin.” He went back to scouting and I just tried to stay alert.

A few more hours passed before Bill suddenly jolted back while looking towards where I’m pretty sure the freeway is. I wouldn’t be able to see the road even with regular binoculars thanks to all the trees and buildings. But Bill clearly saw something.

“What is it? Everything okay?” I asked, a little panicked.

He grumbled, “I think I just figured out what the problem is.” He gestured for me to come closer. “Now this is gonna look a little weird, but just look over that direction with these binoculars over your eyes.” He handed them to me.

When I first looked through them, I saw a weak, light grey pulsing inside the building, like a lightbulb in a black and white film. When I looked up with them, I could faintly make out trees, buildings, even an old lighthouse on shore that had been turned into a tourist spot. But the main thing that caught my eye was the different colors in the distance. One seemed to almost engulf the rest, it being a deep blood red color, it was swirling, almost like it was creating a vacuum for the other colors around it. There was another that was almost but not quite as large, it was light blue on the outer edges, but the rest was navy blue, getting darker the closer to the center it got. Both had to be at least as tall as an average redwood. The others around them varied in size, one was really short but extremely wide, pitch black except for the other colors around it. The thing I found interesting was that all the trees in the way seemed to give off a slight white haze.

“Those are shades, it’s the energy they give off. It’s more intense than anything I’ve ever seen. I’m guessin that’s why nothin’s showin up. They don’t care about our little lighthouse cause there’s an even larger beacon. It either scared em all off or attracted them. Well, it’s good for us regardless, nothin we can do but wait it out. Unless the government decides to send someone in, we get to relax.” I eased into my chair when he said, “Stay alert though, you never know what coul-” He was cut off by the alarm beeping, it was already one every second.

The window in front of us shattered and the beautiful woman we saw that night was standing on the window sill. “When I’m done, I’ll be back for you. Lucky for you, I’m currently busy.” She proceeded to jump backward, singing a strangely familiar song. She glided perfectly into the water, despite the lighthouse being in the center of the island.

“She was just messing with you right?” I glanced at him.

His face was stone as he spoke, “I hope so. Can’t have kids like you dying every five minutes. But I guess if I die I won’t have to worry about that anymore.” He let out a breath through his nose as he smiled. His yellowed teeth and receding gum line, paired with the emptiness in his eyes told another story. He was hoping to die, he wanted to be put out of his misery, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Why did you smile just now? There’s no need for you to force something like that when you’ve never tried to comfort me before.” I wasn’t angry, just trying to figure out what made him change.

“It helps me feel human kid. Day in and day out of watching the line between humanity and inhumanity, it grays the line between humans and non humans. Do you know what it’s like demonizing a group every day of your life? Truly hating a group simply because it was an order? All so you can wake up every morning and tell yourself you aren’t a complete piece of human shit. I call them shades because that’s all I can call them without believing they’re human, it’s all I can do to keep my sanity together. I have thrown children in prison cells just because I was ordered to, told they weren’t human. If I can wake up and train to put human looking things in jail cells, who’s really the monster?

Those things, shades, entities, whatever you want to call them, they’re not all evil kid. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, someone who was a truly good person. She helped so many people, cured so many people, and restored full forests. You wanna know what ended up happening?”

“The whole town came down to their door because she wasn’t human?” I guessed.

“Something like that. These people in mechanized suits came to her, offered her a choice. She could go with them or she could fight them. Needless to say, she wasn’t too keen on going with people threatening lives. She fought her heart out, but they burned her home down and captured her. This woman had saved thousands with miracle cures that scientists still can’t understand. But people feared her, if they hadn’t, those assholes wouldn’t have even known she was there. Now tell me, which group is more humane, the one who stayed to fight for the people she had saved, or the ones who turned their backs because it would inconvenience them?”

I didn’t say anything for a few minutes, “Is she still alive?”

“Fuck if I know, but that entire town wouldn’t remember a thing regardless. I’m probably the only one who remembers that day, cause I sure as fuck know whoever those guys were, they couldn’t care less.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, but after a few minutes he spoke up, “Look kid, I’m not saying what we do is pure evil, but I need you to understand, it ain’t all saintly work. We weren’t endained on a holy mission from God. This is just the shit work some people gotta do. It’s human nature to fear what we don’t understand, but don’t let that fear go away, hold onto that feeling. Anytime you slip into a numbness, think about that thing in your life that brings you joy, whatever it is. The moment you lose your fear, that’s when you become jaded, just like-” He began a coughing fit, it was one of the worst I had heard. All the hacking, coughing and choking, it reminded me of how my grandpa used to do the same thing.
When he finished he had red teary eyes, “Fuck, guess my lungs ain’t as good as they used to be. Man, what I wouldn’t do for a cigarette.” He coughed again and continued, “Just… don’t let yourself become numb to it kid, that’s when you lose yourself. Don’t be like me, don’t die an old emotionless man.” He let out one final cough and gazed out the window, which I now realized was repaired.

“How-” I started but he cut me off.

“Some shades can break through bullet resistant glass, so the top of this lighthouse was extended up so pane replacement is pretty quick. The moment the console gives the command, the replacement drops down.” He let out a sigh, “Seriously kid, I don’t get how hardly anything fazes you until there’s a shade involved.” 

I just shrugged and looked out to the shore. In all actuality, I had changed the subject intentionally. He always looks so serious, but that dead look in his eyes is terrifying. Maybe it’s because I can’t read him with no expression, but it’s disconcerting to say the least.

We sat there for who knows how long before Bill decided to try out the binoculars again. “They’re stopped, not sure where-” He paused, “They vanished.”

“What? Are they batman?”

“Hold on, there’s a little something in the distance, they look like humans based on their energy, but they’re pretty far away.”

“Humans? So are you talking about heat? Is that what you meant by energy?”

“I’m not really sure, but I doubt it. Typically, the stronger a shade is, the more light the binoculars pick up. But humans only give off a fraction of what you saw before. I can barely see them so they must be in a plane or helicopter.”

“How far out are they?”

He took a second before answering, “Not entirely sure, but they’re headed in a straight line toward whatever those shades went into.” He looked down towards the ocean and immediately I heard the first beep. I waited, after second two I was already pulling out my pistol. “It’s coming for us, get ready.” Bill said, putting down the binoculars and pulling out his own pistol.

We immediately headed downstairs, I nearly tripped a few times since I hadn’t stood much yet. We ran outside and the beeping was rapid. I had learned to tune it out for the most part while fighting so I focused on the goal at hand. “You see it?” I asked, looking cautiously around.

“I think it might be water bound. But if that’s the case, the beeping shouldn’t be so… fast.” He trailed off and began walking towards the side of the island facing the shore.

“BILL! What is it? You see something?!” I shouted to him. I followed where his head was turned and saw a woman I’d never seen before. She wore a gown that looked like it was made from spider silk, she had long blue hair that went down to her butt, and eyes that portrayed the emotion of severe loss. Like the person she treasured most in the world just died. When she turned to me, her expression softened, taking on the look of unbridled nervousness with just a tinge of hope. Her face pretty much described how I was feeling at that moment.

Then, I lifted my gun and shot her in her left arm. Her face now portraying anger and hatred, like someone had just shot her in the arm. That seemed to snap Bill out of it as he raised his gun again and fired, shooting her in her right arm. He slung the neck snare around her and tightened it. He began heading to the cells without looking at me. By the time he came back up, he looked like his normal self, but there were some streaks of water on his face.

“Look I know you don’t like me asking you questions when you get like this, but is everything alright?” I asked, knowing full well he was probably about to chew me out.

“I’m probably gonna die before the end of the night anyway, so why the hell not. Let’s just get upstairs first, then we can talk.”

When we got to the top of the lighthouse, we both sat down.

“Here’s the deal kid, when I die, you’ll be taking over. Now I know you’re gonna ask how I know I’m gonna die here. It’s not for sure, but I’m the most experienced person the government’s got for this stuff, so I’m either gonna die here, or they’re gonna kill me, I know too much. I know you got a lot of questions so here’s what I’ll do. I’ve got a bunch of documents and files on my laptop, it can explain most of the questions you’ve got. When I die, be sure to check in the panel under the fridge. I placed somethin there that’ll help you out when I’m gone.”

“How do you know I’m gonna outlive you.” I asked with growing anxiety.

“Do you know how many people have worked by my side over the years?”

“No?”

“Let me ask you another question, do you know how many people one person can feel empathy for?”

“No…” I started getting a little worried about him.

“150 people. That is the most amount of people theoretically anyway, that one person can legitimately care about. I stopped caring years ago. You wanna know why that is? The only other person I know that lasted as long as you… I can’t even remember their face. I’ve got hope you’ll last at least as long as him.” I was gonna say something, but I couldn’t think of anything, so I just sat in silence. “I’m gonna keep scouting, you might wanna make yourself another cup of coffee.”

No other shades ended up showing up for the next few hours, and by the time Bill said something, I was half asleep.

“There’s a new one with em.”

“Sorry, what are we talking about?” I just wanted to sleep so badly.

“That group of shades from before, they’ve got a new one. The energy is weird.” He handed me the binoculars.

The energy was constantly morphing and looked almost distorted, “Hold on, it looks kind of like one of the ones from earlier.” I said, remembering there was a smaller version of it when I checked hours ago. “Hold on, it’s shrinking, it’s going straight up, I think I see those guys you were talking about earlier going straight up too. I think they’re going east but I can’t really tell.”

“Hand those to me.” He said, pulling the binoculars out of my hands, “Well I’ll be. They’re either capturing or escorting. But based on how much energy he has now, I’d say it’s the latter.” He kept looking, and by the time he put the binoculars down, the sun had begun to rise.