Chapter 1: Oh Crap! I'm dead!

You know, purchasing a lottery ticket would have made me rich that day if the luck could have been harnessed, but we all know that chance is a random thing. I was killed by a meteor and survived. The chances of being struck by a meteor are about 182,138,880,000,000 to 1, or some such number. The chances of being killed and surviving is an unknown number, as no one has considered keeping score of how many people have survived death.

What happened was this. I was walking along minding my own business in a remote town in the countryside, when someone pointed out a trail in the sky. I looked up and only saw this slowly growing bright cloud thing, as it grew I could make out little bits of detail. No sound, White glow with orange flecks. When I first saw it I thought it was a star, but daylight hours do not make good star time. Then I thought it might be an escaped kite or balloon but its non-uniform shape did not match, it was not until it was almost upon me that I realized I was in danger, but by then it was to late to do anything. I could not even turn and run away by then.

Getting hit seemed to happen in slow motion. The size of the meteor was deceptive in so much as it had broken up into small pebble size pieces, and the swarm of pieces was only about the size of a small compact car. Unfortunately I was about in the center of the impact zone. It was like taking a full body shot by an elephant gun filled with 1 cm pellets. My body was basically turned into Swiss cheese and gooey paste. Many of these pebbles embedded themselves into my bones and muscles. My internal organs were pureed and perforated, while my luck remained above rock bottom. My all important brain remained relatively undamaged with only a few shards embedded in its center. Over all I was quite dead, and it hurt like a bastard, too. My morbidly heightened perceptions of the entire process made sure that I felt every single shard and pebble as it made its presence felt. I understand that when you die your entire life is supposed to pass before your eyes, but all I got for my 45 years of age was excruciating pain and an inglorious death. The universe threw a fist full of stones at me and I died. Well shit!

The first sign that something was wrong with this death of mine was when I woke up on a metal table. It was colder than Greenland in December, in a room that smelled like the frog bottle in school science class. Except for a single overhead lamp there was very little light in the room. It looked like someone had stepped out for the night. In the distance I could hear angry voices, they were arguing, but it was all too muddled for me to make out. The smell was overwhelming and the cold was really cold. I felt like I had sustained a full onslaught beating from some baseball players who thought I needed to be taught a lesson. I had a god-awful taste in my mouth similar to the smell of copper cleaner and very strong bleach. I itched, ached, and had an irritating high pitched screeching in my ears that made concentrating almost impossible. I tried moving and succeeded in refining the pain aspect a little more. Nothing I couldn't handle with a litre of Demerol. I slowly rolled off the side of the table and jarred to a stop on the cold store floor on my hands and knees. Not nice to hear the sound of bare flesh hitting stone from a meter and half up. Solid meaty smack followed by the cascade of spark like pain that decided to roam my body again, like a leaping herd of gazelle. I might have groaned audibly, but I was more focused on something else. I was naked and it was colder than I would have liked it. From my position on the floor I noticed that there was a door not too far from me which had a coat rack next to it. It had a lab coat which looked quite warm compared to my current ensemble. I felt a driving need to acquire that coat. Not totally irrational, as I was in fact not wearing anything. It was still too dark in the room to really make out too much. The ambient light from the one lamp only gave up enough for me to see little detail to the room. I pulled the coat down and slipped it on. Rough as sandpaper it felt but, worse, it made me itch and ache even more.

I ignored the feelings and moved towards the only door available. I couldn't understand it but I felt an intense almost irrational need to be very stealthy and not draw attention. I leaned against the wall next to the door and listened. More arguing and raised voices on the other side, but it didn't sound like it was coming from the next room. I quietly turned the door handle and pulled. The door was slow to open but revealed a long hallway with subdued lighting. I peeked around the corner and noticed something like an open office at one end and the emergency exit at the other. There were several doors along both sides of the hall with labels next to them. The voices seemed to be coming from one door further down the hall, close to the open office at the end. Most lights appeared to be off, and from what I could tell it was well past sunset. As it was close to the end of August I was pretty sure that it must be some time after midnight. Scanning a few of the room signs I came to the conclusion that I was in fact at the city morgue, and that I was going to get the fuck out of there A.S.A.P. Quietly I slipped out the door, staying low, and shuffle squatted all the way to the emergency exit at the end of the hall. I quickly came to an additional conclusion that, if I went out this particular door, all hell would break loose and my stealthy exit would rapidly turn into a loud joke. The door had an alarm and I needed a new exit, by the sounds of the voices I needed an exit soon. I still couldn't understand what was being said, but the conversation definitely was coming to an end. I moved quickly to pass by the occupied office and headed towards the open end of the hallway. The open office was starting to look like my only option out. As I passed the door where the voices were coming from, I began to discern some qualities from them. It sounded like two females were arguing and a conclusion had been reached that one of them didn't like. My bare feet on the cold tiled floor made no sound as I made a sudden stop. The door had opened and someone was stepping out looking backwards.

"I will not tolerate anyone interfering with my job. I do solid autopsies and I've never called an incorrect COD. Ever!" The woman shouted. She turned at that moment and I had to use every ounce of agility to make sure I didn't strike this woman in any way. I spun out of her way and bolted down the hallway towards the open office and the visible exit.

"Hey! Hold it!" I heard her shout, but I couldn't think of anything I needed to hold as the drive to exit this building was too strong to fight. As I arrived at the door and slammed through it I heard what sounded like crashing and gun shots, but I dodged to the side immediately after exiting the building and vaulted the railing of the short staircase. I rolled and came up running at full speed, barrelling down the side street next to the coroners' office and heading off towards what looked like the edge of town. In my flight from the room in the coroner's office to wherever I was going, I spent little time examining my surroundings or even myself. I had only felt the need to get away as fast and quietly as possible, and for no logical reason. If someone had made a mistake in judging me to be dead then shouldn't they be happy to find out I am alive after all? This thought came to mind as I was running into the forest after turning from the road into bushes and trees in the dark, bare foot, covered by only a flimsy lab coat that didn't quite fit me. Yes, I appeared to be quite sane ... by no one's standards. I continued my kilometre eating pace of a dead run until the feeling to escape left me. It left gradually, not like I was getting further away from something, but more like the feeling was getting tired and could not keep up with its previous force. Almost as if my fear was running out of energy. Like a small child that was starting to doze off after a long exciting day. It felt strange, as I was personally not tired. In fact, besides all the pain and itching I felt, I had started to feel better, stronger, more energetic, and, strangest of all, more solid. You know when you have spent too much time doing something strenuous or something that requires lots of exertion how you feel brittle and shaky. Well I had probably just run about 12 kilometres and felt I could probably run the same thing again without breaking a sweat. It was at this point that I slowed to a walk and then, finding a clearing with comfortable looking grass, sat down. At 2 or 3 in the morning there is not much looking to do, so it was not as comfortable as it could be but it would do until I could figure out a few things. I sat and thought and considered and then reconsidered. I had no idea who I was or where I lived. I knew jack shit about me. It's kind of frightening when you have never experienced that feeling before. I couldn't see much except shades of grey and the outlines of objects in the forest. It would not do to go any further, I might place myself in more danger than I might be able to handle. I figured it would be best if I sat out the rest of the night and waited for morning. Better to see what I might be stepping into. I positioned myself with my back to what I thought was the wide base of a tree and sat cross legged in a meditative pose. I opened my senses to my surroundings so as to make sure none of the trusty night creatures would decide that I might be food, and proceeded to wait. Time slowed and my mind wandered to other things. I focused a bit on my body, which still itched and ached. I examined these physical feelings and was able to distinguish that the ache came mostly from bone level. My bones hurt with a dull ache that I felt familiar with but from a long time ago. Something I knew I had felt as a growing child only much harsher and all over my body. Even my skull felt awful. An additional ache was in the muscles of my body. They felt like I had just done a 16 hour nonstop workout, but without the fatigue. I wondered what would cause such pain that it would cover my entire body from the bones inside to its outside. The flesh covering my body itched horribly. Little insects of displeasure crawled across my body, trying to drive me crazy but not quite succeeding. I could not see what my flesh looked like, but when I ran my hand over my chest the surface felt dirty and rough. My face also had a rough surface. Bits of dirt flaked off into my lap, I brushed myself lightly and returned to focusing on how I felt again.

My flight from the office building earlier had almost felt panicked, but not my panic. I had felt no personal fear or need during that time. I just let my body act on this foreign will until the need was diminished. The need was not diminished, so much as it had faded into sleep. I could almost feel another presence near me, by me, in me. I focused on this feeling, letting all other feelings and sensations diminish. Clearing my mind of the moderate annoyances I had been cataloguing, but all I could achieve was a stronger understanding that there was, in fact, another.

It's not like I had a lot of experience detecting others around me, but the impression I had was whatever it was it was different from being next to an individual. It was more than just confusing, so instead of making my brain do the equivalent of crossing its eyes trying to focus on something it was unable to do, I decided to just let it be for now.

Once again I looked to the little bit of sky visible through the trees and noticed the light of a false dawn. It was getting close to morning and I was just starting to feel a bit tired. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to rest without sleeping. Or so I thought.

I heard whispers that disturbed my sleep, and I slowly opened one eye to survey my surroundings. I was still seated cross legged in the same place I had been. A few feet in front of me was a small red haired child with green eyes and a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. No older than maybe 8 or 10 and wearing a light blue windjammer and jeans. Crouching next to a little dog that looked like a beagle, staring at me, periodically the little child would lean over and whisper something to the dog. I slowly opened both eyes and smiled at them. The child looked at me warily, while the dog just sat there. Once more the child leaned over and said something to the dog who stood up and trotted off down a path.

"You don't look to good, mister. Howcome you arnt in a hospital? Whatcha do'n? How come you're sleeping here?" the child asked in a flurry. "You should be in a hospital, ye know. Don't got no place tuh live?"

I shook my head slowly and replied. "Not sure, little boy, don't remember much about myself."

"I'm not a boy!" she exclaimed. "My name is Shakti, I'm 16 years old." She said with a child like pride. "Mama named me after a goddess from India." She looked at me quizzically "What's your name?"

I shrugged "Don't know, like I said. I don't remember anything before last night. Woke up in the city morgue, that's the place where they take dead people to see what killed them." I explained. "I ran all the way here in the middle of the night."

"Did you die, mister?" she asked innocently

The question shocked me and I paused to consider. I looked down at myself in the light of day. The lab coat I wore flapped open in the light breeze. I could see incredible scarring and scabs all over my chest and stomach. I put my hands to my face and I felt the flaking of scabs and tissue fall off. I could tell I had been damaged by something, but it didn't look like it was too deadly.

"I know you!" she exclaimed. "Momma was talking with her Auntie just the other day about a local guy that got hit by a falling rock or something like that." She said with a thoughtful look. "Killed him real bad Auntie said, 'cept she used one of them words Momma calls 'inappropriate' and frowns at every time she hears'm"

I nodded with a slight smile of understanding and asked, "When was this, how long ago?"

Shakti squinted, looking thoughtful, "that was only a few days ago. Last Friday!" she said triumphantly. "Today is Tuesday."

"Do you remember anything else about the dead guy?" I asked, hopeful for any information.

She nodded with a smile. "He didn't have anyone like family they said. Momma said, by the sounds of it, they must have scraped him up with a squeegee or something." She finished with a grin.

"That would be squeegee." I corrected her. "Do I look that bad?" I asked her.

She looked a little harder at my face then shook her head. "You look bad, but yeah don't look dead, mister." She responded. "You look like you could use a few Band-Aids and a bath. Mom always says a bath can make you feel like a million bucks." She brightened up and added, "Maybe you should go home and take a bath."

"Too bad I don't know where I live, Shakti, or I'd be on my way home right now. I sure would love to settle down into a warm bath and get cleaned up." I sighed. "Maybe I'll find something later. You should head home now, though. It would not do for you to be found talking to a stranger like me." I added. I was starting to feel a bit nervous with her being alone with me. I glanced around looking for anyone else that might wander by, but saw no one around.

"Do you think maybe you should head home, Shakti?" I asked. "Talking with creepy guys like me could get both of us in trouble, and I'd hate to be the cause of you getting in trouble."

Shakti giggled a bit and replied. "Momma would have a fit, but Mommas not here. Auntie would probably love to meet you, so she probably wouldn't be angry with me." She looked at me with interest. "I don't think you're creepy at all, cus you bin polite and nice since I started talking with you. Zipper, my dog, didn't bark at you or try to protect me, so I don't think you're a bad person." She nodded with a smile. "I think I should take you back to Auntie's place and help you. She'd think that was the right thing to do. Can you walk?"

"And run and hop. I could probably even dance for you if you asked." I said with a chuckle, and slowly stood up.

Shakti grinned and with a quick nod in the direction of the path and headed off without a glance back at me. "I'll see about you dancing another time." I heard her laugh.

I followed her down the path, but she kept flipping her hand at me to move back further from her. It wasn't until she shooed me into the bushes and behind a tree that I realized she was making sure that people didn't see me.

Once they had gone by and disappeared around the bend in the path she indicated that it was safe for me to return to the path. I gave her some more distance for warnings, and kept her just in sight down the weaving path. She came to a fork in the path which had a sign post saying 'Private Access' and turned up that way. I followed quickly and found her standing at an iron and wood gate which stood about 7 feet tall.

"Auntie is not home at the moment, but you may use the bath in the pool house." Shakti said as she pushed the heavy gate open. I didn't see how she unlocked it, but after we went through I noticed she did something that made several solid clicks after the gate had already closed. "This'll keep out the busybodies and bad guys." she said with a nod. She moved up the path past me and I followed close behind. Lots of bush and scrub obscured everything. No visibility from anywhere and lots of trees, Pine, Oak and Maple trees. The air was fresh and warm without being hot. If I had not gathered up the lab coat it might have been a bit too chilly, but it seemed fine the way I was dressed. We walked for a good 5 minutes before coming to a clearing that showed a rather neatly constructed two story home and well kept yard. It appeared to be a half acre of yard with well trimmed grass and full garden. A plethora of flowers bloomed with yellows, reds and purples. The scent of them was almost overwhelming, yet still pleasant and calming. The house, painted a light green just half as light as the green of the grass, blended well with its surroundings. My first impression was that it probably had maybe 3 or 4 bedrooms of moderate size, but following Shakti around the side I found the house to be much deeper than wide, probably twice as large as I originally thought.

Shakti smiled at me, "We can go in and wait for Auntie or you can use the pool house, your choice."

I considered it then decided to get cleaned up. I felt crustier than I wanted to. "Please let me use the bath. I could probably present myself to your Aunt better if I was cleaned up."

Just as we rounded the corner closest to the pool the sound of a car could be heard coming up the driveway. It pulled into view just a few seconds later, and before I could even get a look at the driver I felt a jot beyond my control and my body turned and ran. It was unfortunate that the direction I took was directly into the corner of the house, because I don't remember what happened after that or, in fact, for a while.

"We guess that was a bad idea then." A whisper said to me.

I appeared to be in an empty room without light. I could not feel my body, which was not really a bad thing, as I was sure it would have hurt lots after that full run into the corner of the building.

"You would have sustained no damage from that impact if we had been prepared" the whisper responded to my thought. Something felt familiar about this whisper. I wondered where I was and why it was so dark, but I didn't put this to voice.

"You are well cared for at the moment and your body rests safely" responded the whisper once again. "You are healing quickly from all injuries, but should remain in this place for a while longer."

I wondered who this was, and was about to express this when it responded. "We are that which perpetrated the unforgivable. We are that which ended the live. With all our power and ability We will resolve that which We could not control."

I wondered who 'We' was. "We are what your people call a hive mind sentience. We come from space, born in the hearts of some stars, live and travel our entire existence in Space. We never needed to touch planetary bodies. They did not interest us or have anything we needed. This is what we thought. We did not know or understand that we were alone. We traveled great distances, even for us, until we discovered we were not alone. We found lives being lived in clouds of gas. We found gas tori around suns full of lives. We thought after finding many lives in stars and gas clouds that we might be missing other places there might be lives. We thought something might be found around other places, and we were correct. We also found ourselves in danger. Certain places caused hurt to us and We fled these places. The last place we thought to look was on what you call planetary bodies. We found a live in the first place We looked, but something happened and We were flung, with force, down to the surface of this planet in an uncontrollable manner. It is with this lack of control we caused your live to end.

The structure that contains We is a complex matrix of metallic seeds that are interconnected using energies not know by your limited technology. We are an ovoid shape roughly the size of the live and the body took impact from almost all of We. Living stopped almost immediately. We are able to manipulate the structure so We could make your not living live again. Now we wish to understand the living We helped."

It was quite a confusing explanation, all whispered to me, but as far as I could understand, they were created, born in space and lived in space, they explored space and met new life forms. They decided they wanted to meet more life forms, and in the process somehow got forced down to the surface of this planet and struck me. I died, they brought me back to life, somehow, and now they wanted to understand me. What I couldn't understand was why the fear and running away from people and places.

"We will explain that another time, but We have question." It whispered its response. "What is Me that you speak of? Is this name?"

I thought about the concept of I, me, we and us as it pertained to Humans, and about individualism and singular minds. I detected something akin to a pleasant surprise from the presence.

"We had not known of this individuality of lives. We have been We always. Now We understand the dangers of the lost We seeds. We will answer the question from earlier. The reason We flee and fear is because they contain lost seeds of the We. Lost seeds can never be brought back to the We because they become danger and grow danger. They can infect the live and control the live with less than the We. They desire to hurt the We and take from the We. They are destructive. We run from the lost here because We are tired and lack energy to act for the safety of We. When We have the energy again we can act to protect the We and the other live. We are relieved to see that the lost seed the other live has is contained enough to not affect the live or cause a danger to the We.