God's At Arm's

Chapter 3 : welcome to Civilizatie

When we arrived to the small town, I was hit with the sudden realization that it was a lot bigger then it first appeared. It gave off a Roman vibe with how simple yet elegant the stone path where.Each stone had a unique shape to it yet it all lined up symmetrical with eachother starting from the bridge at the end of the dirt trail that led to Tony's house, as we cut deeper into town, I tried to move past my "death" and life I lost. But instead, I looked for something that I could work for to rebuild what I no longer had. We walked down a very wide street that could have qualified to be a two lane highway, there was a bunch of houses lined up at either side with what again popped out to me more as Roman architecture with the stone decor. It had red and or orange stripes glossed over the white smooth stone walls and flat rooftops that dip inwards but, looking at each house, I noticed that every door was different and out of place, all with big numbers. All the numbers were randomly put and most of the numbers I couldn't read. Some houses that appeared to be shops had no indication on what the structure was or what kind of store it might end up being. The only indication was a wooden sign that had a carved picture of a loaf of bread on it.

    "Is that a shop?", I asked, Tony looked over at me still keeping the brisk pace he had the whole walk down. "Yep, all these houses are homes and shops to millions of people from your planet. Their the ones that didn't want to be reincarnated and had earned them a place to call home here in Civilizatie. Each house is a empty space that can be expanded of up to a ten mile radius and filled with anything you manage to own claim to. For example; say you want a place that can house you and all your friends' and family, then you probably want a five mile space. Now say in life you had a home, you can remake that home here because it was once yours, the only exception is you can make plants and animal life for sure, but nothing that can think or create on the same level as other human life." "But, if you can make whatever you want, then what's the point of a shop?" "Like I said, they earned it, not everyone can make that claim. Plus, there are things that you can't just make appear and, the simple acts of labor gives a lot of people joy."

    Tony led us to the center of town where there was a gigantic water fountain shooting water in all directions. There were some kids playing in the water with what appeared to be their parents sitting and talking on a nearby bench.

    "Here we are, the main hub of Civilizatie, where everything you need can be found." Tony said abruptly as he spun around throwing his hands to each side gesturing to all the street vendors. "What do you mean everything I need?", "Here, you get to choose what you want to happen with your life. If you want to live here in one of the houses much like the ones we walked by, and fill it up how you want to and start anew. Or, you can become a reincarnate of whatever you want. Once you choose what you want, you just step into the fountain and toss this coin into the water."

    Tony swiftly threw his hand in and out of his pocket in one clean motion, "Show off!" I said,  expressing an empty smile trying not to show what was on my mind.

    The coin was more of a ragged rock, strange bumps on both sides, "You sure you grabbed the right thing, this is just a rock?", "That's called a uncia, it's an older one so it has no value to anyone here anymore but yourself." Looking down at the uncia I started to think about everything I lost making my choice a no brainer. "I want to stay here, the way I see it, if I go back I'll just lose all my friends' and family again, all my accomplishments and work will amount to nothing. I might as well enjoy myself knowing that death is the final stage!" "Are you sure about that? You only get ONE coin. If you use it you'r here forever, you can always travel back as a ghost and watch from afar but, in the end you will be stuck here." "Ya, I'm sure." So, I walk up to the fountain hesitating to step in the water, as I looked to the sky, I took a deep breath and made my way into the fountain water. I never did believe in God so I never prayed but, seeing as I was wrong, it only felt right that this end up being my first time. I closed my eyes tightly holding the uncia, " I was robbed of my past, killed prematurely and young, leaving my friends' and family behind with no knowledge of what happened to me, or what my future currently hold's and for that, I am sorry .... sorry for all the panic and pain they are going through right now because I wasn't strong enough to stand tall, and put a end to the mad man before he pulled the trigger...!"

    My head held high I flipped the uncia into the water and screamed, "I CHOOSE A NEW LIFE!"

    I stood there for an awkward few seconds, expecting something to happen. I start to feel red in the face as I started to see some bubbles form in the fountain as they breached, they spelled out something, "Come to my temple, NOW!" I looked back to see Tony draped in beads of sweat as he shook like he just witnessed an execution. "Are you ok?" He forced himself to shift his gaze from the bubbles to me with his once peaceful carefree demeanor now gone, leaving only a blank goulash face.