Afterlife Chapter 2

[Surreptitious Cardboard Box]

Stepping around the man, Felix bent down, crouching beside him, but being careful to not touch the pooling blood. "What--?" he started. "Are you--? how--?" He shook his head, totally unsure of what to say. Hesitantly, he placed a hand on the man's arm, trying to alert him to his presence. "How did this happen to you?" he breathed.

The man continued to drag himself along the side of the road, crawling on his stomach, his clothes soaked from the blood from his wound, and from trailing in the muddy pool he was knelt in. Felix jumped back up and strode round to stand in front of the man, blocking the path he seemed to be heading along.

"Please," he said. "You need help. Can't you tell me what happened to you? Where are you wounded?" He crouched down again, but could not see into the stranger's face, for he had his head down, as though it would cause too much pain to even bring it up and see where he was going. Then, just as Felix was about to say something else to him, the man's body shook violently for a split-second, his head jerking from side to side, his torso twitching, and then his upper body crumpled, falling to the ground as his arms gave way. Bloody, muddy water splashed at Felix's ankles, and he felt it soak through his trousers, reaching his skin and chilling him to the bone; the knowledge that another man's blood was mixed in there was what haunted him.

The man was still moving - twitching mostly - but he had stopped trying to crawl his way further down the road now, and his face was buried in the mud of the path. Felix remained frozen, rooted to the spot, still crouching and staring at this pitiful creature.

[Richard El Britannia]

Jack stood impatiently at the bottom of the hill with Oliver and Peneii. Whatever the hell Angelus was doing was taking a long time. Jack continued to fiddle with his knife, now poking the blade with his index finger, slightly harder each time, testing to see if the whole 'no pain' thing really was real. However hard he poked, it didn't hurt him, though. He sighed, then looked over to Oliver, nonchalantly.

"So ... Oliver, did'ja see what this ... soul is like that Angelus is ... dealing with?" Jack asked, trying to sound curious. But he had never been very good at acting. It was obvious to Jack that the way Oliver was acting meant that he was hiding something. He didn't seem relaxed - quite the contrary - and kept looking back up the hill. "Hey! I've got an idea. Why don't I walk up there and pretend I'm simply just a passer by? Surely just because someone walks up this hill doesn't mean that he is with the group?"

He hoped that would get some kind of reaction out of Oliver. There had to be some reason Oliver had wanted Peneii and himself to wait at the bottom of the hill, 'occupying themselves with something'.

[Otzlowe]

Oliver rustled the hair on top of his head, trying to hide the conflicted expression on his face, "It looked like a man, I think. I didn't really get a good look. Princess was blocking my bloody view as it was." He guarded his expression carefully, but nearly slipped, almost twitching as an idea struck him, "Y'know... I think it's probably someone that he knows, and he doesn't want to let on that he's acquired a little party."

He shrugged toward Jack, while not actually facing him, "I mean you could wander by, but I wouldn't recommend it." He grinned to himself, somewhat darkly, "We don't know much about this place, maybe he hasn't told you everything; if there's way to kill in this world... he might just try it out on you."

He dropped down, to sit on the hill, "Besides, it didn't look any more interesting than this boring scenery. You'd just be wasting your time, and pissing Princess off." Oliver made an irritated face, and grunted, trying to show irritation toward Angelus, to hopefully throw Jack off.

[Richard El Britannia]

Jack laughed to himself. Try to kill him, would he? The guy that Angelus was wasting his time on must have been at least slightly interesting, otherwise why would he waste so much time on him and try to keep it a secret? Oliver said it would be a waste of time, but surely just sitting down was more of a waste of time. And Jack wanted some adventure; a little risk. He had died once, how could he die again?

Jack looked down at Oliver, who sat on the ground, trying to appear calm and uncaring, and laughed. "You can't lie very well. I think it's living in the mountains for so long that's made you so bad at it, mate." Jack grinned, shrugged his shoulders and spun around, making his way back up the hill. "And even if you aren't lying - " he stopped and looked over his shoulder at Oliver " - I don't care. I didn't live my life to the fullest, so I wanna get the most out of death."

[Otzlowe]

Oliver scowled, jerking his head toward Jack, "What I saw, 'Mate' is what I didn't want to see." His face went stony as he continued, "I'm not kidding. I already have ideas about what happened up there, and if they extend to more than just that guy, you definitely don't want them yourself." He rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth, as if he were trying to get something vile off of his lips.

"Now, I don't particularly like Princess, but he seems to know way more about this place than us, and if he tells us to wait, I mean to wait." He dug his fingers into his hair, and sighed as if exhausted, "I've been here far longer than any of you, and I still know nothing about this place." He threw his right arm out, gesturing to everything around him, "We don't know anything about this place! Anything! Are you going to go be brazen the moment you get here, before you have any idea what this place even is?!" He scowled for a couple of moments, before a look of confusion hit him, and then all expression fell from his face. He dropped his hand with an audible, sneer.

[Richard El Britannia]

During the verbal assault that Oliver had unleashed, Jack had turned back around, staring at him, clearly shocked. And slightly scared. Making a big, muscular man who had lived in mountains all his life angry certainly wasn't a good idea, Jack decided. What worried Jack more was that Oliver seemed frankly disturbed and terrified at what he had witnessed up at the top of the hill. Jack still couldn't shake curiosity off, though. As horrible as it had been, Jack wanted to see this for himself.

Jack sighed and looked up at the sky for a few moments, watching the clouds seemingly move slowly above and let his thoughts tumble around inside his head. If what Oliver had seen was so bad, maybe it wasn't a good idea to look at it. That was if Oliver told him what he had saw.

"Say, Oliver ..." Jack said, sitting down next to Oliver, trying to appear conformable and relaxed. "What did you see. Surely you can tell me?"

[Otzlowe]

Oliver shrugged, "He asked me not to, and I doubt I really could if I tried." A bothered look washed over his face, "I didn't get a very good look at it... I mean, I saw it... and I don't really want to see it again... but it's not like anything I've really seen before." He trembled slightly as a shiver ran down his spine.

He flicked at a couple of blades of grass idly. He wanted to not have to explain the thing to him, but he didn't see any way to not tell Jack, without him going up the hill for a look himself. "I don't really know how to put it. Angelus seemed to know something about what happened, with all his haste." Oliver worked his mouth, as though not really sure what to say, "With what I saw, I think it's too important for me to not give you all the facts, and maybe confuse you as to what actually happened."

[Surreptitious Cardboard Box]

Felix remained crouching for a moment, transfixed by the pitiful man before him, but wishing he wasn't. The man was still stationary, no longer dragging himself, and no longer twitching. Felix knew there was nothing for it now, but to find out for himself what had happened here. Lifting up one of the man's arms, he rolled him over, pushing at the weight of the slumped body, until he was lying on his back. Immediately upon seeing the face, however, he almost recoiled. The eyes were coal-black and lifeless, and the surrounding skin was darkened, almost as if the man had received a giant black-eye from a fight, not that that would have been possible in this world. The unusual appearance was not fitting for a human, dead or no, and of course, that element of the man's existence - the fact that he was dead, or so it appeared - was puzzling in itself. They were in the afterlife; where else could he go now?

The eyes weren't the only unusual aspect about the man's appearance; his face and neck were covered in what appeared to be small burn marks; purple and red splotches with even darker epicentres. The man clearly had not burned to death, and yet these marks looked new, as if they'd only recently appeared. Rolling up the man's shirtsleeves, Felix noticed that there were more burn marks up the arms, and when he pulled down the neckline of the shirt, more around his shoulders and collarbone. Utterly bemused, Felix stood up, unsure of what to do with the body, and what all the signs it gave meant. He couldn't just leave the man there - anybody else who travelled past did not deserve to see that - and yet until he knew exactly what had happened to him, he didn't particularly want to leave. Still, his companions would need to be passing along this way eventually, so he supposed it was best they knew the cause of his delay, rather than be surprised by it. One of them might have an idea about what to do with the body, after all.

He turned to look back up the hill, unable to see his three companions, who were on the other side, just as he had instructed Oliver. He needed them now, though. "Oliver!" he shouted, wondering if they could even hear from that far away. Over the noise of the rain, he supposed they couldn't. He glanced back down at the body, unsure that he wanted to leave it, but he knew he had no choice. Making the decision in a split-second, he tore off, back up the hill, the way he had come.

It took some time to get up, as he slipped and slid in the muddy tracks, a stream of water sluicing down the hillside, right under his feet. Once he had finally peaked the hill, however, he noticed that he could see both the bloody, burnt corpse behind him, and his three companions sheltering as best they could below him. He leapt down the hillside towards them, skidding along, and falling over more than once, until he almost tumbled right on top of the three of them, instantly gaining their attention. He pulled himself back up, looking straight at Oliver.

"You can all follow me now," he said. "Just over the hill. And ... prepare yourselves. I can't even explain what has happened here, but I need your help."

[Richard El Britannia]

Jack raised an eyebrow at Angelus as he attempted to make his way down the hill. Rather, it seemed to Jack that Angelus didn't really make his way down, but the slippery hill forced him down. Once Angelus reached them, Jack noticed the look on his face and knew instantly that Angelus tumbled down that hill so quickly for a reason.

"Prepare ourselves for what?" Jack asked, suspiciously. Perhaps adventure was beginning. 'Ooh, this is gonna be fun!' He thought to himself, disguising his childish excitement.

[Surreptitious Cardboard Box]

Felix looked agitatedly at Jack, desperate to return to the corpse on the other side of the hill. "Just be prepared," he reiterated. "It's not good. In fact, if you're squeamish, then you can wait elsewhere. But something has to be done, and--" he paused, fixing the younger man with a determined stare, "-- answers have to be found."

He surveyed his companions one last time, ensuring they were all of a clear mind regarding what he required of them, and then he began to struggle his way back up the hill. The tracts of muddy rivers were just as forceful here as they had been on the other side, and he tried not to let them make him fall down again, though he was already covered in mud, and soaking wet, freezing him to the bone. He ignored that though, or at least tried to, and instead focused on the task at hand; he had to find out what had injured this man. And what of those burn marks? They must have had an origin, too.

Soon he was over the hill again, and could hear his companions panting and swearing behind him as they too struggled down. The corpse was still where he had left it; though it was unlikely, he had momentarily feared that the body would somehow move while he was not watching it, or that somebody else would come across it and place it elsewhere. He rushed forward, only slowing down a fraction as he approached it, and then he simply stood there, waiting for his companions, waiting for their reactions.

[Richard El Britannia]

After dragging himself behind Angelus, completely dirtying his shirt, Jack sighed as he finally, got to the top of the hill. He stared down at the ground - panting - crouched over with his hands on his knees to keep his balance. He finally looked up, wiping his brow and lazily moved his eyes over the path in front of him. And that's when he saw it; the bloody, burnt-looking corpse lying on the ground before a concerned looking Angelus.

"O-okay ... " Jack began, hesitantly, flicking out his knife and playing with it in his hands subconsciously. Perhaps to defend himself against something if it came, although he doubted what good that would do in this world. Then again, there before him lied someone dead. "That guy is dead, right?" He paused, gulping. "How, exactly?"

[Otzlowe]

Oliver trudged back over the crest of the hill, finding himself making displeased faces as he did so. And I just said I didn't want to see it again. Despite this, he followed Jack to the other side, doing his best to do no more than glance at the strange 'person' that was lying on the ground.

"At least," He began, "It's not making any noises." He shuddered as he thought about the kind of disturbing groans that it might make. He was easily spooked by things he found creepy; he was still brave, but things that just seemed to defy his ideas of 'What's real and what's not' gave him goosebumps.
A thought skittered across Oliver's mind, and he twitched slightly as it did, "Oh I do hope we don't have to take this with us." In his mind, Oliver wasn't caught on the confusion that Angelus and Jack seemed to share. He'd been in this 'world' for ages, and knew practically nothing about it, whereas the other two seemed to think more about how things work in this world. Normally, he might have, but after years of wondering if he'd continue climbing mountains forever, he slowly stopped questioning the things around him.

[Surreptitious Cardboard Box]

Felix glanced at Jack when he spoke up. The younger man was toying with the knife that - only hours beforehand - had been lodged in his back, having most likely been the cause of his death.

“I don’t know what condition he’s in,” Felix admitted, nodding towards the man on the ground. He felt a fool; almost the first thing that he had told the others was that nothing could hurt them and that they could feel no pain in the Afterlife, and now here they were, staring down at what he could only describe as a corpse, lost for words, and each fearing for his own … existence? “It can’t be death, but clearly in this world there must be some sort of … form of inactivity that affects the body. There’s no way of telling if this man’s consciousness is even still intact.”

He walked around the body so that he was standing opposite his companions. “He appears to have been burned, though by what, I don’t know. Blood was pooling around him, so it would be safe to assume that he has been wounded, also, but again, I have no idea how.” He sighed to himself. He was trying to view this as a puzzle, trying to distance himself from it, but emotional detachment was hard when you weren’t used to it. He looked up at the others. “Would any of you care to suggest what might have happened here?”

[Richard El Britannia]

Jack almost laughed at how ridiculous the last question Angelus asked. "Listen, if you don't know, how would we? I've been here for a few hours. How, in that time, would I have learned more than you have?" Jack frowned and turned his gaze slowly to look down at the mess on the floor, nervously. "The only thing that's clear," he said turning his gaze back to Angelus. "Is that it is possible to be injured badly here."

That last admission chilled Jack to the bone. He had died. His firm beliefs in science had told him that in death, there is nothing, just the end of life, but here he was in another world. Still, even with this, he doubted there was anything after losing your 'life' here.

"Listen, shouldn't we go find someone. Surely someone will know what this means?"