Entering Oblivion

Leaving the hotel in the morning revealed that The Calamity was noticeably closer than it had been just one night ago. Shiona let out an audible shriek when they left the lobby and found that it was nearly over them now.

“We won’t die when it gets over us?!” she asked in fear.

“No, but they say the world feels different beneath it,” remarked Arata.

“We’ll find out soon enough,” replied Riku as he opened the van’s trunk to load their luggage.

An hour later, The Calamity was above them. Angling their eyes allowed them to watch its sprawling void reach out over the top of the vehicle as they slowed in temporary hesitation. Kai was driving and rolled down the windows as the van came to a crawl just on the edge of the remaining clear sky.

“They say it’s wrapping around the earth like a glove. That’s why it stays in the same place even as we rotate…” said Kai.

Kureha’s hand hung out of the window. Air felt warm and humid. Faint sensations of humming energy tingled along her arm hair as her hand waited in quiet concern. Above them, The Calamity’s void did indeed cut off the sky. Nothing remained above its black expanse, as though all of the universe beyond that was sheared away in the unceasing spread.

“Ready?” asked Kai.

Shiona whimpered slightly and took Kureha’s hand, but no one protested. Arata held Rin’s head to lock her eyes to his.

“Just look at me. Just in case,” he said as the van began to roll forward.

Riku’s hand rested on Kai’s arm. The void passed above them. Strange, unfamiliar buzzes reached Kureha’s ears like a faint hum from tinnitus.

“Do you hear that?” Shiona asked.

Everyone nodded.

The van was now fully underneath The Calamity. Light faded almost instantly. Even though there was a realm of sky beneath the great sheared void, the sun was blocked by the dark plane. Out ahead, Shards of other vehicles glitched and crackled. Kai drove slowly to avoid them as the van continued down the highway.

Kureha held up her phone to capture a photo of the moment, but as she did, the screen caught her attention. As her hand moved, the light from the screen lingered in the air for a very brief moment like a bullet’s heat tracer. She waved the phone again and sure enough, the streak of light from the phone’s screen hovered in the air in the aftermath of its previous location, then faded. Waving it from side to side created a latticework of light streaks that hovered in front of Kureha, then vanished. Shiona, Rin, and Arata watched in silence.

“Uhhh, guys…” was all Kureha could say.

Kai stopped the van to watch. Riku observed the streaks of light and then looked behind them, out the van’s back window.

“Holy shit,” he said as he pointed.

All of them turned to see that the van’s headlights and taillights had done the exact same thing. Ribbons of the remnants of light from the van drifted in the air behind them as an aftermath before fading.

“Are those… our shimmers? Shimmers of our light?” asked Rin.

“I think so…” said Kureha as she stared at her phone.

Her chest felt strangely empty as she observed the scenario. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t wonder. Something else was weighing her down, but she didn’t take time to dwell on it.

“Let’s keep going,” said Riku.

Approaching Fukuoka’s edge hours later felt like approaching the biggest temple in the country. Even before the city’s skyscrapers and curving beaches appeared, tens of thousands of makeshift lanterns and grave markers lined the roads. Talismans of numerous religions anointed every tree and pole in sight. Most of the buildings were dark and empty now, so the ones that were lit stood out amongst the sea of monolithic towers.

No specific location had been pinpointed as the true origin point of The Calamity, but even from the hillside, the friends could see where their destination was to be. On the edge of the bay, a small island stood separated from the mainland. Shika-no-Shima Island. It seemed to be on fire from a distance, but as the van approached, Kureha realized it was lined with hundreds of thousands of lanterns. Beyond the island was nothing but ocean for hundreds of miles, which meant the horizon vanished into the black void as though it was already consumed.

The weight in Kureha’s chest shifted as they got closer and closer to Shika-no-Shima. She wondered if it was from nerves or a side effect of the anomalies from being beneath The Calamity. Regardless, it grew with every kilometer until it felt as though her entire body was being pulled into the seat and out of the roof at the same time.

“I’ve got a headache…” said Arata as he rubbed his temples.

Down they went until the bay greeted them with an even more surreal image. As the waves lapped to and fro on the shore, light from the buildings and lamps caught in the froth, but then, just like Kureha’s phone, that light did not immediately dissipate. So each wave’s shimmer lingered for a few seconds after its crash, over and over again, until sparkles of light were so densely piled on one another it looked like millions of photos from the same spot were blended into one. It was hard to even see the water’s true movement, and if not for the sounds of the waves, Kureha wasn’t sure she would believe that there was any movement at all.

All across the bay, thousands of tents, temporary buildings, and makeshift shrines were visible. The area had become the holiest site in Japan, and worshippers of all faiths were now strewn across the sand in unison, praying to The Calamity and to their gods for wisdom, release, or salvation.

The mainland tapered into a thin peninsula that curved out into the water. A very large park was the last point of interest on the mainland before the bridge led them to Shika-no-Shima. Kureha looked out at what was once a sea of beautiful white and blue flowers. Now it was a wasteland of putrid, rotting detritus that hadn’t seen the sun in months. Soil rotted as rank blossoms sat forgotten. Not even the van’s interior cabin air filter could block out the smell. Thankfully, the scent only lasted a moment, as soon the park was gone, and only the roadway to the bridge remained.

Before them, the burning island welcomed them as though they were ascending into some new ring of Hell. Across the bridge they went. Kureha could see the bodies of thousands of people that were pacing and praying on the final destination. The bridge ended and they were now on the island.

“We’re finally here,” sighed Kureha.