Chapter 5: The Afterlife?
Perspective: Jonathon Burley
Location:???
Date:???
Daytime, Exact time unknown
Light. Light everywhere. A very familiar sensation, considering it’s the last thing I remember happening to me. This time though, when I lifted my arm to try and block it, a satisfying shadow descended over my eyes. I guess this source of light was localized. I could have sworn I heard something vaguely resembling a bird taking flight, though the flapping of wings was much slower and louder, perhaps an angel? Maybe my mind wasn’t fully conscious yet. With a little effort, I pried open my eyelids, squinting as my eyes adjusted. I felt like I had just woken up, only with none of the ‘well-rested’ feeling you usually get and all of the stiff limbs and joints.
Several pops emanated from my joints as they moved after a seemingly long time of rest. Vision finally somewhat returning, I headed for the light source. For a short while none of my surroundings registered. All I could focus on was the sight outside the window. Luscious rolling green hills to the front of me. About a mile down vanilla, pink, and golden yellow specks were seen past the shallow hills, perhaps buildings of sorts? I don’t know, my vision is still adjusting.
Looking to the left a forest stood, the density of trees making it seem a little darker compared to the vivid and colorful hills. Flowers, sunny day, it was the most tranquil thing I had ever seen in a long time. It was a stark contrast to the dark, messy, and damaged room I was in, like I was looking through a portal to a better place.
“So this is what the afterlife looks like. It’s…peaceful. I could get used to this.” I walked to leave this room…and then stubbed my toe on the bed-frame. I immediately let loose a barrage of curse words and insults at the bed, somehow dragging the bed’s mother into the insult till it hit me.
‘Wait, pain? I’ve heard of a lot of versions of the afterlife, promising everything from golden cities to virgins, but none of them mentioned anything about pain!’ For the first time since arriving at this supposed ‘afterlife’, I looked down at my own body. Dessert-color cloth greeted my vision, along with black curved rectangles shoved in pouches in the cloth. Took me a minute, but eventually the fact that I was still wearing my vest dawned on me, a vest complete with magazines. My surroundings finally clicked too.
“This is the master bedroom, but…how?” Ok, let me get this straight. So supposedly I’m ‘dead’, but I still feel pain, I still have my equipment for my weapons (what kind of heaven allows people to bring their weapons?), and the house was still standing. Speaking of which, the house was still standing!! How!?
“Ugh damnit, the more I think about this, the less sense it makes,” I mumbled. Deciding to stop hurting my brain for now, I looked around the room, the light pouring in from the broken windows making this possible even with no artificial lighting. In a hole in the wall, buried by debris, a black hollowed cylinder peeked out at me. My Vepr. Before even reaching it though, my attention was immediately grabbed by something else, something that made my heart stop for a moment, only to resume pounding in my ears as fear overtook me. There were three bodies on the floor.
“Guys!” I yelled. “Guys, please wake up!” No response, not good! I ran over to each one. Thankfully, two fingers against each of their necks revealed a steady throbbing. They were alive, just not conscious yet. Slumping against the wall, I took a moment to calm the nerves before thinking again. Ok, time to analyze what the hell just happened. Eddy had been thrown to the wall opposite the bed, while Edgar slid under the bed, his body around one of the bedposts. I myself awoke slumped against the door to the bathroom. Still not sure why we were thrown about like this. Mike had received the worst of it, having been flung into the pile of broken furniture. What was very odd was that his body looked as though it had been dug out by someone.
Closer examination revealed that he had been…well, treated somehow; his body now sported a gauze and a few Band-Aids. Printed on the Band-Aids was a peculiar pink and baby blue three-butterfly design. Since when the hell did we have those? And who treated him? Man, I wish this whole situation would make more sense; why can’t things be as easy to explain as things like ‘why are the windows are broken’ or ‘why is the floor messy’? At least I know the answer to those, fucking Infect…ed…oh crap!!
Wasting no time, I ran for the hole in the wall, yanking out the cylinder there. Quickly cycling the bolt, I was pleased that there was ammo in the gun and that the bolt itself cycled, meaning the weapon still probably worked. If we got here, wherever ‘here’ is, then maybe the Infected were able to follow through. The fact that we’re still alive (I think) suggests otherwise, but I’m not taking any chances. Time for a preemptive strike!
Exiting the hallway, I cautiously entered the other bedroom on the first floor. It was dark, the plate still intact on this window, so I flipped the light switch. The lights in the room were kind enough to remind me of a particular situation with their dimness. It had escaped my mind in the adrenaline-fueled fight for survival, but now that I think about it, the Ultracaps were very low. Also coming to realization was the fact that everything was quiet, another nail in the coffin for the ‘Infected followed us’ theory. It also meant the fridge and freezer weren’t running; we’d have to get on that sometime soon, but not now. Back to the task at hand, the dim light helped illuminate most of the room enough to see, but just barely. The inadequate lighting still made the room dark and ominous, and created heavy shadowing along with a dark corner of the room where the light couldn’t reach. It wasn’t much fun clearing that room with so many blind spots.
Finally clearing the room, I moved on, repeating the procedure as I went. As soon as a room was cleared, the lights were immediately turned off to conserve what little power was left. Near the end there was a noise downstairs. I shouldered the weapon and cautiously made my way towards the stairs. Then I heard it. A raspy noise coming from downstairs. Still not entirely convinced the noise came from a human, I stopped at the stairway. There I stood, weapon pointing straight at the top of the stairs and finger on the trigger, itching to pull the small piece of metal that separated this world from the true afterlife. The voice spoke again, and while still raspy, now loud enough and clear enough to understand.
“J-Jon, that you?”
Perspective: Mike Britowski
Location:???
Date:???
4 minutes ago
The first thing to return was the pain. Lots of pain; a constant pressure that ached terribly, only interrupted by the frequent throbbing which hurt worse. I tried bringing my arm up to attempt to assuage the pain, only to realize I couldn’t move it. Now that I mention it, I couldn’t see or hear either. Fantastic, while my body is taking its sweet time starting up, I’m left here with my thoughts. Well, that and my agony. Is this what coma patients feel like when they’re coming to, slowly gaining one sense at a time? This is horrible, somehow conscious but not being able to either receive external stimulation or send commands. On another note, my head is killing me! Wait, no…I take that back. I guess that saying is inappropriate now, considering we’re already dead.
Hey look, my hearing returned, and my sight’s coming back! Another weird thing started happening at the same time though. The constant pain lessened, until it became a much more manageable dull ache. Wonder why that happened? Attempting to move my arm again, I was pleased when my body decided to listen to me this time. Deciding now was as good a time as any to see what happened to me, I gingerly sat up, trying to gauge if I had any serious injuries, like a broken bone or something. Other than a couple of cuts and bruises, the rest of my body felt fine. Well, there was a weird feeling, but not in a painful sense. It was as if my body was-what’s this?
Band-Aids covered a few spots on my arms, chest and legs. Also, any cuts not bandaged appeared to have been cleaned, the only indication they were there was a thin red line on several places on my body. Interesting choice in Band-Aids, but nevertheless I owed someone a ‘thank you’. Taking in my surroundings, I noticed quite a bit of greenery outside the destroyed windows. Where those plants? Yep, definitely not in the desert anymore. Another oddity in the background was the lack of a team member. Where’s Jonathon? I should probably look for him. Also this pile of splintered wood and broken plastic wasn’t exactly comfortable, further persuading me to get off my lazy ass. With some effort, I rose unsteadily to my feet. My head, disagreeing quite strongly with the whole ‘moving from this spot’ plan, protested the whole way up. I really hope we still have some of that Advil.
Climbing over a book-…excuse me, the remains of a bookshelf, I started down the hallway. Walking about the first floor, I became aware of the fact that the doors were all open, as if someone had gone through all the rooms. There was a distinct shuffling upstairs. I froze, was that Jonathon?
“Jon?” I wheezed out. God, it’s like someone poured buckets of sand down my throat, what’s with this dryness!? Attempting to draw saliva out to swallow some form of liquid, and having partial success, I tried again.
“J-Jon, that you?” Still raspy, still dry. Fortunately, it seems like Jon understood that time.
“Yea, give me a minute,” came the reply from upstairs. True to his word, Jonathon poked his head out from the top of the stairs about a minute later.
“Hey man, thanks for patching me up,” I told him as he descended the stairs.
“Actually…I didn’t do it. I was hoping you knew who did.”
“You didn’t? But, Edgar and Eddy are still passed out in the master bedroom, so who put these bandages on me?”
“You forgot to mention the gauze on your head.”
“Wha-” Sure enough, my fingers brushed against the woven cotton of the gauze on the left side of my forehead.
“God damnit, so that’s why my head hurts so much! Fell back and bashed the back of my skull, now something bashed the front of my skull. My head wasn’t designed for this kind of abuse!”
“Guys? It is you! We ended up in the afterlife together!” said a voice behind us. Turning around, the voice belonged to none other than Edgar. He was rubbing a tender spot on his back.
“Damn dude, must have been a hell of an explosion if the pain followed us all the way here.”
“Nice to see you too Edgar, but I don’t really think we’re dead actually,” Jonathon replied. Wait, what?
“What do you mean Jon? We blew up remember?” I questioned.
“Yo, what’s with all the commotion?” Eddy asked behind us. Good, everyone was awake; time to settle the debate once and for all. Are we dead or what?
“Eddy, isn’t it true that you detonated the explosives?” I asked.
“…Well…actually…”
Perspective: Eddy Culivin
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 26, 2025
1 minute before ‘detonation’
They were so close now, the restraints about to give. Edgar was reassured we would see each other when this was over; I really hope that’s true. I gripped the detonator tightly, the safety switch already being held down. Like something out of an incredibly cliché action movie scene, the window and door failed at the exact same time. Guess my time‘s up; I should say something before I die.
“Catch you on the flip side guys”…Did I really say that? God that was terrible! I’m going to die, and the last words out of my fat mouth were…I’m just glad that no survivors were around to hear that. I wonder if God was laughing his head off in heaven right now; I guess I’d find out personally in a minute. Too late to do anything about that now though, so I placed my thumb over the button. Just as I was pressing it however, a bright light filled the room. It was so blinding, I instinctively tried to cover my eyes, releasing the detonator in the process. Well that’s just fan-fucking-tastic! Now we don’t even get a painless death! As soon as I let go, my hand was no longer depressing the safety switch, so the explosives wouldn’t detonate. That is some bull…
The light however, continued to brighten, and the Infected started howling. If we’re not dying in a blaze of glory, where was this light coming from?
Never did get the answer to that one, because shortly after I blacked out.
Present
“…and so that’s what happened. If I had to guess, we’re still alive…somehow. Don’t know where we are, how we got here, and how everything’s still standing, but we’re alright one way or another,” I finished. This was quite the shock to everyone, and there were a few minutes of tense silence as the four of us tried to wrap our heads around what happened. I’m not sure who gathered their thoughts first, but one of us asked the million dollar question on all our minds.
“If we aren’t dead, where the hell are we!?”