Hereafter

Hereafter: Part I Crossing Over, Chapter 10

10

I LOOKED AT LYDIA, right as she was turning toward me. Now she wasn’t sure about whether or not to go through with it. Watching Hunger Games in the You Are There venue was more gripping than I could have ever imagined. I knew that playing the role would be absolutely terrifying. Lydia had done a good job of convincing me, though, that I could benefit spiritually from the experience—soul-bending, bone-cracking, blood-spattering, though it may be.

“Hey, are you still having second thoughts, because after seeing the movie in such chilling detail, I’m not sure I want to go through with this either,” Lydia admitted, still visibly shaking from the grizzly intensity of the last few scenes when Katniss and Peeta were being attacked by Cato on top of the Cornucopia.

“What . . . after you convinced me that only good could come of it, you want to back out? Oh no you don’t . . . I’m really into this now. Anyway, I thought you wanted to save Rue?” I challenged, hoping to trigger her believer’s empathy reflex on behalf of helping the underdog.

“All right . . . all right . . . stop with the pressure. Let’s do this!”

With that potential deal-breaker out of the way, we sat back to quietly wait for our host to pass on the next set of instructions.

“I’ll ask one more time, and only because I can see the look on some of your faces, like you’ve just survived the sinking of the Titanic. Is anyone having second thoughts? If you want to leave, this would be the time.”

Our host paused, surveyed the auditorium, took a sip of water, and decided enough time had passed. He was right, quite a few others were down right scared after the 4D immersion viewing of the gruesome killing scenes, but surprisingly no one got up to leave.

“All right then, my compliments on your courage in the face of the unknown!”

As he was talking, the fishbowl helmets were being pulled up off of our heads.

“The next device will hover just above your heads for a few minutes while it first scans, then creates a duplicate of your glorified body. Part of your soul will travel with your clone into the system that allows you to physically act out your chosen character’s role, but remember, your choices can be different from the ones in the film you just saw. When everyone has been cloned, the film will begin again, only this time everything will be experienced from your point of view, your physical body, reprogrammed to function like a normal human, right in the middle of everything that is going on. Each person’s experience of the film will be different depending on what you choose to do or say. You can’t count on anything being the same because each character has been replaced by one of you with the free will to act in a different manner. Based on the character you chose, the knowledge of their original lines has been embedded as a clear memory in your clone’s mind, so you can choose to say what was written or take the story in a different direction. You better make arrangements now to meet your companion, assuming you’re not here alone, because unlike the film, you will experience the plot unfolding in real time, but don’t worry, time is easily manipulated here, so no matter how long you take to get to the last scene, you’ll only have to wait a few minutes to an hour for group members to finish and during that period you’ll be able to view the film on the main screen as a spectator by selecting a character’s point of view. So, if there are no questions, why don’t you discuss how you’d like to handle your characters, then, I think we’re ready to begin!”

After he stopped talking, the scanners, small, silent, flying-saucer-like devices, began hovering directly over everyone’s head.

“Whoa . . . I’d forgotten how these reality theaters work. As poor Rue, unless my scheme to hide and survive works, at least I’ll be able to see your version of Katniss in action on the big screen!” Lydia teased.