Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 96: Reunion

“So this is the Book Club camp you two were talking about?” Carlos asked as he looked around the barren village. There was absolutely nobody in sight. Not a single person nor creature seemed to inhabit the quiet town. What was once bustling with chatter and liveliness had devolved into nothing more than silence and introspection.

“Yes it is,” Chris replied, looking around, “Where is everyone though?”

Chris began to walk around the village, calling out his friends’ names.

“Paige!” Chris yelled with his hands to his mouth, “Skyler?!”

John walked up to Landon’s side, looking out at the Book Club before them. Landon seemed to be getting goosebumps at the sight of it.

“Something bothering you?” John asked him. Landon gulped and nodded.

“Yeah,” Landon replied truthfully, “I was tasked by the Crimson Crusader to attack and raid this place. I had a fight with one of the people here. I’m a little scared if she comes around again. What if they…”

“Listen bro,” John told him, putting his arm on his shoulder, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll vouch for you. Okay? You won’t have to worry about a thing.”

Landon closed his eyes and sighed.

“Okay… Okay, thank you, John.”

The two walked over to a nearby hut and sat down by the wall. They began to talk to each other about their hobbies. Ian and Patricia continued to chat about their everyday lives as slow, romantic music blossomed out into the world. They seemed to be talking about cats, for some reason.

Paul walked up the gravel path and began to whistle a tune to himself, looking around at the village and taking in the sights. Ben smiled at the sight of his friend, grateful that he was still alive. Then, he redirected his attention to the guest hut that had been untouched for so long.

Ben respected privacy, but now would be a good time to uncover anything about Samuel that may have been left behind. He quietly opened the door. It slowly creaked open, and Ben stepped inside. It smelled like a bird coop. There were only sleeping bags laid out on the ground. But one item remained in the hut.

It was a white bandana.

Ben walked forward, picking up the white bandana. He looked at it for a moment, before stuffing it away in his pocket.

“I think this was Aurora’s,” Ben thought, “Why would she leave it here?”

Then, Ben’s eyes narrowed in realization.

“Oh, right. Aurora had feelings for Samuel. She was probably just trying to look better.”

Although the mystery had been solved, Ben still hadn’t learned anything notable about Samuel. It seemed unlikely, but maybe Landon or Patricia knew something about him-

KAKRASH!

“What was that noise?” Ben asked himself as he turned around.

“You punks were really clever back then… but now I’ve got all your lives in the palm of my hands. So tell me. WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE THAT LIVED HERE?!” a stranger’s voice yelled from outside.

“I don’t know…” Chris’ voice replied, “Come on just let us go let’s talk about this-”

The hut shook again.

“LIES! I know you know. SO TELL ME!”

Ben quickly rushed outside the cabin but was greeted with a hand wrapped around his throat. Ben choked and grasped at the hand, but it lifted him in the air and slammed him against the wall.

BAM!

Ben looked ahead to see his attacker. It was a man wearing red clothes, and he had a middle part. He had a crazed look on his face and multiple arms sprouted from his back, holding the rest of his friends up in the air.

“He has the red clothes that a scout would have,” Ben thought. The scout turned to face Ben, a sadistic grin on his face.

“Ah, if it isn’t ‘Ben’, the man who ruined my life. I guess I should give you my thanks for killing June, but you were the one who got me shot in the leg… you were the one who got myself beat, and you were the one who gave me a concussion,” the scout sneered, “All because our generous ‘Crimson Crusader’ wanted YOU. So I'll kill you first, then Patricia, and then everyone else…”

“NO!” Ian shouted. The ground shook as the beating of drums fired around them. The scout ignored the music.

The scout began to choke Ben harder, and Ben’s face began to turn white. He thought about using his implant attribute, but as his implant shone, he felt his conscious flicker. He gasped and stopped trying to summon any more plants. Exhaustion flashed in his head.

“Not now,” his thoughts told him, “Not until you learn.”

His head felt heavier, and he tried staring into the scout’s eyes to figure out his weaknesses, but for some reason he couldn’t pick up anything. Paul struggled further, wiggling around and trying to pry the scout’s fingers off his throat.

“WAIT!” Paul called out from the scout’s grasp, “Please. It doesn’t have to be this way, Nate…”

The scout named Nate turned his head to Paul, his eyebrows scrunched and his eyes narrowed.

“Nate I know you’ve been through a lot,” Paul told him, “But I think you can be a good person if you just try. We’ve all been hurt by June. Maybe we can even be friends! Nate, just let us go. We won’t hurt you as long as you don’t hurt us.”

Paul’s implant began to shine.

And Nate’s grip began to loosen on them.

“I…” Nate paused.

Before Paul could say anything more, Nate’s arms dropped all the friends to the ground except Ben and Patricia. They collapsed onto the soft grass, letting out violent coughs and catching their breaths. John let out a sigh of relief, and Landon began to crack his neck. The rest of Nate’s arms seemingly went back into his body.

“Paul really does have a way with words huh?” Landon muttered as Paul gave a bright smile to Nate.

“You did the right thing,” Paul told Nate. Nate nodded to Paul with a smile back.

“You’re right Paul. I shouldn’t hurt them,” Nate replied, “They didn’t do anything wrong to me.”

“Yes… So please let these two go now,” Paul said softly, his eyes almost looking like puppies’. Instead of doing as Paul requested, Nate’s grip tightened even further. Patricia began to gag, and Ben’s eyes started to water.

“But THESE two still hurt me,” Nate snarled. Ian clenched his fists and prepared to run over and pummel the ever living life out of him.

“Oh you son of a bi-”

A dozen more of Nate’s arms popped out from his body and they rushed out to grab them all once more. Carlos took out his frying pan and prepared to whack Nate upside the head when a gunshot rang out into the air.

BAM!

It happened so fast that nobody had a chance to react. Blood splattered out from the side of Nate’s head, as his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his grip softened around Ben and Patricia. Nate’s arms dropped to the ground, and he followed quickly after.

THUMP!

Blood spilled out onto the gravel, creating a pool of blood around his head. His mouth lay agape in shock, and blood bubbled from the side of his head. A small hole was left on the side of his head, which spurted blood like a geyser.

All heads turned to see who had shot the scout. Chris gasped at the sight, and Ben’s eyes stayed widened.

Standing at the gate of the Book Club Camp was a man wearing flak armor and a shoulder plate made of Sarcosuchus scales. He was holding up a pistol that still had smoke coming out of its barrel. His brown hair was parted to the side, and he had a dark expression on his face. Standing next to him were a myriad of other people, each one with similar expressions as the man.

It was Gary and the others.

Chris’ eyes sparkled, and he turned to see his dodo running toward him with his wings flapping.

“Hey! There you all are! Where did you go?!” Chris asked in surprise. The dodo ran up to Chris and jumped into his arms. Paige stepped forward, tears running down her face. She sniffled and ran toward Chris, hugging him tightly. Chris’ dodo let out a squawk and jumped out of Chris’ arms.

“Woah!” Chris said, hugging her back, “What-What happened? Are you okay?”

“She’s gone Chris, she’s gone,” Paige wept.

Patricia seemed surprised seeing Paige.

“Paige?!” Patricia said with relief. She walked up to the two of them, “You’re… you’re okay!”

Paige let go of Chris for a bit and stared at Patricia. A look of regret washed over her eyes further and she began to cry even more. She wiped at her face, looking back at Patricia in disbelief.

“It’s- it’s nice to see you again Patricia,” Paige shivered. She rushed forward and hugged Patricia next. Patricia shut her eyes tight as she entered her lost friend’s embrace. Ben felt confused by Paige’s previous words.

Meanwhile, John seemed to be inspecting Rick.

“So you’re an author of sorts?” John asked Rick as he stared at the book he was carrying. Rick ignored him and pushed past the friends toward Ben. John rolled his eyes.

“Rude,” John said. Paul looked at all of the Book Club members with guilt in his eyes. Carlos stood by his side, clutching onto his frying pan nervously.

“I think something happened to them,” Paul concluded nervously, “They all have lots of love in their hearts… But they’re all really sad.”

Carlos nodded along as if he understood, twirling his frying pan with angst. Ian squinted his eyes, crossing his arms and analyzing the others carefully. Then, he lowered his guard, relaxing his stance and putting his hands comfortably in his pockets.

Ben’s eyes scanned the crowd, peering deep into each persons’ eyes for a clue as to what happened. But for whatever reason, he couldn’t read them anymore. As he stared into Bobby and Simon’s eyes, all he could tell was their sorrow and regret. Ben felt himself growing more and more nervous, and he felt his eyes hurt more and more.

“What is happening?” Ben pondered as he pushed past his friends, looking for Skyler, and for answers.

But as Ben continued to search, the silver-haired woman was nowhere in sight.

Ben suddenly bumped into an orange-haired woman, and his head darted to look at his friend Sunny. She seemed to also be crying. Ben grabbed her by the arm.

“Sunny, where is…”

“Gone,” she quickly responded.

“What?”

Ben felt his thoughts swirl in his head. He tripped backwards, and he felt his mind run rampant. His heart began to beat against his chest, and his forehead began to pour with sweat. He felt his head twist and turn, as if his thoughts were screaming at him.

“No, no, no, no,” Ben thought, clutching onto his forehead, “It can’t be.”

In the span of the last 24 hours, Ben had broken three of the promises he made.

And he had lost a friend.

Before he could dwell further into the thought, the volcano rumbled again. It was even louder than before. All heads turned toward the center of the island.

“What was that?” Simon asked nervously.

KABOOM!

In the middle of the night, when the stars shone brightest, molten lava from the volcano suddenly lit up from the crater. Everyone began to murmur as the magma began to glow brighter, its light clearly shining across all of the island. The three obelisks that surrounded the island began to glow, and the island began to shake.

“Woah!” Bobby shouted, tripping and falling flat on his face. Ian looked around cautiously, and their implants all flashed purple.

“Not again,” Ben murmured as he stared at his implant. Voices beeped from all their implants.

“The end of the protocol nears,” the robotic voice announced, “All subjects are to report to the inside of the volcano immediately within a 24 hour timeframe. The volcano will erupt and destroy the island in 24 hours. I repeat, all subjects are to report to the inside of the volcano immediately within a 24 hour timeframe. The volcano will erupt and destroy the island in 24 hours.”

“Go to the volcano? Right when it’s about to erupt? Uhh, no thank you,” John snorted. Carlos nudged John angrily.

“You heard what it said. It’ll erupt in 24 hours and blow this whole island to bits. We can’t take that risk.”

“Then what are we waiting for?!” Ian yelled, “We gotta get out of here like RIGHT NOW!”

~

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

The sound of panting. Then, high-fives.

“We did good, girls,” a man wearing a golden helmet said. He looked up at the volcano as the fire from inside lit the night sky with a brilliant show of light. Three women stood behind him, also slightly out of breath. They all wore the red outfits that signified their allegiance to the Crimson Crusader.

They had recently run away from some weirdo who looked like a beast. He was so terrifying that they couldn’t help themselves. Not like they were complaining though. They had run far away from the Crimson Crusader’s castle, and after receiving the message to head to the Volcano, they realized they were already quite close.

One of the girls rolled her head back. She had short blue hair and a lip piercing, and she wore hide armor. She was pretty short, but certainly not pretty. She used to be a journalist for the school, but nobody ever read the school papers.

“Gerald, when are we getting out of here?!” she asked.

Gerald turned back to the woman with a look of annoyance.

“I don’t know, Emily, okay?! Jeez, calm down.”

“Yeah Emily shut up,” another one of the women, Kaitlyn, jeered. She had wavy brown hair and was quite thin. She wore cloth armor. She was one of the popular girls and the cheer captain before everything went to hell. She had probably dated around fifty dudes before the end of high school. Although a questionable decision, she was actually a pretty cool person. Gerald found it unfair how the other men that worked for the Crimson Crusader viewed her (although to be fair she had dated most of them).

“G-Gerald,” the last woman, Nicole, whispered, “It’s getting cold. I t-think we should go before m-more dinosaurs come.”

Nicole was one of those nerds who didn’t have many friends. She was chubby and had a huge acne problem, but she was actually the most fit out of all of them. She had short brown hair that was shaggy and untidy. She really liked anime and she even cosplayed at some point in her life. Gerald and the others had been her only company, and Gerald liked her the most. She was the only one not constantly whining, and Gerald felt comfort having another big back in the group.

Gerald wasn’t exactly someone you’d call attractive. He was overweight, loved to game all day, and had a beard coming in. Still, he was somewhat competent. This island reminded him a lot of a video game he used to play. He and the other three had teamed up when they first landed on the island and did quite well for some time until they were forced to work for the Crimson Crusader. Gerald found it lucky that they all even survived up to this point. Still, he was grateful. He had grown quite fond of them all, even Emily.

“You’re right. We should probably head up that mountain,” Gerald commented. Emily groaned, and Kaitlyn rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. Let’s just get it over with,” Kaitlyn murmured.

The four began to walk up the path to the mountain. The wind flowed by their bodies, making them shiver. Gerald remained calm, his curly brunette hair flying around. He adjusted his hide armor.

“Where are the dinosaurs?” Gerald thought to himself as he looked around, “I guess they’re sleeping because it’s nighttime.”

Woosh.

A huge current of wind suddenly exploded from behind them. Gerald turned around immediately, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.

“Huh, that’s weird,” Gerald said.

“Yeah. Guess it really was just the wind,” Kaitlyn replied. Nicole nodded along. Suddenly, she jolted her head back, her eyes widening.

“Wait where did Ellie go?” Nicole asked. Kaitlyn began to look around. She had seemingly disappeared.

“Yeah where did she go? I just noticed. She’s been quiet all this time?” Kaitlyn wondered. Gerald paused in his tracks, looking back with squinted eyes. Then, his suspicion turned to worry.

“Ellie?” Gerald said, his voice quivering. He looked around frantically, “Ellie?!”

Boom.

Boom!

BOOM!

The earth began to shake, thundering footsteps rushing toward them. Gerald turned around to see a gigantic beast twice the size of a Tyrannosaurus rush toward them with open jaws.

A Carcharodontosaurus.

The three turned around to flee, but before they could make a run for it, the Carcharodontosaurus leaned forward and grabbed Nicole within its jaws, throwing her up in the air.

Nicole let out a shrill scream as she plummeted deep into the dinosaur’s mouth. The Carcharodontosaurus crunched down on her body and blood spurted out of its mouth onto the two. Kaitlyn began to back away in horror.

“Holy…” Kaitlyn swore, her eyes wide in terror, “Nicole…”

Gerald tore his eyes away from the beast. He wasn’t too sure what happened to Ellie now but he didn’t want to find out. He grabbed Kaitlyn by the shirt and tugged at it.

“We have to go, NOW!” Gerald screamed.

Kaitlyn turned away, traumatized, and began to run as far as her legs could take her, Gerald following closely behind.

“Go go go go!” Gerald screamed as he turned to look back. The Carcharodontosaurus had finished chomping down on Nicole and was now headed for them, its footsteps so fast they could barely keep up. They needed a new game plan.

Gerald looked ahead to see a cave’s opening a dozen meters ahead. Gerald held onto Kaitlyn’s arm and pointed at it. It was just large enough to fit them but small enough to deter such a large beast as the Carcharodontosaurus.

“In there,” Gerald simply said. Kaitlyn nodded frantically.

The two began to run as hard as they could, and Gerald’s heart beat furiously against his chest. In just a matter of seconds they made it to the cave opening and jumped inside.

The two landed on the damp cave floor, tumbling and rolling to the other side. The Carcharodontosaurus’ footsteps reached the opening of the cave, and then, its giant feet could be seen outside. The Carcharodontosaurus leaned its head down, staring at the two humans inside with frustration. Blood seeped down its jaws. It grumbled almost in frustration, and stopped looking at them, turning away, its tail swishing around, and leaving slowly.

The two were still breathing for air, their eyes pinned at one another in silence. It was a close call for the two of them, but now Ellie and Nicole had fallen. Kaitlyn began to breathe harder, and then tears began to fall from her eyes.

“They’re gone Gerald, they’re gone,” Kaitlyn sobbed, putting her head in her hands. Gerald didn’t know how to feel either. He felt his head hurt, but he pushed the pain away. He grabbed Kaitlyn by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

“Look. We- we can’t let it get in the way. We have to keep going. It’s what they would have wanted,” Gerald told her, “If we’re gonna escape this island together and go back to our lives… we have to stay strong.”

Kaitlyn sniffled, wiping away at her tears and coughing.

“Gerald…” Kaitlyn whispered, “Thank you… for protecting us all this time.”

“But my head hurts really bad.”

Her eyes turned unusually bloodshot red.

And then like a balloon, her head exploded.

POP!

Kaitlyn’s body went limp, and Gerald’s pupils began to waver as blood splattered all over his face. Gerald began to hyperventilate as bits of her brain and blood trickled down his cheeks. Gerald began to breathe faster, and his eyes began to well up with tears.

“K-Kaitlyn?” Gerald gasped, as a tear fell from his eye. His vision began to get blurry, and he heard footsteps approach him. Human footsteps.

Gerald’s head turned around to face whoever was coming toward him. The dark figure was strong and muscular, and had a strange red aura floating around his body. Shadows shrouded his body, but a slight hint of gold could be seen on his chest. All Gerald could see was a red glow coming from his eye. The figure stepped forward.

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!” Gerald screamed, dropping Kaitlyn and getting up onto his two feet, “AND WHY DID YOU KILL MY FRIENDS?!”

He felt his stomach bubble, and his implant began to glow. A mouth grew onto his stomach, its teeth gnashing like a dog and tearing apart Gerald’s shirt. Gerald let out a scream of rage and charged forward, raising his fist and slamming it into the stranger’s stomach.

BAM!

The figure didn’t even budge an inch. The figure gave a ghastly smile and took his right hand and tried to punch Gerald in the stomach.

Luckily, as his fist came flying toward his liver, Gerald’s stomach mouth caught it in his teeth. Gerald’s stomach mouth bit down on it hard and the arm snapped off.

SNAP!

GUSH!

Blood gushed out onto Gerald’s pants, but the figure made no noise. Gerald tried bashing his helmet into the figure’s head.

BAM!

The figure still didn’t budge.

Then, his right arm seemingly began to grow back.

Gerald’s eyes widened in fear, and before he could react, he felt blood pour down his stomach mouth’s lips. Gerald looked down dizzily to see blood soaking his pants in a scarlet red color once more. Then blood began to pour down Gerald’s mouth and eyes.

“Jerry,” the man softly whispered as Gerald collapsed to the ground, dead.

Jerry smirked, turning around and clutching at the golden cross necklace.

“Esmeralda… I hope you’re proud of me,” Jerry whispered under his breath.

“Your dream is finally coming true.”