Chapter 1

You know, dying sucks. Dying because of something stupid, something that you have mostly yourself to blame for sucks even more. I was dying right now, it will be painful and I knew that I would die.

I'm not dying because I have saved some random kid from getting run over by a sleeping truck driver, nor have I saved a girl from getting raped and being shot for my heroism. I also did not stumble and fell down some stairs.

No, I was dying because I did something extremely stupid during work. I am working at a dairy and there are a few fairly large tanks there. One of these tanks needed to have a sensor changed.

So, it was my job to change that sensor and climb inside. That in itself wouldn't have killed me. I was dying because I haven't told anyone about the repairs I was doing.

So here I was, inside a 250.000-liter big tank, repairing a sensor for the amount of milk inside the tank, when suddenly the sprinkler began to rainwater down on me.

This could only mean that someone has started the cleaning program. He or she had seen that the tank was empty and showed the coloration being dirty, the tanks have a color outline on the screen. The moment it opens it gets automatically changed to dirty.

And the problem here is that the computer isn't able to know that I am inside, which means that anyone can still start the cleaning program. Getting out of the tank wouldn't be possible for me now, I need at least a minute to climb out and the program only does a water cleaning for a few seconds, before switching to lye and then acid.

So, I'll basically be dying a pretty painful death within a few seconds. Those on the outside won't find me before I'm already dead. And when they find me they will only find some remains of flesh and bones. The stuff we use to clean our tanks is pretty corrosive. Only brief contact with skin causes irritation, prolonged exposure can easily dissolve flesh.

So yeah, I will die or am dying a pretty painful death.

Life wasn't bad, I had only a few friends, but those were real friends, who helped me in times of need. My childhood was fun and my parents were nice. I was never ambitious, sporty, or had a big goal in life. I liked to read and play some games, that is all I have ever done.

I sometimes did go to parties or met people in a disco. Had a girlfriend here or there, but never something truly serious. I wasn't one for a quick fling and as such often had a few years in between the last girlfriend and a new one. My friends often joked that I would die alone and without children. Well, they were right, they might not have thought that I'll die this young, I'm only in my early twenties, but they were right.

The water has stopped, in a few moments, it will rain lye.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to have them dissolve first. I don't want to die a painful death, always wanted to die instantly. I often joked I would kill myself with a shotgun shot to the face, right in front of a school. That way the kids get at least a few days off with my death. Yeah, not many were appreciating my dark humor.

Well, the first few drops were raining down, it was itching and burning. The lye was also hot, over 70°C. It started to burn as if millions of ants were biting into my flesh. My body hunched over and I screamed in pain.

I knew that this would only get worse, that the pain will increase. I didn't want to find out how long it would take me to finally die. That's why I knelled down and plunged my head into the puddle of lye.

My whole face was burning, my body was feeling as if it gets stabbed over and over and over.

I don't know how I had the resolve to do the next thing, but I opened my mouth and took a deep gulp of the corrosive water lye mixture.

The pain instantly increased a thousand-fold. My body automatically tried to cough the stuff back out. I opened my eyes without wanting to. They too began to burn instantly. I could barely make out the dim light of my headlight. It lighted the tank enough for me to see that the water was already red from blood.

I couldn't breathe, it was burning so much. I couldn't see, my eyes were already dissolving and I couldn't move, my muscles in the process of breaking down. The last thing I knew was pain and then nothing.