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Everybody hates the rushing stampedes of people hopping between trains, but the opposite is even worse, when nobody is there. At the dead of night, there's little company. Don't worry, the flickering lights, the long stretches of pure black, and the metal beast that the rides through them will all keep you from feeling too lonely. Who knows? A fellow rider might join you while making sure to emphasize the "strange" in "stranger."

I used to hate it, at least a lot more than I do now, but you get exposed to the peculiar for so long and it becomes the familiar.

So here I am, waiting for those bright lights that pierce the void to take me back home. I can’t use my phone to pass the time, or else it might die on me. You only have so many hours to goof around when you don’t bring a charger, and I wasted them sitting behind a food stand.

Small bangs ring throughout the nearly hollow station as my feet hit the tiled floor. I’ve relied on this station fo years. As the years went by, the tiles followed. Suddenly, I can feel my body begin to tip. As my foot slides across a loose tile, it puts up no resistance. My feet travel one direction and my torso the other as I slam against the floor.

I turn back to asses the situation when something much stranger snatches my attention. A deep shining yellow, more vibrant than any light of the station, emanates from where the tile once laid. It would seem like simple sand, if not for that illumination. As I stare, it begins to defy gravity, raising up towards the roof before dissipating.

Adrenaline courses through my body. It’s as if it had forgotten that it was midnight, that it forgot any desire to return home. It had forgotten anything besides what I had just witnessed.

The train could arrive any moment, a time far too soon for me. I rush towards the adjacent tiles, ripping them off. Soon, the small speck of dust connects with its brothers. They appear to be forming something. A set of letters, perhaps?

They don’t resemble any alphabet or writing I’ve ever seen, but the alignment of several characters is unmistakable.

I rip off the final tile. The vibrant glow becomes a violent glow, exploding in a nearly blinding flash.

I can read the words. I don’t know the language, yet I still know the meaning as if somebody had told it right to me.

No matter how many times it is defeated, it will return stronger than before.

I can my heart twist, as if the speaker’s had reached into my chest and gripped it.

Still, there will always be a new generation to rise up and meet it, wiser than the last

I can’t tell what’s real anymore. If not for the pain surging through my veins, I would have assumed this was all a dream.

“Somebody in need of a ride?” The soft voice of a man thrusts me out of the paralyzing shock.

I twist my head. Where normally the train would wait, there was a chariot dressed in strange markings, driven by a cloaked figure much stranger. My head flings towards one direction, then the other, and back towards. It’s clear that he can be addressing nobody else. “No… not really”

“Well, that’s a shame, but we’re in need of a passenger for this wild ride.”

It whispered the sounds of silence

Just like everyday, i sleep at a bench inside a subway station. I've been homeless for 4 years now, the cause of it was my divorce. Since then ive been eating from trash and stuff 'ya know the ol' homeless persons buisness.

This morning particulary, i saw a graffiti artist drawing on another wall at subway. It was a normal occurance, so i paid no heed for about let's say 3 months since i really have no interests in it. but this one late night when i couldn't sleep, i had a strange urge to look at the graffiti and to my schock it wasn't art at all. It was words a whole paragraph, it details incoming events and disasters to name one "In november 13, 20XX 13:40. A solar flare no close than 4.5Milion meters shall be blasted towards the earth". And that was tomorrow.

I treated it was some nonsense, after that i tried and succesfully went to sleep. I wake up, i do my normal stuff like finding food out of trash, and scavenging for stuff that i can sell. Then it happend, The solar flare hit earth by 4.5 milion meters. i felt a burning sensation, like something was coming to me, i look up and see a bright light.

My eyes immediately reacted it felt like it was melting but it wasn't. I blink multiple times, and as i regain my vision i see something in the distance. It wasnt humane, cause i'm preety sure there isn't a human with Pointy ears. He becomes more clearer, he is holding a bow thats pointing at me. After i realise that i was the one being aimed at i immediately panicked. In my 43 years on earth, this the first time where i felt intense pressure and the reason to live. As i hide behind a large rock, i can hear that he's yelling, something along the lines of "Pig bastard, where are you?".

It can speak english, shockingly. as i hide i can hear him getting closer. I immediately look around, and see a sharp rock. I grab it hastily, i got a little cut in the process. But i wait for him, as he passes by, i slash his heel making him fall over. After a seemingly short victory dance, i run and run untill im out of breath. I see a empty village, i settle there. Now with my goals in mind, trying to find out where am i, and how i can get back, or maybe i was given a second chance. Whatever it may be, i'll accept it.

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.

[removed]