Chapter 1: Afterland

It was dark. All I could see was darkness surrounding me. I slowly rubbed my eyes while laying down. Where am I? Why is everything so dark here? I tried to sit up with a jolt, but it was a bad choice of action. A wave of agonizing pain traversed all across my body. Unable to control myself I fell flat on my back. It was then I realized the floor was made of stones. It's not my apartment! Where is this place? I slowly tried to get up again, this time being a lot more careful. I could feel my head throbbing. Urghh….my head! I tried to look through the pitch-black darkness that surrounded me like a blanket, but nothing was visible no matter how hard I tried. It felt like, I was immersed in a deep black sea, a sea of darkness and I was the only soul present there. I waited for my eyes to get accustomed to the eerie darkness. I was standing on a rock-hard floor, its coldness delivering a feeling of numbness to my feet. My head was so heavy, I could barely keep my eyes open. What happened? Where am I? How did I end up here? My head was flooded with questions without any available answer in sight.

I tried to recall the last thing I remembered. But to my surprise I couldn't recall much. I remembered my parents. I remembered how my apartment looked like. A bunch of familiar faces came rushing into my mind, probably they were my friends or something, but I couldn't tell who they were. I knew I was a college student but couldn't remember which college I was attending to. And most importantly, I couldn't recall my own name! Who am I? My name…. what was my name again...? I suddenly noticed that I had started sweating tremendously. My hands and legs were trembling alarmingly. I was scared. I was scared of that overwhelming situation. Is this a dream? A nightmare? If so, I didn't want to continue that nightmare. I just wanted to wake up.

Well, I couldn't just waste my time by standing there in the utter darkness and speculating about the situation I was in. I need to get out of this place. I have to get rid of this nightmare. I pulled myself together, gathered my thoughts, and started moving forward, slowly and cautiously. My eyes were slowly getting adapted to the darkness. From what I could make out by the vague outlines I could see, it seems I was walking inside a tunnel. A tunnel! I carefully reached out my left hand and touched the side wall. It was covered with algae, waters dripping down from some places here and there. It was most likely an underground tunnel. But the place didn't feel like that much damp to be underground. What is this place! I was so thirsty at that moment that I wanted to lick those waters dripping down the walls but being ignorant of its source I decided to resist myself for being a longer. I can't afford to fall sick before I leave this place.

I kept moving and moving forward, for hours maybe. But it seemed there was no end to the tunnel. It felt like I was trapped inside a never-ending tunnel. No matter how hard I tried, how far I moved forward, there was no escape from it. I even came across several points where the tunnel got diverged into two or three branches. At all those points I chose the next path randomly, but never did I once come across a dead end. Are all these tunnels connected to each other? Am I just moving inside an infinite loop? I also left some scratch marks on the wall at several points, but even after travelling for hours I never came across those scratch marks again. Just how long is this place?

I was getting tired. I knew, no matter what, I had to escape that place. As soon as possible. I kept moving through tunnels after tunnels, it was driving me crazy! At some point, maybe after an entire day, my body became too exhausted to move anymore. I was out of my breath, my clothes soaked in sweat, throat was dry like sands. Although I was panting heavily, I kept moving forward. And then suddenly, I stumbled over something. I got up steadily and tried to identify the obstacle that I faced. I looked very closely, and it turned out to be a human body! It was another guy, like me. He was lying there on the floor, probably unconscious. His body was turning cold, but he was still breathing. Finally, I've found a company. Great!

"Hey, are you okay? Can you hear me?", I kept shouting and shaking his body at the same time, hoping that he would wake up and say something. "Why are you here? What is this place? Do you know the way out? Please open your eyes!" I was getting both annoyed due to his lack of responses and equally excited from the possibility that the guy could help both of us to escape that place. "It's useless. There's no way out." He murmured, his eyes still closed.

- What…what did you just say? You must be tired. Can you try to get up?

- Don't mind me. This place is a labyrinth of darkness. There's no way you can escape this place. I am here for a long time. By constantly duelling with the darkness I've also become blind long time ago. I have given up since then. It's useless anyway. Now I'm just waiting….to fade away.

To fade away? What the hell is he talking about?

- Come on, there's no time to talk nonsense like this. Pull yourself together, get up, and let's get the hell out of this damn place!

- I can't. Along with my vision, I've also lost my ability to move. Look at my legs.

My gaze immediately shifted towards his legs. And then I saw it…. both of his legs were missing from the down the knees. There was no smell of rotting, no blood clot. From the look of it, he was right…. his legs just faded away!

This guy is slowly fading away!

- My end is near, my friend. And you'll also see the same fate eventually.

At that point, I was shaking vigorously. I was scared, I was shocked.

I don't want to fade. I want to live. I need to get out of this place…. as soon as possible.

Without thinking anything further, I got up and started running. My legs protested, my body cried in pain, but I refused to give up and kept running. I kept running and running, maybe for a day or two! I even came across several other people who were also in the process of fading away just like that guy. But every time I saw one of them, I got extra motivated. I'm not going to turn out like them. I should find a way out. And just when I was about give up, lost all my hopes to survive, my eyes caught a glimpse of light. Gathering all my hope and remaining energies, I followed the source of that faint light. The dot of light gradually became bigger and bigger, gradually turning into a huge opening hole. When there's darkness, there must be a glimpse of light. Always follow that light.

I eventually reached the opening of the tunnel. From there I could see the outside world, bright and clear. At first, the sudden exposure to the bright sunlight blinded my eyes. I took my time, opened my eyes slowly to witness a vast green land in front of me. And in the middle of that huge green stretch, there was a small but pretty cottage. A cottage with a windmill at its side and a beautiful flower garden in front of it.

I must be dreaming. A sweet dream after a long nightmare.

Finally, I was out of that place. That overwhelming darkness was gone, before me I could see a world sparkling in lights.

Leaving that tunnel, I dragged my exhausted body towards that cottage. I crossed the garden in the front, almost reached for the door, when my body decided to finally take a rest and ignore all my orders. I was feeling dizzy for a while as I was tired and dehydrated badly. I fell on the ground like a toy, having no control over my body. My visions were getting blurred. And when I was about to faint, I saw a little girl opened the door, smiled at me and said, "You're finally here! Welcome to the Afterland!"