text: Writing this for school and also a competition. Inspired by the Cyndago video "The Afterlife" Please give me any feedback. (excuse typos) &#x200B; “This day will be remembered for the rest of your lives and your great-grandchildren’s lives.” Said Dr. Reese into the microphone. And this day would be remembered. ExTec had just finished “the scientific breakthrough of the millennium” in their own words. “For centuries, *millennia* even, mankind had always had one impossible frontier, something that no matter how much we developed, how much we expanded as a species, we would never be able to explore. Until today. Today, New Year’s Eve 2045 is the day that ExTec pioneers a way into the new frontier. Today we see the afterlife.” A loud applaud came from the audience in the laboratory. Scientists, media, friends and family, people who snuck in amongst the others were all there to witness the test. “Our top scientists here at ExTec have found a way to travel to the great beyond, while still being able to travel back.” Continued Reese. He motioned towards a large tank of water on the other side of the stage. Next to the tank was an old man lying down on a bed. Connected to his head were about 20 receptors that ran through some wires and into the tank. “As you can see, this tank is connected to our test subject Mr. Richmond, who we are very grateful has volunteered for this historical discovery.” Continued Reese “Mr. Richmond is very close to the end of his life, and soon he will pass to the other side as nature takes its course. However, as he leaves this world, we will be able to follow him to the next.” Another applause came from the crowd as Reese tried to continue. It took at least a minute until the crowd settled again. “Thank you, thank you.” Continued Reese. “As I was saying, this tank is connected to Mr. Richmond’s nervous system, as his body dies, his nervous system will continue to the next life. The electrons in the water will activate a small device in our traveler’s ear and will transport our traveler to wherever Mr. Richmond’s consciousness goes.” An audience member stood up, “How will you be able to bring this ‘traveler’ back to our world after the experiment?” she asked. “That is a very good question, madam.” Responded Reese. “When our traveler determines that he has seen all he needs to see, he will radio us through the device in his ear and we will simply disconnect the tank from Mr. Richmond. This will cause the device to bring him back into the tank.” “Speaking of our traveler,” Reese continued, “Let's meet him. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mr. Duncan Davidson, who will be the first man to explore the other side.” This applause was louder than either of the two that came before it. People were standing up and cheering as Mr. Davidson walked on the stage. He was wearing a full body jumpsuit and was holding his helmet under his arm. A mix of emotions on his face. He had been waiting for this day for months, and now it was finally here. “Mr. Davidson has been chosen from a list of almost 1000 scientists working here at ExTec.” Explained Reese. “He has been training for months specifically for today and we are sure that he will succeed in this experiment.” Duncan wasn’t as sure. Yes, he had been training and learning about how the technology works for the last 10 months, but he still had no idea what the afterlife would have waiting for him. He had never really believed in any specific religious version of the afterlife, but he always assumed there was one. After all, we must go somewhere. “Well we have talked long enough, now is the time for action,” Reese turned to Mr. Richmond “Mr. Richmond, we thank you for your willingness to spend your final seconds participating in this journey, and we wish you the best in the afterlife.” Mr. Richmond didn’t say anything; he just gave a faint smile and a nod. Duncan slowly climbed into the tank, the water was warm and gave him an almost ticklish feeling. He lay down on his back as Dr. Reese looked into the tank and yelled: “Mr. Davidson, are you ready?” Duncan gave a thumbs up “Let's do this!” he said back. Reese gave a nod to the nurses. They started to pump the lethal dose of morphine into Mr. Richmond’s arm. As Richmond closed his eyes, the water in the tank began to light up. Duncan felt a sharp pain all around his body like it was being torn apart atom by atom. He closed his eyes and let out a short scream. When he opened them, he was lying on the ground, and all the pain he felt in the tank was gone. He got up and looked around. There was nothing, just a plain of white that never seemed to end. He turned around to see an uncountable amount of people standing in lines. The lines led to a long structure that stretched as far as Duncan could see, side to side. Duncan felt an unknown force bringing him towards one of the lines. As he took his place, he looked around at the other people in the lines next to him. They all were dead-panned, with no emotion on their faces. Like robots. They were all wearing white. Most of them were elderly, but there were many others that were young, some couldn’t have been any older than 5 years old. Duncan looked down and realized that he too was wearing all white clothes. He wondered where the jumpsuit that he had been wearing in the tank had gone. His hand rushed to his ear, and he gave a sigh of relief as he felt the small device inside. He trained with this technology for months. He knew if he lost it, he was stuck. To his right, Duncan saw a familiar face. “Mr. Richmond?” he asked, it came out as a whisper. Mr. Richmond looked back at him, with the same blank expression on all the other faces in the lines, and then slowly looked back to where he had been staring. As Duncan finally got closer to the long structure that all the lines lead into, he realized what it was. It was almost like a toll booth. People would go one by one and speak with the person inside, and then would walk through a gate to the other side. Duncan finally got to the booth and inside was a man also dressed in white, just as everyone else had been. He was typing something into what seemed like a computer. “Name?” The man asked. “Uh, Duncan Davidson.” Replied Duncan nervously. The man didn’t look at him the same way that Mr. Richmond had looked at him, vacant and robotic. He looked at him like he was completely void of any happiness or sadness. Like he had moved past those emotions. “Duncan Davidson, age 36 born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States?” asked the man. “Um, yes that’s me.” Replied Duncan. “Um, excuse me,” Duncan had a list of questions that he had been told to ask anyone he met in the afterlife, but he had totally forgotten it. All he could think to ask was “Where are we?” The man replied, “This is the afterlife.” “So, we’re in heaven?” asked Duncan. “Nope” replied the man. Duncan’s heart began to sink. “So, this is hell?” “Wrong again.” Replied the man again. “I told you, this is the afterlife. There is no heaven and hell here. You went through Heaven, Mr. Davidson when you got married 8 years ago, and you went through Hell when you were going through your divorce 2 years later.” Duncan was taken aback, he had never met this man before, yet he seemed to know everything about him. “So, if there’s no heaven or hell, what’s the afterlife?” Duncan asked. The man motioned around him. “This is.” Duncan looked around except for the long booth, there was absolutely nothing. “So, what do I do now?” he asked. The man handed Duncan a ticket and opened the door to the other side of the toll booth. On the other side Duncan saw more people than he had ever seen before, there must’ve been trillions, slowly walking around with no specific direction. “Wait over there with the others.” Said the man. Duncan looked back at the man, “For how long?” The man shrugged “A few minutes, a couple of millennium, it all feels the same.” Duncan looked at the man one more time and then started walking to the mass of people. His mind started racing. He started to panic. This was what the afterlife was? An eternity of standing around waiting for something to happen? This was what everybody’s life led to, no matter how they used it? Then he began to think more about it. And he started to calm down. There was nothing to worry about here. No problems, no stress, nothing. He felt perfectly at peace. He felt freedom from the weight of his emotions, there was a feeling of perfect balance and calm that washed over his body. “Davidson, are you there?” he heard in his right ear. It was Dr. Reese, “Davidson you’ve been in there for almost an hour. Are you ok?” Davidson took the radio out of his ear spoke into the microphone. “Yes, I’m fine.” He said, before dropping the radio on the ground and crushing it under his shoe. He was fine. Not happy, not sad, just fine. He took a deep breath and then went to take his place amongst the others.