Demise III: Boundless Influence

Chapter 7i: Another Shot

"What's the plan now?" Lara asked. "We need light to see but light would just get us killed."

"Who has the dimmest light?" Travis asked aloud, calling on to the entire crowd.

Lara pointed at her lamp and said, "This has three brightness settings, it can be set to the lowest." Her lamp was placed on top of the box television next to her.

Travis approached her and said, "Is it alright if I make it even duller?"

Lara asked, "What do you mean?"

Travis took his bag out and said, "I have a roll of masking tape. The dimmest setting of your light is too bright for the forest. I'll have to make it dimmer."

"Yeah, sure, I guess." Lara said with a shrug. "Whatever it takes to get us out of here. Bright light doesn't even matter when there are so many plants that'll block the light."

Travis placed his bag on the floor and began wrapping layers of tape around the glass of Lara's lamp. He encircled it and kept wrapping it, making it look like an Egyptian mummy. The layers of tape slowly got thicker, and thicker, and thicker.

After using two-thirds of the roll, Travis said, "Alright, everyone, lights off!"

Everyone switched off their lamps and flashlights, leaving the bungalow pitch black. Travis switched on Lara's lamp into the dimmest setting, testing how it would work in an extremely dark environment.

Travis started walking around the bungalow, with the lamp in his hand, to test how far it can see. From the dining room, details in the bedroom are vague, yet recognizable. Every piece of furniture can be seen, with varying levels of clarity. Travis was impressed at how far the dim light can see when in a pitch-black environment, but it was still too much.

"I think it may be too bright." Franbo commented.

Travis scratched his chin and agreed, "I agree, we would easily trigger that talking one by accident."

Travis placed the lamp on the dining table and started wrapping more layers of tape, creating a thicker layer to block the light with. He went on and on, keeping the lamp in the dullest setting so that he can compare his progress. After finishing up his roll of masking tape, he was able to wrap the lamp with layers near two millimetres thick. He walked around the room again to test the new brightness. Is it too much for a pitch-black room?

Travis walked around again, going from the dining room to the bedroom, testing to see how far he could make out objects. The light was so dim, it glowed only enough to clearly see things within the same room. You would have to squint for quite long in order to recognize the rather distant figures; without at all seeing their details in depth. Details would start getting clearer at around a foot close to the lamp, just enough to see the compass's markings.

For a better picture of how dim the light was, take a look at the lights in your standard wifi router, when it is turned on, of course. Dim lights in the router are on to signal things such as power. Now, try turning off all the lightbulbs in the room where this wifi router is, but keep the router on. The light coming from the router can barely light a thing in your dark room, but when you hover your hand next to it, you can still see the details of your hand, such as the fold lines in your palm. This is how their lamp was, which is why the compass was still visible. Barely visible, but at least it was still readable. Take note, that this is tested in the pitch-darkness, hence why even dim glows are bright enough for details such as the compass readings.

"That is so damn dark!" Tyrone commented as he watched the dim glow.

"Really dark, but just dark enough!" Travis said with a smirk.