Read The After/Life (The After/Life Odyssey) for Free Online

this ever repeating light show annoyed me immensely but little by little I got used to it and even started liking it. Sometimes, I would sit by the window at night with a glass of rum and a School made cigar (our ex-pastor, truly a holy man, insisted on cultivating tobacco in a section of the garden) and my imagination would carry me away and sometimes I no longer felt like a survivor of the apocalypse. Sometimes, I felt like I was up there, living a life in the world before it was so brutally assassinated. I would look out into the darkness of the elevator shaft and imagine that there was an actual pre-apocalyptic living and breathing city in that darkness. And when the light invaded my room, I imagined it wasn’t from the elevator - it was from a car speeding by my house. Where was it heading? Probably home; everyone strives to get back home…
    …As I turned the last corner towards my quarters, I stopped abruptly and gave out an involuntary sigh. Standing there, right next to my door was Suzannah. Her hair was down and her eyes were burning with the same kind of flame I knew, and, in spite of everything, loved. We looked at each other for a very long time. She then came up to me and our lips locked in a kiss I had craved for ever since our last conversation. I don’t know how long we stood there, kissing. Finally, I was able to draw away from her and looked into her eyes.
    ”What the hell are you doing Suzannah?”
”Do you still love me Nad?”
”Don’t ask me that question. Not after all this time. Not after all the silence. Not after you got married.”
”So do you?”
”No, I don’t,” it was the biggest lie I could ever tell and she could see it all too well, unfortunately.
”Things are going to change, Nad.  Bad things are going to happen here. We need to stop them.”
”What are you talking about?”
”Do you believe me?”
    I looked at her for some time. I noticed, with some surprise, that we were holding hands.
    ”Do you believe me?” she repeated, her burning eyes holding mine in her mesmerizing grasp.
    I wanted to say yes… And then I remembered. I remembered all the times she passed me by with not so much as a glance. I remembered how she simply moved on after our unfinished conversation so long ago. I remembered how she laughed and joked around while I was making an inspired run for the title of the youngest alcohol addict of the School. I remembered her on her wedding day…
    ”No, Suzannah, I don’t. I think it is better you leave now. Your husband must be worried,” my voice sounded very cold and detached to my own ears.
    I saw pain reflected in her eyes and somehow it made me feel good. Does that make me a bad person? Perhaps so, but I felt good nevertheless. We stood facing each other for a moment longer. She then turned around and left. I never saw her again...
    The next morning, the School awoke to the news that Principal Higgins was dead and that Teacher Suzannah Ulkaner was gone. There was a search party looking for her throughout the School. They even went down to the reactor facility but no trace of her could be found anywhere. No one had ever disappeared from the School (after all, it was a hermetically sealed steel structure). The only exit from the shelter was the massive steel door we came through. That door had not been opened for over two decades now. The code to the terminal unlocking the door was known to the Principal and to the Principal alone. People were scared - they did not know what to make of the situation. I think that was one of the reasons Teacher Viler was elected the new Principal. Stephen Viler was about four years older than me. I never liked him. There was no particular reason for this. He was an excellent Student, generally admired by both the Teachers and the Students. He always said the right things and was very active in all the School activities. But as I watched him throughout all these years, I always had this peculiar feeling… like there