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[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

About Endless

Endless is a rather strange title, once you’ve finished reading it. Nothing seems endless about the story, so why is it called that?

The idea for Endless came from an attempted manuscript I was writing for the early half of this year, titled Flat. Flat was to be a parody about the Flat Earth and how silly that idea seems. The more I wrote however, the faster Flat ceased being a parody and looking at how humanity would behave if what we had was not all there was.

In the end, Flat didn’t survive. It got dropped early June, but I plotted out the short story, Endless, to replace it. Endless isn’t quite the same as Flat. There is no Flat Earth, not until Kyle sees the Earth from the third dimension disc.

So again, why is it called Endless? Its called Endless because there is no end to the other realities, the other dimensions. Endless features just five directly, but mentions a few others, and even hints that the Vala Empire has gates to many thousands, maybe even millions of other dimensions.

There are other inspirations behind aspects in Endless too. The villain, Ghameldron, was a character in Flat, who never really got fleshed out. In Flat, he was sinister in his behavoiur and words. Endless at least gave him a motive and pushed him to being a proper villain.

Then of course, there is Eden. In the Bible, we of course know Adam and Eve were cast out of it, and the Bible speaks of Eden as a real place. With the theory of a multiverse, and alternate realities, it is very likely that Eden is a real place. After all, how can we prove or disprove that? But the story also never answers why Eden appears broken. Or what was watching Sanotan and Kyle.

Valhalla was written to try and seem creepy on purpose, again its well known from Viking mythology that Valhalla is where dead heroes go to feast and celebrate until Ragnarok. But in the end, Valhalla is just one way of interpreting the afterlife. Rather than select one to present as the truth for the story, I went with a more neutral white everything, with the dead standing around.

Of course I also can’t mention real life influences without talking about the Guardians. Many ancient cultures have pantheons of gods. These days we don’t believe such things, but the Guardians are inspired from it none the less. They aren’t gods, they are more akin to being elevated people who look after a fundamental balance of all worlds. Without a Guardian, things can go very wrong if there is an imbalance. Had Ghameldron not unbalanced chaos by killing so many at once to test the Life Engine, Alache would not have felt the inbalance in chaos, and without a Guardian of Darkness, there was no way for any Guardian to know something was wrong.

At the same time, there are four fundamental aspects that have no Guardians and can never be out of balance. Not directly mentioned, but War, Death, Famine and Pestilence. The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They didn’t appear in the story, and things would have to be very bad if they did.

Perhaps the most interesting part is Tmesian. Kyle hears it screaming in pain at the end, and there are hints as to what Tmesian looks like, the story even has mentions of its other names. But Tmesian is simply inspired by the myths of the End of Days, but what would that look like in a multiverse, where worlds have to keep being reborn and starting over? Tmesian is the answer, though a future story will deal with what became of it when the Life Engine was destroyed.

For now, I think I shall wrap up here, and explain more another time as I see fit, or if I get asked questions. I do hope those of you who have read it enjoyed this short story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for spending your time to do so.

Jason W. J. Barratt

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Twelve

The Life Engine

Kyle awoke early the next morning, as the sun rose on what he assumed would be his final day. Alache was back, looking out of the window of the aquarium. There was a buzzing in the air, which made Kyle’s hair stand on end, both in fear of what the sound was, and the electricity.

“The Life Engine is working earlier than expected.” Alache stated.

Kyle went pale. He had hoped there would be something he could have had ready, a weapon, someone else, anything.

“If it finishes?”

Alache cast a look that told Kyle all he needed to. The Guardian of Chaos had no answer in his face, he looked lost. This was unnerving, so far Alache had known to the day when Ghameldron would arrive to London, but not knowing what the Life Engine would do and what came after?

Kyle stepped outside, Alache remaining behind.  He didn’t need him for this. Kyle just had to hope. Whatever the Life Engine did, it had already cost the life of at least seven billion people, who knew how many animals as well. And it was likely Ghameldron wouldn’t just stop at Earth.

He arrived to Hyde Park half an hour later, finding the place was a battle between the soldiers of Ghameldron and the Vala elves. The soldiers were barely protected and were vastly outnumbered, they wore brown leather, swords and pistols. Some were fortunate to have crude plate armor.

The elves however shone in gold and marched like statues, shields up and swords hacking down any human that tried to break the line. They had no guns, but for each solider they cut down, another took his place. At the back of the line, Sanotan took, a sword held high as he inspired the elves to fight.

Kyle could see the Life Engine, or what he assumed was it, working. Each soldier the elves cut down allowed them a step closer to it, but the engine had a thick cable glowing blue attached to the massive ship in the air, and the soldiers returned to life from the glowing blue doors at the bottom of the engine.

Immortality. The Life Engine wasn’t designed to destroy outright, if it was the engine he reminded himself. It pulled the soldiers back, gave them a freshly made body and sent them to war again. In effect, it gave Ghameldron an advantage, an army that could never fall.

Kyle smiled. There was a way to the ship, and there he could find a way to break the power source and stop the engine. Ghameldron and his soldiers would fall shortly after. He ran towards the ropes that still hung from the decks far above, and began the climb. He didn’t go unnoticed, as soldiers shot at him. But they were using weaponry not much better than it had been in his world’s victorian era, each shot missed due to the fact the weapons worked their best at almost point blank range.

The climb went unimpeded, and he was soon at the deck. The ship was empty and he found himself with a direct path to the steering controls. Kyle smiled, that was how he would break the power supply, fly the ship onward or crash it.

He ran, and made it half way when a shot ran out and he fell to the ground. Grabbing his stomach, Kyle felt the bullet hole and blood.

“Well now, the last human of Earth comes to me, and not a moment too soon.” Ghameldron gloated as he walked around to face Kyle.

“I will not die here.” Kyle snarled at him.

“Your words are useless, I shot you in the stomach, your dying.” Ghameldron grinned, kicking Kyle in the face.

Kyle rolled onto his back, Ghameldron didn’t laugh. That made him, in Kyle’s mind, a rather poor villain. Villains were supposed to laugh, and gloat, to give the good guy that chance of stopping their plans.

“I won’t give in, I’ll stop the Life Engine and the elves will overrun your men on the ground.”

“Oh poor boy, you thought that was the Life Engine? That’s just the fuel source, robbing my men of their memories and lives with each time they are remade. I want them to die until they’re gone forever. Their souls will only add to the Life Engine.”

Kyle paused for a moment, Ghameldron walking towards the controls. The device he had assumed was the Life Engine was the power source he was trying to break, and he had walked to his death.

“Over seven billion souls denied any more time to live, thirty thousand and one more soon to add fuel. You must wonder what the Life Engine does, am I right?”

“Going to gloat?” Kyle snorted.

“Gloat? Hardly, since I’ve won. I just felt you might like to know before you die and never get to see what the Life Engine does.”

Kyle stayed silent, which Ghameldron took for agreeing.

“There is a power in the multiverse I seek. Broken in twain long ago by the Dragon Cryfder, The powers of Life and Rebirth. One went to a mortal elevated to guard its power, and the other to a primal force that had no direction. Rai and Tmesian. The Life Engine will use the power of life to steal both and grant them to me, I shall become a god!” Ghameldron shouted as he finished speaking.

Kyle used his speech and distraction to stand and walk towards Ghameldron. If Ghameldron noticed, he didn’t react at all. 

“This is why we had to die? For you to become a god and lord the power of life?”

“Yes,” Ghameldron’s voice dripped smugness, “that’s exactly why. I’m glad you understand your death will at long last achieve something for someone that all mortals hope for, immortality!”

“No chance, Ghameldron. Your dream of godhood dies here with me.” Kyle snapped. 

He threw himself at Ghameldron. The pair hit the steering control, pushing the airship into forward drive. As Ghameldron collapsed, he additionally hit the turning bar of the ship, Kyle collapsed, gasping for breath as his blood stained his body, clothes and the deck around him.

Down below, the device broke from the ship. Men that had been in the process of regaining a body found themselves suddenly malformed, in the worst cases they were heads with brain stems and their heart exposed to the air, screaming that they couldn’t breath. The rest that faced the elves dropped their weapons and held their hands up. The Sanotan looked and watched the airship.

“We are too late. Fall back, fall back all of you, leave no prisoners and return to Vala, we must brace for what this Life Engine will do.”

Ghameldron stood with a growl. He glared at Kyle who was smirking at what he had achieved.

“Do not think me above shooting a dying man. I haven’t lost yet. There is still enough power to activate the machine and become a god.” Ghameldron pointed at the Life Engine.

The Life Engine was the core of the ship, the very engine that made it fly. The panels shone from a golden light contained within, and the screams of an ancient being could be heard.

“Inside that, Tmesian is being torn apart, mixed with the potential life energy of your world. I need only absorb it and achieve my goal, and your death will have been worthless.” Ghameldron looked wild and mad, his hair had become disheveled in the tackle.

“Well I mean maybe,” Kyle spoke, despite coughing the remnants of blood in his body, “but I think the best time keeper in this country isn’t going to spare you any more seconds to get to it.”

Kyle pointed at the window. With a confused look, Ghameldron looked up, and gasped. Fast approaching the ship was one of the clock faces of the Elizabeth tower. Ghameldron ran to the controls, and desperately attempted to steer the airship away. He acted too late. The airship struck the tower and lost one turbine engine, which began its descent to the streets of London beyond the tower.

As Kyle took his final breath, the airship struck the ground and exploded.

-

In the library, Sanotan watched what happened. He sighed. Sanotan needed no explanation for what had happened. They had gone their separate ways to prepare for the day, but while he had gathered an army, Kyle had set about preparing himself for this, to bring down the ship and destroy the Life Engine by any means. He nodded and stepped through the gateway to Vala.

-

Kyle was surrounded by white light, which felt comforting. He had seen such a landscape once before. Valhalla. It meant he was going to get peace, to finally be with his family in death.

But even so, something felt off, as his eyes adjusted to the white light. The white sky quickly became blue, though the walls of buildings and floors were indeed white. There was a fountain too. On the side of this sat Alache, accompanied by a man with black hair and a white suit. If he was a Guardian, he lacked wings. Alache smiled at Kyle and waved him over.

“Got to say Kyle, you didn’t give up even in the face of eternal darkness.” Alache chuckled.

“I’ve seen Valhalla.”

“Oh that’s just how the living see it,” the new man answered, “the dead see it a pure darkness, their spiritual bodies glowing blue to turquoise.”

Kyle looked around. Above the fountain was a sphere of black, held to the ground and pillars with silver and gold chains that looked like they belonged to an anchor. He wanted to ask what was inside, but couldn’t, as if he knew only something bad lurked inside the sphere.

“You did me proud though,” Alache spoke again, “really. And not many mortals impress any of us. Until I spoke to Rai and Omicron of course.”

“I’m not following.” Kyle stated.

“Forgive him, he guards Chaos after all, he can’t help it. I am Rai. And both Omicron and I agree, you can’t be normal. You survived the world shattering powers of the Life Engine, when over seven billion other mortals died screaming in pain. You walked the darkness as it fell upon your world and even walked the dark depths of Valhalla to seek an answer.”

“In short,” Alache coughed, “you are what we call a fledgling. Guardians are all born mortal and elevated to immortality for their heroic deeds when it comes to facing the imbalance of an aspect. Sure, Chaos was out of whack, but so was Darkness, when Ghameldron could have plunged all life into it.”

“So I’m a Guardian that isn’t a Guardian yet?”

Rai and Alache nodded.

“That doesn’t make sense you know that right?”

“Not to you. But all of us were Guardians when Eden was broken. Our souls entered the path of death and rebirth, until we awoke again. Just, some of us, like you, need that extra bit of help.”

The two Guardians held their hands up to Kyle. And in the blink of an eye, he felt different. A glance over his shoulder told him the biggest change, a pair of grey angel wings now sat there. And memories of a life in Eden flooded his mind.

“Tell us, Guardian of Darkness. What was your name when Eden was whole?” Rai asked.

The Guardian that was once Kyle thought and fought back flooding memories. It suddenly made sense to him how he had survived. He had been a non-human soul stuck in a human body. How he had walked in Valhalla without dying, how he survived without going insane, he had simply the mindset of an extra dimensional being to cope. He looked to Rai and Alache.

“My name was Irin.” he answered.

The End

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Eleven

A ship above London

Sanotan took Kyle back to his home portal. With a name, there was just one mystery still to solve. What had Ghameldron done to cause the end of Earth? As they stepped back into the library, Sanotan noticed the elves left behind were looking out the windows. He approached them in silence and looked out.

“Well Kyle, looks like we’re going to find out more about what happened sooner than we expected.”

Walking beside Sanotan, Kyle looked out of the window. Above London was an airship, held aloft by giant air turbines, each turbine was the size of three blocks of flats, the ship between them itself cast a shadow on the city that he could only guess was around fifty miles.

By all accounts, it should have been impossible, but he had seen a lot of impossible things recently. The airship no longer surprised him. Ladders ran down its sides, and men from the airship climbed down. Cranes lifted platforms or lowered them, they were moving something.

“It looks like they’re moving stuff into Hyde Park.” Kyle hadn’t been to London before, but he had studied maps when he had assumed he was all alone, and knew most of the city based on that.

“Let’s go, I can only assume Isabella failed, it’s down to us now to stop Ghameldron.”

-

At the edge of Hyde Park, Kyle and Sanotan could see the ship crew were beginning construction of a camp and a device. It was made simply of metal poles and brass panels. Every minute saw more construction material brought down from the ship and set aside as the work proceeded in a methodical fashion.

Whatever was being constructed was big. Kyle tapped Sanotan’s shoulder and pointed to the base. There stood Isabella, beaten and bloodied, flanked by soldiers and facing a man in a red jacket.

“So, Captain Isabella, do you see how pointless your task was?” he asked.

“No. I can still stop you, Ghameldron. No more. This was the last world you killed for your progress.” Isabella spat back contempt, identifying Ghameldron to Kyle.

Ghameldron was a man who appeared fifty years old, and the best years of his life were behind him. His hair was unkempt, black and greasy, blue eyes sparkled in a mischievous fashion.

“Really? You will stop the Life Engine, bound as you are and surrounded by an army. I think not.” Ghameldron snapped his fingers.

One of the soldiers behind Isabella took his sword and ran it through her back and out of her chest. Blood sprayed as she gasped in shock and fell to her knees. Ghameldron leaned in close.

“And I shall find the one named Kyle, the engine demands only the perfect purging of life in a world before it can work.”

Ghameldron kicked Isabella to the ground. Kyle felt helpless as he watched her die, and left in no doubt the rest of her crew had suffered the same fate. He turned and found Sanotan had left. Unable to take an army on by himself, Kyle retreated as well, heading back to the base he had been provided by Alache.

-

Alache was there when he arrived, and said nothing. Kyle was thankful for that as he processed the past hour. Isabella was dead, Ghameldron had killed everyone on his world for something that needed to work, but as long as he lived, Ghameldron would fail.

“So this is what will happen,” Kyle sighed, “I have to fight him, prevent the Life Engine activating. If I die, unknown things will happen to so many other worlds. Is that why all of you turned up? To let me know it wasn’t just the fate of my world that is at stake?”

“Well, beside the fate of your world, you got it.” Alache replied.

“How do I get past an army though? As soon as I try, they’ll kill me, and the Life Engine can work.” Did Alache know what he had to do?

“Alone yes, that is what would happen. But Sanotan didn’t abandon you. Head back at dawn, get aboard that ship, take it from there.” Alache smiled.

“I’m likely still going to die.”

“Perhaps. But considering what could happen otherwise, isn’t it better to die to save untold numbers of lives who are just as unaware of Ghameldron and the Life Engine?”

Kyle nodded. He had seen Valhalla, he knew where he would go once he had died. And to be with his world again, perhaps dying wasn’t a bad idea.

“I still have other questions.”

“Save them for after the show, Kyle. I’ll know where to find you.” Alache was now just a voice as he disappeared again. 

Kyle looked out of a window at the sunset. It was likely going to be his last. He felt oddly calm over the idea that he was going to die.

“Tomorrow, I will see everyone again.” he smiled.

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Ten

Realm of Death

The first thing Kyle noticed on stepping through the gateway to Valhalla was the silence. This wasn’t the kind of silence where there was ambient noise still, but a silence where there was just nothing. It felt wrong and unnatural, and he would have broken down at the lack of sound even from his footsteps, if he didn’t keep in mind where he was.

And that itself was unnatural and he hadn’t gone unnoticed, the realm of the dead didn’t like living visitors. A creature flew just out of the corner of his eye. It was pure white, but a white that stood out against the brilliant white that made up the land and sky of Valhalla. It looked like a fennec fox with wings, the tips being spikes.

Kyle focused on what he came to do here, and that was to find anyone he had known in life. And as his eyes adjusted, a disturbing truth came from the white light of the world around him. What he had thought was mist that was a dull white, was in fact the standing souls of the deceased. They stood there, standing straight and staring in one direction. Each looked like they had in life, humans, elves, giants, dwarves, dragons, even creatures he couldn’t name, because there was nothing like them in both nature and fantasy.

He began to feel helpless as he looked around, keeping the gateway in sight, when the creature moved from the corner of his eye and landed before him. It stood taller than even the giants. In size, Kyle wasn’t even bigger than one of its three toes. It glared at him, and he saw more detail than he had before.

The creature still looked like a fennec fox with wings, albeit taller than anything he had ever seen. Atop and behind the head was a gold wreath fashioned into a symbol of a sun with eyes and claws tearing it. The spiked hooks on the wings were joined with more symbolism that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the myths of the pacific.

“It has been many decades since someone alive stepped foot in here, and many centuries since a human of Earth did. You are not Greek or Roman though,” the creature spoke, showing fangs in its maw that were double Kyle’s height, “speak your name, mortal.”

“I’m Kyle, and I seek the souls of my friends and family.” Kyle answered.

The creature picked him up with a surprisingly gentle grip and stared at him.

“If you seek to take them home, I will not permit it. Your world’s death may be retired, but I will not allow you to take any soul back who no longer has a body to return to.” the creature spoke slowly.

“I don’t seek to take anyone home. I know its impossible, I just need answers from them.”

The creature seemed to have anticipated this could happen. It began to walk in a direction it knew the way to, but to Kyle, the world still looked the same in any direction.

“There rarely is such an influx of souls, but all to arrive in such a manner? All of us here took notice. You may not like what you will see, Kyle of Earth. Are you prepared still?”

Kyle had no choice. He had to know what was going on, and any answer he could get, he had to get it. Slowly he nodded, and the creature set him down. There was no silence anymore. The air was filled with the agonizing screams of the dead who still believed they were alive and dying.

Every soul begged for relief, for mercy, for their life to be ended. Not a one already knew they had been given such a relief. With his hands to his ears, Kyle walked among the screaming dead, looking. He saw famous people, poor people, rich people that begged for relief at the cost of the fortunes they had left behind. But whatever they had looked like, whatever they had in life or lacked, no matter their skin colour or gender, they all now looked the same in Valhalla.

It seemed like an impossible task. There had been billions of people on Earth when the tradegy struck. Had The Sanotan known this? He would have to get clever to get answers, in the end, he didn’t care who gave the answers. He grabbed someone, ignoring the fact he could touch them. It was a woman, any details of eye colour, hair or skin were lost in the dull grey that replaced them in death. She was just as shocked at being grabbed.

“Please, what happened?” he asked.

“The pain, a voice screaming in my head.” she replied.

“A voice huh,” he was surprised that had worked at all, it was what fiction called deus ex machina and it was real, “what’s the voice?”

“The scream of a creature, always screaming a name.”

“And what’s the name?” 

“Ghameldron. Always Ghameldron.”

Kyle let her go. He smiled at her, and watched as she looked to her hands, and those around her did as well.

“I died, didn’t I? We’re not still suffering.” she asked Kyle.

“I’m sorry, you did. I was the only one not affected, I wish I knew why.”

Kyle felt alone again even though he was surrounded by those he had once shared a world with. Another soul placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re ending our suffering. But we can’t help your own. Find who this Ghameldron is for us, avenge us.”

The creature picked him up.

“Alright, enough of the heartfelt goodbyes. Time to throw you out Darkness Walker.”

“Wait what did you call me?” Kyle asked. Behind them, the screams of those who had died on Earth fell silent, joining the eternal silence of Valhalla at last.

“You heard me, now get, and don’t come back.” the creature said, throwing Kyle through the gate.

He was caught by Sanotan as he sailed in the air back to Vala. Landing against a wall, Kyle coughed.

“Guess Omicron found you. He tends to like throwing the living out. Better than Cerberus, poor mutt hasn’t been fed in ten thousand years.” Sanotan smirked.

“Maybe so, but Omicron found me quickly, and at least I have a name. Ghameldron.”

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Nine

Oasis in the Desert

There was again the sinking feeling in his stomach as he stepped through the dimension gate that The Sanotan showed him. The dimension gates were formed by The Sanotan himself whenever he linked back to his home dimension. On his own, Sanotan could step into a world and out again as if there were doors, and leave no mark he had ever done so.

The only time he showed he had done so was the gates. Kyle had been told that the gates could only be formed with the help he had in his home dimension. But to equal his own ability, a hundred trained monks had to chant the right set of words at the same pace perfectly to form the link. And each could snap so easily, as they were tears right through the multiverse. The elves literally broke worlds open to form the gates

The world was called Vala, and once he stepped on the other side, the heat and humidity in the air was powerful. Vala was both the name of the world and their empire that spanned many millions of dimensions, and in their language it translated as Blessed.

Vala itself should have been a dead dimension and a dead world. Beside the city, and its oasis, the entire world was what the elves called an ‘eiuti’, their word for desert. The literal translation was ‘the sand we were born from and return to’. As he waited in the chamber that held the gate to his home, Kyle had been told why the mention of Alache had shocked them.

Thousands of years ago, despite all the odds, the elves clung barely to survival on Vala, but were fast approaching extinction. Alache found them when the Guardians arrived, and took a liking to them. He made the oasis so they could stop roaming the desert and found a culture. As they did, he granted them twelve gifts, called Aspects. Parts of his own power that would attach to a newborn, to help guide them further. But one Alache knew they could not be trusted with right away, the dimension aspect. To hide it and prevent them killing newborns that could be trusted to watch over them, he hid the entire power behind forty-two words, all said Sanotan. When each one died naturally, their place on the chain would turn into the real word. And if any were killed to hurry it, the entire thing would instead disappear forever, and they would be locked into their world.

This apparently was bad. A dimension sealed off from the multiverse would decay into nothing within a year. It was an extra incentive by Alache to teach the elves to behave. And, according to the first Sanotan, they were failing.

“I have judged many worlds,” he had said, “and destroyed them for what they could do to harm us.”

Kyle was soon led through what was called the temple. The temple held every dimension gate, for good or bad, to every world the elves claimed as part of their empire, or had some diplomatic relations with. It was a massive complex, Kyle noticed, each chamber housed twelve gates, and each floor held around twenty chambers. In total, Sanotan explained, there were around fifty floors, and the rooms were far from being fully occupied, but they could house 12,000 gates, and this building was just one of many in the city.

It was impressive, and as he was shown around, he noticed one that was taped over.

“What’s in that one?” he asked.

“That is the world of Ffarfondail. We have it taped off because of a war there currently. A newly emerging group in their world, that the rest call the Techno Knights, is taking the lead in a power void left behind by an emperor. We stay out of it so events take place as they should without us.”

There was nothing said further about this gate, and Kyle was shown many other dimensions, and soon, they came to a single chamber at the core of the temple. Here, there were just four gates in the chamber rather than twelve, the rest were broken.

“These are the worlds we have confirmed to be the very origin of all worlds. Every world, even your own, exist because of these four. Origin, Void, Eden and Valhalla.” Sanotan explained.

“That’s cool. So, how did all other worlds come from these four?”

“Well, as they exist, we have Origin to thank for it. We aren’t sure how, but we can guess that when a new dimension splits off another, some basic rule of it is different. So one world can be a harsh endless desert, while another can be a tropical jungle.”

“Wait,” Kyle held his hands up, “I thought new dimensions were formed so the choices we make take place, but another takes place in a different one.”

“Oh you poor man, no. That’s the thinking of races who haven’t seen the multiverse from the outside like we have. So any bad choice you made, any animals you accidentally killed? Yeah, those happened. There was no other dimension where the opposite happened.”

Kyle felt suddenly depressed. Sanotan seemed to notice this, but looked indifferent as always.

“Oh, you were hoping there would be a world where none of what happened to you did take place? I’m sorry the multiverse is so cruel, but everyone on your world is gone for good. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can be moved to another world, once Alache is done with you.”

Kyle glared at Sanotan. But he couldn’t bring himself to hurt the elf. Brutally honest as it was, Sanotan was right. If everyone was gone, he had to accept that. He looked at Origin some more.

“So, what is Origin like now?” he asked.

“Dead. Sad as it is, there are some worlds that can’t be allowed to be refreshed by any force, for to do so would be to destroy all worlds. Origin died in cold many billions of years ago, perhaps even longer than that. Life still exists there, so don’t step through,” Sanotan showed Kyle a photo of a tall thin black creature with no eyes, reaching to the camera, “we call them The After. They don’t mean to kill or destroy worlds they fall into. With Origin so cold, they simply seek to restore it in heat, a task that is impossible.”

He pointed at Void next.

“Void is a world that tried to form at the same time as Origin, but something went wrong. What it does now is pull failed dimensions to itself. Then there is Eden. We don’t know what Eden is.”

Sanotan walked to this gate, and waited for Kyle. Cautiously, Kyle soon found himself pushed through by Sanotan. On the other side was a world that was impossible. The core of it was exposed to the cold depths of space, and the planet that had once been around it drifted like asteroids. There were remains of homes, petrified trees, flowing water, air, it was a mystery how the world could be both alive and dead at the same time.

“We assume Eden was the first successful dimension after Origin, and likely the first home of the Guardians. The logic makes sense. Guardians now live on floating cities, this world is fractured and broken. To escape whatever happened, they just moved their cities to other dimensions.”

In a way, as Kyle looked over Eden, he could see a beauty to this world. While there was no life here, and it should have been removed or refreshed or whatever, it seemed that it was important.

“Where Origin was well, the origin for dimensions, Eden is where the life force of all people in the multiverse comes from. So long as there remains any fragment of Eden, there will be life.”

Sanotan stepped back out of the world, Kyle following after one more glance. Somewhere in the distance, a single eye watched them.

Sanotan had walked toward Valhalla when Kyle had returned. He put a hand to the gate and stared.

“Valhalla exists as myth in many dimensions, yours too I noticed. Valhalla was not formed as a branch of any other origin dimension. We made it. As there is life, there is death. The first death saw this world formed.”

Kyle’s breath caught in his throat. He knew everyone had died in his home, and now he had been told both there was no alternate world they all lived, and there was one dedicated to life after death.

“Would everyone I knew be in there?”

Sanotan nodded.

“All dimensions use this one to house souls. I planned to bring you here when I knew you were in that library.”

“But why?” Kyle asked. Sanotan didn’t look at him as if he had asked a stupid question.

“Because this is a rare chance. You will be unknown to Omicron and Cerberus, the two guards, and those you knew will be too far from Hades to be bothered by him. You must go in and find them, anyone. Get them to tell you anything they remember of the final moments. And Kyle,” Sanotan smiled, a rare sight, “good luck.”

Kyle held his breath. The gateway portal shimmered white, as if he were looking at a light. Perhaps this explained why dying people always said they could see a light, they were looking at the gateway to Valhalla. And beyond, he could get closure, he could say the goodbyes he never got to. 

With the breath released, Kyle stepped into the realm of the dead.

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Eight

The Sanotan and the Empire of Desert

Kyle now sat among all the work going on by what he had learnt were elves. Though they didn’t look it, he had been explained to that dimensions had rules. In this one, any non-humans would be turned human as temporary payment for staying in it.

And then there was the one before him, who had returned his long pointed ears for the time being. This was The Sanotan, the elf he had heard about. The elf radiated an arrogant aura as he sat opposite Kyle, it gave him the feeling of being a child sent before the headmaster of the school.

“So, how’d you jump worlds without my aid or any way to do so?” Sanotan asked.

“Would you believe a bat winged man did it?”

The Sanotan crossed his arms over his lap. His expression betrayed nothing, no emotion, no hint of knowing if Kyle was right or wrong. After a minute of silence, he spoke again.

“A Guardian is breaking the rules. There’s something going on then,” Sanotan stood, turning his back on Kyle, “there is time to talk of that though. For now, I want you to talk, tell me everything you know about what caused the end of your world.”

“There isn’t much to say, just one day, everyone but me got headaches that got worse and worse until, yeah.” Kyle held his arms out to the side.

“That’s it?”

“That’s everything.” Kyle responded.

“That was rather, underwhelming. And tells me nothing either.”

The Sanotan walked around for a while checking books and progress as the library and its contents were recorded carefully. Again, he showed no emotion, was he capable of it?

“Once, there was a great beast that roamed dimensions,” Sanotan said suddenly, catching Kyle by surprise, “he went by different names. There were several in this world alone. Armageddon, The Second Coming, End of Days. Different names and saying, but the same beast.”

Sanotan turned, the glass orb in his hand. In the smog, Kyle could see the beast. It made no sense, it was born of dark clouds, glowed like fire and could bend its form to whatever it desired, but the only constant was the emotionless eyes, that shone of fresh blood.

“Tmesian. Many worlds feared it, and rightly so, for if it came, then the world was truly over. There would be no more days, no more life. But for all the bad names it was given, Tmesian was never malicious. Sent by War, Death, Famine and Pestilence, Tmesian had one job. To wipe a world clean in fire, and sow the seeds of its rebirth.”

“Father Time.” Kyle muttered. This was the first thing he said that made The Sanotan looked surprised, if only for a second.

“How apt. And rare that such a kind name was given to the beast. Tmesian was indeed like that, he worked in time, like a farmer. Tending to decayed crops and sowing fresh seed, tilling the fields. But one day, it disappeared. And worlds just didn’t die properly. Like this, the death of all souls but you should have summoned it here, to start the world over. And yet, it lingers in death for the farmer is dead too.”

Kyle blinked. It was all he could do. If this beast was a very part of every world, even his, how could it die?

“And so you see why it troubles me that a Guardian has taken interest in this. We know little of them, they live in the skies of our world, on a vast floating island. But when they act, we take notice, for something has to be very wrong. Did he give his title?”

Kyle had to think for a moment, recalling the conversation with Alache. Slowly, he nodded.

“He said he was the Guardian of Chaos, I think.”

This made every elf in earshot stop. And the emotionless mask on Sanotan’s face broke. The Sanotan looked around, glaring at the other elves, who didn’t stay idle for long, but had slowed now to pay just a bit more attention to the topic at hand.

“Alache. Without him, we would not be here at all, just nomads struggling to live on a desert world. He has never had to act before,” Sanotan sat back down, “chaos itself is unpredictable, but a Guardian always acts when their aspect is out of balance. This isn’t a good thing, but how can chaos itself be out of balance?”

Kyle had no answer. He and the Sanotan sat there in silence for a while. With a cough, Sanotan looked around.

“I will not go against Alache on this, even if I have never met him. While you are here, is there anything you would like to ask me?” Sanotan asked.

“Yes. How many worlds are there?” Kyle asked. He needed to know, maybe there was a world where his family and friends hadn’t died. The Sanotan responded by grinning.

-

The man was in his private quarters now. But he wasn’t alone. Beside him stood a bipedal hare, dressed in an oriental gown. They acknowledged each other in silence.

“It stirs in the bowls of the ship. If this fails, the plan is ruined.” the man said.

“Nonsense, you will get to the center of this city called London, and power the device. With my help, we will become gods.” the hare chuckled.

“Such blasphemy.” the man muttered, turning away in disgust. Everything about the hare screamed wrong to him, but he couldn’t tell how or why.

“Only,” the hare spoke cautiously this time, “if it fails, will the words be able to be taken in such a manner.”

“The Desert Elves scramble for knowledge on this dead world,” the man change the topic, “not a single library is empty right now. If they fear us, they do not show it.”

“I have watched them. They do not fear you, because they hope threats to destroy your world will be enough.”

This made the man pause. He turned slowly back to face the hare.

“They will kill a world of thirty billion to punish me?”

“They will kill ALL worlds if it suits them to stop us. They act civilized, but the Desert Elves are the most barbaric of all species in the multiverse.”

The ship shook. The man turned to face the door once more.

“Two more days, then we can see if we can ascend from morality. and pray that I have not misplaced my trust in you, abomination.” he spat, and left the room. The hare faded, as if it had not really been there. In its place was a bookcase.

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Seven

The Houses of Parliament

Kyle stood at the entrance to the Houses of Parliament, the center of politics in the United Kingdom, where choices for the country, except Scotland of course, because they would be damned if an Englishman told them what to do, were made.

He wasn’t sure what they had been debating on on the final day, but something had been going on, as he pushed the doors open. There were skeletons in clothing everywhere in the lobby alone. Kyle had become curious, wandering around he saw what he could only assume were workers that worked behind the scenes to get things done, and they had died where they worked. Not that they were alone, with an entire world of skeletons beyond the walls.

In the main part, he wasn’t sure of the room names, and right now it hardly mattered, on green leather benches, were the skeletons of elected MPs, prime minister and leader of the opposition. There was some respect Kyle held for them, forever left in a silent debate over a topic he had not heard the name of. Despite the pain the event had caused, they had come to this room, to debate and decide on what happened for the country. They had served their constituents until the end.

One thing Kyle had done, before the electricity had gone and took the internet with it, had been to look up where laws were kept, and the locations of national libraries. Knowing these had seemed important when he had been sure that there was no more humanity, and that there could only be the recording of all history to show that humanity had existed at all. Know the laws and the history that made those laws necessary, that had been his thinking.

Wandering the halls to find the records of laws, Kyle sighed, which in turn echoed around and ahead of him. This plan had been born out of isolation, as the last man. But now he had to adapt. No doubt this Sanotan would soon learn he was gone, and would seek to catch him and place him in a new dimension so he wouldn’t be isolated. His task had gone from recording history as the last work a human would undertake, to having to hurry and get it down in the hope he could take it with him once he was caught again.

But how long did he have? Did time even flow the same between the dimensions? For all he knew, four days had passed in the other, and even now he could be seconds from being caught again. Or he could be sitting waiting for this Sanotan person to arrive, as decades had passed. There was no way to tell. And there were a lot of countries. Was it really worth taking the laws down when just the history would do? He could get most of the history in libraries.

It was midday when Kyle decided that, yes, just going for the history would be faster. Having memorized the location of the British Library, he made his way there, walking through the empty streets of London, until he got there. The door was open but he thought nothing, it was a library after all, the door of course would be open for those who wished to read or rent books. He only paused when he heard footsteps inside.

The sound alone, as he stood still, should have been impossible. He was alone, the ship of thirty thousand hadn’t turned up, and Isabella wasn’t near either. He slowly, and as quietly as he could, entered.

In the middle of the first room he could see several lights, and recent signs of activity. The single set of footsteps became several, and Kyle hid near the doorway to see what was going on.

In the library itself were hundreds of people, each were flicking through books, using cameras to record the content of each page. They were all tall, easily seven feet tall per person, and wearing white metal armor. What stood out on them were the ears. For reasons unknown, their helmets left the ears exposed. In the middle of this stood one man with blue hair, a single blue eye and a single yellow eye in blue clothing that just didn’t look human.

“Okay,” the man turned to the door, “you are all progressing well. We can’t understand their language yet, but I should hope there may be something in all these books to give us a clue as to why they all died.”

This man then took a glass orb from the desk before him. It looked the type of glass orb mediums used to try and predict the future. But this time, it actually was, there was clear smog within it that writhed and swirled.

“The other libraries across the world are having similar speeds. At the least we will have recorded their civilization.”

That was perfect, he had set himself one task, and altered it, whoever this was had now done the very thing he wished. So what was there to do.

Kyle jumped when a hand was placed on his shoulder. Slowly he turned his head to follow the hand, then arm, to see who it belonged to, coming to the gaze of the man with two eye colours.

“Kyle, I presume? I have been looking forward to meeting and talking with you.” he said, his face that of someone who was trying to reassure someone after having been delivered bad news.

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Six

That Final Day

As he recalled, the day had began like normal, nothing stood out different about it at all. He woke up, petted his dog who once again had ignored the rule of not sleeping on the bed. He had wandered to the bathroom, turned on the shower and brushed his teeth, followed by stepping into the shower and washing.

Heading downstairs, Kyle had turned the toaster on. He had a day off work and yet he couldn’t break habit of just having toast for breakfast. As the toast cooked, he turned the television on to the news. By all accounts, it was normal, murders, war, people who had lost some court battle against a big company or part of the government, and a single short feel good story right at the end in a vain attempt to balance out the gloom and doom of the rest of the news.

It was at quarter to ten in the morning that something changed. While it hadn’t affected him, Kyle had felt a sudden pressure wave that seemed to move through walls as though they were air. Upstairs, his dog yelped, and he hurried to see what was wrong with her.

The dog had been called Jess, and he had found her with her front paws atop her head and whimpering, which turned to snarling when he attempted to touch her. There had been no signs of blood or injury, so he let her be, and headed out to get a pasta from the store.

The store, a simple corner shop, only added to the confusion of the day. People were walking around, holding their heads and complaining of headaches. While he had thought it unusual, he continued regardless, and soon headed home.

It was midday when his parents called to see if he had a headache too, they called him lucky for not having one, as everyone they knew had one, and no painkiller was helping. Kyle thought it odd. Within an hour, he watched the news as things seemed to get worse for those suffering headaches. Checking on Jess, his heart almost broke when he found her laying lifeless on his bed.

At three, Kyle changed to a twenty-four hour news station, and gasped in horror as the news reader went through boxes of tissues to clean up a nosebleed that persisted, and the man was not alone. They had crews outside showing that this was happening across the country, and anchors in other countries reported the same. Kyle picked that time to head to his parents to try and help them.

But at five thirty, it was clearly too late. They were crying in pain, the bleeding from their noses, eyes and ears couldn’t be stopped. It didn’t help as well his mother was upset at having to watch her pet cat and its recently born kittens die from whatever was going on.

It was a full hour when the silence filled the world, the last cry of pain echoing into nothing but the wind blowing through the trees and down the street. The silence that would haunt Kyle forever.

He jumped with a start as he woke in the lobby of the aquarium. The tanks inside had been the first time he had seen that nothing at all had been spared even in the oceans, the fish had clearly died as well, their bones now sat at the bottom of the tanks they had been in. But true to his word, Alache had provided a lot of food.

What he hadn’t been provided was something to do as he waited for something to happen. He looked towards the Houses of Parliament, his plan to record humanity’s history at the front of his mind.

“Hm, why not. Not like sitting around is going to be good for me.” Kyle muttered, and began to make his way.

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Five

The Door

Two days after the bat winged man had approached him, Kyle did as instructed, heading to his room between eight and nine in the night. At first, nothing happened, the sounds of the city could be heard outside, airships passing overhead, the distant sound of cars or what passed for them in this world, and the faint chatter and laughter of people.

Kyle had learnt this city was called Anghar, and was unique in its world, as it was the only city with so many people living in it, they had needed to alter buildings and how people lived just to accommodate the raised platforms of streets and public spaces. But its footprint however was smaller than that of most towns in his world. But in height, Anghar was as big as London itself.

The more Kyle had read about Anghar, its parallels to London became obvious. Like London, Anghar had a river running through it, that then went out to sea, in a winding twisting path. And early in both their histories, the government of their country settled there, which in turn drew businesses and people to run and man them. The difference had been a flood. London doubtless had seen floods, but none so bad that people felt the need to start leaving.

One year in the past, how far into the past Kyle hadn’t learnt, there had been a flood which had all but destroyed Anghar and its population. But the people didn’t want to leave, and once the land had cleared, they began to build upward, and never stopped. On a map he had seen, the country looked identical to the United Kingdom, except there was no Cornwall.

He was rather disappointed by that, he had always enjoyed holidays there and a cornish pasty, and everyone in this world had never created them.

At ten past eight, the bat winged man appeared from the shadows once more. He said nothing, and waved a hand to open a doorway in the air. He held a finger to his lips, and in silence, Kyle stepped through the door.

What awaited him was a mind blowing sight. He wasn’t back home, instead he saw a vast disc that looked like a mixture of air and glass. Embedded into the disc were smaller discs. Turning around, he saw that he stood beside one of these discs.

“Magnificent isn’t it?” the man asked, looking at the sight in turn.

“Where are we?” Kyle asked.

“Hm, normally its ‘who are you?’ or ‘what? Is this my home?’. Points for originality.”

Kyle blinked. Had he been right to trust this man. It was too late to go back now, he felt. Instead he waited in silence. The man sighed.

“Alright, we’re in the multiverse, or at least, how the Guardians perceive it. Each smaller disc is an entire dimension, but there’s more,” the man pointed up then down, Kyle followed his gaze and his mind almost broke at the sight of yet more discs above and below them,” we’re on the third disc. Time, Space, Dimensions. The one below is just Time and Space, the one below that just Space. I’d explain the one above you but well, I want your brain to stay solid right now.” the man finished by patting the top of Kyle’s head.

“Okay, now you have to tell me who you are.”

The man raised an eyebrow, as if this very statement offended him in some way, and his eyes showed the internal battle of if it was worth proceeding or indeed, explaining the disc above to Kyle.

“Very well,” the man responded in a guarded manner, “in short, I am one of the Guardians. We’re protectors of a fundamental aspect that transcends all dimensions, Life, Love, Chaos, stuff like that. Specifically, I’m,”

“Love right? Seems funny to mention that.” Kyle interrupted.

“With these wings? Were you slapped upside the head at birth or something? I’m the Guardian of Chaos, and besides not trusting Isabella, I have a personal reason to want to see your world avenged. Oh right, I’m Alache.” 

Alache held his hand out to Kyle, who carefully took it and shook it.

“Great now let’s proceed with the plan. Earth is over here.”

Alache led Kyle to another disc just a few feet away. When Kyle looked down at it, he could see the familiar landmasses, and rather sadly, the lack of night lighting that NASA had made such a fuss over with photos from the space station. It was currently night over Europe and eastern America, and it was dark.

“To enter a world, you just step on the disc. You won’t fall from space to your death, you’ll just appear where you left. In this case, I’m going to be sending you directly somewhere. You’ll understand what to do in a few days.”

Kyle didn’t feel reassured by this, but with no real plan or explanation for Alache’s intentions, all he had to go on was to step on the disc and hope he found out what was going on.

“Will Isabella find me?” he asked.

“Perhaps, but I’ve made sure she’s too busy to divert and catch you again. But you’ll be on your own from here on. You succeed when the moment I need you to be a hero becomes clear, or you die.”

Kyle nodded and stepped onto the disc.

It was disorientating when he returned to his world from outside of it. Unlike Isabella’s airship, stepping onto the disc felt like the final moments of an elevator coming to a stop, the sudden lurch in the stomach. Around him, the dark and quiet streets of London spread out around him. He looked around to get his bearings and smiled, as he spotted the Houses of Parliament across the river. Even in pitch darkness, the sky wasn’t as dark as the Elizabeth tower that housed Big Ben.

But why had Alache chosen here? Kyle took a few steps forward, then as lights turned on around him, he jumped in fright.

“A base of operations. You have food and drink in this,” Alache turned to an Aquarium, “fish, zoo, thing, to last until the job is done. Relax, enjoy London. I’ll be back in four days.”

With a pop of air being filled by the sudden lack of a person, Kyle was once again left alone. He shivered, his world was now very different. He wasn’t alone, there was a mystery ship of thirty thousand people and Isabella with her crew somewhere out there.  He looked back to the Houses of Parliament, now lit up, it showed the time his world had died. Six o’clock.

His mind wandered back to those final days.

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Four

Shock

Kyle spent the first few minutes just looking at the world around him. It was new, and unlike the one he had been born in. Airships filled the air, similar to Isabella’s ship. And the city below was something out of a distopian novel, with platforms and walkways to extend streets and walking areas far above the ground. The city was a mass of stone and iron, and Kyle wasn’t even sure he could see the natural surface of it all.

Then the second thought hit him. He had been alone in his world, and yet Isabella and her crew had simply popped into his world, picked him up and popped back, as if it were nothing. Were there more worlds? He glanced at her, she had folded her arms and started to tap her foot as she waited for him to talk, but his beliefs had been shaken.

All his life he was told his home, Earth, was it. There were no aliens, no other dimensions. You were born, lived and died, one shot at it all. Isabella had destroyed this in one swift action.

“Alright, let’s talk.” he finally said, approaching her from the edge of the ship.

“Good. Now what’s your first question?”

Kyle thought about this. There was a lot you just had to ask when you learnt that there were other dimensions with life. He turned on the spot with his hands to his mouth as he thought.

“How did you know about me?” The question made sense. If they had found his world, how did they know someone was still alive on it when everywhere by now had skeletons.

“This,” Isabella showed him the device with the green screen, “it’s a fancy gadget a scientist here likes to sell as a novelty, so people can see how many people in the world are being born and die each minute. So when we came to that world, we could see one person alive.”

This was a rather morbid device, he quickly decided. He could see at least one practical use, but it did sadly confirm his worst fear, he was alone.

“Okay, next question, how did you know of my world?”

“The Sanotan.” Isabella answered. She offered nothing further, but sighed when Kyle didn't ask another question.

“The Sanotan is a powerful elf of an empire. He felt something wrong in the direction of your world, and that this one was responsible for it. He has granted us temporary free movement to deal with it.”

“That something wrong was the sudden death of every human on Earth. But that just leaves me wondering, how many dimensions are there?”

This was so far in the realm of sci-fi he knew. So many TV shows were about such a concept, both documentary and fiction. And yet, for him it was now reality.

“As far as The Sanotan will tell us, there are untold trillions of worlds. He has made it clear to me, if we don’t find and stop what caused your world to die, our world will die to pay for it.”

Kyle blinked. He turned and walked to the edge of the ship, looking down at the lively city. How many people were living down there? Millions? Billions? And this, Sanotan, was willing to destroy each and every last one to make a point?

“How could he? What right does he have to do that? How many innocents will die?”

“That is how the elves think,” the muscular man he had walked into spoke up, “better to kill a world to punish one evil person, than to isolate and deal with them. But we have a problem, and why we took you out of your world.”

“Bartlet is right,” Isabella held the device up, “it wasn’t just you we detected. It picked up thirty thousand other life signs moving across your world at high speed.”

“That’s fantastic! Pilots and survivors like me!” Kyle grinned.

“No, it detected other-world guests, the elves altered it so we could isolate you from them. Someone from our world is leading a massive crew.”

“Alright,” Kyle rubbed his forehead, he was having to deal with a lot of information, “what has this got to do with me, and how do I help?”

Isabella snorted a laugh, Bartlet raised an eyebrow and the crew came to a halt and stared.

“You, help? I think not. Bartlet here is taking you to our tavern, and your going to wait a few days until The Sanotan can come back and take you to the world of Vala, so they can settle you to another more suitable world.”

“Its my world.” Kyle protested.

“And our fault. Deal with it. Bartlet, make him sleep, I’m not debating it.”

Before Kyle could protest or even move, Bartlet had sucker punched him, making the world go dark. Kyle fell to the deck, and was carried off.

When he came to, the sun of this world was dropped to the horizon, and he was sat on a bar stool beside Bartlet in a quiet tavern. It had white walls and black painted wood, a brick and mortar fireplace which burned coal, and, yes, there was the robot bartender. These things always had a robot servant in some way. Bartlet took his glass and sipped it.

“Nothing better than a brandy,” he mused, “captain’s gone back to your world, your stuck here until The Sanotan shows his stupid arrogant face. Care for a drink?”

Kyle shook his head, but Bartlet tapped the counter before him. The robot arrived with a glass and a bottle of brandy, which it poured into the glass.

“You may as well relax,” Bartlet stood, “I got to hit the head, don’t try anything funny.”

With the brandy before him, Kyle sighed. He was having a rather interesting month, he had gone from utter isolation, to finding otherworldly people, and now he was being held hostage in their world for yet another otherworldly person to arrive. The bar stool to his left creaked, making Kyle turn.

Sitting beside him wasn’t Bartlet, but someone dressed in a black trench coat, and very much lacking a shirt. What made this man stand out was the pair of bat wings on his back. He took the brandy and downed the half pint glass like it was a shot.

“Hm, tastes like bubblegum.” the strange man commented.

“Who are you?” Kyle asked. The man glanced at him.

“Not important. Let’s just say, chaos is my thing, and I don’t trust that Isabella. The Elves might, but without you? A lot of worlds are in for a rough time.”

“You make me sound important.”

“You could be. People always hope for heroes to arrive in dark hours, to save the world so normal people like you can just stand aside and do nothing,” the man tapped Kyle’s head, “but here’s something you need to know. Heroes don’t exist. That’s just what people call others who stood against unusual circumstances and did the right thing. So tell me, Kyle, are you a bystander, or are you going to stand against the darkness and put your foot down?”

Kyle thought for a moment. Isabella was taking the fate of his home world into her hands, and it made no sense. Sure she had some reason to do so, but it had been his world. He had to find a purpose, and this made sense. He had to stand against whatever darkness she knew was there that had claimed his world.

“How do I do that?” 

The man smiled. He glanced to make sure Bartlet wasn’t returning.

“He’ll show you a room you can sleep in within the next hour. In two days, be there between eight and nine at night, a doorway will open.”

The man stood, but as he got off the stool, Kyle watched as he faded into the shadows. Kyle wasn’t sure if this man had been imagined, and if not, if he could be trusted, but it was all he had to go on.

--

He watched as another continent appeared. It was the first not stuck in ice, and he heard the gasps from the crew as the cameras showed the skeletons of a civilization that had died where it all ended.

“Move on, a minor side effect.”

“But sir, did we,” a scientist began to question. This scientist was soon staring at the barrel of a gun.

“Finish that thought, go on.”

There was silence, the scientist backed up a few steps.

“As I expected. Progress means sacrifice. Do not get emotionally attached to those who die to ensure our lives tomorrow will be better. Anyone who has issues with it, then come speak to me privately, at the balcony.” he turned and walked to the balcony, but none of the crew of the ship dared to approach him.

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Three

The Day He Wasn’t Alone

Somewhere south of Nottingham, Kyle came to a rest. The day was particularly hot, and so he sheltered as much as he could. A part of him wished he had spent time gathering some clothes to deal with varying weather conditions, or even a fan that worked on batteries, anything. Coming to rest under a tree, he looked at the blue sky, the few white clouds drifting on the wind.

He had come to accept that he was alone, having denied it as best he could. But he wished he could plead for some company, or to not be alone. It didn’t make him feel good, to be the only person alive on a whole planet.

Later in the day, he arrived to the city of Leicester. He came to a pause when he found a church. Kyle no longer cared what religion the church belonged to, such things didn’t matter anymore when he was the last person alive. Leaving his trolleys outside, he pushed the doors open. A scene met his eyes, of people of faith’s skeletons slumped in chairs, and the skeletons and robes of the priest before the altar. They had prayed to God in the final hours, likely begging to be spared for their faith.

“What good was it?” he muttered as he approached the altar. He stared at the cross, the symbol of Christianity. And anger welled up inside him.

“What good was it? Any of it? How can you call yourself a kind and merciful god, when you let them all suffer in pain and agony? When these people, right here, begged to live, what did they offer that you decided was not enough? Why me? Why did you spare only me? I have nothing to give you! I have nothing I would consider you worthy of taking after leaving me like this! How can you call yourself a god, when you could save no one?” Kyle shouted. He fell to his knees, holding back the desire to cry, and he couldn’t tell if the tears were those of anger or sorrow.

The door of the church creaked open, which made Kyle jump. Standing on the other side of the church was a woman, around twenty years old in a blue dress, a funny hat with goggles and a lot of brass on her clothes. She stared at him with a bemused expression.

“Trust me pal, I’ve met so called Gods, most aren’t what their faithful followers claim they are. If this one was like them, then its likely they don’t even know you exist.”

The words were hardly comforting when he wanted answers, divine words and a slightly upset omnipotent being to punish him for questioning its will. But she was real. He slowly approached her, until she was close enough to touch. He touched her shoulder and jumped back when his hand made contact rather than go through her.

“Your real.” Kyle muttered.

“I sure hope I am, otherwise the past twenty years make no sense.” she replied with snark.

“But how, I heard everyone else die.”

“Here maybe, name’s Isabella by the way, my men and I tracked you down a few hours ago.” she replied, turning back to the outside.

“There’s others?” Kyle shouted.

“Well you expected me to fly the Eternal by myself?” she questioned.

Stepping out behind her, Kyle stared in awe, first at the ship she had mentioned. The Eternal was a wood and iron ship, with a crew of around thirty. Its sides were home to rotors surrounded by metal, and crystals in each, no fewer than four, two to each side. The second thing Kyle noticed was that his trolleys had been taken to the ship, the contents being unpacked and taken aboard the ship.

“I don’t understand, where did you all come from, how did you survive?” he asked Isabella, spinning her to face him. She stared but if she was angry, she was being tolerant.

“Questions for when we’re on the ship, come on, we’re about to take off and give you the answers you need, or some anyway.” she strode confidently to her ship, Kyle barely keeping up with her.

“How does it fly?”

“Aether wind crystals.” she replied as if he should know what they are.

“There’s no such thing as aythar.” Kyle replied.

“Aether, and not in this world, your ancestors used them all as if there were a natural renewable source of them.” Isabella swung on a rope up, Kyle was grabbed by one of the crew and hoisted up.

“This still makes no sense, how do crystals make anything fly?”

“Because when allowed access to the world, the crystals just do their thing, its the aether, we don’t understand it, it just works. Let’s go gentlemen!” she shouted.

Kyle watched as the crystals, which had appeared just white were revealed to be in casings, their true colour now they were open to the air was an slightly opaque white. And almost instantly the Eternal began to float, and Isabella turned a wheel and pulled levers. The Eternal banked right as it rose, and the crew shouted instructions, dancing around each other and Kyle as if they were alone in the dance of crewing the ship.

“But you still haven’t told me how you survived.” Kyle protested as he made his way to Isabella. She sighed, and looked to the sky.

“Conditions favorable, height of 200 feet, we’re ready.”

She pulled a lever. Kyle lurched as the air seemed to collapse to his skin, then expand again. As he looked around before shouting, he had to pause. The sky now had a purple tint to it, and three small moons were visible in the dim light. Running to the side of the ship, he looked down and saw a city, but this was full of life and antique cars spewing fumes, and factories pumping black clouds into the sky. He stumbled, caught by a tall muscular man, who grunted.

“Right, welcome to Harfayden. And now your going to get your answers.” Isabella grinned.

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter Two

Halfway to London

Kyle had slowed his pace as Sheffield began to grow in distance behind him. Countryside and city were the same now at all hours, the breeze or whistle of wind, and the eternal silence. Even at night, it didn’t matter where he was, each was as dark now there were now power stations to keep lights going.

So slow his pace was that he became able to see what happened to bodies after death. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and he went many days without eating because of how sick the sight made him. This must have been why the tradition of burying the dead had started, he reasoned, so the family didn’t have to see or smell the decay.

It was Nottingham where he stopped and decided to see how things had gone in the city. Famed for Robin Hood, and in geek culture for a tabletop game or two, he saw the same sight on the roads, but it wasn’t until he found homes and places of work where he found the decaying remains of people who had been defiant until the end. One home had almost burnt down, the bones of dead at the ashes of what had once been a dinner table, and very burnt remains of a person near the stove, or at least, the melted pile that had once been a stove, he reasoned. Even in a place of work, there were people at computers that would never power up again, or manning checkout tills. Despite the pain, they had chosen to try and live their lives, until their lives had come to that tragic and painful end.

It made Kyle stop, and actually look around. He had tried to avoid doing so since it had happened, even as he had heard his parents scream in pain as they died. He fought back the need to cry, to feel sorrow and even accept it had happened.

This resolve however ended, as making his way back to the motorway, he saw a children’s park, where the bodies of mothers, fathers and their children lay. Seeing that they had tried to ignore the pain and spend their final moments in joy broke him.

Kyle remained in Nottingham that night, just crying. The weight of what had happened sank in, he hadn’t fully believed it before, but now he knew it. He was alone, there was no one else, and when he died, he would die on the ground like everyone else had, and just decay in the air, his body a meal for animals.

As the sun rose on the new day, Kyle awoke and wondered how many days it had now been since he had been left alone. It felt like years as he let the situation finally sink in. With a sigh, he stood. Was it worth continuing on? All he had was his own self-imposed task, and many horrifying memories of the final days, when Earth had been filled with life. It was all he had, and so, he set off.

The trees rustled in the wind. It was a different man this time, that looked upon the barren world. He rubbed the back of his ears, his companion, a woman in a blue dress and brass jewelry, a bowler hat with brass goggles atop it glanced at him. This man had blue hair and hetrochromatic eyes, one a sea blue and the other a bright neon yellow, a navy tailcoat and black dress suit trousers. The rubbing of his ears seemed as if he was trying to adjust to something not being on them.

“Are you sure it was this world?” he asked. The woman held up a brown and gold embossed item, cranking a silver wheel on the side. A green glass screen displayed information upon it.

“It is. Just a month ago, this world had over seven billion natural intelligent residents. In the span of three days, that was reduced to one. He’s here, and my world must deal with it.”

The man turned slowly at her, studying her for a moment as if bemused by a child. His face looked as if he were twenty, younger than her, but his attitude didn’t reflect this.

“I would say it wasn’t your issue to deal with it, but I have made you aware of the price of failure. Stop him, no matter the cost, or this world and your own, well,” the man looked away, smiling, “I will not regret my actions, nor the Empire. Understood?”

She tried to hold back her anger, to strike at him for his arrogance and contempt. Seven billion was tragic, but her world shouldn’t pay the price, not when it was the home of over thirty billion. Was he really willing to kill that many to make a point? He glanced over his shoulder at her.

“Understood?” he asked, holding that forsaken black crystal up. It had many names across many worlds, Valhalla, Armageddon, The End, just a few names it had once had in this world alone. His people called it Solution.

“I will get my men together.” she finally replied, tapping a button on her chest. With a pop, she disappeared into her own world, leaving the man alone. He glanced over the earth.

“It is a tragedy, but maybe some good can come from this, once its over. I shall call this world,” he paused, hands extended as he thought of a name, “Aug-meiar, world of rebirth. Yes, the Empire will find this a rather nice holiday world.”

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless Chapter One

Heading South

Kyle had spent the first few days of his enforced isolation preparing for his trip. While he had no destination in mind, he at least knew what he would have to do, gather food and water. Tinned food, he knew, would be edible even years from now, but water was another matter, bottled water would only last so long until the plastic tainted it, and eventually he would need to gather water and make it safe to drink.

The advantage to the technology that had developed, he had quickly searched online for how to do this, and how to prepare and grow other kinds of food he would one day need to know. Indeed, he had found a store and took all the notebooks, writing down into them everything he felt he would need once the internet and electricity stations shut down. And they would, it was just a matter of time after all.

Five days after the end of the world, Kyle had gathered three trolleys from a supermarket, rope to tie them into a line, and filled them with tinned food, water and perishable food that would at least keep for a few months. It hadn’t been easy, walking the streets of his home city, the silence accompanied by the dead. Whatever had happened had spared no one, and he wished he knew what had ended the world, but left him. He looked around the streets as he began his journey to document the history of earth, taking and releasing a deep breath.

By noon, he was heading south. Very little had ever taken place within the United Kingdom without the knowledge of the government and their agencies. London was a vast trek, with a map he could see it took him through several major cities, but he had committed to this task. With the trolleys roped together, Kyle began to push them in the direction of the M1 motorway, and began his trek south.

The motorway was filled with cars, where people had ignored the pain in their head and driven regardless. The crashes were bad, and Kyle was thankful that, maybe some people hadn’t suffered horrifically in the final day. He didn’t dare look into the cars, trucks or lorries as he walked on, he had seen enough bodies to haunt his dreams forever, the faces forever stuck in cries of pain, the dead eyes accusing him of being heartless as he left them where they died. He couldn’t bury everyone, it had been hard enough to do so to his parents, but an entire planet? He would never manage it.

Kyle first came across the city of Sheffield, or the part of the motorway that ran through the city at least. The story he had seen in his home was repeated here, cars had ran into each other or the barriers, and in some places, people who had called the city home lay on the ground. Already though, birds and other animals flocked to each body, beginning to either eat what was eating them, or eat the bodies themselves. The very sight made Kyle sick, and so he tried to ignore it, choosing to camp for the night at the roundabout near, according to signposts, Sheffield Arena.

It was this night, that the power stations failed, forever closing the technological world to him. He cursed at this, he had hoped he would have had time to get to London and record as much off the computers there as he could before this happened. But above him, the universe came into view. Spanning the sky was the Milky Way, millions of stars shone on, reminding him of what he had vowed to do. Technology lacking, he would record the history of earth, he saw it as his duty. He sat there, a bag of crisps to eat and thought. There wasn’t much to think about, he could only keep asking why he had survived, and no one else had. Admittedly, he couldn’t tell for certain that he was alone, but as yet, he had found no survivors, other than himself. But how overjoyed he would feel if he found someone else.

The sixth day saw him set off on his journey again, leaving Sheffield at noon, and the scenes he was quickly becoming numb to played out again and again. He stopped at sunset near some place his map told him was called Duckmanton. Taking a notebook he had decided to write in, he found a torch and a pen, sitting down, and he began to write.

“I am the last man on earth, as far as I can tell. Six days ago, I left my home, the dead lay everywhere. I feel great sorrow at not being able to bury them. I am heading to London to try and record the history of the United Kingdom. It will be just the first country, and from there, I will make my plans for how to travel the entire world. This will not be easy, but for the strange suffering of humanity, and my own sanity, I undertake this task.”

Kyle paused at this sentence. He had been ignoring so far how he felt fully about this situation. How strange it was. For the last man on earth, he was not reacting how most in the situation would. He should be yelling at the sky, cursing whatever god there was, demanding to be taken as well. Yet, he had remained calm in the hours he was left behind, and had made a plan. It was a test, and he had no doubt it was a test. Closing the book, Kyle fell into a dream filled sleep, where the eyes of the world stared at him, accusing him of a situation that had been beyond his control.

--

The man wore a long billowing red robe, the airship floated above an icy landscape, upon which were thousands upon thousands of black dots. The scientists had insisted going down and brought a sample back up, and they had reported thousands of the black and white birds littering the landscape. They had urged him to end the ship. He had killed them.

“Onward.” he commanded. His black eyes filled with glee.

[jasonbarrattwrites-blog]

Endless

Prologue: On the Day the World Ended

Kyle was a young man, twenty years of age, brown hair and emerald green eyes. He rather liked his eyes, it had gotten him many girlfriends in the past, each had fallen for his eyes. He often matched them with a green shirt, and denim trousers, which sadly he couldn’t get in green.

Born in the north of England, Kyle lived a happy life, his parents could give him whatever he needed, and whatever he earned for school work. When he had turned eighteen, he had left home, and became a shelf-stacker at a local corner store. The pay wasn’t great, put it kept the roof over his head and food on the table.

He sat and looked over the city from the top of the block of flats, sighing as he did so. In the dying midsummer day, the sky was painted in colours of red, orange and faded into blue and black. The city was unusually quiet for the day it had been, and the night it could have been. But Kyle was alone.

Today had been the day the world died.

No one knew what had happened, or why he wasn’t affected. It had began as a small headache across the world. Just one person was unaffected, and as the day progressed, the headache became a migraine, and just a few hours ago, Kyle had hid as best he could as people screamed in agony, bleeding from their eyes, ears and noses. 

Alone, he could at least admit to how terrified he had been, and didn’t have to hide his tears. He supposed now he was going through survivors guilt, but he had no one to talk about it with. As the last man on earth, what could he now do?

The sun set below the horizon, and streetlights turned on, bathing the black night with artificial white light. Faintly above him, the galaxy could be seen, the ancient stars uncaring at his plight or what had befallen humanity. Kyle turned his head to look up and mulled over his choices. On one hand, he could stay put until his time came, it was what most people would do after all. But then, what if there were others out there? What if they came here, and there only seemed to be an uninhabited world?

He couldn’t let that be humanity’s legacy. Standing, Kyle resolved to do one task with his life. With no commitments, he could travel the world, record as much of humanity as possible, and store it where anyone could one day find it. They wouldn’t find just a planet that seemed to never have had intelligent life, they would read all humanity had achieved, its greatest moments and its darkest, the whole unashamed truth.