Read AfterLife for Free Online

profound statement.
    The truck hit a pothole and Jordan fell back down on the
bench.
    “Jordan, I think that’s enough,” Meri said, stopping Jordan
from going further with his explanation of the rebirth process. “I don’t think
he’s going to find it as exciting as you do.”
    “I don’t know,” Jordan said, “he might.”
    “Well, he doesn’t need the whole razzle-dazzle you give it.
Just give him the quick version so he knows his body isn’t going to rot out
from under him.”
    “Fine. We’re going to replace your bodily fluids with others
that our own scientists have developed. After that, we’ll teach you how to feed
off other people by looking into their eyes – it’s true what they say about the
eyes being the gateway to the soul, although we don’t really feed on the soul.
We feed on life energy. However, as you take their life energy, you also
shorten their lifespan, so be careful. How was that, short enough for you
Meri?”
    “You never cease to amaze me with how thoughtless you can
be.” Meri shifted her attention from Jordan to Wes. “Wes, I’m going to need you
to lie down now. I’m going to move over to the other bench and I want you to
stay as flat as you can. It’s going to get hard to move in a bit and we’ll need
you in a lying position when we arrive.”
    The truck ride continued for what seemed to be several
hours. His mind hummed with questions he couldn’t ask. He didn’t know if
anything Jordan said about rebirth was true, but he hoped it was. It would be
nice to have a little more control over his body. Would his body come back to
life or was this process just a way of preserving it from further decay? As he
listened to their caustic bantering, he realized there was a true friendship
and closeness behind it. They really cared for one another, and he liked that.
    Finally, the truck came to a stop, indicating their arrival
at their final destination. Wes’s body was so stiff he couldn’t move at all.
Meri and Jordan didn’t seem to have the same problem, and stood up as the doors
at the back of the truck opened. Meri leaned over Wes, placing herself into his
line of sight and indicating she knew he wasn’t able to move.
    “Don’t try to move, Wes. You’ll just damage yourself. Stay
put and we’ll take care of everything.”
    A group of people boarded the truck and lifted Wes onto a
stretcher. Seeing only what was above him, Wes watched a concrete ceiling pass
as they wheeled his body through a doorway and down another corridor before he
was finally lifted off the stretcher and placed onto a table. A young woman
with curly red hair leaned over Wes and looked at him with soft hazel eyes. Her
hair was pulled back into a short ponytail. She smiled.
    “You must be Wes,” she said as her eyes passed back and
forth over his face. She looked down at his left arm where his hand was missing
and then up to Meri and Jordan who had followed Wes’s body into the room. “Did
we get his hand?”
    “Yes, we got it,” Jordan said.
    “Good.” The woman with the red hair looked back down at Wes.
“You’re going to need a lot of work, but I think you’ll be just fine. Lucky you
kept your body in good condition while you were alive.” She gave Wes a
reassuring smile. She aligned her face with Wes’s, her eyes right over his, and
placed her hands on either side of his head. “Wes, I need you to focus on my
eyes. Stare right into them as if you’re looking through them.”
    Wes looked at the woman’s eyes and for the first time in
days, everything disappeared.
     

Chapter 4
     
    I t began with a
feeling of being lifted out of his body. It was the first sense of motion he
remembered experiencing since his death. The woman with the red hair picked him
up with her glance and he entered her eyes. He found himself walking forward
though darkness; the surroundings harbored an ambiance of nothingness. The
black void gradually faded as he advanced until he was walking along a