GROUND ZERO
URBAN STREET - DAY
The air is thick with the smell of scorched metal and wet asphalt. The low, bruised clouds reflect the flashing blue and red of emergency vehicles.
The ambulance siren wails, now closer, almost deafening. Chaos is organized by urgency. paramedics move with practiced speed.
A young nurse, kneels beside the collapsed pillar where the boy lies. His black brownish hair is matted with blood and soil. A compounder is efficiently covering another victim nearby.
He shouting over the noise, "Hey! We need that stretcher for the lady in the Honda! Conscious but broken leg!"
Nurse doesn't look up. She presses two fingers firmly against boy's neck, searching for a pulse. She shakes her head slowly. "I think we're too late here. Too much blood loss."
Another examinerglances over, his face momentarily softening with professional sorrow. He asked, "Age?"
Nurse said," " Early twenties, probably. Look at the backpack." She gently pulls aside the shredded fabric of his bag, revealing his ID.
A policeman approaches, holding a clipboard, his face grim. And asked, "Confirmed fatality?"
Nurse said, "Confirmed. Time of death, approximately... fifteen minutes ago. We didn't even catch the end of his blood loss."
The Policeman sighs, making a notation. The world outside boy's immediate space continues to blur around him: the shouting, the weeping, the relentless sirens.
IN SOME SPACE
A blinding, soft white replaces the chaos. The ringing in his ears fades, replaced by a sound like distant, low-frequency water droplets.
He is floating. He has no body, yet he perceives everything. The "draining" feeling is gone. The pain is a distant memory, like a forgotten dream.
He attempts to open his eyes, but realizes he has no eyelids to open. He simply sees.
The white is not empty. It shifts and swirls, infused with the gray-blue hue of the rainy clouds he had seen moments before the impact. He said, "My head is not ringing anymore. That's good."
He tries to move, to stand up, but his environment offers no resistance, no floor, no gravity. He just... exists here.
"So, this is it, then? The big sleep? It's surprisingly quiet. They don't give bed for this."
The memory of the collision flashes: the truck, the blinding speed, the thump against the pillar.
"My head burst. That's rather strange. But my head don't feel messy anymore. Clean. Like a slate wiped clear."
He focuses on the one nagging thought that plagued his final moments."The forgetting. What was it?"
He mentally scans the morning: Waking up late. Tea. Phone. Family. Wandering. Nothing more.
Suddenly, a shift in the atmosphere. The gentle white clouds begins to collect, forming a defined shape ahead of him. It's translucent, like water smoke, but solidifying.
It looks like a doorway, framed by the swirling gray-blue mist.
THE ROOM OF UNKNOWN
INTO GATEWAY
He drifts toward the doorway. It doesn't seem threatening, looks like waiting for him.
He passes through the gateway.
As he approaches, the environment changes drastically. He is now in a vast, empty space, lit by a soft, constant light that seems to come from nowhere. The walls, floor, and ceiling are seamless, appearing to be made of polished obsidian that reflects the light without glare.
In the center of this immense room, suspended mid-air, is a single object.
It is a beautiful. It is white globe like structure with smooth surface without any cracks. It is source of light in this dark obsidian room.
Boy, or the essence of boy, hovers closer to examine it. "What is this, a round ball or lamp?"
When he go near that white orb. Suddenly there is voice of cracks coming from it.
"Looks like someone put cheap bulb and now it is going to blast. What a waste men. But one minute-"
As he go near it he start to realise that it is not just a bulb but big enough to even consume every planet.
"Is it sun or any other star. Does that mean I'm in space. So why is that sun is cracking? Is it because I don't know. I have see myself."
As he reached there now cracking sound start to coming and looks like it can explode anytime.
"Now what is this, something is coming out of it's cracks looks like air, white-black air?"
When he reached there and touched it but he feel nothing and he shoved his hand into that orb and he feel nothing. So take out his hand.
That's the time when cracking sound stopped and orb starts to recovering. It's translucent surface starts to reforming and big cracks already replaced with smooth surface.
It's full surface now become smooth but there is one hole where he put his hand.
"What the fu*k? Cracks recovered but looks like this hole I have to full fill with my r-."
Then suddenly a hand come out. From that hole and grab his hand.
Seeing another hand his eye opened fully looked like anytime it brust out.
"Now, now who gonna fu*k whom. But looks like it likes me or my as- ahhhhhh."
Then suddenly it pulled him into orb with force and engulfed him whole.