Snippet for Wednesday, 13-April-05

From a "dark" SF experiment, The Merciless Light of Tomorrow:

***

Efflen hated the surface, hated the light. The surface had taken all the people he ever loved, and the light had aided their killers.

He crouched in the rubble at the foot of the old concrete stairs and sniffed at the hot, dry air that wafted down the well. Every few seconds, he would pop out of the shadows to glance upward into the golden sunshine before jerking backward into the darkness.

"Damn, Flen," Abermay clucked at him. The brilliant sunshine had blinded Efflen's dark sight so that the hunt leader was all but invisible in the deeper darkness of the "front porch" where the scavenge team had gathered. "Give it a rest, would you? You're starting to make me nervous."

"Too much light," Efflen grumped back at her. "Night is best. Night hides us. The snufflers will be out."

"We're on a tight schedule," Abermay said as she stepped into the twilight between the burning day and comforting dark. Her battle rig was worn but in good repair. Long knives adorned both her calves and both her forearms and the barrel of her family rifle projected above her right shoulder. The tough, jet black fabric of her combat suit had faded a bit at the seams, but was otherwise in good condition. Most of all, however, her pale face and clear blue eyes fairly glowed in the light. She might as well walk onto the surface beating a drum and blowing a horn.