Cody Brooks died at 2:47p.m. on November 18, 2014. It was a quick death, not totally painless, but quick. Major heart attack. He had been an unremarkable man, 39 years old when he died, no wife or children. He had had a nice funeral attended by his family and friends and after the graveside sermon his casket containing his mortal remains had been lowered into the ground and covered. The end.
...
There was a sound. A bothersome sound. Like the buzz of a fly at night when you're sleeping or the distant sound of a car alarm that won't shut off. He tried to ignore it, but eventually it brought him around. He found himself in a small, confined space with hardly room to move. It was dark but he could sense a surface very near his face, as well as on both sides of him. And still there was that sound. What was it? Like a periodic pounding or scraping sound. In a short time he realized that he was lying on his back in a dark box. He couldn't remember getting into the box, nor imagine why he was there. It made no sense. The sound seemed to be getting closer to him now. A scrape, then a few seconds of quiet, then another scrape, then quiet. This repeated over and over. Suddenly a thump vibrated through the vessel around him, followed by more scraping, then nothing. After a few seconds the surface above was torn away revealing a star filled night sky and the face of a dirty workman looking down at him. Beyond the man Cody could see the walls of a hole and realized he was at the bottom of it. After waving a lantern above his face and gazing at him with the expression of an idiot he moved away and Cody heard a voice.
"Come up out of there, now!"
Cody was totally confused at this point wasn't sure he wanted to do as he was told. He also felt very strange. He could feel energy rippling through his body as never before and also a strange detachment from his physical self. He tried moving his legs, no problem. He sat up hesitantly, then stood and moved toward the ladder propped against the end of the hole. It was a this point that, looking down at the casket he'd been lying in, he realized he was in a grave. A scream boiled up from his bowels, through his torso and lungs, and finally rose into the night air. He couldn't stop it. His mind was racing with questions - what was he doing here, what had happened, what was going on? And finally, after a minute or so, the scream died away and he emerged from the grave.
Standing a few feet away was a man Cody had never seen before. He was of medium height, slender, with a handsome face that marked his age as somewhere between 23 and 80. He was dressed casually in slacks and a white oxford shirt, tail out.
"That's better" (the same voice that had ordered him out of the grave earlier)
"What's going on, who are you?" Cody demanded.
"Hmmm. What's going on, well my boy I've just resurrected you and had you dug up out of your grave. As to who I am, you can call me Bill."
"What do you want from me? How is this possible?"
"Okay, first please try to calm yourself. I'll explain everything you need to know. Why don't you come over here and have a seat."
"I don't want to have a fucking seat! I want to know who you are and what the fuck is going on, and I'm not going to ask again!" Cody said, close to losing his temper.
"You will walk over here and sit down NOW!" the man commanded.
Cody felt a strange sensation, a compulsion to do as he was told. Without his intention he started walking to the spot the man had indicated and sat.
"Good." said Bill. "Now, here's the situation. Your name is Cody Brooks. You died yesterday at the age of 39. As I said earlier, I've resurrected you and now you are mine."
"What do you...."
"Don't interrupt. As I said earlier, you can call me Bill. I'm what you might call an executive. I work for the powers that be and I'm in charge of desertion recovery. You are now one of my agents."
"I don't understand." said Cody. "Are you Satan, do you work for him?"
"Of course you don't. Let me give you the broad outlines. Forget your Judeo-Christian fairy tales. There is no God, there is no Satan. The universe is a big complex machine. It functions based on naturally occurring processes and like any machine, there are occasional glitches. The closest any Earth based religion has gotten to it is the Hindus, and they only understand a tiny piece of it correctly. Just so happens that that piece is my bailywick, and is now also yours. There are a set number of entities the universe can support. A set of these exist on Earth. However, the form they take on Earth - human, can only last so long or experience a narrow range of the possible experiences and growth that an ether-borne entity craves. So, an ether-borne entity is moved to Earth, by being born a human child, experiences that life with all that it entails, then dies. After death the entity is returned to the ether to wait to be reborn again."
"So shouldn't I be in the ether then?" Cody asked.
"Normally yes. But there is a certain amount of overhead required to deal with those glitches I mentioned before. You see, the time spent ether-borne between human lives can be long. I'm talking eons long. Occasionally, an ether-borne decides that they're tired of waiting and cuts in line. At the first moments of life the deserter, that's what we call them, uses its energy to displace the ether-borne that is intended for that life and enters the body instead. This is a problem. This disrupts the natural order of things. The universe does not like it, therefore my superiors do not like it, therefore I do not like it."
"Okay, I think I'm following this. I'm not sure I believe it but okay, I'll play along. What's my new role in all of this?"
"As my agent you will be able to move between ether and Earth hunting down those entities who have wrongly abandoned the ether. You have been given special powers that will enable you to hunt them down and return them to the ether. Naturally, part of this process will be to kill their human form."
"You mean murder them?"
"I wouldn't call it murder per se, more like an execution. Bur really, it's nothing to fret about. They are in the wrong and shouldn't be on Earth in the first place."
"Listen, I'm no killer. I have no experience with that. I've never wanted to hurt anybody."
"Yes, I know. But that will change. As I said, we've provided you with certain abilities to help with your task. When you've located a deserter, you'll get really angry. Uncontrollably angry. You won't be able to NOT kill them. As for how, you'll have superhuman strength, power to manipulate time, space, and materials any way that you need to. You'll be able to vaporize them, explode them, have them burst into flames, whatever."
"Why all of the different methods? Won't being vaporized pretty much cover the gamut?"
"Oh yes, but believe me, after a while you're going to get really bored if you have to keep killing people the same way!"
"Well how will I know how to use all of these powers anyway?"
"You already know how to use them, you just haven't had a reason to think about it. As the humans in the military like to say you're locked and loaded. I have your first assignment all ready for you, here's the name."
Bill passed Cody a slip of paper. When Cody looked up Bill was gone. Bill stood up and started walking, contemplating all that had happened. He HAD been in a grave and all that, but this couldn't be real. He would test it. He approached a large, ornate mausoleum. The structure was very fancy with marble walls and a heavy metal door. Cody took hold of the door and pulled to open it. The door exploded out of the jamb and settled askew next to Cody, leaning against his leg with the handle still in his hand. It would have taken at least 20 men to exert enough force to do that.
He dropped the door, leaned against the wall of the mausoleum and opened the slip of paper to read the name Bill had left him.
It read Katy Brooks. His mother.
...
There was a sound. A bothersome sound. Like the buzz of a fly at night when you're sleeping or the distant sound of a car alarm that won't shut off. He tried to ignore it, but eventually it brought him around. He found himself in a small, confined space with hardly room to move. It was dark but he could sense a surface very near his face, as well as on both sides of him. And still there was that sound. What was it? Like a periodic pounding or scraping sound. In a short time he realized that he was lying on his back in a dark box. He couldn't remember getting into the box, nor imagine why he was there. It made no sense. The sound seemed to be getting closer to him now. A scrape, then a few seconds of quiet, then another scrape, then quiet. This repeated over and over. Suddenly a thump vibrated through the vessel around him, followed by more scraping, then nothing. After a few seconds the surface above was torn away revealing a star filled night sky and the face of a dirty workman looking down at him. Beyond the man Cody could see the walls of a hole and realized he was at the bottom of it. After waving a lantern above his face and gazing at him with the expression of an idiot he moved away and Cody heard a voice.
"Come up out of there, now!"
Cody was totally confused at this point wasn't sure he wanted to do as he was told. He also felt very strange. He could feel energy rippling through his body as never before and also a strange detachment from his physical self. He tried moving his legs, no problem. He sat up hesitantly, then stood and moved toward the ladder propped against the end of the hole. It was a this point that, looking down at the casket he'd been lying in, he realized he was in a grave. A scream boiled up from his bowels, through his torso and lungs, and finally rose into the night air. He couldn't stop it. His mind was racing with questions - what was he doing here, what had happened, what was going on? And finally, after a minute or so, the scream died away and he emerged from the grave.
Standing a few feet away was a man Cody had never seen before. He was of medium height, slender, with a handsome face that marked his age as somewhere between 23 and 80. He was dressed casually in slacks and a white oxford shirt, tail out.
"That's better" (the same voice that had ordered him out of the grave earlier)
"What's going on, who are you?" Cody demanded.
"Hmmm. What's going on, well my boy I've just resurrected you and had you dug up out of your grave. As to who I am, you can call me Bill."
"What do you want from me? How is this possible?"
"Okay, first please try to calm yourself. I'll explain everything you need to know. Why don't you come over here and have a seat."
"I don't want to have a fucking seat! I want to know who you are and what the fuck is going on, and I'm not going to ask again!" Cody said, close to losing his temper.
"You will walk over here and sit down NOW!" the man commanded.
Cody felt a strange sensation, a compulsion to do as he was told. Without his intention he started walking to the spot the man had indicated and sat.
"Good." said Bill. "Now, here's the situation. Your name is Cody Brooks. You died yesterday at the age of 39. As I said earlier, I've resurrected you and now you are mine."
"What do you...."
"Don't interrupt. As I said earlier, you can call me Bill. I'm what you might call an executive. I work for the powers that be and I'm in charge of desertion recovery. You are now one of my agents."
"I don't understand." said Cody. "Are you Satan, do you work for him?"
"Of course you don't. Let me give you the broad outlines. Forget your Judeo-Christian fairy tales. There is no God, there is no Satan. The universe is a big complex machine. It functions based on naturally occurring processes and like any machine, there are occasional glitches. The closest any Earth based religion has gotten to it is the Hindus, and they only understand a tiny piece of it correctly. Just so happens that that piece is my bailywick, and is now also yours. There are a set number of entities the universe can support. A set of these exist on Earth. However, the form they take on Earth - human, can only last so long or experience a narrow range of the possible experiences and growth that an ether-borne entity craves. So, an ether-borne entity is moved to Earth, by being born a human child, experiences that life with all that it entails, then dies. After death the entity is returned to the ether to wait to be reborn again."
"So shouldn't I be in the ether then?" Cody asked.
"Normally yes. But there is a certain amount of overhead required to deal with those glitches I mentioned before. You see, the time spent ether-borne between human lives can be long. I'm talking eons long. Occasionally, an ether-borne decides that they're tired of waiting and cuts in line. At the first moments of life the deserter, that's what we call them, uses its energy to displace the ether-borne that is intended for that life and enters the body instead. This is a problem. This disrupts the natural order of things. The universe does not like it, therefore my superiors do not like it, therefore I do not like it."
"Okay, I think I'm following this. I'm not sure I believe it but okay, I'll play along. What's my new role in all of this?"
"As my agent you will be able to move between ether and Earth hunting down those entities who have wrongly abandoned the ether. You have been given special powers that will enable you to hunt them down and return them to the ether. Naturally, part of this process will be to kill their human form."
"You mean murder them?"
"I wouldn't call it murder per se, more like an execution. Bur really, it's nothing to fret about. They are in the wrong and shouldn't be on Earth in the first place."
"Listen, I'm no killer. I have no experience with that. I've never wanted to hurt anybody."
"Yes, I know. But that will change. As I said, we've provided you with certain abilities to help with your task. When you've located a deserter, you'll get really angry. Uncontrollably angry. You won't be able to NOT kill them. As for how, you'll have superhuman strength, power to manipulate time, space, and materials any way that you need to. You'll be able to vaporize them, explode them, have them burst into flames, whatever."
"Why all of the different methods? Won't being vaporized pretty much cover the gamut?"
"Oh yes, but believe me, after a while you're going to get really bored if you have to keep killing people the same way!"
"Well how will I know how to use all of these powers anyway?"
"You already know how to use them, you just haven't had a reason to think about it. As the humans in the military like to say you're locked and loaded. I have your first assignment all ready for you, here's the name."
Bill passed Cody a slip of paper. When Cody looked up Bill was gone. Bill stood up and started walking, contemplating all that had happened. He HAD been in a grave and all that, but this couldn't be real. He would test it. He approached a large, ornate mausoleum. The structure was very fancy with marble walls and a heavy metal door. Cody took hold of the door and pulled to open it. The door exploded out of the jamb and settled askew next to Cody, leaning against his leg with the handle still in his hand. It would have taken at least 20 men to exert enough force to do that.
He dropped the door, leaned against the wall of the mausoleum and opened the slip of paper to read the name Bill had left him.
It read Katy Brooks. His mother.
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