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The Lightricians

"Salus Lux, Wick!" I waved to my colleague sitting on the curb outside the branch office. His feathers stood up a bit when he heard his name.

"S-Salus Lux, Kero. The Boss already left on a survey, we got ourselves an easy job to take care of somehow. Big one though, an apartment complex for felines." He pointed towards the van. The red cardinal's shirt glistened in the resplendent street lamps. Light glittering off the uniform's aluminum-gilded buttons, the well-ironed white fabric giving a healthy glow over his red plumage.

"Let's head to the flight pad then," Kero motioned to the office parking lot. Wick only shook his head, tapping the white van beside him.

"It's just us. The rest of our cadre are too busy to drop off our supplies," he clarified.

I could already feel my feathers droop, suppressing a groan in my throat. I had hoped to spread my wings and make a timely arrival.

"Well, get the checklist ready," I grumbled, opening the back of the van to run through the mandatory supply inspection.

"Notepad," Wick held up the yellow-tinted pages, "Check. Matches and lights?"

"Check," I replied.

"Luxometer, backup Luxometer, replacement fillers?"

"Check,"

"Oil lamp?"

"Oil lamp? Uh, check," I glanced at the old-timey lantern hung from the top of the van. It would look more at home in dad's old mining job. He had always hoped I wouldn't need something like this. That I'd get a job as a teacher, a factory worker or a firefighter than to see the things he found in the old mines. He was surprised when he found out I'd be working as a Lightrician, putting up and fixing light fixtures day in and day out, or that I'd renew my license for another year. Regardless of what he wanted me to be, he never went out of his way to stop me. And so, I was the first lightrician in my family.

"That should be everything!" Wick called, scratching off the last box in the checklist.

"Good, let's get going before it gets any darker," I said, locking the backdoors to the van.

Our van trip was long and winding compared to our usual fly-overs. Though, it did allow us a closer look at the Longest Night preparations being made everywhere. Barn owls bickering with each other over whether or not to get their lights checked; a group of young deer decorating their antlers for a party; some rat families going out on a shopping trip for their dinner.

Wick shook his head in disapproval as we drove through the popular spots in town, people were congregating to party away the Longest Night. Some were even setting up DJ tables underneath the moonlight towers.

"-In other news, North Jurre has suffered unexpected blackouts leading to many dead and several injured," the news bulletin prattled on, interrupting the jovial Longest Night music.

Our travels grew slower as the roads were crowded every few blocks, people preparing to gather underneath the moonlight towers. Wick honked the horn at the pedestrians clumped together in the plaza, growing impatient as the sun began to tint the sky in twilight. The dimming sky helped highlight the brilliance of the towers, titans of iron and filaments. These towers, when I was 16, I saw the first one built. They were huge, looming over the city blocks and streets. Over the next two years I saw more of them built. People celebrate them everywhere, even in other cities and countries. The moonlight towers were relatively new things, but their iconic presence makes it feel like they've been there from the start.

They remained active every night, which obviously meant it took a ton of electricity to keep them on. In exchange, the roads, streets, and alleys didn't feel so dark, strange, or unsafe anymore. Stories of kidnappers, murderers, perverts, and rapists became urban legends from the still frequent tales of infestations. Despite that, or maybe because of it, my parents still enforced a strict curfew. I wasn't able to sleep for the longest time with those towers outside, always felt a bit too bright for my comfort. At least I've gotten used to it now and could look at one of the newer models without feeling like my eyes were burning.

We finally managed to arrive at our job site on the other side of the city: a decent-sized apartment complex, covered in creeping vines that penetrated every crack and crevice they could find in the bricks. The window frames had their colors washed away from the constant light from towers and sun. Behind the panes were the silhouettes of felines, their faces hidden by the bright yellow lights behind them. Only their piercing jade and amber eyes stood out, staring at us as we approached.

Waiting for the landlord to answer the doorbell we began our cursory search of the premises, no dark corners that our eyes could spot. A howling gale began to blow over the block when a feline grandmother came out to greet us with a radiant smile and lax, swaying tail.

"Ohh, Thank you for coming on such short notice, dears," the elderly feline crooned, "This is a time for celebration. It would give us peace of mind that there are no dark spots,"

She hands us the building plan, its age apparent from its fraying edges and multicolor spots over it, much like her calico fur. Looking over the blueprints, Wick took stock of the necessary materials, excusing himself to begin the necessary preparations. Loading the service carts with them and pushing them inside while I stayed to chat with the grandma. It had been a unanimous agreement that I would handle the customers while Wick managed the equipment. I had the gift of gab, while he was far more adept with the setup.

"Salus Lux, Ms. um..."

"Granny Heila, but just Granny will do, dear,"

"So, Granny Heila, what do you want us to do? We can do checks, replacements, repairs, and exterminations, if need be." I had to bend down slightly to meet her fogged eyes behind her glasses.

"Can you go check the emergency exits and keep it up to standards, please?" Her hands were holding a purse, her fingers trembling trying to pull something out.

"Oh, checkups are free, we don't bill you until after the work is actually done. You can go back in now, it's kinda cold out here for you." I guided her back into the apartment complex, again.

"Ah, thank you, dearie. All this stuff is just too new for me, and my son can't do it. Said he's not born for it. The bathrooms are next to the exits on each floor if you need them." Her smile showed the little wrinkles all over her face and for a brief moment the moonlight towers were highlighting her silver-tipped whiskers. Her pupils dilated and filled up her eyes like the bottom of a well. She wouldn't be able to tell if she was in the shadows, let alone her son.

"Don't worry, Granny. We've got the right instruments to make sure everything is safe," I called out to her as she retreated into her complex just as Wick came by with the tool cart.

"So, what did you see?" I asked, joining up with him.

"How about I let you look at them yourselves?" I nodded in reply and helped him with our last cart, the infestation tools.

Throwing open the exit stairwell, I went in first. If I had to choose my favorite kind of jobs, I'd say it'd be the ones with stairwells. The way the lights are arranged above the doorways on each floor or above certain consistent spots. The way the stairs wound around a singular point, sometimes, with taller buildings, you could look up and feel as if they stretched to infinity with all their floor lights fading toward a white globe.

"So, what did you see?" I asked, joining up with him.

"How about I let you look at them yourselves?" I nodded in reply and helped him with our last cart, the infestation tools.

Throwing open the exit stairwell, I went in first. If I had to choose my favorite kind of jobs, I'd say it'd be the ones with stairwells. The way the lights are arranged above the doorways on each floor or above certain consistent spots. The way the stairs wound around a singular point, sometimes, with taller buildings, you could look up and feel as if they stretched to infinity with all their floor lights fading toward a white globe.

"Oh. Old filament bulbs. A whole emergency exit worth of 'em," I looked to where he was pointing at. All the orange and yellow bulbs dangling in the air, burning bright like little stars in the night sky.

"The city stopped production of those things a few years back. Pretty much artifacts. We have to replace them,"

"Well technically, they're not behind standard yet. According to law, we don't have to replace them if they're under a year old." I folded my arms and leaned on the walls.

"But then what if they break when they're needed the most?" His voice was cold, I gulped nervously in response.

"Wick, judging by the state of this place, they can't really afford to have them all replaced."

"But we also can't hope that they won't go out on a whim and leave them vulnerable to an infestation," his eyes pointed at the dirty, dusty concrete stairs.

"Alright... How about this? We replace the bulbs in the most pivotal cover points. That way they can save up to replace the other half and still have enough light in case of a burnout,"

"We're not entirely sure what's in her budget. We won't be able to figure anything out like this. Let's take a closer look and then we can work something out once we've got hard numbers to work with." I handed him the building plan and notepad to his outstretched hand.

We each grabbed our tools and hiked up the dusty stairs. There were only 7 floors, but each felt a bit hotter than the last. On each floor Wick would flash the floor with his strobe light before letting me take measurements with the luxometer. All readings were above fifty, with no dark splash pattern or distinct signs of infestation. Despite the wear and tear, the apartment seemed to be in good condition.

Finishing the routine inspection on the last floor, I sat down and took a deep breath. A putrid stench catching my nose, a combination of gasoline and petrichor.

"Hey Wick, you smell that?" my body cringed and my face contorted at it before it quickly dissipated from my senses.

"Smell what, Kero?"

"Like, gasoline..." An infestation? I sure hope not, I just want this day to be over so I can go home.

"Huh, I didn't really notice it. Just focus on the job at hand."

"Alright..." I muttered, sniffling, trying to catch that scent again. It was familiar, Dad came home one day smelling like that. I didn't know what it was at the time, but it stuck with me since I was seventeen. He usually complained of a runny nose too, but when we pried his nose with some tools and a flashlight, nothing ever came of it.

Following that came the news reports of folks dropping dead in oil refineries and mines. Autopsies found their lungs blackened with some sort of tar that reportedly reeked of gasoline. Dad was let go from the job when the quarries started shutting down for health concerns. We were glad that he didn't meet the same grizzly fate, but having him home felt like a coating of tension hung over all of us. A tension that threatened to tear us apart. And that was when I saw the ad for this job.

Wick and I sat there, taking turns looking over the plans and marking the lights that were worth replacing. Once we had our plans ready, we set to preparing our workspace. Wick unfolded the studio lights, setting them at the top of the steps while I placed the white screens between floors to reflect light into the immediate area.

I went to tell Granny Heila what our plans were, and with her permission, she showed us the fuse box to one side of the building just outside the fire escape. We thanked her graciously and advised her to tell the tenants to prepare their emergency lights. We would have to shut off the power to replace the lights, while the schematic says it has its own circuit separate from the rest of the building, it's never a risk worth taking.

Wick donned his gloves, shades, and facemask in front of the fuse box while I stood nearby with the strobe light. Everything down to procedure as the boss taught us several times over.

"Remember to stand to the right, okay? The box swings open to the left," he motioned from the handle, emulating opening it, "Objects cast shadows and we want to avoid that as much as possible."

"Got you covered, don't worry," I said as I turned on the strobe light. The cracking sound of it charging up felt so soothing.

The moment Wick opened the box, I instinctively closed my eyes and flashed it with the strobe light. No splash patterns, no infestation. We pulled the levers off for the emergency exits and shut it tight.

Replacing the lights on each odd-numbered floor was easier than we thought and before we knew it, we were at the top floor again. That's when I smelled it again, my feathers ruffling with anxiety.

"Kero," Wick approached me from behind, patting my shoulder, "If you're still feeling uncertain, we can give it one last check. It's going to be the longest night, after all,"

"I hope we don't run into one. Boss said that we should be careful with each job, so...," I shrugged, letting him decide.

The year I hit eighteen, I trained under my current boss as an intern to become a lightrician. Boss was one of the pioneers, perhaps our city's first lightrician, even. Being a lightrician was like most jobs I was aware of. Plumbers managed water, electricians managed electricity, so it was natural for me to assume lightricians handled light. And like those jobs, I'd later learn, they had their own hazards. Pests in pipes, pests cutting wires... bugs that needed exterminating.

The job pays well and for the most part was easy and stress-free. For a while, it felt like the light at the end of the tunnel, that breakthrough my family needed so we wouldn't have to worry about money anymore...

"Kero, you think we can use the facilities in this building? I need to go pee for a bit."

"Toilet's next to the exits, granny Heila said feel free to use 'em."

"Alright, gonna be back soon, just, like, total up the bill first or something."

Before I could object, Wick had already headed back inside the main building. With nothing else to do, I decide to tally up the expenses. Even giving the entire staircase three looks over I couldn't shake the feeling in my gut. I'd never seen an infestation myself, not that I'd even want to see one. But the way the boss and some of our seniors talked about them piqued my curiosity about them.

If we're expected to exterminate them, we should at least know what we're supposed to be exterminating looks like.

It feels like someone isn't telling us this for a reason.

I shake my head, pondering about it here wasn't going to help me figure this out any more than finishing the tally would.

Four LED lights to replace those year-old filaments at 150 each, multiplied by four is 600... Take the mandatory service fees times two...

As I began to write up the receipt for Granny a tug and yoink of my tail feathers sent me stumbling, "What's going on?"

I turned around to see Wick, his feathers a mess from something indistinguishable. He led me back up to the top floor, slamming out into the rooftop area. Right before us were two unlit water tanks, too squirreled away for the moonlight towers to illuminate within.

My eyes were instantly drawn to a hole near the bottom that grew into a crack running up the side of the tank to the top. A grotesque, tar-like substance oozed from it, like a freshly cut wound. The wound reeked of gasoline and rot, it was so pungent Wick's face scowled at it from meters away. Sure enough, these were the signs of infestation we'd heard so much about. And if these were the signs, then the bugs were inside that tank. My legs trembled, shooting glances down the side of the building, a clear runway to turn tail and fly to safety. I reached out to take hold of Wick's shoulder, but it held firm under my feathered touch. He wasn't going to let this stand, if we didn't face this now, the people still oblivious inside would be in danger. This was the job we were here to do!

"We execute the extermination protocol per training," Wick turned to me, "It looks like it's still contained. We don't know how much longer before it gestates. Go get the extermination cart. And tell the tenants to evacuate on your way,"

"Are you sure we can do this...?" I asked, stalling for time as the strength returned to my legs.

"We can do this, partner. I've got my emergency flares on me. I'll look for the utility room and start preparing safe points on the building plan, let's go!"

Wick gives me an encouraging shove towards the building's edge. I fluttered back down to the ground floor, a few astonished gasps as tenants and visitors were caught off-guard as I landed.

"There's been a change of plans, Granny. An infestation, I need you to evacuate everyone at once."

Her foggy eyes widened in realization, shuffling back into her home a quiet alarm rang out. The tenants outside ran in to evacuate their families as the guests retreated to a safe distance away from the building.

Rushing back inside, I grabbed the card reserved for infestations, thankful for the convenient feature allowing it to glide up the stairs without issue.

We both suited down to the nines; shades, earmuffs, suits, and gloves. I darted around the edges of the building, setting up the studio lights and white screens in the tactical locations Wick had outlined, directing them all toward the water tank. From what we learned in training, a strong ambient light should weaken infestations, if not eradicate them entirely on the spot.

Wick paced back and forth with a flashbang in one hand, the luxometer in the other. Ensuring the lights were at the appropriate lux level for the extermination process. With the lights and screens active, we were capping out at around 400 lux, which regulation dictated should be enough to destroy the most common types of infestations.

With preparations in place, Wick chucked the primed flashbang into the crevice, running back to my side. Picking up the strobe light, we waited for the flash of false dawn that would signal the beginning of the longest night. The silence was abyssal for what felt like an eternity.

And then, a deafening brightness as an artificial sun bloomed atop the building, the resulting explosion thrusting the crack wide open, as if lightning had struck the forbidden God's Egg.

We had unleashed hell on Noma. From the shattered tank emerged a creature that defied reason. Disgusting, murky wings dripping with ink with a glossy sheen that absorbed light. The register on the luxometer wagged between zero and a non-existent negative reading.

The infestation swarm flew out like giant bats, desperate to escape the light. Their wings beat frantically in the air. We flashed them with the strobe lights, filling the sky with a burst illumination. When the brief burst died down, they were gone.

With the threat dispersed, or to my hope, neutralized I fell back against the stairwell access, taking stock of what had just happened. Was there a blind spot in how I had set up the light and screens? Did we not account for the light dispersion in open areas?

Wick was clicking his beak; it was the first time I had seen him this worried. The shadow of the other tank seemed deeper. Wick and I held our breath, moving one of the lights to point at it. Nothing. Where could it have gone?

I gestured to Wick to stay alert. He replied with a quick nod. We began to scour the roof with our flashlights for any sign where it could have gone. With our backs turned, one of the lights flickered out. We turned in that direction to flash it. Nothing again. The swarm must've short-circuited the lamp. Wick hastened his pace, desperately trying to find any clue as to where they were. Another lamp flickered and diced; another blew out its filament.

Brightness was rapidly dropping from 400 to 200, dangerously below regulation standards. Cold sweat rolled down my back. Another fizzled out, a brief flash of reviving before dying out like a match. 50 lux. We were officially underlit for any kind of extermination process.

It jumped. Spiraling off the ground into a swarm, like moths to the flames, they engulfed Wick. He flailed frantically, trying to shake them off his wings. The strobe light emitted dim, panicked flashes as Wick fruitlessly tried to stave off the swarm. Despite his efforts, they crept towards his face. With the futility of the strobe evident to him, he resorted to simply thrash about more. Murky dark water sloughed to the ground, evaporating.

The resulting vapors gave off that familiar and nauseating scent of gasoline. Gasoline...

"Wick! Wick! Wick! Listen here. I'll.. I'll.. light you on fire!"

"Are you crazy?!"

"I don't know!?"

"What if I burn alive?!"

"Um... Um...," I looked around the roof to complete this improvised plan,

"The water tank!"

"What?!"

"I don't know Wick! Just... Try!"

With a hesitant nod he stood still, stretching out his wings. I opened the old oil lamp's reservoir, and it didn't have much fuel left. Now all I needed was a match. A match! I searched my protective suit and cart for matches, but in the panic and darkness I just couldn't find them.

I screamed at myself to focus and find something--anything to save him as time was running out. I couldn't hesitate any longer, dousing him with the contents of the lantern, I tore the emergency flare open, casting the sparks onto him. He was instantly set ablaze in a brilliant, purple blaze. Even beneath the coating of bugs and his protective suit, he quickly felt the heat on his skin. Scrambling toward the tank, he dove in, though the fires didn't go out right away. The tar released him, bubbling to the top, boiling away on the ground. The flames eat away at them, their charred remains spewing fumes.

They tried to shake off the napalm with a desperate beating of their moth-like wings, unable to go airborne. A thick groundwater smell with diluted gasoline poured off their wings. I nearly gagged. But that wouldn't stop me, I redirected what remained of the lights onto the skittering mounds of sludge. Flashing the strobe light on any stragglers that managed to escape the containment area. In the end, nothing but splash patterns remained.

The sound of sloshing water was all that remained, I sighed in relief, a clear sign Wick managed to survive his deadly dive.

"You're still alive!" I helped pull him out. His clothes and feathers were seared though.

"Thanks. Gonna take a long time to recover from this though. Think I got a few burns."

I looked around at what remained of our botched extermination attempt as Wick removed the damaged equipment. A grimace on his singed features, probably already expecting the earful we'd get for damaging company equipment.

The last of the puddles flickered with an orange glow on their surface, consuming what remained of the fuel mixed with the water. All except the last light stand scattered on the ground from Wick's frantic thrashing.

"Sorry. I should've been more careful with the light placements..."

"So how did you figure it out...," he gestured to one of the foul, smelling pile of molten carapaces, "Y'know?"

"Dust," I said, simulating a sprinkling of dust with my frayed feather tips, "Saw the gasoline smell coming off their wings like moth dust. Thought it might be flammable,"

"That thing. Took. A. Fucking. Bomb. And. Lived." We looked back at the broken water tank, "How did it survive that and not the fire?"

"The waxy coating. Prob'ly why they could hide inside the tank,"

"It was huge too," he pointed to the splash pattern. It was half a meter long in diameter, at least.

"Thanks for saving me though..."

"Thanks for trusting in me, Wick." I gave him a pat on the back.

I began to pack up what remained of the lights and white screens while Wick contacted our boss. Everything felt so surreal once the adrenaline died down. The moonlight towers... Wick... Me... The infestation... The smell of gasoline mixed with petrichor... No one in my family knew what I had signed up for. We definitely didn't expect me to have a Peruvian Standoff on a roof with a studio light and grenade when I told them about it afterwards.

Maybe one day in the future, we won't have to worry about these things as we did before. If not, that every man could exterminate them without our help, and without having to experience what we did tonight.

The nights often feel endless while the day, lasting or brief, always feels so ordinary. But that was to be expected, those moments of light is what normalcy is thought to be. As a lightrician now, I realize that's not the end of it. It's our duty to ensure no one goes into the tunnel without a light to greet them at the other end.

And there were still many tunnels that needed illuminating.