The Dark Watchers
Title: The Dark Watchers
Genre: Man from UNCLE
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1740
July prompt – lost
Lost in the desert, even UNCLE agents can use a little help. My thanks to
sparky955 for her beta and to akane42me for a fun July challenge. I read about these guys just a few days ago and couldn't resist using them.
Napoleon stared up at the dark and cloud-thickened sky. “At least if we could see the stars, we would know what direction we were headed in.” The moon provided a little light, but not much.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” Illya trudged behind, mostly because it was what he did. Napoleon led and he followed.
“I thought we were flying west for a while. I could feel that side of the hull heat up, but that went away, so no clue.” Napoleon took another step and smelled dusty earth. “Not much water here.”
“We’re going to need to find some and soon. When the sun comes up, it will get hot with a vengeance.”
“Says the man who wandered naked about the Sahara desert for a week.”
Illya grinned at that. “Perhaps THRUSH’s plan was to just have us wander ourselves to death.”
“I doubt they would have killed themselves in a plane crash to achieve it. We were just lucky.”
“This is THRUSH we’re talking about. They give exploding clocks to their retirees.” Illya used his arms to balance as he slid down a small hill. “Totally lost in a desert without any food, water, or weapons. I wouldn’t call that luck.”
“Yes, but we are alive, uninjured and capable. Besides, I have some string and a pen knife. You have a lighter--”
Illya nodded and added. “I also still have a bit of explosives left--”
Napoleon was dumbfounded. “How?”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer to.”
Napoleon made a face. “Ew…” Then he held up a hand. “Do you hear that?”
Illya paused, then nodded. “It sounds like water.”
“That’s impossible.” He headed in the direction and found a cluster of low, dusty bushes, their leaves glistening black in the darkness. “Let me see your lighter.”
“Careful, there’s not much fluid left.”
Napoleon nodded and held it close to the bank before flicking it. His eyes protested the blast of light, but he saw what he wanted to. “Thanks,” he said, returning it to his partner. “Lots of animal tracks and no bodies. That would seem to indicate that the water is okay to drink.”
Illya fell to his knees and scooped up some water. He sniffed it, then took a small sip. “Tastes okay. Let’s just hope there’s no giardia in it.”
“If we don’t get some water soon, it wouldn’t much matter. I’d rather risk it than die of thirst.”
They drank sparsely at first and Napoleon wandered away to collect some kindling. There was plenty of dried material. He was gathering up a piece of fallen cactus and glanced up quickly at the ridge. Mostly it was to check his bearings, but he also had an odd feeling. There was a tickle at the back of his neck.
He dropped his gaze back to the ground at what looked like a shape standing there, watching him. Something told him to just go about his business and get back to Illya. He’d lived longer than a lot of other UNCLE agents by listening to that voice and he expected this time to be no exception.
It took him a bit of time to find his partner. Illya had moved away from the water and into the shelter of an arroyo. He had a fire going by the time he returned and was carefully feeding sticks into it. Over the flames was a field-dressed rabbit, roasting. Napoleon’s jaw dropped.
“I was hungry,” Illya said by way of explanation.
“I was only gone for a few minutes.”
“It was long enough. It’ll probably taste a little gamy, but…”
“Beggars can’t be choosers.” Napoleon dropped his armful. “Why did you move here?”
“Other animals need that water, too, so I made an agreement. If they let me have a rabbit, they could have the water.”
Napoleon smiled. He never doubted for a moment that Illya had actually talked with the animals. He had that sort of air about him at times. “Hey, listen I think I saw something… someone.”
“THRUSH? Did someone else survive the crash?”
“I don’t know… It was over on the ridge and all I really saw was a silhouette. I just knew that it was important that I not bother it.”
Illya nodded and turned the rabbit. “Sounds like a dark one.”
“A dark one?”
“A Dark Watcher, I guess they are called in California. Back in the18th-century, Spanish settlers called them Los Vigilantes Oscuros, or the Dark Watchers. They were featureless silhouettes that sort of looked like witches with brimmed hats and walking sticks in hand.
Napoleon stared at Illya. “How do you know this stuff?”
“How do you not? Every myth and legend usually has some basis in fact. It was said that if you ignored them and just went about your business, you’d be fine.”
“If you didn’t?”
“Well, let’s just say you would come to a sticky end.”
Napoleon nodded and swallowed. “That rabbit about ready?”
Illya tested it and nodded. “Just about. Do you want to stand the first watch tonight or shall I?”
Napoleon chanced a fast glance up at the far end of the arroyo at the figure there. “I think it’s already being taken care of.”
“Agreed.”
Napoleon dozed fitfully most of the night. The few times he woke up, Illya was beside him, given to the same restless sleep. Finally dawn came and with it the sun.
“What do you think?” Their last meal was a distant memory now.
“Besides wanting to kill for a cup of coffee, you mean?” Illya scratched his beard. “I would guess the American Southwest, probably California, given the vegetation.”
Napoleon blinked then. “Illya…?”
“Yes, Napoleon?”
“Do you smell coffee?”
“I thought I was imagining it.” Illya got up into a crouching position and peeked through the vegetation. I see something… smoke, about a half mile away.” He pointed. “You want me to check it out?”
“I think together would be safer.”
Illya waited for Napoleon to join him and they crept closer. There was a campsite, but no sign of anyone.
“Abandoned?” Illya scanned the horizon. “Even if you were going for fuel, you’d keep someone here.”
“Not likely. You wouldn’t leave all your equipment behind…” Something caught Napoleon’s attention and he brought his finger to his lips. Illya followed the direction of his stare and nodded. He skirted around to left and Napoleon went to the right. He got there first and prepared to do battle, but the pile of flesh was beyond putting up any fight. He picked up the beret with the THRUSH emblem upon it and made a face.
“Illya?”
“Napoleon?”
“I got something.”
“Me, too. I think it might have been human at one point.”
Napoleon backtracked away from the corpse and returned to the clearing. “Did you hear anything last night?”
“Just some animals going back and forth to the river. I suppose we were fortunate they didn’t set upon us like they did these poor fools.”
“Are you sure it was animals?” Napoleon looked up at the ridge, but it was empty now. “Or could it have been something else?”
Illya started to search through the equipment left at the campsite. “In any event, I don’t know or care. Help me find their radio. I’m ready to get out of here.”
A week had passed since their rescue. Napoleon looked up from the report he was trying to finish. Visions of the delightful Miss Fisher kept dancing through his head and interrupting his thoughts. There was just one last form to complete and then he had a few days of R&R to fritter away.
Illya walked in, glasses perched on the end of his nose. He was flipping through a folder as he moved.
“Napoleon, what do you know of a chemical called Triple X?”
“Nothing, why?” He was delighted to have a reason to stop with his work.
“That’s what the autopsy report says killed those THRUSH agents.” Illya made a face. “I would have thought excessive blood through dismemberment would have been the reason.”
“Maybe they were drugged first?”
“Not according to this.”
“They died and then were sprayed? That’s a bit weird, even for THRUSH.”
“Agreed.” He looked back down at his desk. “I’m still trying to finish the paperwork. What were those things, Illya?”
“Probably an optical illusion brought on by the stress from the crash and a lack of food and water.” Illya tossed his folder over to Napoleon. “At least you can include Autopsy’s findings.”
“They seemed pretty real to me.” Napoleon remembered those burning eyes and a desire to get as far away from them as possible. “I wonder if they were the cause of their deaths.”
“What do you mean?”
“If a THRUSH agent saw someone watching them, what would they do?”
“Shoot first and hope it was one of us.”
“Exactly. They engaged the Dark Watchers.”
“Not the best outcome.” Napoleon shut his eyes against the memory.
“But a possible one… if the Dark Watchers were indeed real.” Illya ran a hand through his hair and looked off into the distance.
“If.” Napoleon let the word hang there as he quickly jotted something down on the last line of the form. “There.”
“What did you put down as cause of death?”
“Triple X. When you aren’t sure, punt.”
“Or, better off, ignore it. Lunch?”
“You bet. Let me drop this off to Typing --” He glanced down at the page and froze.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look under cause of death.”
“Dark Watchers? But you told me you wrote —“
“I did.” Slowly and cautiously he picked up the paperwork by its corner. “And things that go bump in the night.” He set it in his outgoing box. “How about we forget about lunch. I need a drink.”
“Excellent choice. I‘m right behind you.”
...he thought it might be one of the watchers, who are often seen in this length of coast-range, forms that look human to human eyes, but certainly are not human. They come from behind ridges to watch. But when he approached it he recognized the shabby clothes and pale hair and even the averted forehead and concave line from the eye to the jaw, so that he was not surprised when the figure turning toward him in the quiet twilight showed his own face. Then it melted and merged into the shadows beyond it...
Robinson Jeffers, Such Counsels You Gave to Me & Other Poems - 1937
Genre: Man from UNCLE
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1740
July prompt – lost
Lost in the desert, even UNCLE agents can use a little help. My thanks to
sparky955 for her beta and to akane42me for a fun July challenge. I read about these guys just a few days ago and couldn't resist using them.Napoleon stared up at the dark and cloud-thickened sky. “At least if we could see the stars, we would know what direction we were headed in.” The moon provided a little light, but not much.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” Illya trudged behind, mostly because it was what he did. Napoleon led and he followed.
“I thought we were flying west for a while. I could feel that side of the hull heat up, but that went away, so no clue.” Napoleon took another step and smelled dusty earth. “Not much water here.”
“We’re going to need to find some and soon. When the sun comes up, it will get hot with a vengeance.”
“Says the man who wandered naked about the Sahara desert for a week.”
Illya grinned at that. “Perhaps THRUSH’s plan was to just have us wander ourselves to death.”
“I doubt they would have killed themselves in a plane crash to achieve it. We were just lucky.”
“This is THRUSH we’re talking about. They give exploding clocks to their retirees.” Illya used his arms to balance as he slid down a small hill. “Totally lost in a desert without any food, water, or weapons. I wouldn’t call that luck.”
“Yes, but we are alive, uninjured and capable. Besides, I have some string and a pen knife. You have a lighter--”
Illya nodded and added. “I also still have a bit of explosives left--”
Napoleon was dumbfounded. “How?”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer to.”
Napoleon made a face. “Ew…” Then he held up a hand. “Do you hear that?”
Illya paused, then nodded. “It sounds like water.”
“That’s impossible.” He headed in the direction and found a cluster of low, dusty bushes, their leaves glistening black in the darkness. “Let me see your lighter.”
“Careful, there’s not much fluid left.”
Napoleon nodded and held it close to the bank before flicking it. His eyes protested the blast of light, but he saw what he wanted to. “Thanks,” he said, returning it to his partner. “Lots of animal tracks and no bodies. That would seem to indicate that the water is okay to drink.”
Illya fell to his knees and scooped up some water. He sniffed it, then took a small sip. “Tastes okay. Let’s just hope there’s no giardia in it.”
“If we don’t get some water soon, it wouldn’t much matter. I’d rather risk it than die of thirst.”
They drank sparsely at first and Napoleon wandered away to collect some kindling. There was plenty of dried material. He was gathering up a piece of fallen cactus and glanced up quickly at the ridge. Mostly it was to check his bearings, but he also had an odd feeling. There was a tickle at the back of his neck.
He dropped his gaze back to the ground at what looked like a shape standing there, watching him. Something told him to just go about his business and get back to Illya. He’d lived longer than a lot of other UNCLE agents by listening to that voice and he expected this time to be no exception.
It took him a bit of time to find his partner. Illya had moved away from the water and into the shelter of an arroyo. He had a fire going by the time he returned and was carefully feeding sticks into it. Over the flames was a field-dressed rabbit, roasting. Napoleon’s jaw dropped.
“I was hungry,” Illya said by way of explanation.
“I was only gone for a few minutes.”
“It was long enough. It’ll probably taste a little gamy, but…”
“Beggars can’t be choosers.” Napoleon dropped his armful. “Why did you move here?”
“Other animals need that water, too, so I made an agreement. If they let me have a rabbit, they could have the water.”
Napoleon smiled. He never doubted for a moment that Illya had actually talked with the animals. He had that sort of air about him at times. “Hey, listen I think I saw something… someone.”
“THRUSH? Did someone else survive the crash?”
“I don’t know… It was over on the ridge and all I really saw was a silhouette. I just knew that it was important that I not bother it.”
Illya nodded and turned the rabbit. “Sounds like a dark one.”
“A dark one?”
“A Dark Watcher, I guess they are called in California. Back in the18th-century, Spanish settlers called them Los Vigilantes Oscuros, or the Dark Watchers. They were featureless silhouettes that sort of looked like witches with brimmed hats and walking sticks in hand.
Napoleon stared at Illya. “How do you know this stuff?”
“How do you not? Every myth and legend usually has some basis in fact. It was said that if you ignored them and just went about your business, you’d be fine.”
“If you didn’t?”
“Well, let’s just say you would come to a sticky end.”
Napoleon nodded and swallowed. “That rabbit about ready?”
Illya tested it and nodded. “Just about. Do you want to stand the first watch tonight or shall I?”
Napoleon chanced a fast glance up at the far end of the arroyo at the figure there. “I think it’s already being taken care of.”
“Agreed.”
Napoleon dozed fitfully most of the night. The few times he woke up, Illya was beside him, given to the same restless sleep. Finally dawn came and with it the sun.
“What do you think?” Their last meal was a distant memory now.
“Besides wanting to kill for a cup of coffee, you mean?” Illya scratched his beard. “I would guess the American Southwest, probably California, given the vegetation.”
Napoleon blinked then. “Illya…?”
“Yes, Napoleon?”
“Do you smell coffee?”
“I thought I was imagining it.” Illya got up into a crouching position and peeked through the vegetation. I see something… smoke, about a half mile away.” He pointed. “You want me to check it out?”
“I think together would be safer.”
Illya waited for Napoleon to join him and they crept closer. There was a campsite, but no sign of anyone.
“Abandoned?” Illya scanned the horizon. “Even if you were going for fuel, you’d keep someone here.”
“Not likely. You wouldn’t leave all your equipment behind…” Something caught Napoleon’s attention and he brought his finger to his lips. Illya followed the direction of his stare and nodded. He skirted around to left and Napoleon went to the right. He got there first and prepared to do battle, but the pile of flesh was beyond putting up any fight. He picked up the beret with the THRUSH emblem upon it and made a face.
“Illya?”
“Napoleon?”
“I got something.”
“Me, too. I think it might have been human at one point.”
Napoleon backtracked away from the corpse and returned to the clearing. “Did you hear anything last night?”
“Just some animals going back and forth to the river. I suppose we were fortunate they didn’t set upon us like they did these poor fools.”
“Are you sure it was animals?” Napoleon looked up at the ridge, but it was empty now. “Or could it have been something else?”
Illya started to search through the equipment left at the campsite. “In any event, I don’t know or care. Help me find their radio. I’m ready to get out of here.”
A week had passed since their rescue. Napoleon looked up from the report he was trying to finish. Visions of the delightful Miss Fisher kept dancing through his head and interrupting his thoughts. There was just one last form to complete and then he had a few days of R&R to fritter away.
Illya walked in, glasses perched on the end of his nose. He was flipping through a folder as he moved.
“Napoleon, what do you know of a chemical called Triple X?”
“Nothing, why?” He was delighted to have a reason to stop with his work.
“That’s what the autopsy report says killed those THRUSH agents.” Illya made a face. “I would have thought excessive blood through dismemberment would have been the reason.”
“Maybe they were drugged first?”
“Not according to this.”
“They died and then were sprayed? That’s a bit weird, even for THRUSH.”
“Agreed.” He looked back down at his desk. “I’m still trying to finish the paperwork. What were those things, Illya?”
“Probably an optical illusion brought on by the stress from the crash and a lack of food and water.” Illya tossed his folder over to Napoleon. “At least you can include Autopsy’s findings.”
“They seemed pretty real to me.” Napoleon remembered those burning eyes and a desire to get as far away from them as possible. “I wonder if they were the cause of their deaths.”
“What do you mean?”
“If a THRUSH agent saw someone watching them, what would they do?”
“Shoot first and hope it was one of us.”
“Exactly. They engaged the Dark Watchers.”
“Not the best outcome.” Napoleon shut his eyes against the memory.
“But a possible one… if the Dark Watchers were indeed real.” Illya ran a hand through his hair and looked off into the distance.
“If.” Napoleon let the word hang there as he quickly jotted something down on the last line of the form. “There.”
“What did you put down as cause of death?”
“Triple X. When you aren’t sure, punt.”
“Or, better off, ignore it. Lunch?”
“You bet. Let me drop this off to Typing --” He glanced down at the page and froze.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look under cause of death.”
“Dark Watchers? But you told me you wrote —“
“I did.” Slowly and cautiously he picked up the paperwork by its corner. “And things that go bump in the night.” He set it in his outgoing box. “How about we forget about lunch. I need a drink.”
“Excellent choice. I‘m right behind you.”
...he thought it might be one of the watchers, who are often seen in this length of coast-range, forms that look human to human eyes, but certainly are not human. They come from behind ridges to watch. But when he approached it he recognized the shabby clothes and pale hair and even the averted forehead and concave line from the eye to the jaw, so that he was not surprised when the figure turning toward him in the quiet twilight showed his own face. Then it melted and merged into the shadows beyond it...
Robinson Jeffers, Such Counsels You Gave to Me & Other Poems - 1937