The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 32: The Dex

Part 1/2

Clack!

The door to Warren’s apartment swung open and a sheriff with tired eyes stepped inside. He flicked the switch and the lights hummed to life, lighting the room up. Closing the door behind him, he walked through a door frame and into his bedroom, which had a single, lone bed that could fit one. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a book, tossing it onto the bed. Unbeknownst to Sam and Detective Darren, Warren had snuck out that Dodo Tales book after Darren and Sam left the office. It was a simple task, really.

He opened up his wardrobe, switched his uniform out to a pair of pajamas, and snatched the book off the bed, walking off into the living room and plopping down onto the couch. Warren looked up at a stand on the wall. There was a picture of Warren, Sam, and their son Samuel together. Everyone was happy. Sam was carrying a small baby in her arms. He tore his eyes away from the picture and looked at the book that lay in his hands.

The book was called “Dodo Tales”, and there was an emblem of a dodo bird on the front cover. It was old and torn and the cover was as hard as a turtle’s shell. A hardcover book, it felt rigid and leathery to the touch, as if it was made of an animal’s hide.

“So who wrote this book?” Warren wondered as he began to flip through the old, yellow pages. The last page of the book, which typically featured who the author was, didn’t have anything except a list of people and the words, “Thanks”, at the top.

“Huh,” Warren said as he looked at the list. Many of the names were odd and unrecognizable. They were almost like usernames from a video game. But two names were separated from the others that stuck out to him.

“I give my biggest thanks to Bob and the Nazgul, my biggest and best friends on the Dododex! Without their tips, their thoughts, and their stories I would have never made it to where I am now.”

“Interesting names,” Warren thought as he glanced over them, “Isn’t Bob the name of the Vice President? Probably just a coincidence.”

Even if the book was referring to the Vice President, it wasn’t like he would have enough time for interrogation. Neither would an opportunity arise for him at the moment as on the ride home from Terran High he had heard on the radio that Vice President Bob himself would be going out on leave to the Western States of America for a meeting with their president.

But what piqued Warren’s interest the most was the “Dododex”. What exactly was that?

“I should search that up, along with the title of this book. Perhaps I can find the author that way,” Warren thought. But before he could do any of that he still needed to study the rest of the book. He flipped to the first page and noticed the table of contents only contained four “parts” to it. There was also a fifth part, but when Warren flipped to that page he noticed that it was the Thank You page.

“Where is the fifth part?” Warren asked himself. He flipped to the previous page and noticed the last few words at the bottom of the page.

To Be Continued.

The book had never finished.

Warren jumped back to the previous few parts, which seemed to be in fine condition. Although Warren noticed that the seams at these parts of the book were unusually off. It was as if they were stitched together manually.

Warren looked up at the ceiling, and pondered and pondered. What could any of it have meant? Most of these details didn’t matter whatsoever. For all it could have been, this book was just a book that the principal of Terran High really enjoyed reading, and there was nothing to dissect there.

But he still needed to try.

“If I can’t get a lead with one perspective, I will with another. I must find out who wrote this book,” Warren realized. He slammed the book shut and placed it on the coffee table. He got up from the couch and walked over to his desk. A slim, white laptop lay on the desk, produced by technology giant Element Corp.

Opening the laptop up, he fired it up and opened up his browser, gingerly typing “Dododex” on the bar and clicking the enter button. Instantaneously a few thousand results popped up, filling his eyes with thousands of icons of strange egg emblems. He moved his finger along the touchpad and clicked on the link that was most unique. Dododex “Stories”.

Upon clicking the site, his screen faded a teal blue, with a green bar at the top. There was a strange message at the top of the screen.