Day 291

It took you a while to figure out how to step out of your body.
The others had left long ago leaving him and the other dead ones, the ones who didn't rest.
You heard them calling you to join them and walk free but it was so hard.
Like moving through a smoke filled room it made every step hell but eventually he broke free.

Your body was little more then a half-crushed skeleton, some of the others were worse off.
It didn't even look like you any more.
You spent most of his time now walking around the town with the rest of the dead.
Everything gradually changed, the buildings grew utterly decayed and began to collapse around you.

Days were beginning to blur together and all that was left for you all was endless walking.
Former friends in life were in the same state, listlessly ignoring one another.
Some of them had even stopped walking, they just stood there staring at their old bodies.
It had to change, they couldn't go on like this.

You gathered as many as you could and they began to test their limits.
Were they tied to their bodies or could they move away from the town entirely?
And so began their practice moving away from their home-come-prison.
The feeling of walking through smoke filled rooms was strong at first but grew dull with practice.

Time was irrelevant to them, they never stopped trying to move further and further out.
Their goal was the next town, twelve miles away.
The people there would give them purpose, something to watch and to help.
You wondered if you could touch them, you missed holding someone, feeling their warmth.

It was always so cold now, everyone agreed that they felt it.
The bone numbing chill that seeped through them and made their movements sluggish and slow.
Finding the living might help that, maybe someone alive would out you to rest?
You'd always wondered what the afterlife was and if this was it then you wanted out.

Again, the living could be the way out for you, if you could steal their body.
You'd have life again, you could live forever and be whoever you wanted, jumping bodies forever!
The first step to this, your goal: the next town and the people who live there.
With this in mind you encouraged everyone to try every minute they could to move out.

They moved inches daily and finally town was barely meters away from them.
Their goal was within reach, your goal was within reach and you could see the living walking.
As you grew closer you saw your mistake, they weren't alive, they were like you.
At least they greeted you warmly, asked if you could show them how you moved so far.

You and your group were disappointed at not finding any living you knew but these new dead helped.
They gave you all a new purpose, to teach and to expand your group and move further afield.
Still, you wondered where all the living had gone to, yours left long ago and apparently so did theirs.
Their town was just as ruinous as your own, if not more so.

Your goal remained the same over the years: find the living.
And you would make it happen, no matter how long it took.
After all, what is time to the dead?
You'll find a living person to have and to hold one day, you have an eternity ahead of you.