Part One

I was dead and i knew it. I could recall all the minutiae of the life i'd just lived, even the things i thought i'd forgotten, in vivid detail, with a vague nostalgia, but devoid of most of the poignant emotions i'd experienced while living through them. Sure, i'd miss living that life. I'd been happy. For the most part. But here is where i found myself, standing in a crowd of people i didn't know, about to share with them a fate i couldn't have imagined a few minutes ago.

The place i was in was sort of a landing station. People sat around at picnic tables, some talking in low voices amongst each other, some staring straight ahead, some were praying quietly to themselves, but no one was displaying any kind of intense emotion. There was an air of anticipation, and i felt a little keyed up as i surveyed the recently dead. I walked past groups of them, catching snippets of conversation that meant nothing to me, and i let them filter out of me as easily as they'd drifted in. I could tell some of them had been here for days, and some were new arrivals like myself. Across the courtyard, i could see the door to . . . wherever it is i was supposed to end up. The door and the building were nondescript, and i knew this courtyard was just a waiting area for that nondescript building. I took a seat among some of the speculators.

"I hear that most people die in there," one man said nervously.
"Horse shit, we already dead," scoffed an older man. When i looked at him, i had the feeling he'd been blind during his life, but he was not blind now.
"No, it's true!" the first man insisted, "I hear that most people are too scared to move, and they just. . go away. You got to run once you get there if you want another chance."
"So what if we do go away? God will not let any harm come to me," a small girl said, a bit defiantly.

With no cue, half of us from the table stood up and began making our way toward the building. Conversation halted, envy and apprehension warring on the faces of those remaining as they watched us depart. I turned to look back at them again, and they'd already forgotten we were ever there. As i turned back toward the building, the nervous man nudged me.

"When you get there, run. It's the only way," he whispered out of the side of his mouth, his lips barely betraying that he'd spoken at all.

I nodded, not certain whether i was humouring him or whether i planned to take his advice. I supposed it would depend on what i found there.

My eyes had little difficulty adjusting to the vast dimness in the building. Once inside, we were herded through turnstiles as though we were getting on the subway, only there was no subway on the other side of them. On the other side was a city-sized system of conveyor belts. I had no time to stop and goggle, as the crowd kept pushing me forward, closer and closer to the platform that led to the first of the conveyors.

People were stepping on to the conveyors. A few stood, but most of them knelt down. It was difficult to tell what they were feeling by looking at them. As the eleventh person stepped on, the conveyor started moving. Most of the riders stayed in their crouched positions, but the few who'd remained standing took off at a dead run and leapt at a conveyor moving in a different direction. I was fascinated by the leapers and didn't notice the fate of the crouchers. I decided i'd be a leaper myself just as it was my group's turn to step onto the conveyor system.

Like the few in the last group, i remained standing along with the nervous man from the table. Everyone else in my group was a croucher, and i ceased paying them any mind, suddenly nervous about my ability to jump to a different conveyor. Which one should i take? Where did they lead? Were they really any better destinations than where this one was going? I had no time to ponder these questions as the conveyor started moving. Do or Die, as the expression went. I did not laugh at this humourless joke i'd made to myself as i took off at a dead run. I chose a conveyor close to mine and leapt, surprising myself by making it easily. The sprint hadn't even winded me. I didn't look back at my thwartd fate, but forward at the one i'd chosen at random. I decided to crouch when i saw the sharp turns and dips i would be taking. At the end of the ride was a big, black empty. I had no time to panic before i felt myself falling. I didn't feel myself land, but i wasn't moving anymore, so i opened my eyes and took in the world around me.

I was in the grass, but why was it so tall? I could barely see above it. I opened my mouth to call out for help, and was surprised by my own voice.

"Ribbit."

I closed my mouth and immediately wished i'd never opened it in the first place. I'd attracted the attention of a girl on a swing set that'd been too big for me to notice. She jumped down off of the swing set, rocking my world for a brief moment as she bounded forward and scooped me up. She swung me sickeningly up above her head to show an adult i presumed to be her mother her new pet.