Unexpected afterlife

The nurse tore from Emergency room B as if on fire and threw herself in to the supply closet, grabbing a multitude of things and holding them tightly to her blood spattered uniform. Once her arms were overflowing she raced back, narrowly avoiding a collision with a stray hospital bed. "Somebody move this thing!" she yelled at anyone within earshot. Dumping the supplies down she rattled off her goods as if in an auction bid.

"Nurse" a grey haired doctor said calmly but she didn't hear and continued to list and place the items on the medical trays. "Nurse!" the doctor said more forcefully. She stopped and looked up, surveying the once bustling room. After a short moment of silence everyone began to leave the room or clean up the blood soaked gauze or instruments lying on the floor. Turning her attention to the bed she let out a slow sigh as her eyes rested upon the still face of an auburn haired woman.

"She's gone" the nurse stated, not looking for a reply.

"I'm what?" Gemma said, choking on her words. "Gone? I'm right here. No, no, no , no!"

The nurse bent over Gemma's body and pulled the blue sheet over her face, gently rested her hand on her shoulder and then left the room. Gemma watched this from the foot of the bed, looking around her quickly but returning back to herself. "How am I there and here?" she mumbled.

Breaking her train of thought a man appeared in the room with a bare and sad looking bed, sheet-less and Gemma noticed this immediately. He wheeled it in backwards, whistling as he pulled. "Watch it!" Gemma shouted, jumping out of the way. "Can't you see me standing here?"

"He can't see you" someone unexpectedly replied.

Whirling around Gemma was close, too close to a tall sandy haired man. "What?" she asked, needing a confirmation.

Smiling he repeated "He can't see you" emphasizing the one word.

"By that do you mean he can still hear me, smell me or what?" Gemma spit at him. "Who are you and why can you see me?"

Laughing and shaking his head he didn't answer, just walked past her and over the her dead body lurking beneath the sheet. "I was watching, you're pretty. Sorry, were pretty." he said tilting his head at the sheet covered body.

Was, the only word she heard.

"Am I dead?" she asked steadily "Because, I'm not going to lie. I kind of look dead." Gemma said not laughing.

"Yeah, you're dead" he replied easily leaving her body and walking back over to her. "You know how?"

"How what?" she asked. He was tall, much taller than she was and she felt it. Stepping away she looked back to his face, attempting to read him.

"How you died, aren't you wondering?" he asked with a puzzled expression. "Look out there. The ER is full of people, I haven't seen so many people die in such a short time. it's odd." he said as he took a breath and rubbed his forehead "I died two weeks ago, some bastard beat the hell out of me behind a bar"

"Shocking, why ever would they have done that?"

He flashed her a smile "Yeah. Well, I might have deserved a kicking but not to die. Anyway, I've been lurking around here since then. A few hours ago the bodies began appearing. I noticed the dead roaming the halls upstairs first, then I, I um, came to the ER"

Gemma bit her lip and only debating the question twice finally asked "Upstairs, like, upstairs?"

The man burst with laughter "No! I mean like upstairs as in on the 4th floor. Was checking out a woman getting a breast reduction. Why ever would a woman do that?" he asked himself.

"Gross. So, why am I dead?" she asked getting back to the subject.

"From what I've heard there was an accident on a train. Some explosion and well, by looking at your uh, corpse, you got sliced and diced."

Gemma glared at him but felt it pointless to rage at, well, a ghost. "What's your name then?" she asked reluctantly.

Rubbing his forehead again he replied "Nathan. Nathan Deleany" and walking over to her chart hanging from the bed he continued "And you are indeed, Gemma Black". He smiled at her gently but the way he said her name made Gemma nervous.

"Why are you here? Why am I here for that matter? Shouldn't there be some sort of bright light, a giant hand pulling me to heaven or something?"

"A giant hand?" he laughed "No, no giant hand. No light. Nothing. There's nothing like that."

Gemma sensed he wasn't being truthful or at least he wasn't telling her everything "Just tell me. Two weeks, you might have learnt something right? I don't see too many other dea....ghosts around so they must have gone somewhere?"

"Come with me" he said walking out of the room. Gemma didn't move, fear gripping her. "Come on" he said again from the hallway. "Don't worry, your body will be there for a while yet and anyway, not like you need it any more."

Taking one last look at her blood stained self on the bed she began to move her feet and followed Nathan to the busy hallway. It was busy like he said. Nurses and doctors rampaging around the ER, dashing from room to room. The hallway was lined with people on beds, on chairs and even on the floor. "Why don't they take my room?" she asked Nathan as they passed a woman crying hysterically, covered in cuts and bleeding on to a coat.

Gemma's just minutes before. Nurses and doctors doing everything they could to save a life. Blood and tears filling the room. "They'll get around to it and then if you want, we'll be able to find your body in the morgue."

Gemma swallowed hard and followed Nathan along the hallway. She was dizzy in confusion. They reached the elevators and stopped. "What are we doing?" she asked.

"Waiting for the elevator."

"Well, push the bloody button then." she said to him, shaking her head.

"Be my guest" he replied, standing to the side. Gemma walked forward with purpose and raised her index finger to the big white button. She forcefully pushed but nothing. She pushed again and no orange glow appeared. Gemma moved to the next elevator over and tried again, then again until she stopped in frustration. "Gemma, you can't touch anything. You are in fact dead, so no more button pushing."

"Why doesn't my hand just float through to the other side?" she asked him, reluctant tears filling her eyes.

"This isn't the movies you know." Then seeing her crying he stepped closer "I'm sorry, I forget you literally just died. You can't touch anything any more Gemma. I thought that same thing, I expected to be able to float through walls and shit but, turns out that's just cinema magic. We simply can't perform tasks. For instance I can touch the button on the kettle but I can't turn it on no matter how much I want a cup of tea. I can touch a woman's breasts but it's like touching stone. Horrible. I once tried to jump in to the basement swimming pool and hit the water as if it were made of concrete." he sighed and smiled at her "We basically exists but someone has taken all the fun out of it."

"So, what's the point then? Are we just stuck here forever?" she asked, wiping her eyes.

"I'll show you what we are supposed to do. Come on." he said entering the elevator. The elevator was quiet in comparison to the hallway, only two doctors and a nurse lurked inside. Nathan slid in and stood to the back of the metal box making sure to avoid human contact. Gemma followed but just as she entered another doctor came in behind her. It was like being hit by a brick wall. Gemma flew forwards and landed at Nathan's feet.

"What was that?" Gemma gasped as she stood up.

Helping her Nathan replied "That's what I mean. Look, he didn't even feel you. We're like balloons that can't burst. Can't penetrate anything at all. Touch it yes, feel it sort of but we can't connect or perform any tasks. It's infuriating" he finished, rubbing his forehead.

"You okay?" Gemma asked him in an uncomfortable amount of concern.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. It's hurting more and more." he said clenching his jaw. Gemma didn't want to ask what was hurting, she couldn't find the words. The elevator doors closed and they began to rise. Nathan looked at her surveying him and said "I think my time's nearly up."

Gemma frowned "What do you mean?" she asked but he didn't answer.

The elevator stopped and the yellow number 3 flashed. "This is us. Come on, I'll show you." and he led the way from the suffocating metal box. Gemma instantly noticed they were on the maternity ward but even in her bewilderment she didn't question it. Nathan led her along the hallway, passing room after room of soon to be, in the process of or new mothers. At the end of the hallway there was a large room filled with incubators and babies. "This is where they bring the sicker babies. You know, like if they're premature or if there's something wrong with them." Nathan explained as he raised his hands to the glass and let them rest there.

"As much as this is nice staring at babies, it's kind of weird. What has this got to do with me having just been ripped apart in a train accident? Is one of the babies like god or something?" Gemma asked, attempting to lighten the mood.

Nathan looked at her. His smile was not one of happiness but of pain. "These babies will die. Probably all of them." he took a breath and looked back to the room "When I died there was a young boy waiting for me. I died in that alley behind the pub, didn't even make it to hospital. I watched the blood and life seep out of me and it was hours before anyone came. As I sat and watched myself die a boy appeared. He told me what had happened and said I should make my way to the hospital and he'd find me there. So I did. The ambulance came and that's when I found out that I couldn't touch anything. I think I screamed the entire way to hospital and they didn't do anything. Just covered my body up and had a chat about the football." He released himself from the glass and nodded for Gemma to follow him.

"So I arrived at the hospital and followed my body around for days before my family took it away for the funeral. If it weren't so tragic it would have been pretty pathetic." he said quietly and Gemma had a sudden ache for her family. "It was then that the boy appeared again and I was glad he did. I was going mad being alone and I was so confused. He explained it all, everything that he could. I asked him why he was helping me and he told me that he was meant to. He had died a few weeks before I had and he had the same experience, someone appeared to him to comfort him and explained the rules."

Gemma stopped and leaned against the wall and thought of the word comfort, was that was Nathan was trying to do, comfort her? Instead of opening that topic she simply said "The rules?"

"Yeah. The boy, James, told me what I needed to do. He gave me a name first. He gave me your name. Told me I had to wait for you and then I was to explain the rules to you. Once you knew it all, you'd have the same job as us."

"I'm confused Nathan. What is this job? I don't understand" Gemma said, running her fingers through her hair.

Realising he must sound like a mental case he rubbed his hands over his face "I know, I'm sorry. I'm explaining like an idiot. It's not like I've done this before." He answered, half in an apology and half in anger.

"Just, tell me what the babies are about because quite frankly, it's kind of creepy." Gemma said with a smile.

Smiling too he replied "Yeah, I thought it was quite kiddy fiddler too when James told me." Then they both laughed. Nathan slid to the floor and Gemma followed him. "Right. Here it is. Ready?" He asked and she nodded in reply. "Your job is to wait for someone, someone who in the next few weeks is going to die. You'll know when and I'll tell you the name in a minute. Once you find him your job is to comfort him and explain the rest. Just like I've attempted to do." Gemma opened her mouth to ask a question but Nathan stopped her. "There is no heaven, there is no hell. There is however reincarnation."

With this Gemma laughed and waited for Nathan to laugh with her but he simply shrugged. "Are you joking?" she asked totally aghast.

"Not one bit. I don't know how else to say it? You will, after helping the next person like I'm helping you now, become a new soul. Yeah I know, I know, sounds a bit shit when I say it like that but there it is. You'll become one of those babies and you know, you'll save a life in doing so." He reached out his hand and placed it on her shoulder and continued "The job is to start again. We are given another chance. You die, you instruct another person, you wait till the time is right and then you are re-born. Totally gay I know. I'm not sure why babies, I guess it might be different for everyone in who we help?" He finished with a huge white smile.

Gemma slowly stood, steadying herself on the wall. She placed both her hands over her mouth and just stared at Nathan who stared right back. "How do I know?" she mumbled.

"Know what?"

Removing her hands "How do I know when it's time to, well, dive in? Fall in? Float in? How does it even work?"

Laughing and standing too Nathan shrugged and answered her honestly "I haven't got a fucking clue. I personally think we might float in but as I was wrong with the whole walking though walls, who knows? I can feel it however, I can feel myself changing."

"What does it feel like?" she asked as she looked at him all over. Taking in his build and his height all over again.

"Feels like I'm empty. I feel light and maybe, hollow or something? I guess it's not long now." But before she could speak he continued "I did think about not doing it, about staying as I am but there is no staying. You have no option. I found this out when I found you. I, I didn't want to help you." He said looking anywhere but at her. "Not at all. I was just hanging out and I felt it, I felt you. Fighting it I tried to stay away but like magic, there I was, watching you die."

Gemma felt her heart racing inside her chest and thought how weird it was to feel it but know she wasn't alive. Nathan began to walk around the glass room containing their futures and Gemma took to his side. They walked in silence for a few moments until Gemma broke it "So, I have to help someone like you and James have done, then I what, I wait until it's my time? I can't wrap my head around it. This morning I had a fight with my toaster as it destroyed my breakfast. I was reading the gossip column on the tra.... on the way to work. Now I'm dead and I have to wait around until someone else dies and then I wait some more. This is, It's, cruel." she finished as tears ran the length of her cheek.

Nathan shook his head "Cruel?" he asked but not wanting a reply. "What were you expecting? Heaven? Hell? This is a gift Gemma. I was never a believer in afterlife, I thought it was just bang, you're dead, lights out. This is at least something and look in there, we have another chance."

With the tears still streaming down her face she placed her hands on the glass and rested her forehead between them. The babies inside were all in small glass boxes, fighting for their lives, fighting for her life. "You're right." she simply stated and after a moment continued with "I have so many questions."

Nathan mimicked her pose against the glass and smiled. "So do I, but, you'll be all right. Wish I had known you before you got mashed up in that train."

Grinning Gemma replied "Yeah, and I wish I'd known you before someone kicked your face in." They both began to laugh whilst watching their futures through the window. Gemma turned her face to Nathan and he turned his to hers. "Thank you." she said to him with as much emotion and truth as she possessed.

Watching her he nodded, tapped the glass with his finger and said "William Jackson. Your name. William Jackson." Then as suddenly as he had appeared to her he was gone. Gemma didn't move an inch but instead just stood there leaning against the glass. Without warning loud beeping noises began echoing in the hallway. Within the room there was rapid movement and Gemma looked to it. Nurses rushed through the doors and over to the far left side of the room. They gathered around an incubator, pressing buttons and moving tubes around. A larger nurse came in and talked quickly to the other staff members. The glass was too thick to hear the words but Gemma knew, she knew that this child had just been blessed with a new start, a new beginning.

"William Jackson" Gemma said to herself as she watched the smiles from everyone within the room. Smiles of a life having just been saved.


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