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“Sir, if you could please just step back into your vehicle, we will—”

“No, no screw you.” Jacob was finally at his breaking point. “We’ve been sitting outside here for too damn long! You KNOW who we are, you’ve seen us all a million times before! Just let us in already!”

They had been parked outside of the gate for what seemed like forever. It was only Jacob’s second time actually visiting this facility in person, although he knew well of its reputation. The Royal Durvandian Rock Hill Arsenal, while having the appearance of a standard military base, was the home of the Armed Forces most elite and independent groups, the 24th Special Assault and Testing Battalion. Where the best and brightest of all of Durvandia’s military tested, tweaked, and improved the weapons that would be used on the front lines of battle in the future.

And yet here Jacob was, stuck outside because no one at corporate headquarters realized how expiration dates worked on identifications.

“Sir, I need you to step inside your vehicle,” the first guard repeated. “Once your identifications have been verified, you will be allowed—”

“This is such bullshit!” Jacob yelled, turning around and pounding his fist into the door of the truck. “What, does the Queen herself need to give you a personal OK just to let people in here? Do you not understand who we are?!”

“Jake, get in the damn truck, all right?” Dr. Ian O’Frier sighed, hand covering his face in frustration. “This isn’t helping at all. Let the guards do their job, and we can get in faster.”

“I want to speak the Old Duck,” Jacob snarled. “I have a RIGHT to speak to your boss! This is inexcusable! You can’t just hold us out here! Your entire little base here,” he motioned to the gate that stood in front of them, and the several military buildings visible in the distance behind it, “wouldn’t even exist if we weren’t here regularly, giving your little tiger cubs new toys to test. And I am NOT going to just stand here like an idiot!”

“No, actually, you will.” Jacob, O’Frier, and the guards turned around to the woman who had spoken up, standing on the other side of the closed gates. She was dark-skinned, wearing a standard soldier’s training uniform, complete with boots and a cap that covered most of her cut-short black hair. The guards immediately saluted the woman, who waved them down. “At ease. What’s going on here?”

“I need to talk to Colonel Branston,” Jacob said, taking a few steps towards the woman before being blocked and held back by the guards. “Get off of me, dammit! Where the hell is Branston?”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” the woman replied, in a calm, measured tone. “Kalston, Nash, what’s going on?”

“Apologies, ma’am,” the second guard, Nash, answered. “Their identifications for entering the base had expired, so we were calling in for confirmation before letting them enter.”

“Look, all of this is completely unnecessary! Just let me speak to Major Branston, he can clear all of this up and let us in, like we were supposed to!”

The woman behind the fence looked long and hard at Jacob. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible, given that—”

“Oh don’t feed me that bullshit!” Jacob exclaimed. “I was personally selected to work as lead on the GFB project by the Old Duck! He knows who I am! He is going to let me in!”

The woman looked back at O’Frier, still sitting in the truck and waiting for this entire embarrassing fiasco to finish, with a look of puzzled amusement. O’Frier returned the look with a simple shrug, and turned to the side. “As I was saying,” the woman continued, “Colonel Branston retired last week. He is no longer involved with the management of the 24th Battalion.” She let a small smile appear on her face as she watched Jacob react to the revelation. “I must say, it’s surprising someone who’s so close to the ‘Old Duck’ didn’t already know that.”

“Well…well, then….then get whoever’s in charge, then!” Jacob shouted. “Tell your boss to get out here and make these idiots let us through!”

“Those ‘idiots’ are doing their job, and I highly recommend that you let them continue before have them arrest you for attempted trespassing.”

“Tres…” Jacob couldn’t believe his ears. “Listen, bitch, I don’t know who you think you are, but trust me, the second I meet the Old Duck’s replacement, you will be BEGGING for me to forgive you!

The only response he got from the woman was an even wider smile. The guards themselves weren’t able to control themselves, barely containing their laughter. The woman signaled to the guards to let Jacob go and have them open the gate. When they did, she stepped forward and offered her hand to Jacob. “Allow me to introduce myself,” she said. “Leiutenant Colonel Lori Nedalph. Head of the 24th Special Assault and Testing Battalion.” Jacob’s face fell as the information washed over him. “You know, I was wondering who the new guy that was going to head up the design and specs of the GFB I’ve been testing would be, and I have to say I’m surprised at how far below my standards you fell.”

“Miss…Leiutenant Colonel, I thought that—”

“It is remarkably clear what you THOUGHT, sir, judging by your actions and attitude in speaking to me. Now, are you going to wait patiently for your identification to go through?”

“This…” Jacob simply mumbled, barely audible, “this is insane. Completely unfair. I—”

“You know what?” Lori stepped even closer to Jacob, getting right in his face. The two guards stepped back to give them room. “You’re right,” she answered, “this isn’t fair. If it were fair, you would have been told to turn around and head back where you came from, as well as outright banned from ever entering this facility.” She let the threat hang in the air before continuing. “I’m giving you this one break. Now get back in the truck.”

Jacob mumbled something that Lori couldn’t make out and made his way back to the truck, where O’Frier sat and shook his head at the nonsense he had seen.

“Kid, be glad she’s being nice,” he told Jacob, as the guards finally let the transport truck enter the compound. “I swear, if I were her, I’d have kicked your ass good and proper.”

Lori watched them unload the GFB-XX7 Minigun onto the firing range, a group of men working together to carry the large weapon. “Be careful, boys,” she told them jokingly. “I don’t want you hurting my Inferno.”

“I’m sure your little baby can handle any rough-housing,” Major Jackson Katona, her second-in-command, said in a similar manner. “If anything, it’s probably more capable than before.”

Lori nodded in agreement. The changes that had been done on the Minigun were readily apparent just from its design. While before it had been very bare-bones and exposed, now the sides and bottom were covered by plating.

Once Inferno was finally placed on the table, she was able to get a better, closer inspection of it. “So, why exactly do we have all of this additional covering?”

“It…it mostly serves as support, for the bullet-proof shield,” Jacob stammered out. He was still steaming from the dressing down he received from Lori before he entered, but too reluctant to speak up any more than he had to.

“Shield?” Lori asked. She focused closer on the bottom of Inferno, noticing a small handle that she was able to pull out. Once it had been fully extended outwards, she was able to push it up, to a ninety-degree angle.

“It took a fair amount of design and engineering, but we were eventually able to figure it out,” Dr. O’Frier explained. He began rattling off information and procedures that were required to get them to this point, but Lori was focusing more on the actual shield itself. She raised it and lowered it several times before she finally interrupted with a single question.

“This isn’t going to work in this state.”

Dr. O’Frier stopped, puzzled by Lori’s remark. Jacob looked like he was about to mouth off before his intelligence got the better of him and he remained silent.

“I mean, it’s a fantastic idea. Hell, it probably makes Inferno here the closest it’s ever been to being actually 100% useful on the battlefield. But having this shield up has a major problem.” She lifted the shield to its upright position, then lifted up the Minigun by its top handles, slightly struggling due to the additional weight and off-balance. Once it was finally straightened out and pointing out towards the firing range, she continued. “I can’t see where I’m pointing at! Look, even with this in front of me, I’d have to lean way to the side, which makes the balance completely off.” She carefully put the weapon down on the ground and turned around. “Maybe some sort of….eye……..”

She stopped. They were all gone.

Jacob, Dr. O’Frier, Jackson, everyone had just suddenly disappeared.

In fact, the entire base seemed to fall completely silent. Lori couldn’t hear any of the normal sounds that carried the Arsenal on an average day; weapons being fired, the roars of engines, the discussions and arguments of soldiers and scientists trying to figure out how to properly handle a weapon.

Everything was just completely silent.

Lori took two steps forward and called out. “Hello? Anyone?”

Then the darkness came.

It didn’t come all at once. It was like it suddenly chopped the world around Lori into sections swallowing them whole, removing buildings, trees, vehicles, even the very earth itself in sliced-up sections as it was slowly swallowed up by a pure black void.

Lori turned around, intending to outrun the void for as long as she could, but saw that it was approaching her from the opposite direction, removing literally everything in its path. For a few seconds, she was rooted in place, horrified and confused. In all her years of training, she had never encountered or been taught anything like this. It seemed as though the whole world was dying.

So she ran back to Inferno, back to the GFB-XX7 Minigun, lifted it up, and prepared herself. Whatever was going to happen, she would not just stand by and let it wash over her like a tidal wave. She was a trained soldier and officer.

Lori would stand. She would fight. Even if she had no idea what, exactly, she was fighting in the first place.

When it reached her, she was prepared for anything. Pain, a loss of gravity, disorientation, even death or a cessation of existence.

What she didn’t expect, and received, was nothing.

Lori kept her ground, looking around her and moving in as small a circle as possible, doing her best to cover every single angle. Inferno was primed, ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

And still, nothing.

“CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?” Lori yelled. …seven, eight, nine, ten. “ MY NAME IS LEIUTENANT COLONEL LORI NEDALPH! I’M WITH THE 24th BATTALION OF THE ROYAL DURVANDIAN ARMY!” She paused again, this time counting to twenty. “IF ANYONE CAN HEAR ME, PLEASE RESPOND!”

This time, she counted to one hundred, the same pattern she had done for so long, she had begun to lose count. Lori thought of it as a drill, a training exercise that she had to just power through until she reached the end of it. She was initially more hopeful. After all, if she had survived whatever it was that had just happened, then it was reasonable to think that there were other people in her exact situation. People who were lost and trying to figure out what was going on.

They needed to group up, figure out what to do next. Get in contact with someone, get evacuated, just plain get OUT.

But as her self-made drill continued on and on, Lori had yet to see anyone or anything. She carried Inferno across her right shoulder, adjusting occasionally for the extra weight the newly-designed bullet-proof shield and its support brought, but beyond that and the clothes she was wearing, she couldn’t find anything. No people, cars, buildings, trees, animals, nothing.

It felt like Lori was trapped in some gigantic black box, cut off from the rest of the world.

She finally made her one-thousandth step, and stopped. Lori sighed and opened her mouth to shout again. “HELLO? CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?”

“No need to shout like that.” Lori audibly gasped, turning around so quickly to face the person who spoke that she almost dropped her gun. Before her stood a young man in a black t-shirt and jeans, glasses and brown hair. He looked a few inches taller than Lori, at least a decade younger, and was smiling. “Not like you’re going to find anyone else here.”

“You….you’re….” She set down Inferno as gently and quickly as she could and rushed over to meet the mystery man. “Oh thank goodness, someone else. Listen, my name is—”

“Lt. Col. Lori Nedalph of the 24th Special Assault and Testing Batallion of the Royal Durvandian Army. Right, right, I know, you don’t need to tell me.”

“Good. Listen, is there anyone else out there? Do you have any way to communicate with people outside of…wherever it is that we are? I need to report this to my—”

“You’re not going to report this to anyone, Lori.”

Lori took a step back, surprised by this kid’s tone. “I’m sorry, who exactly are you?”

“Call me VN,” the kid said. “Don’t bother asking my real name, all that matters is that I am here to help YOU.”

“V…VN.” Keep him talking. Just keep him talking. “Never mind. Look, where exactly are we? I mean, I was at the Rock Hill Arsenal, but given how far I’ve travelled, at the pace I’ve been going, I’d say I’m somewhere…hang on.” She tried to do the math in her head, but eventually gave up, shaking her head. “Forget it. Do you know where we are or not?”

“It’s called the Black Box. It’s where characters go when they’re not used or forgotten,” VN replied.

Lori raised an eyebrow to that. “Characters?”

“Oh, I should have mentioned this earlier. I’m your creator,” VN said, stated in the same manner one might discuss the weather. “You’re a character for a book I tried writing when I was in high school, and, well, stuff happened. I ended up not continuing it and, well…..” He spread his arms, gesturing at their surroundings. “You ended up here.”

Lori groaned. The first living person she had seen in she didn’t know how long, and he was completely delusional. He was most likely suffering from some sort of psychotic breakdown, given everything that had just happened. Just…just play along, Lori thought. Make him comfortable. He might not be entirely useless. “Ok then, VN,” she said. “You’re my…”

“Your creator, yes. Not in, like, the religious sense, oh no. I wrote a book, or at least TRIED to, and you were going to be the main character.” He chuckled as he recalled his efforts. “Got to say, it’s interesting to finally see you, well, in person.” VN looked up and down, examining her. “Have to say, surprised that you’re black. Not a complaint, sorry if it came out like that. I just haven’t created that many non-white characters, you know? I guess I’m really starting to get more confident in myself.”

“That…look, how do you know you’re my creator? Can you prove it? Happen to have this book you tried to write?”

VN smiled. “Very, very nice. Keeping your skepticism, very good. All right, I’ll prove it.” He started walking around Lori, and began to monologue. “Your name is Lori Nedalph. Age 35. You have a tattoo of a blue tiger on your upper right arm that you got when you first joined the 24th Battalion. Your gun over there is classified as the GFB-XX7 Minigun, although you personally prefer to call it ‘Inferno’. The most recent adjustments it received involved attaching a bullet-proof, pull-out shield that protects the person shooting it. You’re engaged to Alexander DuKleer, a man who has an eight-year-old son from a previous marriage. You have a pet ferret named Issac and your favorite food is pancakes.” He stopped, facing her directly and smiling. “Anything I missed? Or would you prefer I go on about your life?”

Lori couldn’t move. She wanted to move, DESPERATELY wanted to run away, but she couldn’t. There was no way VN could have known even half of the things he just said, not even one-tenth. “How,” she stammered out, “how…how did….you…?”

“Like I’ve been saying, Lori, I am your creator. I literally know everything about you. And I’m here to help you.”

“You…you created me?”

“Did I not…YES, I made you. I made you, your family, your friends, your co-workers, your entire WORLD, I made it as I typed on a computer.”

“Then why are they all gone?” Lori’s voice was low, but the anger was blatently obvious. “Why is everyone, EVERYTHING gone?!” She rushed VN and grabbed him by his shirt, quickly throwing him to the ground with as much force as she could. “You created them? THEN BRING THEM BACK!”

“I will, I will! That’s why I’m here!” VN moaned. “I can bring them all back, I can, you have to trust me, PLEASE OH GOD PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!” He began to cry, scared and in pain. “Puh-please, I can, just…I just need your help. Oh God, please stop.”

Lori stared at VN and slowly stood up. She waited for him to calm down. “I…I’m sorry. Just…what do you need my help for?”

VN collected himself and pointed behind Lori. She turned around and saw a door. “Through that door,” VN began, “is a hotel. In that hotel, you’re going to meet a bunch of people. One of them’s a girl with red dyed hair and a bunch of piercings. Her name’s Veronica, she runs the hotel. You need to get in that hotel and win the tournament that they’re running there.”

“What...why do I need to join some sort of tournament?”

“The hotel…look, you know how this Black Box is weird? The hotel is…it’s like a giant HUB for all of them. A place where a bunch of forgotten characters can get together whenever there’s a tournament. But the most important part is that, if you win the tournament, you get the grand prize. A second chance. The ability to change a part of your story.”

Lori wasn’t done interrogating VN yet. “What do you mean, change?”

“I mean, you can alter it to your own liking! Make yourself Head General of the whole goddamn armed forces, become Queen of Durvandia, fight and win a million battles, whatever the hell you want!” VN took her hands into his. “I just need you to win this tournament, Lori. You do that, and I’ll make you the best story I can.”

“So do that now. You’re here, you’re my creator, why can’t you just fix all of this without this…hotel and Veronica and whoever else there is?”

“Because…because I have no idea where to go,” VN admitted. “Lori, I’m not that good a writer. I suck. I make crappy stories, and you were the first time I ever seriously tried to write a full-length novel. I was eighteen, I sucked, and I wasn’t proud with what I came up with. I’m at a creative roadblock, here. This tournament, it can change all of that. But I need you to help me here.” He looked into her eyes, pleading with her. “I just need you to win. If you do that, I’ll know what to do next. Please?”

Lori sighed. “Fine. Fine. I’ll do this. But it better be worth it.” She went over and picked up Inferno, double checking every aspect of it so carefully she didn’t notice that VN had walked up next to her.

“Hang on a second. Could you pull out the shield part?” Lori shot a questioning glance at him, but proceeded to do so. When she did, he snapped his fingers. A small, clear, see-through glass suddenly appeared where Lori’s eye level would be when she picked up and held the gun. “Figured you should have that, to help when you’re shooting it. Hope it helps.”

Lori looked at VN, then folded the shield back up. Once she was done, she gave VN a hug. “Uh, o…ok then,” he said awkwardly. “This is…happening.”

“You better be right about this,” Lori whispered. She let him go, picked up Inferno, and walked out the door.

VN sighed and sat down on the ground. “Yeah, I better be right.” He walked away, opening up a second door that had suddenly appeared. “Please, please let this work,” he muttered to himself.

Lori stood in front of a metal gate, Inferno on her shoulder. Several odd, rune-like scribblings covering the stones around it. At the very top of the gate was a sign that said “Hotel de Las Arañas”. When she reached out to the gate with her free hand, it automatically opened, swinging out and away from her and letting her enter.

She carefully examined her surroundings as she followed the path. The large body of water in front of her was like nothing Lori had ever seen. It was a thousand different colors swirling around in a chaotic blender. Lori was curious what swimming in such a thing would be like when she saw the twenty-foot-long koi fish jump out of the water and land on its six legs. It let loose a gigantic roar, tore out a tree with its teeth, then leaped back into the water.

No swimming. NEVER swimming.

She eventually made her way to the front desk, walking through the sliding doors and was immediately confronted by the woman she assumed to be Veronica. “WHAT in the name of FUCKING SHIT ARE YOU DOING? Do you just carry around giant-ass guns all the time, or is Shiro too much of a pussy to come here for herself?”

“Shiro? Who….never mind. You must be Veronica?”

“Fucking aces right I’m Veronica! Now who the fuck are you, G.I. Jane?”

“Leiutenant Colonel Lori Nedalph, of the 24th—” Lori began, before Veronica put a hand over her mouth.

“I don’t want your fucking serial number and all that bullshit. Let me guess, you’re here for the tournament?”

“Yes, actually,” Lori answered after carefully removing Veronica’s hand. “Listen, I was hoping you could explain a few—”

“Uh-uh! Nope, not now. Listen here Little Miss Overcompensation, I’m trying to run a damn fine hotel AND a tournament here, so you can get in line with the other freaks and rejects if you want to ask questions.” Veronica turned around back to the front desk and rummaged around, eventually pulling out a key and tossing it to Lori. “Room number’s on the key, enjoy your stay, blah blah blah all that shit. Now beat it.”

Lori knelt down and picked the key off of the floor. “So….thank you, I guess.” She turned around and walked out the door, but stopped just short of the exit. “Oh, I’m…I’m not sure how to say this, but….a giant fish ripped out one of the trees near the entrance, and I think—”

“ARE YOU SHITTING ME I JUST PLANTED IT FUCKING YESTERDAY!” Veronica ran out, nearly knocking Lori over in her haste.

When Lori finally made it to her room, she gently placed Inferno down on the ground. The room wasn’t too large; a desk with a chair sat on the opposite side of the room. A second door that opened up to the bathroom, complete with a shower, toilet, and sink. A third showed the bedroom, while the main living area itself connected to a small kitchenette.

It wasn’t much, but Lori would have been comfortable with much less. She walked into the bedroom and took off her jacket and boots, leaving only her long-sleeved white t-shirt and pants. She laid down on the bed, accidentally sitting on the note that had been left there. Lori picked it up and began to read it, hoping it might make some sense of her surroundings.

Her entire world disapeearing, her conversation with VN, this whole tournament…Lori didn’t know what exactly she had gotten herself into.

But she knew she’d fight. Even if she didn’t know what, exactly, she was fighting in the first place.

Description
“Sir, if you could please just step back into your vehicle, we will—”

“No, no screw you.” Jacob was finally at his breaking point. “We’ve been sitting outside here for too damn long! You KNOW who we are, you’ve seen us all a million times before! Just let us in already!”

They had been parked outside of the gate for what seemed like forever. It was only Jacob’s second time actually visiting this facility in person, although he knew well of its reputation. The Royal Durvandian Rock Hill Arsenal, while having the appearance of a standard military base, was the home of the Armed Forces most elite and independent groups, the 24th Special Assault and Testing Battalion. Where the best and brightest of all of Durvandia’s military tested, tweaked, and improved the weapons that would be used on the front lines of battle in the future.

And yet here Jacob was, stuck outside because no one at corporate headquarters realized how expiration dates worked on identifications.

“Sir, I need you to step inside your vehicle,” the first guard repeated. “Once your identifications have been verified, you will be allowed—”

“This is such bullshit!” Jacob yelled, turning around and pounding his fist into the door of the truck. “What, does the Queen herself need to give you a personal OK just to let people in here? Do you not understand who we are?!”

“Jake, get in the damn truck, all right?” Dr. Ian O’Frier sighed, hand covering his face in frustration. “This isn’t helping at all. Let the guards do their job, and we can get in faster.”

“I want to speak the Old Duck,” Jacob snarled. “I have a RIGHT to speak to your boss! This is inexcusable! You can’t just hold us out here! Your entire little base here,” he motioned to the gate that stood in front of them, and the several military buildings visible in the distance behind it, “wouldn’t even exist if we weren’t here regularly, giving your little tiger cubs new toys to test. And I am NOT going to just stand here like an idiot!”

“No, actually, you will.” Jacob, O’Frier, and the guards turned around to the woman who had spoken up, standing on the other side of the closed gates. She was dark-skinned, wearing a standard soldier’s training uniform, complete with boots and a cap that covered most of her cut-short black hair. The guards immediately saluted the woman, who waved them down. “At ease. What’s going on here?”

“I need to talk to Colonel Branston,” Jacob said, taking a few steps towards the woman before being blocked and held back by the guards. “Get off of me, dammit! Where the hell is Branston?”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” the woman replied, in a calm, measured tone. “Kalston, Nash, what’s going on?”

“Apologies, ma’am,” the second guard, Nash, answered. “Their identifications for entering the base had expired, so we were calling in for confirmation before letting them enter.”

“Look, all of this is completely unnecessary! Just let me speak to Major Branston, he can clear all of this up and let us in, like we were supposed to!”

The woman behind the fence looked long and hard at Jacob. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible, given that—”

“Oh don’t feed me that bullshit!” Jacob exclaimed. “I was personally selected to work as lead on the GFB project by the Old Duck! He knows who I am! He is going to let me in!”

The woman looked back at O’Frier, still sitting in the truck and waiting for this entire embarrassing fiasco to finish, with a look of puzzled amusement. O’Frier returned the look with a simple shrug, and turned to the side. “As I was saying,” the woman continued, “Colonel Branston retired last week. He is no longer involved with the management of the 24th Battalion.” She let a small smile appear on her face as she watched Jacob react to the revelation. “I must say, it’s surprising someone who’s so close to the ‘Old Duck’ didn’t already know that.”

“Well…well, then….then get whoever’s in charge, then!” Jacob shouted. “Tell your boss to get out here and make these idiots let us through!”

“Those ‘idiots’ are doing their job, and I highly recommend that you let them continue before have them arrest you for attempted trespassing.”

“Tres…” Jacob couldn’t believe his ears. “Listen, bitch, I don’t know who you think you are, but trust me, the second I meet the Old Duck’s replacement, you will be BEGGING for me to forgive you!

The only response he got from the woman was an even wider smile. The guards themselves weren’t able to control themselves, barely containing their laughter. The woman signaled to the guards to let Jacob go and have them open the gate. When they did, she stepped forward and offered her hand to Jacob. “Allow me to introduce myself,” she said. “Leiutenant Colonel Lori Nedalph. Head of the 24th Special Assault and Testing Battalion.” Jacob’s face fell as the information washed over him. “You know, I was wondering who the new guy that was going to head up the design and specs of the GFB I’ve been testing would be, and I have to say I’m surprised at how far below my standards you fell.”

“Miss…Leiutenant Colonel, I thought that—”

“It is remarkably clear what you THOUGHT, sir, judging by your actions and attitude in speaking to me. Now, are you going to wait patiently for your identification to go through?”

“This…” Jacob simply mumbled, barely audible, “this is insane. Completely unfair. I—”

“You know what?” Lori stepped even closer to Jacob, getting right in his face. The two guards stepped back to give them room. “You’re right,” she answered, “this isn’t fair. If it were fair, you would have been told to turn around and head back where you came from, as well as outright banned from ever entering this facility.” She let the threat hang in the air before continuing. “I’m giving you this one break. Now get back in the truck.”

Jacob mumbled something that Lori couldn’t make out and made his way back to the truck, where O’Frier sat and shook his head at the nonsense he had seen.

“Kid, be glad she’s being nice,” he told Jacob, as the guards finally let the transport truck enter the compound. “I swear, if I were her, I’d have kicked your ass good and proper.”

Lori watched them unload the GFB-XX7 Minigun onto the firing range, a group of men working together to carry the large weapon. “Be careful, boys,” she told them jokingly. “I don’t want you hurting my Inferno.”

“I’m sure your little baby can handle any rough-housing,” Major Jackson Katona, her second-in-command, said in a similar manner. “If anything, it’s probably more capable than before.”

Lori nodded in agreement. The changes that had been done on the Minigun were readily apparent just from its design. While before it had been very bare-bones and exposed, now the sides and bottom were covered by plating.

Once Inferno was finally placed on the table, she was able to get a better, closer inspection of it. “So, why exactly do we have all of this additional covering?”

“It…it mostly serves as support, for the bullet-proof shield,” Jacob stammered out. He was still steaming from the dressing down he received from Lori before he entered, but too reluctant to speak up any more than he had to.

“Shield?” Lori asked. She focused closer on the bottom of Inferno, noticing a small handle that she was able to pull out. Once it had been fully extended outwards, she was able to push it up, to a ninety-degree angle.

“It took a fair amount of design and engineering, but we were eventually able to figure it out,” Dr. O’Frier explained. He began rattling off information and procedures that were required to get them to this point, but Lori was focusing more on the actual shield itself. She raised it and lowered it several times before she finally interrupted with a single question.

“This isn’t going to work in this state.”

Dr. O’Frier stopped, puzzled by Lori’s remark. Jacob looked like he was about to mouth off before his intelligence got the better of him and he remained silent.

“I mean, it’s a fantastic idea. Hell, it probably makes Inferno here the closest it’s ever been to being actually 100% useful on the battlefield. But having this shield up has a major problem.” She lifted the shield to its upright position, then lifted up the Minigun by its top handles, slightly struggling due to the additional weight and off-balance. Once it was finally straightened out and pointing out towards the firing range, she continued. “I can’t see where I’m pointing at! Look, even with this in front of me, I’d have to lean way to the side, which makes the balance completely off.” She carefully put the weapon down on the ground and turned around. “Maybe some sort of….eye……..”

She stopped. They were all gone.

Jacob, Dr. O’Frier, Jackson, everyone had just suddenly disappeared.

In fact, the entire base seemed to fall completely silent. Lori couldn’t hear any of the normal sounds that carried the Arsenal on an average day; weapons being fired, the roars of engines, the discussions and arguments of soldiers and scientists trying to figure out how to properly handle a weapon.

Everything was just completely silent.

Lori took two steps forward and called out. “Hello? Anyone?”

Then the darkness came.

It didn’t come all at once. It was like it suddenly chopped the world around Lori into sections swallowing them whole, removing buildings, trees, vehicles, even the very earth itself in sliced-up sections as it was slowly swallowed up by a pure black void.

Lori turned around, intending to outrun the void for as long as she could, but saw that it was approaching her from the opposite direction, removing literally everything in its path. For a few seconds, she was rooted in place, horrified and confused. In all her years of training, she had never encountered or been taught anything like this. It seemed as though the whole world was dying.

So she ran back to Inferno, back to the GFB-XX7 Minigun, lifted it up, and prepared herself. Whatever was going to happen, she would not just stand by and let it wash over her like a tidal wave. She was a trained soldier and officer.

Lori would stand. She would fight. Even if she had no idea what, exactly, she was fighting in the first place.

When it reached her, she was prepared for anything. Pain, a loss of gravity, disorientation, even death or a cessation of existence.

What she didn’t expect, and received, was nothing.

Lori kept her ground, looking around her and moving in as small a circle as possible, doing her best to cover every single angle. Inferno was primed, ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

And still, nothing.

“CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?” Lori yelled. …seven, eight, nine, ten. “ MY NAME IS LEIUTENANT COLONEL LORI NEDALPH! I’M WITH THE 24th BATTALION OF THE ROYAL DURVANDIAN ARMY!” She paused again, this time counting to twenty. “IF ANYONE CAN HEAR ME, PLEASE RESPOND!”

This time, she counted to one hundred, the same pattern she had done for so long, she had begun to lose count. Lori thought of it as a drill, a training exercise that she had to just power through until she reached the end of it. She was initially more hopeful. After all, if she had survived whatever it was that had just happened, then it was reasonable to think that there were other people in her exact situation. People who were lost and trying to figure out what was going on.

They needed to group up, figure out what to do next. Get in contact with someone, get evacuated, just plain get OUT.

But as her self-made drill continued on and on, Lori had yet to see anyone or anything. She carried Inferno across her right shoulder, adjusting occasionally for the extra weight the newly-designed bullet-proof shield and its support brought, but beyond that and the clothes she was wearing, she couldn’t find anything. No people, cars, buildings, trees, animals, nothing.

It felt like Lori was trapped in some gigantic black box, cut off from the rest of the world.

She finally made her one-thousandth step, and stopped. Lori sighed and opened her mouth to shout again. “HELLO? CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?”

“No need to shout like that.” Lori audibly gasped, turning around so quickly to face the person who spoke that she almost dropped her gun. Before her stood a young man in a black t-shirt and jeans, glasses and brown hair. He looked a few inches taller than Lori, at least a decade younger, and was smiling. “Not like you’re going to find anyone else here.”

“You….you’re….” She set down Inferno as gently and quickly as she could and rushed over to meet the mystery man. “Oh thank goodness, someone else. Listen, my name is—”

“Lt. Col. Lori Nedalph of the 24th Special Assault and Testing Batallion of the Royal Durvandian Army. Right, right, I know, you don’t need to tell me.”

“Good. Listen, is there anyone else out there? Do you have any way to communicate with people outside of…wherever it is that we are? I need to report this to my—”

“You’re not going to report this to anyone, Lori.”

Lori took a step back, surprised by this kid’s tone. “I’m sorry, who exactly are you?”

“Call me VN,” the kid said. “Don’t bother asking my real name, all that matters is that I am here to help YOU.”

“V…VN.” Keep him talking. Just keep him talking. “Never mind. Look, where exactly are we? I mean, I was at the Rock Hill Arsenal, but given how far I’ve travelled, at the pace I’ve been going, I’d say I’m somewhere…hang on.” She tried to do the math in her head, but eventually gave up, shaking her head. “Forget it. Do you know where we are or not?”

“It’s called the Black Box. It’s where characters go when they’re not used or forgotten,” VN replied.

Lori raised an eyebrow to that. “Characters?”

“Oh, I should have mentioned this earlier. I’m your creator,” VN said, stated in the same manner one might discuss the weather. “You’re a character for a book I tried writing when I was in high school, and, well, stuff happened. I ended up not continuing it and, well…..” He spread his arms, gesturing at their surroundings. “You ended up here.”

Lori groaned. The first living person she had seen in she didn’t know how long, and he was completely delusional. He was most likely suffering from some sort of psychotic breakdown, given everything that had just happened. Just…just play along, Lori thought. Make him comfortable. He might not be entirely useless. “Ok then, VN,” she said. “You’re my…”

“Your creator, yes. Not in, like, the religious sense, oh no. I wrote a book, or at least TRIED to, and you were going to be the main character.” He chuckled as he recalled his efforts. “Got to say, it’s interesting to finally see you, well, in person.” VN looked up and down, examining her. “Have to say, surprised that you’re black. Not a complaint, sorry if it came out like that. I just haven’t created that many non-white characters, you know? I guess I’m really starting to get more confident in myself.”

“That…look, how do you know you’re my creator? Can you prove it? Happen to have this book you tried to write?”

VN smiled. “Very, very nice. Keeping your skepticism, very good. All right, I’ll prove it.” He started walking around Lori, and began to monologue. “Your name is Lori Nedalph. Age 35. You have a tattoo of a blue tiger on your upper right arm that you got when you first joined the 24th Battalion. Your gun over there is classified as the GFB-XX7 Minigun, although you personally prefer to call it ‘Inferno’. The most recent adjustments it received involved attaching a bullet-proof, pull-out shield that protects the person shooting it. You’re engaged to Alexander DuKleer, a man who has an eight-year-old son from a previous marriage. You have a pet ferret named Issac and your favorite food is pancakes.” He stopped, facing her directly and smiling. “Anything I missed? Or would you prefer I go on about your life?”

Lori couldn’t move. She wanted to move, DESPERATELY wanted to run away, but she couldn’t. There was no way VN could have known even half of the things he just said, not even one-tenth. “How,” she stammered out, “how…how did….you…?”

“Like I’ve been saying, Lori, I am your creator. I literally know everything about you. And I’m here to help you.”

“You…you created me?”

“Did I not…YES, I made you. I made you, your family, your friends, your co-workers, your entire WORLD, I made it as I typed on a computer.”

“Then why are they all gone?” Lori’s voice was low, but the anger was blatently obvious. “Why is everyone, EVERYTHING gone?!” She rushed VN and grabbed him by his shirt, quickly throwing him to the ground with as much force as she could. “You created them? THEN BRING THEM BACK!”

“I will, I will! That’s why I’m here!” VN moaned. “I can bring them all back, I can, you have to trust me, PLEASE OH GOD PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!” He began to cry, scared and in pain. “Puh-please, I can, just…I just need your help. Oh God, please stop.”

Lori stared at VN and slowly stood up. She waited for him to calm down. “I…I’m sorry. Just…what do you need my help for?”

VN collected himself and pointed behind Lori. She turned around and saw a door. “Through that door,” VN began, “is a hotel. In that hotel, you’re going to meet a bunch of people. One of them’s a girl with red dyed hair and a bunch of piercings. Her name’s Veronica, she runs the hotel. You need to get in that hotel and win the tournament that they’re running there.”

“What...why do I need to join some sort of tournament?”

“The hotel…look, you know how this Black Box is weird? The hotel is…it’s like a giant HUB for all of them. A place where a bunch of forgotten characters can get together whenever there’s a tournament. But the most important part is that, if you win the tournament, you get the grand prize. A second chance. The ability to change a part of your story.”

Lori wasn’t done interrogating VN yet. “What do you mean, change?”

“I mean, you can alter it to your own liking! Make yourself Head General of the whole goddamn armed forces, become Queen of Durvandia, fight and win a million battles, whatever the hell you want!” VN took her hands into his. “I just need you to win this tournament, Lori. You do that, and I’ll make you the best story I can.”

“So do that now. You’re here, you’re my creator, why can’t you just fix all of this without this…hotel and Veronica and whoever else there is?”

“Because…because I have no idea where to go,” VN admitted. “Lori, I’m not that good a writer. I suck. I make crappy stories, and you were the first time I ever seriously tried to write a full-length novel. I was eighteen, I sucked, and I wasn’t proud with what I came up with. I’m at a creative roadblock, here. This tournament, it can change all of that. But I need you to help me here.” He looked into her eyes, pleading with her. “I just need you to win. If you do that, I’ll know what to do next. Please?”

Lori sighed. “Fine. Fine. I’ll do this. But it better be worth it.” She went over and picked up Inferno, double checking every aspect of it so carefully she didn’t notice that VN had walked up next to her.

“Hang on a second. Could you pull out the shield part?” Lori shot a questioning glance at him, but proceeded to do so. When she did, he snapped his fingers. A small, clear, see-through glass suddenly appeared where Lori’s eye level would be when she picked up and held the gun. “Figured you should have that, to help when you’re shooting it. Hope it helps.”

Lori looked at VN, then folded the shield back up. Once she was done, she gave VN a hug. “Uh, o…ok then,” he said awkwardly. “This is…happening.”

“You better be right about this,” Lori whispered. She let him go, picked up Inferno, and walked out the door.

VN sighed and sat down on the ground. “Yeah, I better be right.” He walked away, opening up a second door that had suddenly appeared. “Please, please let this work,” he muttered to himself.

Lori stood in front of a metal gate, Inferno on her shoulder. Several odd, rune-like scribblings covering the stones around it. At the very top of the gate was a sign that said “Hotel de Las Arañas”. When she reached out to the gate with her free hand, it automatically opened, swinging out and away from her and letting her enter.

She carefully examined her surroundings as she followed the path. The large body of water in front of her was like nothing Lori had ever seen. It was a thousand different colors swirling around in a chaotic blender. Lori was curious what swimming in such a thing would be like when she saw the twenty-foot-long koi fish jump out of the water and land on its six legs. It let loose a gigantic roar, tore out a tree with its teeth, then leaped back into the water.

No swimming. NEVER swimming.

She eventually made her way to the front desk, walking through the sliding doors and was immediately confronted by the woman she assumed to be Veronica. “WHAT in the name of FUCKING SHIT ARE YOU DOING? Do you just carry around giant-ass guns all the time, or is Shiro too much of a pussy to come here for herself?”

“Shiro? Who….never mind. You must be Veronica?”

“Fucking aces right I’m Veronica! Now who the fuck are you, G.I. Jane?”

“Leiutenant Colonel Lori Nedalph, of the 24th—” Lori began, before Veronica put a hand over her mouth.

“I don’t want your fucking serial number and all that bullshit. Let me guess, you’re here for the tournament?”

“Yes, actually,” Lori answered after carefully removing Veronica’s hand. “Listen, I was hoping you could explain a few—”

“Uh-uh! Nope, not now. Listen here Little Miss Overcompensation, I’m trying to run a damn fine hotel AND a tournament here, so you can get in line with the other freaks and rejects if you want to ask questions.” Veronica turned around back to the front desk and rummaged around, eventually pulling out a key and tossing it to Lori. “Room number’s on the key, enjoy your stay, blah blah blah all that shit. Now beat it.”

Lori knelt down and picked the key off of the floor. “So….thank you, I guess.” She turned around and walked out the door, but stopped just short of the exit. “Oh, I’m…I’m not sure how to say this, but….a giant fish ripped out one of the trees near the entrance, and I think—”

“ARE YOU SHITTING ME I JUST PLANTED IT FUCKING YESTERDAY!” Veronica ran out, nearly knocking Lori over in her haste.

When Lori finally made it to her room, she gently placed Inferno down on the ground. The room wasn’t too large; a desk with a chair sat on the opposite side of the room. A second door that opened up to the bathroom, complete with a shower, toilet, and sink. A third showed the bedroom, while the main living area itself connected to a small kitchenette.

It wasn’t much, but Lori would have been comfortable with much less. She walked into the bedroom and took off her jacket and boots, leaving only her long-sleeved white t-shirt and pants. She laid down on the bed, accidentally sitting on the note that had been left there. Lori picked it up and began to read it, hoping it might make some sense of her surroundings.

Her entire world disapeearing, her conversation with VN, this whole tournament…Lori didn’t know what exactly she had gotten herself into.

But she knew she’d fight. Even if she didn’t know what, exactly, she was fighting in the first place.