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EVERYTHING IS FADING.
WELCOME TO PARADISE.
EMBRACE THE DARKNESS.
A WORLD AFTER LIGHT AWAITS YOU.
Author: Sky3
Show me the light.
Plunged into complete darkness, this is my reality now.
One of my senses deprived, likely permanently. The other four take over.
Everyone is faceless… formless, even.
We identify people by their touch, their scent, their voice.
One small misstep will cost us our lives.
We live like beasts, devoid of humanity.
With survival, and nothing but survival, encoded in our DNA.
Without light, our darker sides manifest — they manipulate and control us.
My movements instinctively cease. Something is off. Assess the situation. Go no further.
Keep our ears and noses sharp. Pause… and stay silent.
I feel an evil presence. I can sense another living being.
Someone… or something approaches us. Let the adrenaline consume us.
Slow, menacing footsteps that sound like glass scraping the ground.
Quick, loud, and unnatural breathing patterns resembling pants and grunts.
The metallic stench of fresh human blood dominates the air.
One primal scream, one slash of a claw, and one loud thump on the ground later…
We will never know what happened in that altercation or what we just killed.
All that matters is that we are still alive.
SEVEN HOURS AGO:
BEFORE THE DAWN CEASED TO EXIST…
BEFORE THE SUN WOULD NEVER RISE AGAIN…
BEFORE WE LOST EVERYTHING TO THE DARKNESS…
I'm writing this while I still can… while the light still lasts. Where I am, it's currently dusk… and I don't know if I will ever witness dawn again. Will we be stuck wandering pitch-black streets, never knowing what's ahead of us, or will the cataclysm be saved for another day? Whatever the case, I know my time with functioning eyes will soon end — it'd be a good idea to cherish the color while I can still see.
I just narrowly escaped a level-wide blackout on Level 21 and am now residing on the beaches of Level 48. It started with the lightbulb at the very end… it flickered for a bit then burnt out — from what I have been told, that isn't supposed to happen. Then the next one fell, and the one after that fell, and so on; the darkness was quickly conquering the landscape. Piercing screams and breaking glass made my ears ring.
Darkness changes people, and unfortunately, I do not believe this to be some supernatural phenomenon — given enough time, the absence of light allows the worst parts of human nature to proliferate. Even the most harmless of individuals can be quickly driven to atrocity in the right circumstances. No one will ever witness what kind of monsters they morph into — though, I would imagine they still look human on the outside — but that should never undermine your perception of what they are capable of. In this world of darkness, they are the apex predators; everyone else is mere prey.
These shadows of the human race have no moral code. All of these experiences beg a question that's been bothering me since the blackout started — what drives humans to kill their own kind? To this day, I still have no answer to that question, but what I do know is that this murderous instinct is amplified by stress. The stress that comes from sensory deprivation. The stress that comes from believing yourself to be in danger. The stress that comes from not knowing what will happen next. The sudden onset of darkness encapsulates this. It robs us of this peace and quiet, replacing it with nothing but sheer pandemonium.
As I ran toward the hallway exit, I heard a plea for help in the distance — "Please. Please. Please. Listen to yourself, Lucy. You don't have to do this, Lucy. We can still—" But he was promptly cut off, screaming in pain as he began to take his final breaths. Perhaps Lucy was as deaf as she was blind, committing an ultimate act of betrayal without regard to the consequences. Perhaps Lucy had run away, deserting her partner in desperate times. Perhaps Lucy was already dead, having fallen victim to a murderous creature moments prior.
I still hear his voice in my head. Could I be in that situation someday, and if so, would I be the beggar or the killer? I would like to think that ending another human's life is just not part of who I am, but a nagging thought in the back of my brain tells me that if I had to do it to save my life, I would kill without hesitation. Does that make me just as evil as everyone else? Am I just doomed to abandon all the empathy in my heart when it comes down to the wire?
Now that the skies of the beach are turning dark, it is clear to me that I can never escape the darkness. It will always catch up to me, and the chaos will always pull me back in.
The blackout is inevitable. With it arrives the downfall of civilization, a regression to primitive instincts. I'm caught up in this mess, and you're caught up in this mess, whether we like it or not.
I have already decided what I will have to do if I want to survive in a lawless world.
Fade into darkness.
Now, I ask you, dear reader:
What will you do?
Darkness has consumed my home. Soon, it will consume yours. Will you be ready?
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.