We were forced underground when they came. They can’t deal with the dark and deployed satellites to light up the night sky. It is bright as day all of the time now. We took to the sewers and subways to hide…. eking out a minimal survival in the wastes of our once beautiful cities.

We call the day they came, ‘the arrival’.

crack

I lit a green glow stick, it’s crack echoing down the subway tunnel.

“It is a waste of a glow stick. These are just graffiti. Ramblings of a nut job with a spray can.”, Andrew said. He thought following the tunnel was a waste of time.

“I am telling you, they mean something. We just have to put them all together.”, I said as I scanned the wall with the glow stick. “The last one was ten feet further in, so there should be one near here if the pattern holds.” Scanning the whole wall by the green light was slow going. “Here! Here it is!”

Every piece of graffiti was signed by ‘the prophet’ and dated. The dates went all the way back to 2010, but they all talk about the arrival, which didn’t happen until 2023. I think this ‘prophet’ person was an actual prophet. Andrew thinks the prophet is a nut job.

I read through the whole thing. “Write it down Andrew. I will read it off.”

They will come by night and bring the day. 
They will fear the night, we will fear the day. 
They will die by night, we will die by day. 
   - the prophet 2012

I was reading it over and over again. Checking to see if I missed any thing.

“The first line is clear enough.”, Andrew said.

“So is the second.”, I said, “ but the third line…. they will die by night, what does that me?”, I pondered out loud.

“Think that the dark actually kills them?”, Andrew asked

“How?”, I asked myself out loud, “the dark is the absence of light. It isn’t a thing all by it’s self.”

“Let’s see if we can find another one before the glow stick dies.”, Andrew said as he shook the stick.

We hurried down the subway tunnel, scanning the wall as we went.

“There it is!”, Andrew said excitedly.

“Give me the stick.”, I scanned the wall again, “This prophet repeats themselves. Write it down Andrew.”

Fear the day as they fear the night
Bring them the night as they brought the day
Bring them death as they brought death
    - the prophet 2018

“You got that?”, I asked.

“Yeah. I got it.”, Andrew said as he finished writing the last of it down. “Bring them death as they brought death…. It really sounds like the dark would kill them.”

“Come on. One more!”, I said as I shook the glow stick again.

“We are getting close to the opening. I can see a faint glow up there.”

“Don’t be a chicken. You know they don’t come where there is any darkness. Come on.”, I rushed ahead without waiting for him. “There is one right here. It is way too close. No way that was ten feet.”

“What does it say?”

Break the false suns and break their hold
Break the hold and reclaim the surface
Break the surface strongholds and live
   - the prophet - 2015

“The false suns are a satellites. The strongholds are the crazy hive thingies they live in.”, I said as I analyzed the text.

“We know this stuff. We have like 50 of these quotes written down. And they don’t tell us a damn thing we haven’t already guessed. So what if this prophet knew it years before everyone else? It doesn’t help us now.”, Andrew said in an exasperated tone. He was right. The prophet was just telling us things we already knew.

“Think there is another one?”, I could feel him rolling his eyes at me. I walked down the tunnel without waiting for an answer. “There totally is. They are getting closer together.”

Follow the path Jesse 
Ignore Andrew the dissenter
Find the past to save the future
   - the prophet - 2021

“Holy shit…..”, we were both stunned. “He wrote our names. Both our names”, I ran my hand over my name…. The rough bricks pulling at my fingers. “How did he know our names?”

“I am not a dissenter….. am I?”, Andrew questioned.

“You really haven’t been on board….”, I said, leaving the answer just kind hang there.

“We have to head back. The glow stick is dying.”

He was right. The glow sticks are closely rationed. We won’t get another one for weeks, and that is if we do every shitty job we can volunteer for.

sigh

“Fine. But we are coming back as soon as we can!”, we both put our hands to the wall and started walking back in the dark.