While the golem mindlessly pulled a large metal container on the steel wagon, one of the bodies squirmed inside.
'Fuck, where did I lay on? It feels quite hard and uncomfortable ..'
He vaguely remembered jerking off on his bed, covered by blankets.
Considering he did it at 3 a.m. to cope with seeing the bad result he got on his Cambridge A-levels, he guessed he had fallen asleep when his body was too tired for him to notice.
Feeling a sharp back pain after lying for so long on top of something, he wondered whether his niece had placed her toys around and underneath him while drawing something on his face.
Opening his eyes, he was hoping to grab his niece and complain to her mother (which is his elder sister) for her usual mischief.
However, he was astonished to find himself in a very dark room.
Usually, since he lived in the city, his place was rarely this dark—he even wore an eye mask to sleep.
But now, it was pitch black.
'Electricity must have gone out...'
He didn't recall hearing about a solar eclipse today, nor could he hear the patter of rain or the sound of wind loud enough to reach him.
Disgusted by the odor of pee and poop his niece had supposedly done on the floor, he got up, standing on her toys, which felt surprisingly rigid.
'What material did they use to make these?'
Briefly curious, he shifted his attention to his surroundings.
'It's best if I get up.'
Lacking a keen sense of direction to navigate the dark, he remained in one spot, waiting for his eyes to adjust.
Regardless of how dark a room is, the eyes can adapt to see in the darkness—light, even the faintest, would be enough, unless he had somehow been transported into a void or black hole.
Was it boring to wait? Yes. But he'd rather not step on pee—or worse, poo
He preferred closing his eyes to keeping them open in darkness.
His mind had a habit of scaring him when he saw things he actually does not exist..
Just last week, he'd nearly had a panic attack when he thought he saw a dismembered mouth hanging on the bookshelf at night, only to realize it was a scarf his mother had placed there accidentally.
So, for a while, he waited while his usual morbid thoughts began to tick him off.
His blood pressure began to rise, and the velocity of his heartbeat increased when he opened his eyes for the second time.
'Why do her toys look big...?'
'Why does... that resemble a human body?'
He told himself his mind was playing tricks on him again, scaring him as usual.
'Calm down, I must be seeing things...''
Assuring himself, he reached for his phone to light up the room and dispel the illusion.
He hunched toward the ground, trying to move the "toys," but they were heavy.
Unrealistically heavy.
'Am I really seeing things?... No... no way there's an actual person here...'
Regardless of what he believed, he couldn't retrieve his phone from underneath them.
And as time passed, the scenario in front of him became clearer and clearer—too clear to ignore.
Looking at the ground, his mind went foggy.
Unconsciously, he hunched down and checked the pulses of the people he was standing on, his palms now sweaty
One after another.
Even though he unconsciously knew... it was a waste of time.
'...I... can't feel... it...'
Even as lousy as he was at checking pulses, he couldn't deny how cold their hands felt compared to the atmosphere.
His heart accelerated, and his eyes dilated as he slowly connected facts with the common sense he had been trying to ignore until now
'They....are dead...'
He quickly covered his mouth with his left hand, trying not to vomit as the bitter realization hit him.
Emotionally numb with fear, he breathed in and out like his sister always told him to do when his mind didn't work.
'What's going on...?' he thought, continuing his breathing exercise as a flood of thoughts invaded his mind.
Who were the people in front of him?
Why was everyone, including himself, wearing the same uniform he had never seen before?
What were the cold metallic walls he leaned against to stand up?
Why was the ground shaking so much?
What was outside this place—this room?
And… why was everyone else… dead?
.....
So many questions, but no answers to soothe the anxiety constricting his chest.
But his eyes dilated once again when a blinding light caught him off guard, causing him to tumble backward, landing on the corpses.
'First the place...then this blinding light...'
He had no idea whether it was a good idea to open his eyes after witnessing such a morbid scene earlier.
But curiosity got the best of him; unconsciously, he raised his head and peeked at the light.
[Welcome, Lorenzo Skyes, to the Corpse's Collector System.]