Chapter 24

Black. All that was left now was black. Jonas felt a terrible numbing pain within him. It was becoming unbearable. He couldn't hold onto his life much longer.

Gabe, Jonas thought scarcely. We're almost there. To... Else... Where...

Then, as he thought that, Jonas let himself go. A rush of relief ran through his almost lifeless body. Then, a split second later no feeling came to him at all, followed by another odd rush that left his head spinning. After his head stopped spinning, Jonas opened his eyes. He was right where he was before, in the snowy vacant field before he imagined himself on the sled, everything was the same as it was before. Snowflakes riddled the sky with their dances, the snowy landscape sparkled before Jonas as snowflakes hit ground, the ice-glazed trees that looked as breakable as fine glass, everything. Although, oddly enough, he didn't feel cold. In fact, it was as if there was no feeling at all, not even numbness.

What happened? Jonas thought puzzled. Am I dead? Or alive?

As he studied the landscape more, puzzling himself with these thoughts, he noticed something odd, very strange, startling even. He found himself floating about 4 feet high in the air, cross-legged. Jonas leapt from his position and instinctively looked down. He was horrified. He came face to face with his former self. His lifeless body was lying on it's back, eyes and mouth frozen shut. The body's skin was tinted a bluish color and snowflakes covered his legs under the snow.

I... I'm dead!

Jonas broke down, shaking violently. He couldn't collect his thoughts. He felt like he was going insane.

"Calm down."

Jonas heard a voice, an unearthly voice. It kinda sounded like a girl's voice, in a way.

"Who-who said that?!" Jonas said feverishly shaking, startled (as if he wasn't already startled enough).

"That's for me to know, and you to never find out." The girl's voice chirped cheerfully. "It's a secret.

"Anyhow," the disembodied voice sighed. "I'm here to take you, Jonas, through 'The Tunnel'."

"How do you know my name? What's 'The Tunnel'? What happened to me? Where am I? How-"Jonas was cut off.

"One question at a time!" she sighed annoyed. "I can only handle so much, ya know?"

"Fine then," Jonas sighed. "What happened to me?"

"You died."

"I already know that! I mean, what AM I now?" Just as Jonas asked that question the word "ghost" came to mind. "Am I... a ghost?"

"Um, not really. It's hard to explain. You're more of a 'Nothing'."

Jonas thought for a minute. "If I'm Nothing, then why do you call me 'Jonas' instead of 'Nothing'?"

"You respond better to your previous name, ALL of them do."

"All of them?"

"Erm, I didn't say that! That's classified information!"

"Hmm," Jonas said and thought this sounded suspicious, but he didn't question it any further, he had other questions to be answered. "Then, what is this place?"

"Oh, I haven't taken you anywhere. You're right where you died. Like I said before, I'm only here to take you through "The Tunnel"."

As the voice said that, Jonas remembered what she said about "The Tunnel".

"What exactly is 'The Tunnel'?"

"Look behind you! Silly..."

Jonas turned himself around and saw a white blinding light cut through a place between space and time. A rip in the dimension.

He felt himself being attracted to the light and was slowly moving toward it, but he stopped. He couldn't leave. So many questions left unanswered, he just has to have them answered.

"I can't go. Not yet." Jonas said calmly.

"Ya know, you're not making my job any easier by doing this." she said playfully scolding and also a little annoyed. Then she let out a sigh. "Fine then, what do you want?"

Jonas paused for a second. He had so many questions, he didn't know where to start! Then finally, after a moment of pause he decided on his question.

"What's beyond the light?"

"You'd have to go through it to find out." the voice said slyly.

Jonas sighed. Will I EVER get a direct answer from her?!

"All right then, what happed to Gabe? Is he dead too?"

"No, he's alive, but barely. He's lucky that when you collapsed you landed on your back. Otherwise he'd be dead by now."

Jonas looked very closely to where he put Gabe on his chest. He noticed small, very small pulses of breathing of where the little toddler was.

I'm sorry Gabe. Jonas thought.

"What'll become of him now?" Jonas asked concerned.

"Shh, watch." the voice said cheerfully.

Jonas watched. Eyes fixated on the little toddler's body clinging to his dead one. Just minutes later Jonas heard a barking sound.

A dog? Jonas thought recalling a memory of a dog that the Giver gave him as a fun, more pleasurable memory.

Just then, a dog appeared in the clearing and ran to where his dead body and Gabe were. The dog leapt from one side to another sniffing, then paused and let out a whimper. Then it started into a frenzy of shrill barks.

"All right, all right I'm coming." a man's voice said. "Hold your horses!" Then the man started to mumble something Jonas couldn't quite understand.

The man appeared to be a hiker of sorts. He wore a red cap upon his head. He had light brown hair and a beard. His beard wasn't exceptionally long, it only came down to his neck. He also wore a red plaid patterned coat. His pants were a blackish. On his back he carried a bag that looked a little like it was going to burst. He looked like a stereotypical hiker.

Then as the man approached the place where the dog was he jumped back, startled.

"What in the world?!"

The man couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't move, all he could do was look at the body, wide-eyed and open mouthed.

Then the man finally came to his senses and ran over to the body. He hurriedly started to clear off the snow, as he did he noticed the barely alive toddler. He took the bag he had on his back off. He then took out a small folded quilted blanket. Every other square on the blanket had a small blue flower pattern and the other squares were a lighter blue with no pattern. The man wrapped the exhausted and starving toddler as fast as he could and whistled to his dog. The dog came over and laid down next to the man. The man put Gabe next to the dog and started to dig more of Jonas out.

The man sighed and shook his head slowly with a sad look on his face.

"It's too late for this boy." The man said to himself.

He stood for a few minutes, wondering about what to do with Jonas' body. Then he decided it'd be best to take it with him. He picked up the little blue bundle of Gabe up and put him to the left side of his chest. Then swung the body over his right shoulder. He whistled to the dog and then left the clearing into the woods.

"He's gonna give you a proper burial. He thought it'd be the least he could do since you saved Gabe's life." The voice said in a quiet tone.

"What's gonna become of him now?" Jonas asked.

"He's gonna live with the man and his wife. They're more than likely gonna rename him though. But, at least Gabe will live a life without the sameness. Of course his life won't be perfect (nothing ever is), but it will be better because of the heroic thing you did for him."

"That's good to hear." Jonas said relieved.

Jonas wondered for a few minutes. He wondered what Gabe would turn out to be when he got older. He wondered what a life without sameness felt like. He, himself, even with all those memories, had only but a small taste of what the life was like.

Then he started to wonder how the Giver was. And how the rest of the community was. He decided that would be his next question.

"Tell me," he began. "How is the Giver and the rest of the community?"

An eerie silence took over. It made Jonas feel awkward, as if he wasn't supposed to have asked.

"The Giver is .... dead."

"Wha...?! Tha-that can't be true!"

"...I'm afraid it is. When nothing changed within the community, the Giver thought that your memories were transferred to another community. So, he decided that if anything were to break the Sameness spell, he'd have to die himself. The community is in chaos right now. And there's no telling what'll happen now. All we have to do is hope they get over it."

Jonas was shocked. He didn't think the Giver would've done that.

But then, he wondered. Where did all the memories I had go? They couldn't have just disappeared. But where did they go then?

This was puzzling. Perhaps they did go to another community. But maybe they didn't, then where did they go? Then Jonas decided that would be his next question.

"What happened to the memories I had?" he asked.

"You gave them all to Gabe, remember?" The voice said as she sighed. "Although, there were some you didn't transfer, the nightmare one's to be precise, but those memories, sorry to say, were also transferred to Gabe after you died.

"I hope he's alright." Jonas said. "Those memories, they were painful. I was hoping Gabe didn't have to go through those abusive memories."

"I know." she said trying to sound understanding.

The snow seemed to have stopped now. Jonas wasn't really paying attention, though. This seemed as if it wasn't real. That this was all a dream and he'd wake up any minute now. Jonas sighed. He couldn't think of anymore questions. He felt it was time to take his leave. But, he was still worried about Gabe. Even though the voice reassured him that Gabe would have a good life, Jonas couldn't help but worry.

"He'll be fine, Jonas." she said. "....I promise."

The voice must've been aware of what Jonas was thinking. She sounded as if she was going to keep that promise. That Jonas could trust her.

Jonas smiled and then nodded. "Thanks." Then he started to walk toward the light, prepared for whatever he was to meet.