Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 84: I Love You

Original Post Date: Jul 12, 2024

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Seeker, next chapter in Rockwell.

~

Beep. Beep.

It was a few days after Walt had been killed. Warren looked at his friend Rachel sadly, her eyes still shut tight and her fingers still numb. He heard footsteps behind him, and turned around to see a nurse step up to Warren.

“Hello,” the nurse calmly said, adjusting his blue uniform, “I’m Atticus.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Warren immediately asked. Atticus looked at her without a single hint of sympathy in his eyes. He looked back at Warren.

“Yes. Although she may be like this for a long time,” Atticus told him, “The glass cut deep into her organs. So she may be bedridden for months even after awakening.”

Warren’s head dropped to the floor. Atticus looked at him blankly.

“What’s gonna happen now? Was it worth it?” Warren asked the nurse. The nurse stared at him, his expression unchanging. Warren continued, “I could have called the police and let them handle it. Instead of…”

Atticus looked out of the window at the police officers gathered near the entrance, chatting and snacking on donuts. They were obligated to stick around due to the nature of the injury.

“Why did you do it?” Atticus asked calmly. Warren began to pace back and forth, rubbing his hands together softly,

“Because. It wasn’t right. To let him keep doing it. If he was imprisoned… He would be released. He would hurt more people.”

Atticus blinked his eyes.

“Society’s standards of ‘justice’ will be above yours, Mr. Justice. You cannot change it. You must embrace it. Morality is a facade created by our sentience to make us feel bad,” Atticus told him sternly, “It is up to others to decide others’ fate. Not you. That is how it works.”

“Then I’ll become an officer!” Warren decided, pausing in his steps, “Then I can decide.”

“Even officers need to follow the rules,” Atticus commented, looking out the window. An officer threw his half-finished donut on the ground, and then another came up to him and scolded him.

“You can’t change that,” Atticus said, opening the door to exit the room, “Just face it. It’s pointless to try and make a change. Just do what’s right for you. Nobody cares.”

Atticus shut the door, and Warren stormed out, pointing his finger at him as he walked away with a cart of syringes.

“I’ll prove you wrong!” Warren shouted, “I’ll make this world a better place! I’ll make it right!”

Atticus didn’t respond.

~

“Are you all ready?!” their principal, Mr. Mo screamed. All the graduating seniors screamed back, “YES!!”

With a cheer, everyone threw their graduation caps up into the air, including Warren and Sam. The two began to pump their fists in the air and scream in delight. The two bounced in each other’s arms, hugging each other tightly, their cheeks squeezed against one another.

“We made it,” Sam whispered to Warren, tears building up in her eyes.

“I don’t think I would have had as much of a good time if you weren’t my friend,” Warren replied, his cheeks turning red. Sam giggled, closing her eyes and a laugh echoing from her mouth.

“Warren…” Sam said to him, her eyes filled with fervor, “I love you. I love you so much.”

Warren’s eyes widened, and the two turned even more red. Warren smiled back.

“I love you too Sammy.”

Sam leaned in and pressed her lips onto Warren’s, and they both shut their eyes, Sam’s arms wrapped around Warren’s broad shoulders and Warren’s hands around her waist. They stayed like this for a long time, and the cheers of the graduates around them just added to the noise and masked their love. Both of their hearts beat against their chest wildly. They could feel each other’s hearts.

It was the first time they had ever kissed.

~

Warren and Sam were standing by the edge of the cliff, looking out into the horizon to see the sun slowly rising from the sky. It cast its rays of sunshine onto the two of them, and Warren looked at Sam.

“Sam…” Warren told her, “You are the light of my life. Without you, I feel a part of me break off and drift away. You are everything to me.”

Warren got down onto one knee. He reached for something in his pocket, and took out a rectangular box. Sam began to tear up, her eyes getting red and her heart beating faster and faster. Warren opened the box, revealing two silver necklaces. Attached to each necklace was half of a heart. It was forged down and mixed in not only with the finest silver in the world, but the pen that Sam had lended to him on that fateful day so long ago. That day they first met. Sam placed a hand on her mouth, speechless, and tears began to fly down her hands as Warren looked up to her with a smile.

“Will you marry me Samantha?”

Sam nodded softly, her lips curved into a happy frown and her eyes leaking more tears.

“Yes.”

~

“After much thought Mr. Justice, we have decided to reject your application,” the lieutenant said, his hands folded and his eyes piercing through Warren and Sam’s. Warren seemed flabbergasted. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

“What?! Lieutenant, you can’t be serious!” Sam protested, “He’s the best shot in this whole city and he absolutely nailed the situational tests! He’s your best candidate! How could you reject him but not me? I refuse to be taken in if this is how corrupt the law enforcement system is!’

The lieutenant cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses, typing away on a keyboard.

“Well it says on your record that you killed somebody Mr. Justice. Regardless if it’s self defense or not no man or woman who has killed shall be allowed a gun in the United Republic of Democracies. If they are barred from having a gun do you think they can become an officer? No. They cannot. You can be a sheriff though! You’ll be a great fit for the team, you’ve proven to be a stickler for rules-”

“No. I refuse your offer,” Warren firmly said. The lieutenant seemed surprised.

“Well okay then. If you ever need a job though, the position will always be open…”

~

As Warren and Sam’s kiss ended in the present day, so did all the memories, good and bad, wreaking havoc throughout Warren’s mind. Sam looked at Warren, her face burning hot and her eyes looking into Warren’s and only Warren’s. Warren caressed Sam’s face, taking a look at it one last time before turning away. Sam’s eyes widened.

“Huh? What’s wrong? Warren?”

“Nothing, Sammy,” Warren said blankly, “I’m the problem. Not you.”

Sam opened her mouth to speak when Jack walked up to her and gently put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from moving any further. He didn’t look like he was ready for any mission. In fact he looked like he was ready to go to bed. And so did Calem and Son, who stood by Jack’s side.

“W-What’s going on?” Sam asked. Jack sighed.

“Sam… Warren is doing this mission alone.”

Sam’s eyes widened, and she threw Jack’s hand off her shoulder. She rushed forward to grab Warren’s arm, but Calem stood in the way, blocking her. Sam looked up at him with a glare.

“Get out of the way!”

Calem stood his ground. Son looked solemn, sitting on the bed and crossing his arms.

“Warren told us once you left to go get weapons that he’d be the one to go on the mission alone, and that none of us should come with him. We had our protests, but he proved some very good points,” Son explained to her. Sam turned to him and growled at him, tears collecting in her eyes.

“What do you mean good points?! Warren can’t do this alone!” she sobbed, “He can’t… We have to be there to help him! We have to!”

“Sam, Son is so tall that he’s going to get shot down the moment he steps foot over the wall, Jack is so dumb that he’s going to get himself caught, and Calem doesn’t even know how to use a gun. They can’t help us. They’re just going to get themselves killed,” Warren argued, “They have families too! They can’t let their children down! If they die… What will they think? I can’t let them!”

“But what about you?!” Sam wept, “What about Samuel? What about ME?! I can help you! I’m trained for this I can-”

“I can’t let you,” Warren told her, tears forming in his eyes, “I can’t let you fix my mistakes any longer. It’s my burden and mine alone. You were right. I’m the reason Wren is dead. I’m the reason Samuel turned out to be this way. I was the one who enforced my ideology onto them. An ideology of nonchalance and selfishness. So I have to make it up to him. To you. I have to atone for my mistakes in some way.”

“NO! I was wrong Warren!” Sam yelled as Warren turned around. Warren paused. Sam continued, “It’s my fault too! I wasn’t around for either of them! I wasn’t around for you! We both share the blame for our children’s fates! So let me go too! Let me fight with you!”

Warren turned around and walked up to Sam, pressing his forehead against hers.

“It’s not your fault,” Warren reassured her, “You weren’t the one who killed Walt. You did what you had to do to provide for the family. For us. I should have been a better father. But I failed. I can’t let you get hurt for something that is MY fault.”

“You’re not the one who put Samuel on a floating space island! That was the President! Just let me come with you-”

“I don’t want you to die!” Warren cried, “Okay? I don’t want you to… Die for me! I don’t want it to come down to that! I don’t want to see you die. I don’t want to-”

Warren paused, his breath getting shaky and his breath raggedy. He grabbed one of Sam’s pistols from the backpack and shoved it into his holster, pulling at his hair and heading to the front door.

“Wait!”

Warren turned around.

“I love you, Samantha,” Warren told her, “I love you so much. I never stopped loving you. And I never will, no matter what. You’ll always be who I remember.”

Sam’s jaw was agape. She blinked her eyes, a tear rolling down her cheek and onto the ground. She swallowed her saliva, closing her mouth and wiping tears away.

“I love you too Warren. Please… Come back safe.”

Warren smiled at her.

“I promise.”

Warren was about to leave, when he suddenly turned around and gave Sam one last kiss goodbye. Sam kissed him back silently, enjoying the moment as it lasted. She knew he’d come back. He had excellent aim with a gun and was such a clever man it would put anyone to shame. But she was still worried. Warren reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver necklace with a half heart attached at its end. He wrapped it around Sam’s neck.

“Goodbye Sammy,” Warren said, “Or more like… See you later.”

Sam smiled back.

“See you later, Warren.”

Warren backed away slowly, looking at Sam’s eyes one last time, engraving it in his memory. Sam seemed to have accepted these new circumstances, not moving a single inch and just absorbing the last of her time with him. Warren blinked his eyes and forced himself to turn away, walking out the door and slamming it shut behind him.