Death is no longer the end of life, but it comes at a cost. Sgt. Ana has to navigate the perils of corporate contracts to regain her memories.
G'day, Hive!
Doing a little change to my posting frequency, an everyday abouts schedule. So here's part 2 of my science-fiction dystopian story, Welcome to After-Life.
An unexpected visit taunts Ana with memories of how she died, but they leave her with more questions than answers. At least one kind soul in the After-Life is there to help.
Ana should have known the After-Life Program was cheap for a reason. Being a living citizen had blinded her from the troubles of the re-living, something she had heard numerous complaints about during her service, but only now fully understood. In the corner on her right, a small silver box with smooth round angles sat on a short stool, the device with which the re-living materialized. A heliogram artificer.
Every room in every building in the First-Worlds had one, except for private estates. Either she had bought and installed one herself, or this was put in as part of the ALP package. Ana looked over her scattering shoulder toward Sniffles. His pupils were dilated, begging for her to release him. He screamed in desperation for relief, but she could not give it.
“I’m sorry,” she mouthed silent words. The sound had cut off, and no doubt soon her form would dissipate into the air and abandon him. She slouched to the floor and Sniffles trotted toward and through her. He scratched at the locked flap in the door.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway, coming to a halt outside. A shadow crept under the door, a voice asked to enter, and the click of a loosening mechanism startled Ana into a run for the other side of the lounge.
An elderly man lurked at the threshold, invading her sanctuary, his smile burying wrinkled eyes under flaps of spoiled skin.
He lifted an open palm. “I’m just here to fix ya.” His words carried a hint of amusement. He turned his focus to the device in the corner and stepped closer. Crouching, he rested his hand on the mechanical device. “Will just be a sec.” He fiddled with it. “There ya go!” He turned to face her and smiled.
He could see her. Not just see her, but notice her, as a person and not just another hologram of the previously deceased. Ana shook her head. It was his job to notice people like her and make them feel hope. That warm smile wouldn’t fool her, no sir. She looked down at her hands. Sturdy and whole. Her lips whimpered.
“Is no problem. Give it a while, ya voice will come back.” He winked then turned on his heel and walked back to the door. Pausing at the threshold, he pulled at the umbrella canister with his left foot until it nestled between his legs, then nodded a farewell. His body fizzled into the air and vanished.
He was a re-lifer like her. Ana frowned then relaxed. Of course he was.
She looked to her right, through the ceiling-high window. City lights burned bright through the night, its streets alive with hovering sounds. She crawled to the stool in the corner and stared at the heliogram artificer. Bold black letters on its side spelled HEART.
She couldn’t remember what the ALP agent must have said about re-adjusting and had no clue on how to go about willing her hologram to interact with more than just light. But that man had the answers.
She took a deep breath, summoning all her focus and willpower, and grabbed hold of a wire. It pulsed between her fingers. The man had to come back and fix it again, that was his job and she had questions. Smoke rose from within the Heart. Its ports burned with white sparks.
Again, footsteps pounded on the thick carpet, approaching the door. Ana held her breath. The door slid open and a vaguely familiar face, sour and menacing, stuck though.
“Who’re you?” Ana pulled her hand out from deep in the glowing red circuits.
“I am Agent Sam, from Dignity Life. May I come in?” His foot stepped over the threshold before she could answer. “How has your After-Life experience been so far?”
“I... I don't remember how I-.”
“Good, good.” He scribbled on his clipboard. A large red ALP logo decorated its back, a white serpent snaking through the letters.
“Help me, please?” She stood up.
“We already have, last week.” His smirk sent shivers down her legs. At least, the virtual equivalent of them. She ignored them and closed her eyes, prodding at the redacted memories again. This time, they opened.
She was at a festival last week, running through the parade. She knew why, she had to escape, but from what? As soon as she asked the question, a blank canvas wrapped over her mind’s eye and disappeared to reveal the memory from where she left off.
She ran. That was when she contacted Dignity Life. She looked down at her hands, semi-opaque. They had delivered. In her desperation, she had trapped herself by their greed, by the system’s neglect. Ana was at their mercy.
The man handed her an envelope. She could touch it, hold it. Ripping open the flap, she pulled out the document contained within. Its words were rotten, sauteed in the gray of the law.
“Help us help you.” His words hissed through a broad smile of crooked teeth. “I’ll come around again in a couple of days. Take your time and think about it.”
Behind the agent, the maintenance man from before flickered into existence at the door, his smile as broad and gentle as before.
“Am I intruding?” His warm voice shattered the cold of the room.
“Not at all, I was just on my way out.” Agent Sam turned to Ana and winked. “We’ll speak again, Ms. Granger.” He backed away and began to dissolve. A re-lifer, too. How many were doing the dirty jobs of the Worlds?
“Oh, deary dear, what have ya done?” The maintenance man swept forward and fiddled with the Heart again.
“I need to get out,” she said, not wanting to explain what happened.
“Out? But ya not in anywhere.” He looked up with a deep frown sheltered over old blue eyes. “Ya can come and go as ya please, miss. Ya don’t need this ol’ Heart everywhere wit ya.” Laughter boomed around the room.
“I tried, but...” She turned her gaze away.
“Well, of course ya couldn’t go that way. Ya need to use them Web Ways. Here, like this.” He took her hand in his. And she felt heat.
