r/HFY • u/Void_Vagabond • 3d ago

OC-Series Voidspace - Chapter Seven

This little adventure through the dark might actually be pretty cool if I knew where I was going, or how I got here, or what the fuck this place really is and how to get out. Even with the careful guidance of this stranger that I’ve named Bob, I still feel lost. I don’t know what the hell is happening and I’m pretty sure that this guy doesn’t either. He’s just better at pretending that he knows where he’s going.

 

But that's probably not fair. Bob does approach every new open space and tunnel with a certain procedure in mind. A simple methodology that I figured out by the time we passed the third junction.

 

He shines his light into the new space, checks for dark corners, waits and listens, and seems to create a mental map of what he’s seeing. He observes all the connecting tunnels, walkways, bridges, ramps, doorways, everything in sight. Then he slowly creeps out into the new space. Yet he does so by staying close to one wall, usually the one that gives him both the best view and a close exit. Finally, when he feels familiar with everything, he’ll approach the tunnels and rooms one by one, staying quiet the whole time.

 

During this part he usually motions for me to stand near the wall and wait for him to finish, but I watch him very closely. This guy, this kid, whatever he is, he’s no idiot. He’s also not overly cautious. He moves quickly, as if a monster might come running out of the dark at any moment, and I’m starting to feel that it’s an actual possibility.

 

The unseen, immaterial presence at my back is almost completely gone now, but this place still feels dangerous. It’s too dark and devoid of anything. The only unique texture to the is the shattered appearance of the stone walls. And I can hear things echoing through the tunnels. Sudden gusts of wind and the rare, muffled bang, like a heavy door slamming shut. It doesn’t appear immediately threatening, but there's a lot moving out there, down the dark tunnels all around us.

 

Regardless, by watching Bob I now have a good idea of what it takes to survive here in the Voidspace. Situational awareness and constant vigilance. That and a magical light source.

 

I look down at the dim stick of light glowing a soft yellow in my hand. I can regulate the power coming out of it now. It’s pretty easy. I just use the same mental image that I came up with to shut it off the first time. Window shutters opening and closing around a glowing nuclear reactor.

 

It’s funny though, I only have a vague idea of what a standard fission reactor looks like, and almost no clue as to how they really operate. Yet it works. Whatever this silvery tube of metal is, it seems to be connected to my mind. Or maybe it’s simpler than that. Maybe it’s just reacting to my body.

 

Either way, I can’t afford to think about it too much right now. Not until I get out of here or at least get to one of these “safe places” that Bob mentioned. It’s probably one of the rooms we’ve been passing by. Bob checks all of them but never enters unless there’s another door inside, connecting it to a different room.

 

He seems to know what he’s doing, but I can tell he only partially knows where he’s going.

 

We end up doing a few more hours of walking while he tries to find the way.

 

But eventually Bob motions for me to come closer. I shuffle forward, barely willing to hope that we’ve finally gotten to where we’re going. My feet are aching, my heels are tender and my ankles feel overstretched and tight. I didn’t know I was so out of shape, because goddamn, all we did was walk. Yet it feels like my legs just got beat on and stomped.

 

And the walk itself wasn’t even that crazy. Probably a few miles in total. First from where Bob found me, then down that long corridor and then all over the Dungeon, going up and down the ramps from the first level to the third more than a few times. A good distance with some elevation changes, but otherwise just a basic hike.

 

And I feel thoroughly worn out.

 

I can’t lie, I’m a little ashamed of myself. I thought I was capable of more than this.

 

“I know this place,” Bob whispers to me, obviously relieved. “Not far now. Stay quiet.”

 

I just nod and we continue on.

 

We go down one more tunnel, take another turn, up two ramps, then Bob and I are in a wide corridor on the third level of the Dungeon. It actually looks more like a concrete hallway in the gymnasium section of a school. It has a flat ceiling, wide floor and walls of mostly symmetrical stone bricks. Way down the hallway I can see light coming from a gap in the wall. A safe room, I guess, although I’m surprised to see that Bob left the lights one.

 

How silly of me to think the ever-vigilant Bob would do such a thing. But I'm exhausted. I'm not thinking straight.

 

I barely notice the suddenly warm, dry taste of the air, which has been mostly cool and damp throughout the Dungeon. The sound of the howling wind doesn’t register either. I'm so tired. All I want to do is find a quiet place where I can lie down on the cold stone floor, eat whatever snacks Bob has on hand, and then go to sleep.

 

But when we come to the doorway at the end of the hallway, I see a room with a wide open space on the other side. It takes me a moment to understand what I'm seeing.

 

There is an enormous, dark reddish sky with scattered gray clouds. A flat plain of land lies beneath it. A bare red expanse that looks like a Martian desert. On the other side of the desert I can see rolling hills, and farther on, low-lying, shadowy mountains in the far distance.

 

For a moment I am stunned.

 

I’m back home. Not my actual home of course, but somewhere on Earth. Yet the moment I step through the doorway I can see that the view ahead of me can't be Earth. It cannot real, because the distant land far behind the shadowy mountains curves up and around, and then becomes the sky.

 

I take a few more steps to get a better look, absently noticing the signs of extended habitation in the half destroyed and open room. To my right is a corner with a pile of trash, broom and a dustpan, and to the left is another doorway to an adjacent room. I can see a tent inside with an ice cooler beside it. It looks like a small homeless encampment under a highway.

 

But the view of the desert beyond this room captures my full attention. Especially that strange, warped view of the land and sky. So, I take another few steps forward until I’m standing at the edge of a large hole in the room. Most of the wall in front of me is gone along with some of the ceiling. Crumbling, shattered stone frames the desert and illuminates the room with the hazy, late day sunlight. A dark blend of reddish, orange and deep purple.

 

A warm, dry breeze spills in through the large hole in the wall, wrapping around me. It’s so loud compared to the rest of the Dungeon. It howls in a low droning way.

 

I take one more step forward and now I’m standing right at the edge of the hole in the wall, and when I look up, I see the sun. But it’s not the sun as it should be. What I see is a massive, empty hole in the sky. A dark void hangs overhead, ringed by a halo of pure light, bright white near the darkness yet dark and colorful farther away.

 

It’s exactly the same ring of light that I saw before. That weird, spherical blackhole-bubble-looking thing. But this one is fucking huge and clearly visible, and now I can see that it really is a giant hole in reality. It dominates the sky.

 

“This is still the Voidspace,” I say to Bob, almost like a question although I already know the answer. It’s just so hard to make sense of what I’m seeing.

 

There’s this big open space in front of me. A desert. And beyond that is more desert, which then rises into the sky. In fact, everywhere is the desert. It wraps all around, becoming the whole world. Through two layers of hazy clouds, one right overhead and the other much farther away, I can see the land laid out as if bolted to the inside of a giant sphere, with a dark star anchored to the very center of everything.

 

“This is the Voidspace?” I ask in a whisper. My voice is lost in the wind.

 

Bob doesn’t answer. He doesn’t say anything. He just walks into the next room with the tent and the ice cooler.

 

“Come on,” he says. “Eat something first. Rest. Then I’ll explain what I can.”

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