I have been lying here for days. It has long become a struggle to open my eyes. Most of the time I no longer bother. I can hear the rattle in my breathing as my chest labors to rise and fall. I can hear the drone of talking from loved ones that hover around me as they wait for my end. I am happy to know that I mattered and that family and friends felt it worth their time to be with me as I take that step across the veil into the adventure beyond.
I think I have lived a good life. I have helped people where I could and tried to be a good example. I have walked my own path without letting others dictate the path that I should take. The choices I made have been my own and not taken without knowing the consequences good or bad are my own. I long ago recognized that the bad moments tend to be pivotal story points in the adventure that we call life. They are unpleasant periods that once we make it past them our life is more interesting due to the surviving. Without such moments I have often thought life might be a lot more dull. Those negative moments in life could be much like the bite of a nice spicy hot flavor in a meal. The pain is there but at some point you might come to enjoy that feeling.
Each breath comes with more effort. I think I am ready to go. I feel that last shuddering rattle as my final breath leaves my body. The moment known as the death rattle.
Without eyes I see. I rise up and away from the shell that I call my body and I see those that meant the most to me hovering around my body in grief. I know the grief will pass and I wish I could somehow reassure them that it is okay.
I drift further and things are moving faster.
The light brightens. It becomes so bright.
The light begins to fade and I open my eyes as I feel something being removed from my temples and my head.
Something is not right here. This doesn't make sense. Where is my tunnel? Where are the ones that I love that I was assured I would see when I crossed over? Why am I feeling a body and opening my eyes?
"Your sentence has been carried out and you are reformed," a voice near me speaks. I look around searching for the voice and notice that this room is rather small with some high tech machinery in it and I am lying on a simply reclined bed.
A person in a simple uniform that appears to be some futuristic medical gown or something is moving near me. I suspect that is where the voice came from but my head is still groggy.
I shake my head.
I feel a rushing sensation. A thousand images from my life rush into my mind and act as though they are going to explode. There is pain and there is confusion. In this confusion I recognize many images that are not from this life I just had. Yet somehow I know these memories are mine as well. In fact, they seem to represent many lifetimes.
What is going on here? This certainly doesn't seem like Heaven, Valhalla, The Happy Hunting Ground, or any other afterlife I have heard of. In fact, I feel very much alive.
"Where am I?," I manage to croak out of my voice and my mouth feels as though speaking is something it hasn't done for a long time. My jaw muscles feel somehow atrophied a bit.
"You are at the B branch of the Judicial Industries Simulation Services," says the person that has been hovering around me. "We are just about done here and you'll be free to leave."
"What do you mean free to leave? Where am I? Who are you? What is going on?," I speak as the panic is rapidly rising in my mind, my body, and in my voice.
"Relax. It will be okay. You will remember more soon and it will begin to make sense."
"Please explain. Tell me something."
"You were convicted of crimes. You needed to be reformed. The Judicial Industries Simulations have a 100% success rate in the shortest amount of time."
"Simulation?"
"Yes, you have been in simulated lives."
"Lives? How many?"
"You did quite well. You have only been though 36 simulated lives before you were successfully reformed."
"36 lives! I've laid here hooked to your machine for 36 lifetimes?"
"36 simulated lives, yes."
"How old am I?," I ask amazed at the thought whatever body I am in now can survive through 36 lifetimes hooked to a machine.
"You have been here for approximately 28 days."
"Yeah right, 28 days...," I grip my head as a different set of memories are beginning to appear in flashes. They are different from the others.
"I recommend you see one of our counselors just down the hall and things will be much more clear."
A short time later I have been guided by the person from before to another room where I am sitting in a chair. Another person is there and smiles at me.
"Welcome back, and congratulations."
I look around me. I don't really know what to say.
"Thanks I guess..."
"You actually went through the process quickly. You should begin recalling your memories shortly."
"I have a lot of memories."
"Those are the memories of your simulated lives. They will always be present but you will be able to tell the difference between them and your real memories."
"How can I live 36 lifetimes in only 28 days? I lived to a quite old age in many of these I am remembering."
"The technology we use with the simulation enables us to trick your perception of time in your mind significantly so we can make time move much faster in the simulation. We have an interpolation technology that helps your mind fill in gaps for the moments where the simulation doesn't actually create content. You likely occasionally would notice little glitches in your lives. Shadows, Deja Vu, and occasional things that seemed out of place and you thought your mind was playing tricks on you until the simulation adjusted and they were gone."
They continue...
"Each lifetime you are observed by the system to see if you have learned on your own not to embrace the things that lead to your conviction and the sentence that you be reformed."
"I was a bad person?"
"We have not believed in bad people in that sense for some time. We see issues as simply bugs and thinking errors in how our mind works. Through living many lives we find people can have these errors removed at their own pace and by a non-forceful method that they themselves choose."
"What about religion?"
"Which religion you chose to believe in the simulation didn't matter. What mattered was how you chose to live your life."
There it ends as I returned to my life outside of the simulation. As I wandered I often found myself wondering if I might still be in a simulation even as I lived. Would I some day awake again in yet another strange place?