The Gated Return

Chapter 7 - An Afterlife Reject

"Are you still high, Daniel?" "No, I quit a week ago when I ran out and haven't touched it since." Daniel replied. "Did you ever check into rehab? I will pay for it if it gets you cleaned up." Daniel paused for a moment trying to understand what just happened. He looked around the room and saw nothing strange and looked just as it was before the beginning of the end. Silence filled the room and tears began to roll down Daniel's face. For the first time ever and from a person least likely to ever give to a sub dealing addict, Daniel had felt what real care and love was. "Are you serious? I mean, like, no, I think I am okay. But you would do that for me? After this?" Daniel asked. "You still owe me my money plus interest. You pay me your entire paycheck every week until your debt is paid off, understood? And yeah, there is something about you, so yeah, I would do that for you if you'd go. In addition, you are cut off completely and forever. No more, got it?" Ed got up, gathered his two buddies and left the apartment leaving Daniel in the front room by himself. Wiping the tears away quickly, Daniel shouted,"Guys, ya'll can come out now."

The next morning, Daniel hoped in his car and drove to work. "Hey Mike!" with a smile on his face. "So uh, I guess everything worked out?" asked Mike. Daniel explained what had happened the night before and expressing gratitude for still being alive. The day continued on just as any other and work was to be done. By the end of Daniels shift, he was exhausted and was ready to go. He walked to his car in the lot of Mama Jane's and noticed a liquid from under his car that had been leaking. He got in and tried to start it up, but it wouldn't even turn over. The engine was seized and was completely dead. With no way home, Daniel called a tow truck to make his way home. Feeling overwhelmed after getting home, Daniel decided to pass out on the couch.

"What's happened?" Daniel asked as he walked out the front door that next morning. Everything was quiet and completely destroyed as if there were some kind of nuclear war or bombs that went off. Ash was falling from the sky filled with dark clouds. Some remaining debris still showing small flames about to extinguish on their own. Slight gusts of wind blew the ash around on the ground like waves of water. There were corpses laying all over the ground which were only pieces of bone in a pile of ashes and charred chunks of flesh. "How are we still alive?" Daniel asked out loud but not really expecting anyone to answer. He walked further out stepping into the pieces of fallout ash all over the ground and walked into the street next to the parking lot only to see that down the road about a mile, it looked the same in both directions. Car frames still on fire on the road as if everything just stopped. "I have to find someone" Daniel thought to himself and began walking down the road for what felt like hours. Determined to find some kind of life somewhere, he carried on picking up speed in his stride. He kept going and going until he was jogging and kept going even faster anxious to see where if any, civilization existed. Daniel started running so fast that it was almost as if he were floating on air. As he ran as fast has he could, he noticed that he felt no fatigue and kept going trying to move even faster. As he did, he looked down and saw he was floating two feet off the ground running through mid air. "What the fuck!?" Daniel said out loud and he fell to the ground tumbling and rolling down the street for several feet before coming to a stop. Daniel got up, dusted himself off and as he looked up, he saw green grass, trees, and buildings untouched by any damage. However there were still no people around, no cars, nothing. Just an empty city. "Hello!?" echoes off the buildings as Daniel yelled. "I have to go further" he thought to himself. He began to run again but this time, felt like he could fly. He ran as fast as he could and tried again to push himself even further and faster and found himself starting to float into the air again. Daniel was moving as fast as lightning and was barely able to make out anything around him swooshing by. Just like Super Man, Daniel stuck out one fist, leaned forward, and took off even faster and up into the air. As he approached a city somewhere in Japan, he found an actual war taking place and flew right into the middle of it all to put a stop to the destruction and death. Daniel hovered in mid air about 350 feet above ground level and caught one of the missiles shot from a tank, flung it behind him and back at the tank that shot it, destroying it in one blast. At that very moment, Daniel woke up from the dream and realized that something has changed. Facing the fear allowed him to control the dream and fight back.