Prologue

David was somehow disappointed.

Shouldn’t Heaven be more exciting? If this is Hell then it definitely should be.

He was in what looked to be a nicely furnished office. A desk with a computer monitor on it filled one corner. Comfortable looking leather chairs sat around a low square table in the center of the room. The walls were lined with bookcases and a few windows showed brightly lit forest, but there was no door.

“I must be dead. That asshole in the truck killed me!”

The last thing he remembered was leaving the parking garage at work. Just as he pulled onto the road a supped-up Dodge Ram blew through the red light and slammed into the driver’s side of his beat up Corolla.

YOU ARE NOT DEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.

“Who said that?”

No answer.

“Great, I’m either dead or going crazy. Maybe this is just a crazy coma dream, trapped in a room, trapped in a coma...”

YOU ARE NOT IN A COMA. YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.

The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Or maybe it was inside his own head. It was a deep voice, not mechanical. There was an odd accent in it that he couldn’t place, it made it hard to tell if it was male or female.

“Well, instead of just freaking me out, do you want to explain what’s going on? Also, saying I’m not in a coma is exactly what a coma dream would say isn’t it?”

The computer monitor came to life showing a bird’s eye view of the truck crashing into his car. It hit so hard his car wrapped around the front of the truck and was forced into an SUV parked on the street. Judging by that and the spectacular explosion that followed there wouldn’t be much left of him other than some teeth and a pile of crispy pink mush. All three cars were burning brightly soon. David couldn’t stand to look at what was supposedly his burning corpse. He looked at the rear of the truck instead, his eyes drawn to the Rebel flag mud flaps and the testicles dangling from the trailer hitch.

“I always hated those things.” He muttered to himself. “At least he didn’t get to walk away either. Judging by his douche-mobile his next Klan meeting will be one asshole short.”

He looked around the room again. Just books, a table, and the screen. No speakers or intercom to be seen. That hadn’t stopped whoever was here from responding so far. “You said I was wasn’t dead. This is pretty solid proof that I am. Is this Heaven? Hell? Limbo?”

YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.

“Yeah, you keep saying that. Chosen for what?” Nothing like stating the obvious, he thought dryly.

WE ARE CONDUCTING AN EXPERIMENT, OF WHICH YOU SHALL BE THE FOCAL POINT.

“Who is ‘WE’?”

No response.

“What are you going to do? See how long it takes me to go crazy in this room with no way out?”

NO. THIS IS MEARLY A STARTING POINT FOR WHAT IS TO COME.

“Where are you? I feel a little stupid standing in a room talking to myself.”

WE HAVE NO NEED TO PHYSICALLY INTERACT WITH YOU. YOUR PROGRESS CAN BE VIEWED REMOTELY WITH SOME EASE. JUST AS EASILY AS YOU WERE PULLED FROM YOUR VEHICLE BEFORE IMPACT. YOU HAVE TWO OPTIONS. THE FIRST IS TO PARTICIPATE, THE SECOND IS TO GO BACK WHERE YOU WERE FOUND.

The car crash started to play on the screen again from the beginning.

ARE YOU READY TO PROCEED?

“Proceed with what?” The relief of not being dead was starting to wear off. “This is bullshit! How am I supposed to help with an ‘experiment’? I have no idea what you’re talking about. My car got T-boned but you say I’m not dead, whoever you are. But you’re just a voice so the most likely explanation is that I’m in some kind of coma or I’m dead and this is the lousiest afterlife imaginable. What have you got to prove me wrong? Nothing! I can’t even see you. As far as experiments go, the truck and the explosion must have scattered my insides over half the block. Have at ‘em! What do you need me for?” He felt a little better after the outburst. It felt good to try to get angry, to have at least an illusion of control.

The explosion blossomed on the screen again.

THE EXPLOSION DID IN FACT KILL YOU. YOUR PHYSICAL BODY WAS DESTROYED. WE REMOVED YOUR, WHAT YOU WOULD CALL A ‘SOUL’ TO THIS PLACE. WE ARE NOT CONDUCTING A BIOLOGY EXPERIMENT, WE KNOW ALL WE NEED TO ABOUT HUMANITY PHYSICALLY. THIS IS MORE OF A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. YOU CAN CHOOSE TO ASSIST US, OR WE WILL RETURN YOU TO YOUR BODY JUST BEFORE THE CRASH AND YOU WILL IN FACT DIE.

What a choice that is. The crash and explosion continued to play on the monitor in a loop. He tried to collect his thoughts but his mind wouldn’t settle on anything. No matter what they had planned it would be better than being dead, wouldn’t it? And if this was a coma then wouldn’t he just eventually come out of it on his own? Finally he settled on something that felt important “Why me?”

He was no scientist. He hadn’t even finished college. He’d worked a bunch of odd jobs over the years, warehouses, retail, loading docks. Nothing that really suggested he was the right guy to be observed in his opinion.

WE ARE AWARE THAT YOU HAVE NOT ACCOMPLISHED MUCH IN YOUR LIFE. THAT IS ONE REASON THAT YOU ARE BEING OFFERED THIS CHANCE. A COMPLETELY AVERAGE INDIVIDUAL WITH LITTLE DRIVING AMBITION. YOU ALSO HAVE NO FAMILY, NO CLOSE TIES TO THIS WORLD.

That was true, if a bit hard to hear. He had a few friends but no one he considered all that close. His parents had died a few years ago, his brother and sisters all had their own families across the country. “If I accepted, what would you want me to do?”

YOU WOULD BE SENT TO A WORLD SIMILAR TO YOUR EARTH WHERE HUMAN CULTURE HAS PROGRESSED TO AN ADVANCED IRON AGE STATE. WHAT YOUR OWN HISTORIANS WOULD CONSIDER THE LATE 17^TH OR EARLY 18^TH CENTURY A.D ... FOR THE PURPOSES OF OUR EXPERIMENT, ALL KNOWLEDGE OF EXPLOSIVES, GUN POWDER, AND STEAM POWER HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED. THE PEOPLE THERE HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF ANY OF THESE THINGS. THERE ARE OTHER DIFFERENCES BUT THIS WOULD BE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT FOR OUR RESEARCH.

“What would I do there?”

THAT IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU.

David wanted to yell at someone. To tear up the room. Find whoever that voice belonged to and knock out their teeth ... If this was even real. What if he was actually dead and this was what happened, like how people were always talking about a bright light. Or maybe he was a vegetable in a hospital somewhere and this was his brain’s way of coping. More and more morbid thoughts ran through his head.

None of this is getting me anywhere. Alive in a coma, dead in my car, it all amounts to the same thing. I can refuse to cooperate and stay stuck in this room or in my car, or I can play along and see where this goes. But if this is real then why me?