AfterLife (13 page)

In addition, those who were found to be potential candidates
but resisted the opportunity to serve in the Mortuis army could be promised a
body again once their service was complete. An individual who qualified for
army recruitment was not given an explanation or a choice; they were made a
Mortui as quickly as possible by the recruiters. Take what you need, promise
what they want, give only what’s convenient. That was Seth’s philosophy. It had
always worked for him and the Body in the past – he saw no reason for change.

“Seth, sir,” a voice came from behind.

Seth turned from the window toward the voice. It was Blake.
Blake was a short man but had been a college football player in life, giving
him bulk that made up for his height.

“The possession was successful sir,” Blake said. “We were
able to put Rahul into the antemort.”

This was what Seth had been waiting to hear. “Thank you
Blake. Let Doc know I’ll be there in a minute.”

Blake turned and walked out of the room. Seth watched the
fog for a few more minutes and thought about what this meant to the
organization. With the ability to offer a second chance to inhabit a living
body Atumra’s numbers would soar, as would their grip on antemort society. It
was the Body’s goal to increase its grasp and power over antemort society.
After all, Mortuis had ruled many civilizations in the past, and it was time to
do so again. Seth was happy he would have good news to report.

When he arrived in the possession room in the subterranean
floors of the building, Seth found Doc, a thin gray-haired man, working on the
antemort’s body that now possessed Rahul’s soul. Rahul was unconscious but the
instruments that were attached to him indicated that he was definitely alive.

As Seth entered the room, Doc looked up from what he was
doing. “Blake and Jezebel have disposed of Rahul’s old body. The possession
definitely took hold.”

“How long before he’s conscious,” Seth asked.

“Could be a few hours,” Doc answered. “I have to make sure
the killing serum is out of his system before he’ll be able to leave. He’ll
need to eat as soon as he awakens. Though I haven’t worked on a living body in
some time, I know it’s going to be a few days before he’ll be in good enough
health to be left on his own.”

“Thank you, Doc. I’m sure we can get him something to eat
from the bakery.” Seth walked over to the body that lay on the table. Antemorts
were so vulnerable. Rahul’s new body exhibited the appearance of strength; he
had possessed a strong-looking black man. Seth knew looks could be deceiving.
Rahul’s life could be ended in a matter of seconds.

However, now was not the time for Rahul to die. He would
stay alive long enough for others craving this reward to see the successful
completion of the project, thus guaranteeing their loyalty. He also didn’t want
anyone to suspect foul play. Rahul would be eliminated; the only question was
when. That decision was ultimately up to the Body; Seth reported to them even
though they were a thousand miles away and he was the authority here in
Chicago. However, once he was given the go ahead, he would take great pleasure
in finding a creative way to eliminate him. It would be extremely painful. A
man so anxious to feel should be experiencing the height of that sensation as
he was separated from his possessed body. Seth would take great pleasure in
making sure he did.

“Have you fully documented the process?” Seth walked from
the table that held Rahul’s new body to a small table that held vials of the
serum.

“Yes sir,” Doc said, making notes in a small pad. “Once I’m
done here, I’ll make sure a detailed report of the procedure is typed up for
you.”

Seth picked up one of the small vials and examined it. “And
we have the whole process on video as well?”

“Yes. It will all be in the completed report. The process
should be easily duplicated by other Atumra clans now that we have the recipe
for the serum perfected.”

“Good. Let me know the minute he wakes up,” Seth said to Doc
as he looked again at Rahul. “I’ll go notify the Body of our success.”

Seth left the room in the basement of the building, an area
they appropriately called the catacombs, and returned to his office on the
sixth floor. He sat at his desk for a few minutes looking at the telephone,
then picked up the receiver and dialed a number. The phone rang only a moment
before it was answered.

“Have you done it,” the voice asked without any greeting. It
was a deep, gritty voice.

“Yes, we’ve been successful.”

“Now that we have what we need I trust you will provide your
research for examination by other Atumra groups. This process is instrumental
to our plans.” The voice was authoritative but not demanding.

“Yes, my Body.” The voice at the other end of the line
changed from time to time but Seth always addressed the receiver the same. It
didn’t matter who he was talking to, the Body was a collective force and
speaking to one member was like speaking to all of them at once. Seth’s
position as head of the entire midsection of the United States didn’t even
entitle him the privilege of knowing who was a member of the Body. The Body
simply existed and had for as long as the Atumra was in existence.

The line went dead as the Body disconnected the call from
its end. Seth rotated in his chair and looked out one of the nearby windows.
The fog started to thin as the first signs of morning became evident on the
buildings across the street. It had been a good night for the Atumra.

I
t was daytime
in the Magic Kingdom as Wes made his way through his park. There were no people,
but Wes enjoyed the solitude. It gave him a place to organize his thoughts, a
pleasant seclusion where he was in control and could come and go as he chose.

He made his way to Liberty Square where he boarded the
Liberty Belle Riverboat. There was something very nostalgic about the vessel.
Wes couldn’t decide if it was because it represented a simpler time in history
or if it was tied to memories of being here as a child with his dad and
brother. It could have been a little of both that drew him to the white
steam-driven ship, but regardless, it was a nice place to think about his new
existence as a Mortui.

Two whistles blew and ripples formed in the water radiating
from the ship’s sides as it pulled away from the dock. There was no audio track
because Wes couldn’t remember it enough to duplicate it, but from the upper
deck of the Liberty Belle he was pleased with how much of the park had been
successfully re-created from memory. He could see the southern end of Tom
Sawyer Island as the boat made its way around the first bend of the Rivers of
America. This was a good place to be when he meditated. “One day I’ll add
guests,” Wes said aloud to the park as if it could hear him. He would have to
go back and visit the real place before he could do that. There were still a
lot of details that needed to be added to his mental creation.

Wes’s thoughts turned to his night at the bar with Emily and
the unexpected sync with her afterward. He dreaded a life of feeding off
antemorts. It was a difficult concept to accept, but if he could reconnect with
antemorts and somehow repay them for the time he took, would that make it
easier to feed? After all, improving antemort life was AfterLife’s purpose,
wasn’t it? This could be his way to give back. There were a couple of immediate
problems with his plan, though. First, would he be able to keep up with it by
remembering every antemort he synced with? Second, while they were synced he
would have to remember to look for mental images that could be fixed. Well, he
would do his best. It was a way to give his extended life meaning. If only he
could sync with his brother he could find some immediate peace of mind.

Wes found himself thinking again of Jezebel. She was a
Mortui the entire time he knew her and he never suspected. Then again, he never
knew such a thing as a Mortui existed. Had his feelings for her changed at all
with the information he’d been given by Anne Marie? Had Jez only been trying to
recruit him, or had there been something more between them? She still occasionally
intruded into his thoughts, and now he understood how it was possible to
connect with a person on levels beyond the biological one. Wes began to laugh.
The term “soul mate” was definitely a valid one.

As quick as the laugh came, however, it vanished. The Jez he
was finding out about couldn’t be his soul mate. She was part of the Atumra, a
Truly Dead as Emily referred to them. The girl he knew, worked with, and had
come to admire was an imposter; the feelings he developed were for someone who
didn’t exist.

Emily, on the other hand, was real. He didn’t even have to
think about it. He knew he was fortunate to be spending his first days as a
Mortui with her. She cared about him and he trusted her. Their friendship was
important to him, and he found himself looking forward to the time they spent
together. He never wanted to let her down. She’d said he was one of the “good
guys,” and if Emily thought he was a good guy, he would be better than even she
thought he was. In death, Wes was going to make a new beginning.

The riverboat was traveling along the back side of the
island and the scenery was mostly trees and animatronic animals. The ears of a
deer twitched back and forth as the river boat passed. Wes walked along the
teakwood deck to the rear of the ship and leaned against the whitewashed
railing. The paddlewheel churned the water as it pushed the boat along its path
and left a trail of bubbles behind it. There were still a lot of questions he
had about Mortuis, and Wes wondered how much of this would be covered in his
training with Emily.

“Wes.” Emily’s voice came over the speakers on the boat.

Wes looked around expecting to see her, wondering if his
thoughts caused him to unintentionally sync with her again. She wasn’t there,
so he figured this was his cue to come out of meditation. He pushed the images
of the Magic Kingdom away and opened his eyes. Emily stood over him.

“How was Disney World?” She sat down next to Wes who sat up
on his cot.

“It was nice,” Wes answered, giving her a smile. He felt
rested. Coming out of meditation was nothing like waking up from a deep sleep.
He was immediately alert and didn’t have the slight confusion associated with
being pulled from a dream.

Emily’s attire was different. She now sported a pair of
jeans and a fitted green shirt that made her hazel eyes look more green than
brown.

“I’m sorry about last night,” Wes said, now they were both
back to reality. He wanted to confirm that the sync actually happened. “I
honestly didn’t know I had traveled into your mind.”

“You couldn’t have known, could you? I didn’t even know it
was possible.”

“So we really did sync? I didn’t imagine the whole thing?”

Emily nodded. “It happened. I’m still trying to wrap my mind
around it, but it really did happen.”

Any lingering doubts about the realness of his sync with
Emily subsided and Wes’s thoughts turned to his sync with Vanessa. His presence
in Emily’s mind could only lead to the conclusion that the conversation with
Vanessa also took place. It wasn’t a creation of his mind as he originally thought.
There were some unanswered questions though. If he could sync with both Emily
and Vanessa, what prevented him from being able to sync with his brother? Maybe
Vanessa had been sleeping and his brother hadn’t. Even Emily had been in
meditation. Or maybe it was because he had synced before with both girls; maybe
he could only connect with people he had already synced with once. That made
sense. The connection between the minds had already been made, and his mind
simply found its way back.

“We have a big day ahead of us.” She placed the arm closest
to Wes around his shoulders and pulled him toward her in a semi-hug. “We’ll do
some training here for a little while and then we’re moving to our new place.
Excited, little brother?”

Wes laughed at the pleasure Emily seemed to be getting from
acting like the big sister. “I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head, “you’re
just too friendly to be my sister.”

“Oh?” Emily pushed Wes away and stood up folding her arms.
“Well, how’s this? Get your behind out of bed cause we’ve got work to do. Is
that more to your liking?”

“Definitely closer to how a sister would treat her brother.”

“And how would you know? I’ll have you know that I did have
a brother, and I was never rude to him, but I can do mean and bossy if that’s what
you want.” Emily walked over to the closet and pulled out a new set of clothes
and threw them at Wes. “Get cleaned up and changed. I don’t want you getting in
the habit of wearing the same clothes every day. You might not sweat, but your
body still gets dirty.”

“I was only joking, Emily. You could never really do mean.
Bossy maybe, but not mean.”

“Just get dressed.” Emily turned, walked to the door, and
opened it. “I’ll meet you in the Den. Oh, and just so you know, big sisters are
always right.” She winked at Wes and closed the door.

Wes showered in an adjacent bathroom and changed into the
clothes Emily picked out for him. For the first time since his death, he had a
minor sense of touch. He could feel his old shirt sliding off his skin, a faint
sense of water touching him as he showered, and the brush of the fabric of the
new shirt as he put it on. He rubbed his hands together as he concentrated on
the rediscovered sensations. The intensity of feeling was nowhere near as
strong as it was when he was alive, but it was definitely there and more
obvious since its absence. He took his time as he experimented with the
sensations.

Emily wasn’t alone in the Den when Wes arrived. She was
sitting on the couch where she had been the day before, but there were two
other people with her who Wes had never met before. Emily noticed Wes
immediately. “Wes, this is Daemon and this is Aimee.” Emily put her crochet to
the side and stood up. “Guys, this is our newest recruit, Wes.”