User blog:ChronosOmega/Special Preview: POSTMORTEM

Introduction
A current short-ish story I'm writing and a prequel to Snowfall... ladies and gentlemen, Postmortem. Just a preview for now: still working on it, of course, but feedback is appreciated.

Preview: Postmortem
Adray, Toa of Ice, was dead.  The Dark Hunter’s blade had simply sundered his head from his torso. Not the most unique assault, to be sure- but either way, he was dead, and that was that.

Adray had never been dead before. There is a first for everything, though. The Toa wondered if he would experience dying again, and pondered whether or not it would feel at all different to die the second time around.

It was then that it began to dawn on him that one was not supposed to be able to think after death… were they? Probably not.

All at once it hit him, and Adray’s thoughts transitioned rapidly from vague confusion to sharp awareness. He had died and was now having a philosophical dream about what happens postmortem. No, this wasn’t right at all.  Adray opened his eyes and sat up with a gasp.

Left. White, up. Look right. More white, close. Ceiling, wall, floor. Lying down? Sideways, on the floor. Disoriented, confused. Had to gain his bearings, get himself back together.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Pushing himself into a sitting position, taking a deep breath to clear his head, Adray glanced around at his current surroundings, straining to be more mentally collected this time around. He breathed in and out deeply; the odorless warm air felt slightly sickly beneath his Arthron. <p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">He saw around him white walls, crisp and clean, whiter than the snow that had fallen in his home, long before he had become who he was now, before becoming entangled in the war that raged still in Metru Nui. The War, the ever-present War…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">He was still disoriented, no doubt about that. Get your thoughts straight, Adray.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">The War… the war went on, no doubt. It seemed a constant nowadays, inescapable even in his death, as memories of battle plagued the Ko-Toa’s thoughts. <p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">There was a lurching feeling in his abdomen as one feels when on a swerving vehicle, and the floor vibrated slightly. So it’s a vehicle, maybe- a ship or an aircraft, Adray thought.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Had the Hunters not actually killed him, but simulated it somehow, and captured him? Adray quickly dismissed the idea; it made little sense, and the memories were too fresh, too real. Not clean enough to be falsified. So he was alive… somewhere. <p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">The grey Toa was suddenly aware of an opening in one wall of this somewhere. Interesting- had it been there before? He couldn’t really tell through his scrambled thoughts, which no matter his efforts, hadn’t seemed to solidify. But he knew an exit when he saw one, and knew when to take it. And so Adray darted out of the room, and at last…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">A similarly bleached hallway awaited him. The Toa sighed.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Here and there were other alcoves along the walls, with more closed doors lying recessed behind them; there were also regularly spaced transparent ports along the walls, level with Adray’s waist. At least, he assumed them to be transparent; all that was visible through them was blackness, and the occasional distant pale twinkle. Out through the corner of one window he saw a sliver of blue, like the rounded edge of a sphere of some kind. <p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">But Adray was not one to dwell on such recondite mysteries, especially with more immediate matters to address, such as his current predicament.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">This was certainly no Dark Hunter vessel. This was truly foreign to him- something else entirely, although just what he wasn’t sure. <p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Adray continued to wander down the white hallway, lost in thought. Who would even have the resources to -

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">His thought trailed off when he became distracted by a reflection along the floor. Purple and black, low to the ground. Memories of allies and enemies flashed through his head, his soldier’s instinct kicking into gear. Tabimir... Eliminator... Onepu... and countless others he had fought against, fought alongside, or fought to defend... <p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Adray’s thoughts were interrupted once again as he was hit in the back of the head, and unceremoniously thudded to the stark white floor. An orange form walked past his fading vision. Now, the fallen Toa thought, ''I can be dead. Stop thinking, Adray, the dream is over…'' <p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Once more Adray opened his eyes and sat up, looked around, and suddenly realized that this had already happened to him, very recently.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">That was odd, <span style="font-size: 11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> he thought, senses returning again. I could’ve sworn… <p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Everything was white. Not a dream, not death, but he was still somewhere unfamiliar. Although this appeared to be a slightly different room, judging by the proportions, it was still very much like the first: entirely white surfaces to every side, as though any splash of color could shatter the very material from which they were wrought.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">A voice startled him from his reverie.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">“Hello, brother!”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "TimesNewRoman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Adray’s eyes went wide and he stood up, rapidly snapping around, and turning to face… “Emteth.”