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The doe’s disappearance took a toll on the goat boy. He escaped to college, to try to forget, but he couldn’t. She’s been the whole world to him. Asriel, knowing that he’s returning to Hometown soon, was now more determined than ever. On the first night back home with clothes on his back, a duffle bag filled with essentials, a flashlight in hand, and a heart-shaped locket as his shield, he marched towards the bunker. Its metal doors were a wall to someone who didn't know the codes, thankfully he remembered one. As he popped open the metal covering the keypad, he typed out the master code. From the built-in speaker a weak robotic voice spoke.
“Access Granted. Welcome back Mayor.”
The door’s lock banged into the position allowing Asriel to open them. From the innards a black smoke escaped, finally freed from its prison. Asriel with his head held high went in. A long stairwell greeted him, most of the lights thankfully worked. As he went down, the beautiful smell of the forest turned into a mixture of mold and dust, and ended up almost overwhelming at the bottom. He has two rooms to clear. One is a simple rectangular shape with benches thrown about, though half of the floor, mostly near the stairs, felt more like a sponge. The second one was far more interesting, as it was a storage unit. Shelves were filled with expired canned foods, old medical supplies, the only useful thing here was a roll of duct tape. Asriel tried to pick it up, but was rudely interrupted by a sudden bang. He stumbled backwards hitting the shelf behind him, before looking at the room behind him.
“Empty” he mumbled to himself before checking on the stairs. From this perspective they were even longer.
“Doors probably closed” again mumbling he returned to the storage room. A few objects fell down from the impact with his body, but one of them was unaltered. A baseball covered in dust. It seemed like it was glued to the shelf. Asriel started examining it, after he twisted it, he could hear a mechanism starting to work. A small panel with only one button rolled out of the wall. After he pressed it and waited, a hidden elevator opened its doors.
As the elevator took him deeper, the same robotic voice from earlier started speaking again. This time it was more energetic.
“Welcome back and Good day to You dear employee. If it's your first day allow me to personally thank You for choosing THE BUNKER company. Remember to follow the standard Health and Safety guidelines as described in the worker’s manual. If you have any questions or suggestions about the work environment, please contact the HR department. If you notice something wrong is happening during your shift please notify your supervisor immediately.” The elevator slowly grinds to a halt. “Have a very productive day”.
To his bewilderment, the elevator took him to what seemed to be a cave. There was a path, on each side of it a planter filled with trees and flowers. The path eventually ended at a glass moving door. As Asriel moves towards it, lights above the entrance begin to flicker into life revealing white metal letters, they say “THE BUNKER© “. He noticed that the surrounding plants were in fact real, and not made out of plastic like he thought. When he finally arrived at the entrance, the doors opened on their own, revealing an almost impossibly long hallway before him. The only things that changed between some of its parts were the motivational posters on the walls, the rest of it looked identical with a water cooler on the left near the oak door and on the right, a small bench also near a door. The whole of it looked more like a fancier hospital waiting room than an actual facility. “What the hell” Asriel thought but he also knew that it was foolish to leave now, even after witnessing this. He chose the door on his left. There was another identical hallway there. He got back and checked what was behind the right door. Again it was the same arrangement of doors and objects. He got to the new door on his right; it was again the same thing. He decided to try to find some other room that wasn’t this hallway, and so he went.
RIGHT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT LEFT
The final door led to something different. This room was more industrial; the previous blue carpet merged with the now metal plate floor, the painted walls with new concrete ones, the roof tiles went missing and got changed to pipes jetting out from place to place, and a misty void from which dim red lights illuminated the space. The flashlight he was carrying came in use. The new room resembled the old one in layout, main corridor followed by two doors to the other corridors and repeat. This time though, the doors were just straight holes to the other side, the water coolers were replaced by fans and the benches by metal lockers. A cry echoed through the hallways. Asriel followed it, like a guiding light; hopefully, it will lead to her. He marched for what was a second for him, as he looked back at the entrance - it was far away. This noise led him to a small room, a single flickering yellow light bulb illuminated it. A single deer sat in this room with only her hooves and part of jeans visible. The goat shone the flashlight directly at her, revealing a frail-looking doe sitting on the cold metal floor, her head buried in her legs.
“Dess?” Asriel spoke with disbelief, she looked like the day she disappeared.
“Asriel” the deer looked up before jetting out to him, pulling him into a firm hug.
“Asriel, it is you. Dear Angel, I thought I would never see you again!” Asriel hugged her back, letting his fur get wet from her tears. “It's alright Dess, I’m here” his voice, warm and comforting. “For a while I thought you forgot about me like everyone did” she pulls away slightly their foreheads now connecting.
“Oh Dess I would never forget about you.” A sudden force pulls him down, where Dess used to stand now was a black puddle, her hands sticking out pushing him in. Asriel manages to pull himself away in time landing on his back. The puddle begins to bubble as its innards begin to curve outwards, almost touching the ceiling. With a sound of coughing the skull of a deer emerges from this dark soup, its eyes are now pink and yellow dots, the only thing remaining from Dess is its hair. Asriel in this fear was stuck, his mind screaming, begging to move while his body stood still. From the bubbles two arms emerge, with every inch they sounded like snapped bones, its hands had holes in them, one of them holding a white sword. As the puddle returned to its normal state, additional 4 hands spring back from this beast's back, every one of them ending in a sharp point, its body was a black skeleton. Its breath was heavy, almost like it was constantly suffocating. Azzy closed his eyes, as the beast was preparing to strike him. He heard the sword fly out before he heard a screeching sound coming from the beast.. He looked for a moment as its body collapsed, almost crushing him. The sword was now piercing its body, dots now being blue, he could hear Dess speaking through this thing. “AZZY RUN!” Without a second thought he took off, almost losing his bag. The sprint to the normal hallways wasn’t that hard, the real challenge though was remembering how he got here. He went right then left.
“Was it right or left? FUCK” he thought. Every room looked the same, he was getting nowhere while the beast was getting closer and closer.
“Oh Azzy please c-c-comeback” the voice of Dess now more distorted.
RIGHT LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT LEFT
In this panicked state an idea got to him. Getting to the door on the other side of the hallway. Asriel with every power remaining in him sprinted towards that door, hearing the beast crash into the room right behind him.
“JUST A LITTLE CLOSER I CAN DO THIS” he screamed that out loud in his mind. Finally he got to the door. With all his build-up speed he broke through the door and the ceiling landing near the exit, his freedom so close. When he got into the elevator, he started slamming the up button, almost breaking it from the constant pressing. The elevator finally started going up, as he breathed a sigh of relief. As the elevator rides upwards, he can hear the thing is climbing up the shaft, chase isn’t over yet. He ran towards the exit of the supply room, the earlier small waiting room, now transformed itself into a large dome, while the floor is still spongy on one side, its more fragile bending and breaking under Asriel's weight. He inched forward hoping that the floor won’t crack, though the beast had a different idea. At the sight of Asriel, it jumped into the air and smashed right into the floor, breaking through it and falling into the dark abyss below. As the crack became larger and larger, Asriel sprinted to the stairwell, but his speed wasn’t sufficient. The ground gave way, sending him into free fall. The sponge floor on the other side of the fall caught him, leaving him unharmed. The beast though wasn’t as lucky, as its body hit the concrete part of the floor, Asriel could hear a scream of a hundred souls, he could hear it whimper like a dog as it was dragging its body. When he couldn’t hear the beast, Asriel dug himself out from his spongy tomb. He left his bag inside and as he tried to fish it out the sponge closed around his arm, almost crushing it.
“Dammit” this whole thing was getting on his nerves.
Only two things remained: the flashlight and the locket. Turning on the flashlight didn't help at all, it was still pitch black here. The only light emanating from the stairs far above him. While stumbling in the dark he crashed into another door, this time a familiar sight was behind it: Hometown school. The door shut itself behind him as he entered. The walls were plastered with his drawings he made as a kid, the whole school was mainly in dark blue colours, it was almost like the fading sunlight was shining through the walls. Looking up the whole building looped on itself. With a moment of rest Asriel sat down in his favourite spot next to his locker and classroom, right on top of the pipes bridging hot water to radiators. The classroom door opened slowly, and a scaly old hand peeked out of it.
“Asriel? What are you doing here at such a late hour? Are you waiting for extracurricular lessons again? GYAAHAHA.”
Asriel jumped at the sudden voice of his former teacher. “Gerson? What are you doing here?” He could see his one eye, glowing yellow in the classroom.
“Didn’t I tell you that you can always find me here, whenever you need me?” Gerson gave another chuckle
“Yes but this isn’t school.” Asriel spoke, looking around at the place he found himself in.
“Have to agree with you on that one, this place is something different, yet familiar, isn’t it?” Asriel's childhood and teenage memories started flooding in, his first day at school. The many times he played with his friends, the first time he met her.
“Actually, could you tell me something about this place?”
“Oh this bunker was created by a great scientist my boy: Working with him was a pleasure, though he made many discoveries, he had a fixation on one of them.” He began walking back and forth in the darkened classroom. “It could create a world in a place as small as the closet, you can get there at any time, this world was entirely controlled by the one making it. We are currently in this world but as you see, he flew too close to the sun, his mind shattered and with it this place. Now it's just a shambles of its former glory.” In his voice a bit of sorrow can be heard.
“Alright, but why are my personal things here, why does this place look like this?”
Gerson gets to the door again, his eye shining more.
“To be honest with you Asriel, I don’t know. Though I believe it’s connected to memories of the one trapped here. You see this place feeds off you, and slowly you start forgetting that there's a world outside this one.” As he retreated into the classroom, Asriel could hear him opening cabinets searching for something. He now returns a notebook and a few pens in his hand. “Take this, It helped me remember my past, now it will help you.” Asriel took the notebook and pens, showing them into the inner pocket of his jacket.
“You won’t need it?” He asked, concerned about Gerson.
“Ah don’t worry, I have a lot of those” he waves off Asriel’s concern.
“Why don’t you join me, maybe we could find a way out” In his voice an invitation.
“I’m sorry Asriel, but I cannot go with you, I would just slow you down and you wouldn’t want to see me in this state. You remember I’m dead in your world right? GYAHAHA”
“Yeah I forgot for a second there” Azzy decided to just walk away, not wanting to continue the conversation. He respected the old man's decision to stay here.
“Asriel!” The goat turned around for a second
“Good luck” with this Gerson closed the door to his classroom. He walked right to the school's exit, opening the massive doors he saw just a pile of rocks behind them. “Oh come on” irritation could be heard in his voice. The goat boy quickly looked back as he heard a splat behind him.
“Azzy, where are you?” The sad voice of Dess echoed through the halls. Asriel quickly hid himself in one of the lockers. He could hear the splats walking closer to his hiding spot.
“Azzy please come out, I’m sorry about my outburst earlier, really I am. I-I just was so excited to finally see you again.” He heard the best stop, right next to the locker.
“Do you hate me? Do you really just hate me that much?” the beast wept in Dess tears. Asriel’s heart begged to call out to her, to tell her it's not true. His mind’s grip on his lips tightening, followed by a call to his hands to hold his mouth. The beast not noticing movement went past his hiding spot and into the classroom left of him. He slowly got out of the locker, and inched towards the only place he thought of at the moment. He got to the principal’s office just in time. The beast was now moving on the walls like a fly, still in a sad voice begging Asriel to show himself. The office was trashed and dark. The windows were just painted on the wall, most of the cabinets were destroyed, the clock was counting the wrong way, the only normal looking thing in this mess was a monitor on the desk. The monitor had TV static on it, and was the only light source here. Moving towards it, he could swear for a second he heard her giggle coming right outside the office. When he was mesmerized by the static on the monitor, something called out to him, like there was home on the other side. He reached out his hand towards the monitor, and to his surprise, it passed through it and to the other side. He did that with his second hand, and before he knew it, he pushed himself to the other side of the monitor. The feeling of his home being so close was true. As he opened his eyes he was in his room again, the TV static monitor right behind him on his desk. He stood up in excitement. Everything looks the same: the stars on the wall, the shelf with trophies on it, Kris’s unkempt bed.
“Mom? Dad?” Asriel called out, but nobody responded. Quickly getting down to the kitchen and the living room he saw most of it was covered in a layer of ash. This layer was thinner in some places whilst thick in others. Asriel finally notices this whole thing was just like reversed nuclear shadows of every argument, every spat, every wrong decision. The larger the layer the more impact it left on the family. Though Toriel and Asgore’s arguments seemed to be the biggest, as he walked towards the exit, he saw two imprints, both his and around it almost a steep mountain of ash. He started clearing the path to the front door when he heard something behind him. A marionette of Kris rolled out, it was attached by a heart-shaped object to the ceiling.
“You’re leaving already?” The puppet spoke, its voice a little disappointed. “You won’t even say goodbye? Like you did twice already” Asriel ignored their voice completely. It's just a puppet he thought to himself as he continued digging. ”You are just like our parents! You don’t even want me, do you?” In their voice, spite, like acid rained on the goat. Making him stop digging for a moment.
“I’m sorry Kris, but I need to do this. Besides you know that I will come back” he proceeds to hug Kris, a single tear left their eye. He dug the rest of the way to the door. As he opened it a gush of wind burst out and with it followed the ash which now filled the entire room to the brim.
“NO, NO KRIS” in his panic he tried to dig them out, but to no avail. Now after all of this he saw the hallway from the beginning but this time the right side was covered in windows. With his hands and legs trembling, he moved into the corridor he looked out from the windows. Before him stood an endless upside down city. The skyline stretched out far beyond what he could see, it was snowing heavily. Despite the lights on the streets and in the windows, this city and its concrete giants seemed lifeless. As he took in the sights, a reflection formed in his mind.
"This was supposed to be a simple thing: go into the bunker, find her or not, then leave" but now it was too late to leave. He was trapped in this labyrinth of hallways and rooms, each one reminding him of the life he had and will never experience again. Realizing the moment of rest, thoughts pierce his mind like spears. There were oh so many of them, too many to answer them all. Under the pressure of it all, his eyes begin to turn red, tears begin rolling down his cheeks. In this state of hopelessness, anger, fear, only one sentence left his lips.
“I just wanna go home.” Asriel’s legs grew weaker, he collapsed near a wall. He was now sitting on the blue carpet with his head buried in his legs. “I JUST WANNA GO HOME” He screamed through his tears. “I-I just wanted to” he began breathingly rapidly. In his cries he didn’t notice that someone sat down next to him. As her hand touched his shoulder, he jumped away.
“I’m sorry Azzy, did I scare you?” Her voice was filled with concern. Asriel looked at the thing standing in front of him and he couldn’t believe his eyes. “D-Dess is that you?” His question was cut off there. “Yes it's me you dummy” she extends her hand, she has a warm smile on her. “Get up, you can’t lie here forever” she chuckles as Asriel grips her hand and gets up. “Alright come with me. I have a place you might like” with that she starts pulling the goat behind her. Asriel only looked blankly at the concrete monstrosity behind the window, still processing what was happening. She suddenly stopped, Azzy almost fell over, and Dess spun him around before catching him. She opened the door in front of him revealing a room that was exactly like his college dorm room, though the window was a mirror. Again she took his hand, they both sat down on his bed. What followed was a minute of silence, maybe even an hour, Azzy didn’t know his thoughts were still screaming inside him. Dess, seeing that something is bothering him, puts a hand around him. “Azzy? Something's wrong?” He started shaking and tears started rolling again. He started panting, he talked through his tears “Dess I’m, I’m sorry” she gently placed his head on her thighs. “I knew you didn’t want, didn’t want to, You wanted to go home, but I just pushed you, I thought we could just spend some time there and, and maybe, I’m sorry” Dess started gently petting him as he continued his rant. “And I come back here, I’ve come back, I wanted to save you, I wanted you to love me again, but how can you, love me while I did this to you I-I think I don’t even remember you, I’ve forgotten what the sky looks like, I just want us to be happy, I thought I can save you but, but I couldn’t” He started fully crying bumbling to himself. “It’s okay Asriel, I forgive you. Don’t push yourself so hard. Okay?” Her voice was warm and comforting. She held his head allowing her to get off the bed. “Now get some rest” She kissed him on his forehead. She walked over to the door “I have to go now, but I believe in you Azzy, you will make it” with her final words she exited the room. He ran after her, only to see the lights in the hallway and in the city were now gone. Dess was nowhere near. He closed the door and limped to the bed. With reluctance, he took out the notebook and started recounting everything he knew, not wanting to forget. Only one thought lingered in him as he wrote down the happenings of today.
“Why couldn’t I just forget?”