Part Nine
Chapter Three
The six of us made our way into the city proper, following what seemed to be a major road. But the streets were empty, and the buildings we passed were dark and quiet. It was never silent though. There was always the whispering, sinister words in an ancient tongue, carried on the wind from somewhere out of sight.
"I don't like this," murmured Brendan.
"Where is everyone?" Scott asked.
We soon reached a wide city plaza, ringed by broad avenues with an old stone church on one side and a park on the other. We were about to continue when I looked around and held up my hand. A woman was curled up in the doorway of a nearby building, rocking back and forth and mumbling to herself. Teresa jogged over and knelt down to try and bring the woman to her senses.
"It's gonna be okay," Teresa said. "You're all right."
The woman looked up with wide eyes, and showed no sign that she recognised the White Ranger. "No! They're coming!" she shouted, barely coherent. "They'll come for me! And my children! No!" And she fell back into her trance.
Teresa returned to us. "I couldn't shake her out of it," she said. "It's like she was trapped in her worst memory."
"I guess that's where everybody is," Ian said. "When the torch was lit, everybody retreated indoors."
"But how do we wake them up?" asked Sarah.
A dark form detached from the shadowy exterior of a nearby building, and swung a giant outstretched hand for Ian. Out of the corner of his eye, the Grey Ranger saw the attack coming and spun around. Raising his arms as he turned, he summoned his Power Blasters and fired, twin beams of silver light slicing through the shadowy monster. Before we could recover, something with more legs than it should've had skittered out of the darkness for Scott, but he summoned his Power Staff with a thought and struck it away. Opposite, a towering beast charged for Teresa with a roar, but she took its head off with a crack of her Power Whip.
"What the hell?" asked Brendan.
"Peoples' nightmares are starting to manifest," Scott said.
"At least their attention's on us," I said, as my Power Sword appeared in my hand.
A winged creature dropped out of the sky towards me, but I struck it away with my sword. Beside me, Brendan somersaulted to safety as something long and serpentine swept for his ankles, while Sarah used her mace to defend herself from a dark creature that seemed to have blades for arms. Even as we shattered the creatures and they faded away, more took their place. It was impossible to know whether they were even real.
"We can't keep this up forever," I said.
"The city needs two things," Sarah began. "Light, and hope. Let's see what we can do about one of those. The ocean's out that way, right?" and she pointed to the park.
"I think so," Scott replied.
"Great," Sarah said, and raised her arm to the sky. "I need dinozord power, now!"
With an ancient cry, the purple Rhamphorynchus zord shot out of the fog above us, cruising low over the city. Sarah reached for her wrist and materialised in the zord's cockpit in a flash of purple. Taking the controls, she gazed out over the city and saw the distant coastline, barely visible through the darkness.
"Whatever you're doing," said Teresa, speaking into her communicator, "I hope it works."
Sarah angled her zord into a descent, aiming for a target just above the ocean's surface. "We can't wake up everyone in Antofagasta," she said quickly. "And we can't fight an army of shadows. But there's something that can," and she hit a switch on the console. The zord's speed increased, and blinding purple energy began to build around the zord's hull and wings. Sarah grit her teeth, and pushed the zord even faster.
"Cue the sun," Sarah said.
In a blazing streak, the Rhamphorynchus punched through the dark clouds. The setting sun was instantly visible just above the horizon, throwing beams of gold back through the city streets and chasing away the shadows. The creatures caught in the rays of sunlight immediately disintegrated, while others retreated to safety. As the plaza filled with natural light, Scott kicked a shadowy adversary into a beam of light where it instantly melted, while the winged creature I'd been battling dived through the light and hit the ground in tattered pieces a second later.
Across the plaza, the woman from before blinked and climbed to her feet. Teresa raced over to help.
High above us, Sarah brought the zord around. "Did it work?" she asked.
"That was brilliant," Brendan replied.
"But the sun's setting," Scott added. "We bought the city ten minutes."
"It's ten minutes more than they had before," Ian said.
I nodded. "We just have to hope the seniors can find that torch," I said.
To be continued.