What Lies in Reality

“Hello and welcome to heaven. As you can see, you didn’t survive the apocalypse”

Her hand gestured with a black pointing stick towards the projected image behind her. One moment, I was walking home after a fun night out in the bustling city streets of New York City and, in the next, I’m in this place.

A white, windowless room filled with equally shocked and confused people and a bizarre projected image of a futuristic dinosaur invasion? I watched in utter astonishment at the slides of my city being engulfed in flame and ruin as tears welled up in my eyes. I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t believe it.

The only thing that could salvage my dive towards insanity was the now oxidized heart-shaped locket tattoo across my tan forearm. One that I got to remember my mother by. Was she here?

After the long PowerPoint presentation, many cried on their knees praying to their gods. Some were like me, bewildered by the idea that we were dead. The lights turned on and the brown-haired presenter started passing around red “My name is” name tags and black ballpoint pens.

“Now don’t be afraid, I know this might be a shock to you but this is a safe space and we promise to take care of you.” The presenter spoke with a sweet tone as she walked around the room.

Eventually, she stopped in front of me and shook the brown wicker basket. I reached inside taking a single tag and pen as I looked up at her hesitantly.

“Um… By any chance is… Mandy Trust here?” A smile filled her face while hope filled mine, though that didn’t last long.

“I’ll have to check but come by the reception later.” Her body swiftly turned, moving on to the next person a few seats down and handing them a tag and a pen.

I held the cool glossy sticker in my hand, watching it shine against the light as I bent it. A strange thought filled my mind with doubt, but I brushed it away for now, instead inking the name tag with my presence then sticking it on my chest. My name is… Alena Trust.

Before long, another person dressed in a white suit entered the room. A man with blond hair, our guide, came to show us around heaven. We all gathered in a line, some still a blubbering mess, being helped up by other dead strangers, but most had calmed down. Then, off we went. Like awing school children, we followed our guide through a nauseating overtly white heaven. As we walked down the halls, through the many common rooms and back towards the white windowless presentation room we all started in, I wondered if I was even supposed to be here.

I mean, my life on earth wasn’t what most would say pleasant towards others. Heck, I wasn’t even a follower of any religion. Didn’t that automatically prevent my entry? Who knows? Clearly, I was wrong.

When we got back to the presentation room, the first woman we’d seen spoke a few rules about not hurting other people etc. before we were free to go. I ignored most of her rules, how could I hurt dead people?

Instead, I wanted to explore this so-called heaven some more in order to take a deeper look to understand the place I would be spending my eternity in. The circumstance of all our deaths were… vague, to say the least. But my job—My old job as a journalist for the Times made my mind race with questions that needed answers immediately.

Thus, as told, I went to the reception desk, the presenter and receptionist were one and the same. She casually strode from the presentation room, which was a few feet away from the lobby, and sat behind the white desk.

“How may I help you… Alena Trust.” She said with a smile after reading the name printed on my tag.

“I asked earlier if Mandy Trust was here, just wondering where I could find her?” A stern silence befell her before a seemingly fake smile crossed her glossed lips.

“I’m sorry, but… she chose to leave towards a higher plane… after some time here, some people tend to send their soul back to earth to be reborn. Though, I don’t think that will happen now given the… apocalypse. But after a few centuries, maybe” she lightly chuckled at that last thought.

“Thank you”

I knew something was up. I knew my mother would have waited to see me again. She said so on her deathbed, with hopes that she’d have to wait a long time before she saw me again.

With that lie, I decided it was best to wander around for clues behind this mystery. One thing was for sure, I wasn’t dead… at least I’d hoped so.

The further I ventured through heaven, the more I noticed the guards. The presence doubled in size, preventing me from delving further into this place. Sometimes being guided back to the reception hall, forced to start my journey again.

There was no concept of time here as there were no clocks or windows. Just my own physiological needs, telling me I was hungry. But… if this was heaven, how can I, a "supposed" dead person, hear the gurgling in my stomach, or feel the pain in my feet, or even the yawn lingering in my throat?

I wanted to start again, but, after my many attempts, I started to feel lingering eyes watching my every move. I waited and waited, watching the change in guard positions and noticing how different—how human they all looked. As if they were employees at a normal office job.

Eventually, my chance at escape came in the form of “nap time”, the lights dimmed as the guards led us through the all-white hallways to our respective rooms, except I quickly sneaked away.

My feet jolted into a sprint, running down the same halls I was in earlier, making sure to avoid the places where the guards were heaviest in their patrols. Until the scenery changed and I had ventured so far that the walls were no longer a pristine white, but rather, an aged grey and a “Restricted Access” sign was plastered on a locked gate.

There was nothing I could do except wait for someone to unlock it, so I hid around a darkened corner a few feet away, waiting. Soon, A guard swiped his card through the reader and the door buzzed open. As he walked through, I had to quietly run on my tippy toes to lightly catch the door before it closed, and then, I was in.

As I walked down every eerie twist and turn, faint yells filled a hall that was heavily guarded. The closer I got--making sure to avoid the guards during the shift--the clearer I heard the hate filled screams.

“Let me out!!” Yelled the person on the other side of the door.

“Hey” I spoke lightly before the door violently shook and the screams grew in vibrato.

“Hey, I’ll let you out, if you tell me why you’re in there” His silence was deafening as he thought.

“How can I trust that you’ll let me out after I tell you?”

With two steps, I grew closer to the door, lifting my hand and placing it on the latch that kept him locked up.

“My hand’s on the latch… but if you want a real answer… blind faith I suppose”. His chuckle deep, sending shocks straight down my spine.

“I suppose so huh?” I could hear him sigh before he spoke.

“It’s all fake, this… this place is a scam”

“How?”

“It’s best if I show you” A faint chuckle left me.

“I’m not letting you out until you tell me How”

“Ughh… fine. They use drugs to kidnap people and make them believe that they're dead… now… let me out”.

With a click, the door swung open as part of our deal, and I was met with a tall man with shoulder length black hair. A man I recognized as a fellow journalist for a smaller paper called The New Age.

“Hey, I know you… but what are you doing here of all places?” I asked as his brown eyes trailed the contours of my face.

“For an exposé. Someone has to do it and ever since the global disaster, places like these have started to take advantage of the power vacuum. Why? I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Hopefully to get this place shut down”.

As he started walking, I followed him. He showed me around the darker areas of heaven. A place where stairs were present and people dressed in different suits were more common, all guarding the area. Sometimes we hid behind corners or in vacant rooms until we happened upon a dark room with surgical equipment in one of our attempts at hiding.

“What’s this place used for? Do you know?” I whispered, looking back at him.

His body shuddered as he stared at the brown-stained operating table.

“Torture”

His voice ran deep as his eyes filled with fear.

“I know this is hard… But do you mind telling me what kind of torture” I whispered, growing close enough to hold his forearm in my hand. Hoping it helped calm him down.

Silence filled him with painful memories as his eyes stared at the table in fear.

“They… would perform surgery with no anesthetics… removing organs that you didn’t necessarily need to survive as long as one remained… Like a lung… or a kidney… or half of a liver… all while you were awake… in pain… for hours… that was done, if you… protested against them” His words choked at the last thought before he lifted his white t-shirt to show the healing scars that stretched across his abdomen.

All of this was heavy.

The door handle soon jiggled as the door swung open and two men dressed in white suits spotted us.

“HEY!!” They yelled.

I felt a rush of adrenaline course through my veins as my body lunged for the scalpel left on a tray. As Eric Young, the other reporter, held off one of the guards, I swung the sharp scalpel in the air, cutting the other guard’s face. The guard flinched in pain as if he’d never fought before, while he held his bleeding face in the palms of his white gloved hands.

“Grab the Key!!” Eric yelled as he swiftly overpowered the guard by knocking his head against the tiled walls.

Surprise filled my features with wide eyes at his strength, especially considering his now weakened state. Our feet jolted in a rush as we ran down a darkened hallway, chased, looking for an exit that would accept the key cards, until our eyes were met with a swiping card reader as we gasped for air.

When we reached the door, Eric’s shaking hands missed the card reader in his panicked state.

“Hey… how about you hurry up… they’re almost on us.” Panic filled my voice as my head shifted back and forth from Eric to the approaching herd.

But then, a glorious click sounded, and the door swung open. I was pulled out the door, running into a raging windstorm, into a twisted form of freedom.

As we ran, I turned back, glancing at the gigantic white structure. Not a single window, just a tall, plain white bricked building.

“Wow”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. That was what they thought Heaven was like. A Void of White. But in reality… A secret facility pretending to be heaven.

There were still many unanswered questions, but I knew, if we survived this storm, there would be hell to pay. And I was going to make sure of it.