Dark Light; Day One

New York City. Gone.

Down at West 4th Street Station in the underground subway system of New York City, were people waiting for the M and F trains. Complete strangers, never to meet, to go on the same train, and then; goodbye. Never a second thought. At the end of the platform, where the front of the train will stop, we have quite a variety of characters.

Teenager Will Henry, a boy of 15, who is coming home from the YMCA swimming classes he has. His main concern at the time is what his mother might be cooking for dinner.

Jerry J. Glenn, a 27 year old man who works for an insurance company. His work is mostly monotonous; unless something actually happens. (For example, if someone gets into a car accident). He checks his watch. 6:32 P.M.

Jessica Malbert, an 18 year old girl who is coming home from a day of shopping in the city.

Samuel Workshop, a 34 year old man who works for a law firm. He is overweight; weighing about 300 pounds, his suit one size too small, stretching over his fat. He mops his forehead with a handkerchief, for it is too warm down in the underground station.

Emma G. Tompson, a 68 year old woman, who lives in Queens, New York (and has always lived there her whole life) is headed home. She may be getting older, but her mind is just getting sharper, is a popular phrase of hers. She checks her watch. The digital reads 6:34 P.M. She must get home to start dinner. It will have to be simple, tonight, she thinks to herself. The train comes.

A distant boom! is heard, and the lights flicker and go out, for a few moments, until they come back on. Startled passengers look around. Frankie Jefferson, the MTA officer who is working the train, looks out the small side window, also confused. Shrugging to himself, and knowing he has a job to do, he opens the doors to the train, which open with an audible hiss. Relieved passengers go from the hot and musty station into the cool air-conditioned train car.

"Please stand clear of the closing doors" a robotic message says.

BOOM! closer now. The lights go out for a longer period. People begin screaming, and the lights come back on, with a slight buzz and flicker. [My, I'm much to old for these frights,] Emma Tompson thinks. [Mom would freak out if I told her about this] an excited Will thinks.

Frankie, a little cautious now, begins getting the train moving. It slowly jolts, and begins to move. The intercom system next to him cackles and comes to life. "Frankie, don't move the damn trains" says John. "GOD, EVERYONE IS DYING UP HE-" a loud white noise interrupts the message, (at the same time another boom is heard) and there's nothing. No static, no noise. Just silence. John's words come to him. EVERYONE IS DYING UP HERE [That's what he was probably going to end the sentence with; "here"] Frankie thinks. It sends shivers down his spine.

"Wow, this is crazy" Will says to an old lady next to him.

"Tell me about it," Emma says, laughing. "I'm about to have a heart attack if that happens a seco-"

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are delayed because of train traffic ahead of us. Please be patient." another automated message comes on.

"TRAIN TRAFFIC MY ASS" screams a man wearing a sweater with glasses. "YOU HEAR THOSE BOOMS? THOSE ARE PROBABLY DAMN BOM-" someone else came to calm him down.

"We don't know what those booms are, and come on, let's just wait a bit" says Jerry Glenn to the man.

"WHATEVER" says the man. "I'll just go to the next damn car while I 'wait' it out" he hissed, and opens the metal door dividing the two cars, and goes into the second one. His shouting can still be dimly heard. He should have stayed in the first car.

EVERYONE IS DYING UP HERE. Frankie waits a bit. Dark silence, that comes from the deepest void. "Holy shit, this is scary" he says to himself. He looks out behind him, at the lit station. There's another BOOOM! and then a section of the ceiling collapses. "Screw John," he says. "I have lives on my train, and if anything happens to them, it's on my head" and he starts the train again.

"See?" Jerry says to the other passengers, trying to calm them down from the section of the ceiling that collapsed. "All we had to do was wait a little bit"

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!" wailed a girl that looked a little older than Will. She had shopping bags next to her, since the car was relatively empty.

A fat man sitting across from her sighed. "We're not going to die," he said to her, rolling his eyes.

BOOOOO-OOOOOOOM! cried out the Maiden of Death, and the whole station collapsed with a mighty crash. Debris piled down and fell, different layers of West 4th crumbling like a cake. The people in the middle section died instantly, as thousands of pounds of concrete crushed the train cars there.

[MOVE FRANKIE, MOVE] he screamed to himself in his head. He hit the train full throttle. They passed Broadway-Lafayette Street in a flash. Essex, gone, (with the confused and frightened faces of the people) and then they were outside, as the world crashed down behind them. The only thing that came out of the tunnels was the first car, and half of the second car. That was it.

The train climbed up out of the tunnel and onto the bridge, and Frankie slowed it to a stop. He pressed the intercom button to speak with the passengers of the train.

The intercom system on the train cackled.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I say 'Hol-eee SH*T!' please pardon my French, but we just survived a massive cave in in the tunnels." and then the door opened, and the man stepped out. The conductor. The pilot. The big cheese. The man who saved them all. He was about 6'0 with broad shoulders and a bit of a beard on his face. He had steely blue, observant, and intelligent eyes. The setting sun was directly behind him, making him a sort of darker silhouette-like figure. "My name's Frankie" he said, ruining the moment.

"Help me, she's fainted!" yelled a teenage boy, shaking a woman who appeared to be in her 60's or 70's.

"I think she'll just wake up on her own, and if not, there's nothing we can do" Frankie said, eying her.

"Oh my God!" yelled the girl, Jessica. "Look at Manhattan!" she said.

The small crowd gathered around. Looking past the smoldering wreckage of the second train car, (oh my God, is that a HAND?) they expected to see the city outline.

What they got was so shocking, there was a silence for a full two minutes. Instead of towering glittering sky scrapers, they saw a few ashy mounds, the tallest around 2 or 3 stories high. The city had been leveled.

"Oh my God!" she repeated. "No more Century 21! No more Abercrombie and Fitch! No more!" she wailed.

"CLOTHES? THAT'S THE FIRST FREAKIN THING THAT COMES INTO YOUR MIND?" screamed Samuel. "GET REAL. WE NEED FOOD. WATER."

"FOOD, THAT'S THE FIRST THING INTO YOUR MIND FATTIE" she screams back. The commotion is enough to rouse Emma from her faint.

"Children, enough," she says calmly. "I'm afraid the man is correct, dear," she continues. "We need food, and water. Those are priorities; we need to survive."

"Right, let's go find us an intact McDonald's," Frankie mumbles to himself, and he goes back to the control room. A few seconds later, the train starts moving (To Frankie's amazement; how does the track still have power?) towards the setting sun. Day One ends, and the remains of the city begin to softly glow from the radiation released from the bombs, and after the train leaves, the Dark Light is the guide to our survivors.