Life-After (25 page)

“
I wandered the city looking for any signs of life.” Clara continued. “Days passed and I couldn’t find anyone. For a moment I believed I was the last person alive, but then something else occurred to me. I had not slept or ate since I awoke and yet I did not feel hungry or tired. The realization drove me mad. I began to believe I was dead and had gone to hell. I wanted to escape. I found a shattered window with a large glass shard sticking out. I though myself on it hoping to be free.

Just as my neck touched the glass I awoke in a hospital bed. A rush of doctors and nurses ran into the room. I was hysterical. I didn’t know what was happening to me. An older man told me I was in Alpha Medical, that a team had found the bunker and discovered me there a few weeks ago. I was relieved. I thought I was saved, that I would be able to be with you. That was my first question. I asked what happened to the people in Naxum Research, what happened to you.”

I was beginning to see a pattern. There was always the loss of someone special and then the act of finding someone new. Clara and I were separated and tried desperately to remain positive. I fought to escape and she had to accept that she was trapped. There were common points between Clara’s story and my own experiences. What I had not figured out was the why. I needed to understand why would all this need to be done in the manner it was.

“
They would not tell me anything at first.” Clara said. “The doctors ran numerous tests and only after several hours did a man wearing an Alliance uniform tell me. He said everyone in Naxum had died and told me everything about the attack. I didn’t want to believe them. I demanded they show me proof. They said the entrance was directly hit by the alien energy weapon and there was no way to reach anyone down there.

They wanted to interrogate me about Richard and why we were in the bunker with those people. The autopsy they had done on the corpses showed they were exposed to a radiation that was similar to the one left behind by the alien’s energy weapon. I told them I would tell them everything if they took me to Naxum Mountain, but they refused and left. I knew they would come back for me and take me somewhere I couldn’t leave. Later that night I escaped from the hospital and made my way to Naxum Mountain.”

In both our stories we were hospitalized and under suspicion by the government. An important point was always to accept what had happened and move on. There was also the radiation. In my story I was exposed directly by an energy blast, but Clara’s would have come from the facility that was working on The Awakened Project. Even with everything I was learning and putting together there was still the real possibility that everything I was hearing was part of the grand manipulation.

“
The world outside was the same as when I awoke.” Clara continued. “I had hopped perhaps I was crazy and that everything that had happened was a dream or hallucination. It took three days to make my way to Naxum Mountain. I had to not only avoid the military patrols, but also an invading enemy I knew little to nothing about. Sometimes during the night I would hear the sound of metal soldiers matching. It kept me from sleeping, but unlike before it took its toll on my body. When I finally reached Naxum I could barely stand.

As out of it as I was I knew right away the military had lied to me. There was a large crater near the east side of the mountain. It was clear someone had dug a hole from within the mountain and escaped. There were signs of a fire fight. I found blood and shell casings on the ground. I began crying not knowing if you had escaped. I started to believe that maybe the military had executed everyone who had escaped from Naxum.”

The emotion in Clara’s voice peaked. I wanted to say something to her as she continued her story, but even as I listened to every word I could still hear Sara’s voice inside my head. Clara’s experience had pieces of what had happened to me, but with specific differences. While we had dug our way out of Naxum there was no cover-up of our escape. If Clara was telling the truth then it was obvious it was yet another manipulation created by Richard. Still, I had no true reasoning behind his actions.

“
I must have fainted because I awoke at the edge of the crater to the sound of metal footsteps.” Clara continued. “I ran as fast as I could away from the sound. It was pitch dark, but somehow I was able to run without falling. Before I knew it I had arrived at our home. Something was calling me inside. The house was shambles. It looked as if someone had ransacked it. By then I could barely stay conscious and fell asleep in our bed.

It did not feel as if I had even closed my eyes when I heard the metal footsteps again. By then I had no strength to run. I just laid there waiting for them to come. Massive metal suits of armor ripped though the house towards me. I didn’t cry or scream. I just didn’t care. One stood over me and lifted its hand over my face. I saw a yellow light shine from the palm of its hand. I closed my eyes and prepared for death and then everything went silent.”

The timeframe did not match what I remembered. Clara would have been freed long before we were able to dig our way out. What I was beginning to understand was that Clara’s story was not so much to shed light on what was happing to us, but more to let me know that even she did not have the answers. Clara was in the same state I was. She did not know the truth of her past. She was holding on to what she thought was a constant in her life, me.

“
When I awoke I was here.” Clara continued. “An older man was with me and told me that everything I experienced was a fabrication. He told me that while he did not know my true past that it was not what I had been shown. I did not believe him, but he was able to show me that we were all trapped in some type of containment unit. He said we had all died and our life energy was being used by an alien being.

It took some time, but I came to believe him and we began working to free others from their false afterlives. When we discovered you had died I asked to be the one to free you. I don’t know why, but you were the hardest to free. After you disappeared from the forest I thought I had lost you and finally we were able to locate you. That is when I saw what kind of life you had and for a moment I did not want to take you away from that. I knew you would hate me, but I had to save you.”

“
Wait.” I interrupted. “You said in the forest? What about in the life stream and the beach?”

The look she gave threw everything I thought I knew even further out of cohesion. She had no idea what I was talking about. Richard had orchestrated the other times I had encountered Clara. He had planned the entire event in the life stream to make me believe she had been destroyed. The dream on the beach was also part of Richard’s plan, but I was still missing the reasoning.

“
How long has it been for you since you have seen me last?” I asked.

Clara looked at me not wanting to answer. As far as I knew at the time I believed I had been gone almost nine years.

“
Three days.” Clara answered.

The military conducted extensive mental tests on all of its soldiers, but members of Alpha Factor were put though even more advance tests. Before our VR training all members were questioned by a man named, Jacob Hill, who was the head of the Alliance division of mental health. During my sessions with him he would ask about the effect of growing up in an Alliance schooling facility.

I gave the answers I felt he wanted to hear. There was no need to discuss something I could not change and I felt it would not affect my performance. Jacob knew what I was doing and just began talking. He spoke about the mind and how in his studies he found it is easy to control the human mind if you could understand the frequency and wave lengths the brain runs on. In his experiments he found that exposure to different emotional scenarios could lead to the creation of a specific brainwave pattern that would be the easiest to manipulate.

He talked for almost an hour about the subject until I stopped him and asked why was he telling me all this. He asked me if I thought my experience had led me to joining the military. I told him yes. He smiled and asked what I would do if everything in my life was specifically planned out so it would lead me to join. I scoffed and responded that if the alliance needed soldiers they would and have forced people to join. He leaned back in his chair and replied; what is the fun in that.

“
This is about control.” I exclaimed. “Everything we remember be it real or created by Richard is designed to control us. This isn’t just a matter of using our life energy to feed some God. If that was Richard’s plan we would have all been taken by now. Richard said that he created a heaven-like world for us originally and that we would not accept it. I believe what he meant was that our life energy was not compatible.”

“
What do you mean?” Clara asked. “I don’t understand.”

It ached to do so, but I forced myself to stand. While I did not have the complete answer to why everything had happened it began to make more sense. As much control that Richard had over our realities there was a definite lack of control as well. It was more than just the inability to retrieve the lost souls who escaped him.

“
There were people who could not use the virtual reality training when I was in the military.” I began. “Something about their brains being hardwired not to accept the reality created for them. The same thing happened to some of us. You said you were freed by someone and I am sure they were freed by someone as well. If this containment unit was Richard’s creation there would not be a blind spot or somewhere he could not access. I don’t think wherever we are is in Richard total control.”

From the moment I pulled the pins on those grenades I came under Richard’s control. I believed that Richard was somehow able to capture human souls, but something needed to be done before he could use them. Everything he showed me was to get my mind to a state where it could be controlled. The key to it all was life energy.

“
So this place, wherever we are, was not created by Richard?” Clara asked.

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I don’t think it was.” I answered. “It’s possible there is a true afterlife and that Richard has taken it over. Perhaps he is a powerful being who discovered where humans go when they die and tried to access our life energy for his own means. Throughout the realities he showed me the theory of human life energy was always present and I believe it is the reason why we are still here.

If our life energy contains who we are then perhaps when we die our memories, experience and even thought patterns pass on with us. The other Clara told me my mind could control my reality. I could change it based on my emotions. In virtual reality specific brain wave patterns were needed for the process to work. Otherwise we would reject what we see and the training would be useless.

Richard needs our energy patterns to do the same. Clara told me so much herself. She said our life energy had to stabilize in order to pass on to our afterlife. What if that is what is happening? What if we are all one big collective of life energy and Richard needs to stabilize us all in order to use us. To him we are unstable energy patterns and until he can adjust all of us to mirror the others he cannot claim any of the souls here.”

A searing pain shot though my head. I fell to my knees unable to hold my own body weight. Everything began to spin. I felt sick to my stomach. Clara kneeled down next to me calling my name. Her voice sounded like a distant whisper in the night. I had not recovered, not by a long shot. I tried to push away the pain, the agony of losing Sara. I wanted to focus on what was before me at the moment, to find an answer to everything. My body and mind were damaged. Emotions flooded back to me. I could no longer think about anything else.

“
David, what’s happening?” Clara cried.

A wave of anger radiated throughout my body taking me over. I felt as if another part of me was awaking and killing the rational voice inside of me. I pushed Clara’s hand from my shoulder. I did not want her to comfort me. It did not matter to me at that moment that Clara may had been a victim, she had taken everything from me and I could not forgive her for that.

“
Is this what you want?” I growled. “Am I just some experiment? Why is it every time I see you pain is not far behind?”

“
David…”Clara stuttered. “…I”

I forced myself to my feet and staggered out towards the street. Clara screamed out my name and followed me. I was losing control of everything. All the safeguards I had created for myself to protect me from losing control were breaking down. It was pitch black, but it did not matter I just want to get away.

“
Let me take you to him…” Clara called out. “…he can help you!”

“
Help me!” I shouted. “You took me from the only peace I had ever known.”

I stopped and stood in the street staring blankly ahead. There were no more restrictions holding me back. I turned back toward Clara. I wanted to hurt her, to see her in pain.

“
My life with Sara was better than anything I ever had with you.” I said. “Is that why you ripped me from it? Are you behind all this? Could it be that simple? You wanted me all for yourself and when I rejected you, you did all this to me?”

“
David…” Clara whispered.

I fell to my knees crying. It felt as if my existence had been taken from me. While I knew that I had a life I did not know which version was real or if any of what I had witnessed or been told had been the truth. I pounded my fists against the ground in anguish. Clara stood frozen in front looking down at me, her hands were shaking.

“
Please David, you have to stop!” Clara cried out. “This is what Richard wants, to break you.”