*Artist Notes: Well, uh, that was easier than I thought, getting a chapter up n all in less than an hour! After skimming (holy shit those old chapter were feckin short, yikes!)my previous writings I think this new one will serve as a waaaay better intro.
Indentation=thoughts
Unquenchable darkness swirled around the nothingness in the void, flitting this way and that. Dim light suddenly appeared from what appeared to be a very far distance, it scared off the shadows minutely. And yet even though this brilliance was dim it was like a spotlight in this strange emptiness. However, an awareness began to seep into this vacant land, it was an everchanging thing at first, thoughts and sensation swirling into reality. A vivid sensation of burning and searing pain lasted for just a moment before vanishing, and in mere moments replaced by a strange coolness that washed over an unseen body.
A first thought pushed through the clouded mind of a certain man-thing, Where… was he? The dense fuzziness that surrounded his mind was incredibly suffocating threatening to make his consciousness as bland as his surroundings. What was I doing…? I was somewhere… important? /Doing/ something important. A blazing slideshow of images flitted throughout his brain, sending him reeling for a moment. Eyes widened as realization flooded into understanding. My name is Alex Mercer… sort of? And I was flying a helicopter to the middle of the ocean, to save Manhattan… and I succeeded. But at what cost?
The newly realized Alex tried to strain his body to detect anything in the dim light he was provided. But alas he could barely feel his body move. He couldn't even tell if he was moving his eyes. Another rush of memories flooded his mind, the Nuke, it had gone off, and he didn't get away in time, he had been directly in the blast zone. Confusion and biting fear slammed into him. Was he dead? Was this death? This strange purgatory of maddening light and dark. He managed to move his vision towards the light source, which appeared to be coming from beneath him and yet he still couldn't see his body at all.
Alex knew about the afterlife, how couldn't he! In the many memories of the people he had consumed during his very short life, he had learned about all the beliefs and religions that all the cultures of the world had develop for the beyond death situation. The Heaven, The reincarnation, and The God-beings. He had heard it ALL. Even as he had been in process of consuming them, many had their last thoughts being focused on praying or cursing whatever deity they believed in. However in all that he had better things to be preoccupied with at the moment. It's not like he could! With the literal end of the world at risk and all that. But if this was the afterlife, it was definitely fucking disappointing.
For what seemed like hours he thought process droned on and on. It ranged from regrets about even staying in Manhattan and not taking the chance to leave before the Military sealed off the island completely to worrying about the land, he left behind to finally settling on Dana. He felt his entire body squirm with worrying about her. He didn't even know if she was still alive. The coma she had been in was so severe and he wasn't even sure she was going to pull out, the only person he had truly been able to lean on the entire time his life had gone to shit. He stopped mid train of though. He could… he could FEEL HIS BODY. He flailed briefly in relief, happy to know he wasn't just some unfeeling brain floating in the void. Well now to continue his purgatory existence with a little more flavor. Suddenly, he felt a shift in the air as it whooshed upwards, rustling his hair and drying his eye. Wind! He thought with joy, finally something normal! And it was coming from… beneath him. Two and two clicked together as he flailed this time out of panic as he was slapped with the realization that he was… FALLING!