Nothing changes when the light goes out, Sam. His mother had said that a thousand times. See? Click. Light on. Click. Light off. The same bed, the same dresser, the same laundry you’ve strewn all over the floor…
Not the point, that younger Sam had thought. The threat knows I’m helpless in the dark. So that’s not the same.
It’s not the same if the threat can see and I can’t.
It’s not the same if the threat knows it doesn’t have to hide, but can make its move.
Useless to pretend the darkness isn’t any different.
It’s different.
Did something bad happen to you in the dark, Sam? They always wanted to know. Because they assumed all fear must come from a thing or a place. An event. Cause and effect. Like fear was part of an algebra equation.
No, no, no, so not getting the point of fear. Because fear wasn’t about what made sense. Fear was about possibilities. Not things that happened. Things that might.
Things that might… Threats that might be there. Murderers. Madmen. Monsters. Standing just a few inches from him, able to see him, but his eyes useless. The threats, they could laugh silently at him. They could hold their knives, guns, claws right in his face and he wouldn’t be able to see.
The threat could be. Right. Here.
His legs already ached from tension. He glanced back at the lake. He had been climbing and it was below him now, a sad collection of stars like a dim, distant galaxy. So very far away.
He couldn’t look back for long because the possibilities were all around him now.
The light of day showed you the limits of possibility. But walk through the dark, the absolute, total darkness, and the possibilities we
re limitless.
He hung a Sammy sun. He didn’t want to leave it behind. It was light that revealed stones. A stick. A dried-out bush.
It was almost better not to bother. Seeing anything just made the darkness seem darker. But the lights were also a sort of bread-crumb trail, like Hansel and Gretel. He would be able to find his way home.
Hopefully as well, he’d be able to see whether he was veering left or right.
But the lights had one other effect: they would be seen by whatever else was out here.
In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king. But in the darkness the one man holding a candle is a target.
Sam walked on into the dark.
Quinn had brought everyone into the plaza with grilled fish. The fire still burned, but lower and lower.
Lana had healed all who needed it.
For now there was quiet.
Kids had broken into Albert’s place and come back with some of his hoard of flashlights and batteries. Quinn had quickly confiscated them. They were worth far more than gold, far more even than food.
Some of Quinn’s crew were using the light of a single flashlight and a number of crowbars to tear apart the pews in the church and bring them out to keep the fire going.
No one was leaving. Not yet.
The orange-red glow cast a faint, flickering wash of color on the limestone of town hall, on the long-abandoned McDonald’s, on the broken fountain. On grim young faces.
But the streets leading away simply disappeared. The rest of the town was invisible. The ocean, occasionally faintly audible over the sound of snapping wood and muted conversation, might as well be a myth.
The sky was black. Featureless.
All of the FAYZ was just this bonfire now.