Under Nirvana - An ARK

Chapter 15: Voided

Story by Bria!

Find the last chapter in PELAGORNIS and the next chapter in MEGANEURA.

Bob remained stationed at his desk, his hands neatly folded in the middle in between stacks and stacks of marked up paperwork. The office was a mess, to say the least. There were office supplies scattered everywhere, and a massive hole in the wall.

Recently, Bob had been having moments of unadulterated rage, to put it lightly. He couldn’t control himself. Every once in a while, throughout the day, he’d think about the good old days, when he was less burdened by the guilt he carried. He’d think about the good old days, when everyone was just a bit happier. He’d let out a howl of rage, and, unable to control himself, the office would be a victim of his outbursts.

Bob took a deep breath in, and then a deep breath out.

“Calm yourself,” he reminded himself. He almost reached out to touch the medallion around his neck again. The President had given it to him before the ARKs began. It was supposed to act the same as any of the medallions the scholars were to carry on their wrists, except less bound, less imposing. Bob could take it off any time he wanted.

But he didn’t want to. Not anymore. Not with the key he had been given. The key that would, eventually, bring him to the time he desired. The key that would unleash Nirvana.

“I will reach it,” Bob thought, spinning his chair around and staring at a letter posted to the wall. It was the one that had mysteriously been delivered to him that ill-fated day.

BANG! Bob’s daydreams were interrupted by the door to his office bursting open. A heavy huff came from the person who barged in. Footsteps approached the desk, before two sleek hands slammed the desk.

BAM!

Bob squinted his eyes, his blood boiling.

“What do you want, Dan?” he hissed.

The President looked him up and down, his own fury crossing his heart. He donned a white suit, black dress shirt, and red tie. His brown hair was tucked away in the blue baseball cap he wore. The President had always looked juvenile, but the baseball cap made him even more unprofessional than he should have looked. Bob was always the one running affairs with other foreign nations, despite his own role as Vice President. Nobody outside their country could ever take Dan Walker seriously.

“Watch your tone,” Dan Walker snarled. “You’ve been awfully quiet these past few days. I send you email after email, message after message, and not a single one has been answered. Explain yourself, buddy.”

He nearly spat the last word. Bob didn’t turn his chair at all. He simply shifted his weight to one side, leaning on the armrest defiantly, a frown crossing his lips.

“HEY! Look at me when I’m talking to you!” Dan Walker cried. “What’s with the attitude? Have you forgotten your place?”

“Oh I haven’t forgotten, alright,” Bob said bitterly. “I haven’t forgotten how little you care about our childhood anymore. I haven’t forgotten the years where you started viewing me as a pawn for your book rather than a true friend. I haven’t forgotten how you forgot all I did for you.”

His rage came crashing down all at once. Bob couldn’t handle it anymore. He couldn’t handle the pain of losing his former best friend to the shackles of tyranny and power-lust. He just wanted the old days back. Now.

But Dan Walker did not want to accept that.

He let out a heavy sigh.

“Come on. Bob. I would never see you as anything less than a friend,” Dan Walker cooed, his voice raising an octave. “I miss the old times too, when we used to write all those silly stories on that Dodo. I miss playing ARK. I miss all of that. But, you gotta understand… none of that is real–”

Bob didn’t respond. He already seemed to be staring at the wall, spacing off, fantasizing about the past.

Dan Walker clenched his fist.

“Oh Bob. I guess this is to be expected… I dreaded doing this. But oh well. So be it.” Dan Walker reached for his own medallion wrapped around his neck. It glowed a dim purple. “Farewell, old friend.”

Dan Walker lifted his right hand. Reality around it began to bend, until a gun formed in his hand. He moved his finger to the trigger, but right as he was about to press down on it…

He felt something chill run down his bones.

And then he froze.

“W–what–” Dan Walker paused. “What did you– how did you– your medallion shouldn’t do that! Your medallion… should just be basic nanotech! Not…”

Bob let out a deep chuckle.

“You shouldn’t be surprised. This world doesn’t revolve around you, nor is it yours to toy with, pitiful author.”

When he spoke, his voice almost sounded more clear. More concise. It didn’t even sound like Bob anymore. Dan Walker would recognize his friend– no, his best friend’s dialect anywhere. And this definitely wasn’t him.

“You might sound like Bob, you might look like Bob… whoever you are, WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!” Dan Walker howled, his hands trembling, still unable to pull the trigger.

Bob’s head slowly turned. Dan Walker’s eyes widened. Instead of two stern eyes looking back at him, instead…

It was two swirling, circular infinite voids. Neverending, as deep as the night skies.

“Tsk tsk, Dan,” ‘Bob’ teased. “The future is great and all, but don’t you want a blast of the past sometimes? Maybe… a little reminder will be fine.”

Two white pupils flickered into view. Bob snapped his fingers. The floor opened up beneath Dan Walker, revealing a blue portal that crackled with reverberating noises and bellows. Looking down at it, Dan Walker could almost see the image of the ARK, the Island that the scholars were forcibly sent to, within the waves of distorted reality.

“Perhaps you will learn,” Bob declared. Dan Walker clenched his fists.

“Bob, don’t you even–”

Dan Walker was unfrozen,

And then he went falling into the void. He let out a scream, letting go of his gun. It flickered out of existence. He grasped for his medallion, trying to hold onto it to protect it, but when his thin fingers brushed against his neck, he realized the entire artifact was gone.

“BOBBBBB!” Dan Walker roared as he crashed into the black sands near the redwood forest.

~

Bob smiled, deeply amused as he watched Dan Walker kick and stomp at the sand angrily. He leaned forward. Now only one of his eyes was covered with that swirling void.

“If you care so little about me, then perhaps I should care so little about you,” Bob decided with a grin. “After all… we aren’t real, right?”

“Nirvana…”

Bob looked at his hands, and then back up at the skies.

“I’m coming.”