Time Bums #32

Jackie and Steve blinked at the black and white panorama before them … blinding sunlight alternating with impenetrably dark shadows. The massive crumbling structure overhead offered no middle ground between complete exposure and complete obscurity. The structure itself revealed only white or black surfaces, depending on their angle towards the sun.

The structure, supported by regularly spaced columns, seemed to stretch toward the horizon in every direction, but with jagged irregular gaps, peirced by daylight, throughout. Large and small chunks of what appeared to be the same material as the rest of this ediface lay on the ground, also limited to black and white faces.

As Jackie and Steve began to comprehend this high contrast landscape, they also became aware of the faint sound of distant creatures. It gradually became clearer, resolving into a set of overlapping barks and howls. “What is that?” Jackie asked.

AMNOZ replied. “It resembles the howls of pack dogs, and based on the Doppler samples, they are approaching at roughly 50 miles per hour.”

“What’s their ETA?” Steve asked.

“Did you mean ‘what do they E, A, T?’” queried AMNOZ.

“No, when will they get here? But for that matter, what do they eat?”

“In 47 seconds. 46. 45.”

“Shvoot” came an unfamiliar voice.

“Huh?” said Steve and Jackie, almost simultaneously. They looked up towards the the part of the shadowy black underside of the structure where the voice seemed to come from.

“Nasticle kron! Shvoot!”