The Empty End of Things

I came to with a headache pounding behind my eyes. The worst doorway headache I had had so far. And when I awoke and oriented myself I found myself coughing at the dust around us that was stirred up. I was on a dusty plane, the air scratching at my throat. Above me and around me was a twilight so dark I could wear it as a winter coat. And I needed one. The cold hit me to my bones and I felt I would seize there and crumble as an ice carving would. However, a warm hand touched my shoulder. 

It was him. The thing I had chased called Tim. But now I saw what I felt was close to his true form. Or close to what I could perceive his true form to be. He might have been a collection of gas particles in a spectrum not even Chewy could smell. But now I saw a long slender man. Maybe seven feet in height and gangling arms clad in a shiny dark suit like material. Like obsidian. His skin is pale. His head was long and blocky and bald. Like a horse or some incestual child. 

I backed away and when I did my feet felt sluggish. The dust I kicked up around me slowly wafted down. Like we were underwater. I gasped for air and felt the warmness of his touch snake up my neck and down my throat. Even as his large hand gently moved back to his side. 

“What did you do?” I coughed. “Where’s my dog?” I looked around, focusing on my surroundings for the first time. That’s when I truly saw the great empty plains around me. Hills curling out of the dusty earth, all of which I was barely able to make out. They reflected the moon's glow. A soft white light. Barely visible. It must have been a half moon or smaller. But the night sky was barren. The stars are gone. 

Is it cloudy? No it wasn’t. It is a clear night sky. I could see some distant lights But they were red globes that looked like eerie lamplights. Something you see at the end of a murky alleyway. Where were my firefly-like stars? And the moon was wrong. That silky white color was sickly. It was such a small pinpoint in the horizon. A glowing white point. Like it was behind a peephole. And there was a shawl of dust surrounding it. A wedding gown that looked to be the size of the moon regularly. Now it was like a ghastly shadow of once was. Was no more. 

Where did he bring me?

He took a moment and looked across the horizon. “You are funny.” He smirked. “Humans always ask about their dogs. I have killed many of them whose last words are to do their canine no harm, or let them out, or feed them.”

I bounced around my footing trying to find a purchase. But it was so light here. Like gravity had loosened. Everything had loosened. 

“Such selfish creatures you are. But there is a kindness hidden in there. I wish you could find it more. Wish you would listen to its whispers.” He took a moment and then looked at me. “Your dog is dead.”

“He was in the car!” I returned with anger and panic welling up inside me. 

“Your car is now particles around you. And so are you. And so is your dog. I have brought you to the end of all things.”

I squinted up to the moon. Pointing to it with understanding. 

“You are correct. That is no moon. That is the sun. Your sun. It has become a white dwarf. It is dying. Following the people it once gave life too.”

“This is.” I stuttered. Pointing around.

“Where we were standing billions of years ago, or before. Time is very tricky to me. It doesn’t quite make a lick of sense to be truthful.”

“I don’t understand.” I stammered. How had he been able to bring me here? “Why?”

“No I didn’t think you would. But I figured we could at least go for a walk.” He turned and strolled away. Walking over the blasted twisted open plains at the end of all things. 

~

We walked across the twilight moors without water nor life to guide us. Only a sick star to show us the way. But I knew I wouldn’t trip over anything. There was nothing to trip on. Nothing. Peaceful in a way. A melancholy way. I always knew the sun would die one day. All stars do. But to see it. To see the emptiness. It almost made me forget my love for a moment. Or made me think that loving someone wasn’t even important to begin with. But I knew this could all be a magician's trap. I remembered the smell of her hair. How soft it was in my fingers. Dark brown, she refused to call black. Then I recalled how her blood coagulated in it from a split skull. That anger, that sadness, that sickening feeling made me remember I was human. It tethered me to the ground of the dying world. Trying to figure out this so-called-man beside me as I did.

We had walked towards a hill. Or what I thought was a hill. Now I saw it was a rusted stained piece of massive metal. Like a glimmering building of basalt. The architecture was odd and otherworldly. 

“What's this?” I asked. “Is it alien?”

He smirked again. “No. It is from the last inhabitants of earth. They perished close to a million years ago. No more alien than humans.”

“Oh, so I guess we didn’t last?” 

“Not in this world. Not in most of them. And if you did you wouldn’t recognize anything about them. No, there were many civilizations after humans although I always found you the most curious.” 

That I could believe. He was fascinated about us like how a cat is fascinated by the dead bird it brings home. 

“How many came after us? Like what you said, civilizations?” I asked while spacing myself far from him but closer to this building or ship or whatever it was. Looking over the miraculous texture of it all. It was like some ark that space Noah would build. 

“Well it’s always different. There are different timelines after all.”

“Well in the majority of them.” I shrugged. 

“After and before. There were thousands after you. Millions. Some small and some great but all just as important.”

“And these people.” I nodded to the wreckage and grimaced at calling them people. 

I guess they weren’t really but what else would I call them?

“Hardy lifeforms. Like the bacteria you find in deep sea vents. I am always amazed at how life springs up even in the most inopportune time. They knew their world was dying and tried to escape it. But they were not successful.” He looked saddened.

“Because of you.” I stated.

His milky white eyes looked over me. “Yes. Because in this timeline they are not successful. No lifeforms are. You cannot stand against entropy.” He thought for a second. “Do you still hate me?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I see.” He turned and we walked closer to the wreckage. “Even at the end of the world your feelings still fuel you. Your hurt, your pain, your hate, and love. Sometimes I confuse them all with one another.”

“Yeah me too buddy.” That made him stutter step a second until he smiled and then glided forward once more. 

“So this is where you come from?” I asked.

“No.” It replied.

“So this is what you work towards?” I tried again.

“No.” 

“So what does all this mean?” I asked, stomping my foot into the ashy ground and crossing my arms. Waiting. 

“It doesn't mean anything. It is what it is. What it was and what it will be.” 

“So, this is existence huh? This is what the destiny of infinite worlds is? Bullshit!”

“It is what it is and what it will become. I knew you would not understand. You, and all creatures like you, are stuck in time. Moving though it like it is a river. But it is not a river. It is an ocean. It is space not separate from it. It is it.”

I shook my head. “Okay.” Exasperated. “Okay. I’m not gonna get all of it. I understand that. I don’t even know why or how I can do the things I do already. I just wanted my wife. I just want her. And you took her!” I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up. 

“I did. It was her time. Like the billions before her. The trillions after. I took them too. I showed them the path we are all walking to. Not because I was ordered too. Not because I am a shepherd. Not because I want entropy to rule. Because I must do it. Because I am it. Because we all are. I am a gardener. Pruning the realities so that they may reach the same point. The point they all share. The end, you might call it.”

He continued. 

“Once all realities come to that point. They are joined. It is the crux of all things. It is the axis that all realities and worlds and dimensions spin on. Like your loss links all the worlds you visit. This event, it must come to exist. It must. Because it has. It is what links all things together. From the lifeforms on the surface to the iron in the earth. From the song a bird makes to the fission of a far away star. A foundation. The black quiet loom that spins all realities together. They all reach the same point eventually so that they may fold back and collapse on one another. The most beautiful point in all of history. The point that makes all the chaos worth it.”

His words rattled around my head like I could see it. Like he spun it along his fingertips. It made me want to sit down. To stop moving and think.

“What happens then?” I asked. 

“I do not know. I still have much work to do.” It said this while placing a hand on the basalt structure. It looked like it was reminiscing. If this thing could reminisce. 

“But I thought you were some sort of time lord?” I caught up to him in a few bouncy steps.

“I do not bother with the notion of time. I know my tasks at hand and I go through the realities to accomplish them. All realities will end in different times. If you must use that word. This world is all but over. It is in the same space and time as yours. I know it is difficult to comprehend.” He took a moment to breathe the scenery in.

“I sense what pruning I must do because I have already done it. But I cannot see what my work will accomplish because of the crux of all things. The final entropy. Has already happened. I have come from it. I will accomplish it. Like a snake eating its own tale.”

“Like Thor Ragnarok,” I muttered nodding.

“Some call it that.”

“This final entropy. When things all meet and collide... When there's truly nothing in all realities.” It nodded for me to continue. “You say it’s already happened?” 

It nodded again. “I would not worry about the timeline. You will only be drawing circles. But yes the crux already exists. It always has. It is the trellis and the worlds are the ivy growing up it, down it, and through it.”

“But you have said, yourself, there are infinite worlds. How do you accomplish it all? That's a lot of work. You should just stop, help us all out.”

“I am an infinite being. But yes I am quite busy. But to use your words, I have plenty of time. And for your last point you should stop your cells from multiplying.” It stopped and stared at me. “Anytime now.”

“Okay,” I raised my eyebrows and patted my legs. “I get it. Infinite being, supremely powerful. You can’t stop because you've already done it. Blah blah blah.”

“There you go.” We stopped and looked up at the night sky, which I guess was actually the day time. “Can I show you something? Please be patient with me.” It said as it leaned down. I thought he might kiss me for a second or suck my heart out of my chest with psychic powers. That made me take a step back. He ignored me and touched the moon dust ground. 

“Each reality is like a hand lifting a fist full of sand.” He scooped up some from the ground. And I watched the dust slowly trickle through his fingers. “Each hand grabbing the same patch of earth a million times will not have the same handful on an atomic level. And although the sand always falls. It never falls the same way. Each grain is different. In different spots, falling at different times, landing and falling apart and dispersing in different ways. Each reality trickles in different ways. Some ways are small and some ways are great, but all just as important. Until.” The dust floated free of his hand. “Only the foundation remains. Each reality ends. When all matter is gone. Every star is dead and there is only space. That is the foundation for all worlds. And the foundation is always laid first. That is the hand that has held the trickle behind the scene. All the same. All joining together once it has nothing more to hold.” He closed his fist. “And you would think it is the end of things but it is actually where it begins.”

“What do you mean?”

“If time was narrow and straight. Which it isn’t already, but if it was, you’d still be perceiving it wrong.”

“Well shit. Are we good for anything?” I asked.

“Good for a laugh.” He stated flatly and continued. “All realities start with nothing, where we are close to now. Because that is the clean slate they all share. The crux. That is the ONLY point they share. Then the trickle begins,” I watched as the sand flowed back to his fingers. Filling up his palm. “This is how you live it, you work from the opposite way that I work. We are backwards from each other, I work to the start and you work towards the end… Which, I don’t mean to confuse you more.” He paused and hid a sly smile. “It's the same point.”  

“Oh.” I said. “ Even when I think I see behind the veil. Even when I think I might know something…”

“You are a human. You do not know much. But together you know more than I ever could have thought possible. You and your people are a wondrous work in itself. You should be proud.” It said.

“I’m just going to sit down for a second,” I was not ready for this field trip. My stomach was still full of cheese curds. 

I sat down and watched the barren horizon. It was lovely in a simple kind of way. Like how it would feel to picnic on the moon. Nothing living around you in thousands of miles. Not one blade of grass. Not one chirping cricket. Maybe the end, or the start, or whatever the crux was, was beautiful after all. The way he spoke about it, I wished I would be there to see it. 

Tim looked down at me. Saw I was no longer following. Looked around and then joined me sitting a few feet away.

“So how can I kill you?” I asked.

“You cannot.” He smirked. “I am not really alive.”

“Hmm. I don’t know, you still seem to be bound by some rules when you are on our turf. I think I'm still gonna still try. If that’s okay?” 

“It is expected. Although it may be daft.” He placed a warm hand on my shoulder. “I think it’s beautiful in a way.” We stared up at the dying sun, already clad in a widowers veil.

“You know.” I said. “You often forget. It all really doesn't matter. All the mistakes you make, all the embarrassing moments. All the sadness and happiness. It all goes by so quick and you're nothing but sand in a couple years.” I watched some trickle from my grip and get whisked away from me by the low solar winds. “What is there really to worry about? What is there really to be afraid of? Why is everyone in a rush?” I motioned to the world around me. And waited for my voice to reverberate across the land. But it did not. It was silent. 

“I suppose you have a point.” It said. 

~

Gray dirt floated around us as the wheels kicked up more and more space dust. I had turned the helm hard to left and the moon-rover followed as I did tight donuts. I couldn’t help but let out a shout that rang off into the void of nothingness. Chewy barked with me, letting out an excited and mournful howl. Of course it was sad. We were at the end of the world together. Bound by the last atoms before they decayed. The last atoms in existence. Going out with a bang.  

I hadn’t remembered how Chewy got here but I did find him in his astronaut suit striking an uncanny resemblance to Laika, the first Russian cosmonaut. It would have been an adorable sight if he wasn’t yelling obscenities at me. He had hunted me down to the edge of the universe after all. Unlike him I could breathe in this vacuum thanks to Tim’s magic. I also wasn’t being peeled apart by radiation, or the frigid cold that takes place without atmosphere. I supposed I should have exploded like a tube of toothpaste by now but who knows what’s going on? I actually realized I knew very little about space stuff. Sure, I didn’t need a space suit thanks to magic, but I kind of wanted one. What person doesn’t want to be a real life astronaut?

I got out and bounced around the surface. Relieving myself at the end of the world. I could pee three times the distance here. When I got back I saw plumes of dust behind us. Silhouetted by a lightless sky. I could only see so well because the white sun was beaming down on us. 

“We got friends on our six.” I said to Chewy.

He clunkily looked around and whined. Not scared but alert. “What in the heavens would be chasing us out here?”

“I don’t know if I wanna find out.” I revved the engine some more, found it interesting I could hear in space and shot off across the surface. The rover was humming and vaulting craters. Much better than the outback could. 

Where had I left the Outback anyways?

“Hey Chewy, where did we leave the car parked?” I asked as the plumes of dust were gaining on us. He was still glancing back. “And where did you find that spacesuit? Why don’t I have one? You look straight out of Mars.” 

“Hmm.” He groaned. “Do you really wanna ask those questions now? It might pull us out of here.”

“What does that mean?” My head snapped forward as we landed off a ten foot drop and landed into a cracked valley. I whipped the wheel to get us parallel to the sides and looked for a place we could climb out of here and still keep our speed.

“It means, Tim is ahead of us and I came to help you get him. But…” He trailed off, his eyes set on the crest of the valley up and to our right. “I think they don’t want us to find him!”

Out of the dust came long appendages churning over the rock in front of it and throwing it behind it. Like a train charging through high snow. It was a violent runner, this moon monster. Out of the storm it threw in its wake I saw it had gray cracked skin and six arms or more that acted like legs. It had the body of a stick bug with glittering green eyes. 

“What the fuck.” Chewy barked.

“I think those are his goons. Or something from even deeper.” I wanted to say the darkness. But this place was already dark. I meant the darkness beyond this place. Behind the veil. There's always another layer. 

“Lets not find out.” I pressed the gas deeper and got enough horsepower to charge up a slanted hillside and get out of the valley. We fell, or more like, floated forty feet until we landed with a hard yank onto the true surface again. I saw ahead a red splash of color on the hill a mile or so away. Were there figures there? It was hard to tell and we were bouncing around too much to get a good view. But the pale sunlight reflected something on it. Little mirrors acting like artificial stars.  

“There he is!” I shouted and floored the rover in that direction. 

The beast behind us had found a spot to cross and my stomach dropped as I saw it make the leap. Hell, it jumped further than the rover did. And two more of the same creatures followed it. Closing on us like hell bent demons from different angles. 

“There’s gotta be something you can use in that space suit!” I yelled at Chewy. 

“Hold on, Hold on, I’m looking.” He had pulled up a floating screen in front of him and was using his nose to page through it. Like one runs a finger over a touchscreen. Ingenuitive. 

“Hey, they have a treat dispenser in here.” He said excitedly. 

“You think that will distract them?” In the rear view I saw the dust trails converging only a hundred feet back. They were all lining up, closing in on their prey like a pack of wolves would. 

“I’m not sharing my treats with them,” He said through a mouthful. “But I found something to give them.” He pressed his nose forward hitting a red button. On his helmet a target reticle popped over his eye, the same right eye with the patch on it. Out of the back of a suit a small multi barrelled gatling gun swung free on a metallic arm. He turned around a couple of times until he was standing on the back seat bouncing with every snap of the shocks, but the gun was steady. It must have had some gizmos in it to keep it so. 

“Let her rip!” I yelled as I stopped my evasive maneuver and barrelled towards that hilltop. 

I heard the cold whirring of the gatling gun starting to spin. But nothing yet. No explosions or lasers. I knew I should have checked his gear on the pee break. It’s unloaded, I thought. Then, with shrieks of a high pitch noise that faded into one sound, like a waterfall, lasers sprung forth in a rippling tide.

They tore through this dead world and added the only vibrant color to the landscape in trillions of miles. The gatling gun was smoking furiously but Chewy kept firing. He was laughing too. Howling as the lasers poked fist sized holes through the dust storm behind us and seared through the beasts. 

“Full steam ahead captain!” He yelled. Sounding like he was in delirium. “I got these fucks!” I saw the red targeting system bouncing around his screen trying to find the targets in all that silt behind us. But also the lasers painted an eerie red reflection across his helmet. He was in a bloodlust.

“God damn, you give a dog a laser gun and this is what happens.”

He kept firing and howling and I heard the sounds of the gray hide beasts screaming in pain. One halted in pain as finally the shots found purchase. They deflected most but the onslaught was too much. Eventually the lasers found soft spots. One had two arms cut in half and black cauterized blood floated freely in globules. The beast flopped to the right in death throes. The other two were no more than twenty feet away and still hurtling towards us. 

Under the waves of fire they charged forward, gaining. One closed the distance with a leap and was right on top of us. Chewy redirected all his shots as it did so. The lasers scattered across its hide like sparks land against metal. It let out a scream of agony as the sizzling started to overwhelm it. It’s claws reached out and grabbed at the back of the rover. Only finding luggage and supplies strapped to the back hull. They pulled free and Chewy’s shots pierced through its green eyes. Landing fist sized holes through the skull. It fell limp behind us, tumbling to a stop. The last one flailed over its dead ally which caused it to trip it up for a moment. 

We started up the incline of the hill. I could see a red square up top. With Tim’s long body on one end. He was sunbathing. Someone else was there too. 

“I got him!” I shouted to Chewy. “Keep it up!” I said.

But he had somewhat calmed down. “I’m out governor.” Chewy said, almost embarrassed. “I think I got overzealous and overheated it.” The metal gatling gun was melting onto the rover, the barrells red hot and leaking. The last one behind us had renewed strength now that lasers weren’t frying it. It closed fast in a fever pitch charge. I floored the rover in turn while screaming up the hill. I was gonna run him over. I was gonna take him and his pet with us. We were getting closer now, hurtling towards the monster I had hated so. I saw that the red square they laid on was a picnic blanket and the shining objects were immaculate silverware and a tea set. He was pouring my wife a drink and she smiled at him. She was sitting across from him eating a finger sandwich. She waved to me, almost giddy.

The rover was going at an unstoppable pace. I turned the wheel as hard as I could, trying to swerve around them. Trying to do anything to not hit my love. But the rover bucked and rolled and the last thing I saw was her face, screaming in surprise as it twisted us all up in a ball of flashing pain.