Do you know how it feels to die? I don't, unfortunately. Mainly because my death happened too quickly, not that I wanted to feel the pain of it. Nothing major, just a car crash, an honest accident. My fault too, wasn't paying attention and just rammed into them. I flew from my car and by the time I landed, already dead. Now, do you know how it feels after death?
They say all brain activity ceases about 3 to 4 minutes after your heart stops. But with my brain on the pavement, I suppose there was no chance for anything anymore. After death, in my opinion, is very peaceful. Just floating around in that darkness, not aware of anything or anyone. But after a while, I felt the darkness change. I wasn't aware of it at the time but, it felt more... bouncy. Not really bouncy but that floating feeling from early felt more apparent like I was in water.
As the water-esque feeling enhanced, so did my own self-awareness. It kept building and building until I could be considered conscious once more. Finally 'awake' I struggled in the darkness for who knows long, wriggling like a worm looking for dirt to bury itself in. Then it happened, my eyes opened. Just like that, no warning, no climax, just my eyes flying open. All I saw was blue water all around me. It would have been crystal clear if not for the blood mixed in. It took me a minute to realize I wasn't breathing and water was invading my lungs. I desperately began to swim upwards, flinging my arms and legs wildly with no sense of coordination.
Surprisingly, I wasn't too far from the surface as it didn't take too long for my head to burst through the barrier of water. I flung my arms around trying to grab something, anything, all the while I was gasping for air and trying to keep myself afloat. Finally grabbing onto some stray object floating in the water, only to focus on gasping for air and coughing. That's when it registered.
The searing pain of an arrow lodged firmly in my chest made it all the harder to breathe. Still struggling with the floating object in my grasp, I realized that land was not too far away from where I was splashing around, only 18 feet away. Battling the water, I tried to swim with the object like a 'floatie' with the arrow in my chest puncturing my lungs. My attempts to cough up water were now being rewarded with blood and even more pain from my chest. The water was unnaturally deep despite it being close to the shore so one slip from my 'floatie' would send me right back in the abyss.
The dirt shore seemed infinitely farther then it was. Slowly, the hope of me reaching it began to slip away, just like my consciousness. My eyesight began to darken and whatever I was holding on, began to leave my grasp. But still unwilling to die like this, I made what seemed like purely symbolic struggles, which prompted the principally buoy to finally escape from my clutches.
I dipped into the water headfirst, barely managing to take a strained breath before diving into the endless gulf of blue. My struggles finally stopped, I was far too tired to continue with the fight to survive in these freezing waters. I began to gently float once again. Float, and float, and float...
My head gently brushed against something, and my body settled softly on something. The human desire to survive flared up once again, and I struggled in the water. My limbs felt frail and weak, no strength was in my body but still, I fought. My hand lightly touched something, it had a sort of cylinder shape and was hard and strong enough for me to grab onto.
I heaved myself on this 'arm' of hope and smashed onto shore, pushing the arrow even further into my body. I coughed up blood until I couldn't even cough anymore. I flipped over and took in as much air as my punctured lungs would allow. Not willing to allow myself to fall into a slumber I would never wake up from, I gathered as much strength as possible in my battered body and began wrenching the arrow from my chest.
I gritted my teeth in anguish as I dragged the arrow with all my might. Unable to bear it any longer, I let out a scream in agony but still did not release the arrow from my grip. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity the arrow was ripped out of my body with a trail of blood following it.
My vision was blurry and dark, my lungs were filling up with blood and overflowing to my throat. My head was pounding like someone put a jackhammer inside my skull, but it was probably the only thing keeping me conscious. I flipped over onto my side, wanting to stand up, to survive. But I was too tired, it was a miracle I had lasted this long anyway, so I decided to take in my surroundings, why not? Last time I would see anything before I returned to the darkness. With a dark and cloudy sky that looked ready to rain at a moment's notice, the sun was completely hidden. I gently picked my head up to see more, only to see something that would scar and change me for the rest of my life.
Switching sides I came face to face with an arm, a detached arm. How pale it looked, how its bone and muscle were spilling out, practically shocked me to life. I sat up painfully quick, but I soon forgot the pain. Dead bodies, everywhere. Heads far from their bodies while limbs floated in the water. My body had ignored everything else so I could focus on surviving, but I had most likely used a torso as my little 'floatie', the feeling of nauseousness overwhelmed me.
Then it came, the stench, the stench of decaying and decomposing bodies filled my entire being. I shifted back in a desperate attempt to avoid it, to avoid it all, only to bump into the head of a woman behind me. It rolled around my back and settled right next to my outer thigh. And that was it, I threw up my guts out on the ground. All of a sudden I felt my ears drain of water, then sounds flooded into my brain.
Metal on metal, shouts, and screams, even more, unintelligible sounds. I turned around properly to look behind me for the first time. Fire within a forest, that's all I saw, not counting the continuing piles of bodies. My mind was on overload trying to process everything, only for one more thing to come shock me, a woman.
Braided brown hair, with deep-set blue eyes. Covered in blood and organs with a deadly pair of sharp axes. She approached me with a dead look in her eyes, much like everything else here. She nearly flew past me, but she stopped like she just realized I was still alive. She slowly examined me, from my knees, my chest, and finally, my face. A shocked look soon overtook her previously dead expression. She gently walked over to me, she stared into my eyes and I stared into hers. Other than the screams from within the forest, the only sounds were from me wheezing, struggling to breathe. Her eyes slowly seemed to become moist, she landed on her knees and grasped my shoulders, seeming even more shocked than before that she could touch me. Then she said something that would change my life forever.
"Arne, are you alive?"