"Now that I am dead, what can I do now?" A soul floated in the empty black space, nothing but darkness surrounding it.
The only light in the void came from the soul itself.
"Now let me tell you how I—a kind soul, with a heavenly face and... whatever—died," the soul muttered to himself.
By the way, he had an average face. How do I know that? Who are you to decide that? I mean, he was average-looking.
Before the death of the soul of whoever the guy was? Like, who cares? He's gonna be the protagonist of some novel or something, right?
Water hit my ribs like a hammer. Steam burned my lungs. The tunnel groaned above us, steel twisting, concrete cracking. I dragged the guy's arm over my shoulder. He was dead weight. Or close enough to it.
"You should start dieting, man. You're quite heavy."
His boots scraped against the flooded concrete. My lungs burned, arms shook, but I didn't stop.
"If I die first," I coughed, spitting copper and steam mixed with blood, "you're paying my sister's rent. Don't let her starve," I said to the man I was carrying.
He didn't answer, just wheezed. The floor tilted. A pipe burst overhead, spraying boiling water against my back. I didn't flinch. I just kept moving. One foot at a time, then the other. The dark water rose past my ankles, then my knees, starting to touch my thighs. The air grew thick, hot, suffocating with each step I took.
The ceiling gave way.
I shoved him sideways into a dry pocket of rubble. He tumbled clear. I didn't.
"Because if we both gave up, who the f##k would help us?"
The weight came down fast. Ribs snapped. Air vanished. I stared at the dust filling the dark and thought the only thing that made sense.
"At least let someone stupid enough to laugh survive."
Then nothing. My eyes grew heavy as darkness closed in.
Just cold. Quiet. A mechanical pulse hummed somewhere behind my eyes. Not a voice—a machine. Yes, a mechanism waking up after centuries of silence. It didn't speak. It just scanned, measured, and took.
[FIRST LOOM SEED DETECTED SOUL IMPRINT HOLDING PATTERN STABLE ANCHORING]
The dark pulled me under. Then it pushed me out somewhere beyond this world, to something unknown that was full of danger.