As he floated toward the portal, he thought back on his life. He thought of the years of service when he had “protected” his country. He thought about his family, the good times and the bad, and knew beyond any doubt that there had been more “good.” He thought about his sister, hiding in the bunker, and hoped that she would be alright.
With each thought that flashed through his mind, and with each moment of his life that he replayed, he let go of his mortal attachments. The reports of “one’s life flashing before one’s eyes” had apparently been true. It was the first part of a necessary process to truly embrace the next phase of existence. More of Remy’s bonds to his old life were peeled away as he drifted closer to the shining gateway. By the time he was in front of it, he was left with a very simple conclusion.
He was ready.
It was time.
Right when he was about to pass on to the next phase of existence, however, a force grabbed his astral self and ripped him away from the welcoming light. Remy was only able to keep the portal in sight for a billionth of a second, but he thought the white luminescence had flashed an ominous, angry red. He would never be sure though, because he was pulled away so fast that everything was a blur.
As he flew away from that portal to the beyond, all his memories and thoughts slammed back into his “self.” He couldn’t feel actual pain, but after being in a state of near-total enlightenment, then having it ripped away from him, Remy was more than ready to cut a bitch. He would have shamed the devil with his cursing if he still had a mouth.
There had been no sounds since his death, but now what he heard was a great vortex of wind. Remy wondered if it was his imagination. Were the remnants of his consciousness adding fictitious sensory input? He felt like he was moving fast, but without a body how could he be moving at all? How could he hear the wind? Then the time for wondering was past. The feeling of movement decreased before coming to an abrupt stop. He was somehow able to cast his gaze around, and what he saw made the last vestiges of his old self feel pure terror.
He knew where he was. This was what people had come to call a Death Zone. It was a location that every human on Earth avoided. All that waited here was a brutal and painful death. That hadn’t always been the case, but it’d been true ever since these words had been emblazoned across the vision of every living man, woman and child:
Your world is now part of the Labyrinth
Remy struggled to free himself from the invisible bonds that held him, but he was helpless. His astral self continued floating forward. Humans had come to call this a Death Zone, but it had another name. It was an entrance to the Labyrinth. It was a Dungeon.
His consciousness felt the barest hint of resistance as it passed through the energy field of the Dungeon’s mouth. Then, a minute later, after zipping through many turns of the Dungeon, he passed through another portal and entered the Labyrinth itself. After that his speed picked up even more, so fast that it shamed his previous movement. Even though he lacked a body, the magical force of his passage crushed his astral consciousness to the size of a grain of sand’s left nut. Everything went black again.
The next thing Remy knew, he was in an open space so immense that he could not see the sides or the ceiling. What he did see when he looked around was a swirling grey… something. The environs were both wonderfully familiar and strangely disconcerting. His mind began to warp. He was old and young at the same time. His chromosomes rearranged, and he became a she. Then he was back to himself, but he had been born a twin. He was the twin. He murdered his brother. He could not remember why!
Remy’s mind began to splinter until the force holding him aloft exerted a new form of pressure. It counteracted the effects of the Probability Curve and let him maintain a rudimentary sense of self. He moved through the Formless Infinite. In time a massive platform came into view and panic flared once again in his ghostly heart. There were rows, endless rows, of people strapped to tables. Some were smiling, some were screaming, but most just lay there unblinking as they stared up at the swirling grey “stuff” that was all around them.
He was afraid he would be strapped to one of those tables, but the force transporting him carried him on and he once again lost any sense of orientation or time. The next “time” he was “aware,” Remy was still floating in the fathomless grey expanse, but now seven disembodied faces revolved around him. They were each the size of a house. The features of the visages flowed so quickly that they never settled on a single form. The lips of a man moved beneath the eyes of a snake all surrounded by feathers that a moment later morphed into long curls of purple hair crackling with white lightning. The other six faces shifted just as quickly and into visages even more bizarre.
~THIS IS THE CHOSEN?~ one face asked in a hissing voice.
~DANGEROUS!~ another boomed in response.
~IT MUST BE DONE!~ a third interjected.
~THIS HAS BEEN DECIDED!~ a nightmarish face thundered.
~THIS SEED IS HEALER, FIGHTER AND MORE! IT IS THE CHOICE!~
~THIS SEED IS KILLER, TYRANT AND MORE! IT IS THE CHOICE!~
~THIS SEED IS LEADER, CONQUEROR AND MORE! IT IS THE CHOICE!~
~YES! POWER IS SHIFTING ACROSS THE INFINITE FRACTALS OF THE UNIVERSE! WE MUST GROW THE INFLUENCE OF CHAOS AS WELL!~ The voice was initially the rasping of an old man, but it shifted to the innocent tones of a child.
~ITS TRUE NATURE MUST BE HIDDEN~
~THEN WE MUST BLOCK ITS TRUE FOCUS UNTIL~
~YES~, another voice interrupted, ~BUT WE MUST GIVE IT PRODIGIOUS GIFTS IF IT IS TO SURVIVE~
~THE COST WILL BE GREAT~, for the first time, several voices spoke at once, as though united in concern.
~IT CANNOT BE AVOIDED~
~IT WILL BE NEEDED~, added a voice that Remy had not yet heard.
~SO SHALL IT BE~, all seven faces intoned together.
The disembodied heads were spinning around Remy while they spoke about his fate. Between their movement and the shifting of their faces, he could not be sure which spoke next, but he supposed it didn’t matter. What did matter to him was that he did not like being discussed as if he wasn’t there. For the first time in his afterlife, though by far not the first time in his existence, he impetuously spoke up when perhaps his silence would have been the better choice.
“Who are you! Why did you take me from that light? What is this place?”
Remy had wanted to speak earlier, but there had been what he could only call a “pressure” inhibiting him. Only his anger at being ignored let him force his way past it. The faces did not respond at first. When one did, he thought he heard the barest hint of approval, if not respect.
~THE CHOICE IS WISE! THE SEED IS STRONGER THAN EXPECTED! THE BLOODLINE IS TRUE. IT WILL BE PREPARED!~
All the faces began to vibrate, then they slammed into one another. The seven melded together until only one remained, and Remy’s astral self started flowing toward it. The mouth yawned wide and Remy began struggling to get free again. It had as little effect as before. All he could do was project his words once more.
“What are you doing? I won’t be a prisoner or a slave or whatever you’re doing to those people strapped to the tables.”
The face ignored him and the mouth yawned wider.
Remy continued to struggle ineffectually. But, effective or not, he was still furious. He’d spent a lifetime fighting to control his own destiny. The idea that in death he would be robbed of his choice at this point was worse than the death he’d just suffered. At least then he’d been on his feet and had died on his own terms. He would not live another life controlled by others!