Day 637

The cemetery was so large and so old that it had long since spilled out of the original consecrated church grounds and led to the whole city being consecrated to save time and space. It seemed that no matter how many of the older tombs were dug up, bodies cremated and placed a dozen to a plot, more were always there to fill the space.

Each day there were at least eight funerals, hearses slowly working their way around the town in a seemingly endless parade of morbidity. It had gotten to the point where a system of underground roads were built so that regular commuters could bypass them. There were so many funerals they had a team of priests working 9-5 every day, saying the final rites to jars of ashes with no family to mourn them or mark their passing.

Sometimes there weren't even names given to the deceased, sometimes they were simply known by their cause of death. Well, most were nowadays what with so many dying all of a sudden and there being no time for individual funerals. It was all done on mass. There was no other way.

At least the law made certain that tombs built along main roadsides and near the city centre had to be lavishly decorated. There were specific rules on this so as to increase tourism without detracting from the otherwise bustling modern day environment. There were even small funeral shelves in most shops where urns belonging to the family who owned the business were publically displayed.

Although these were another draw for the tourists, they were seen throughout the city as a sign that the owners were too cheap or poor to afford even the smallest plot of land to bury their dead respectfully. Not that burial kept the dead down anyway. Not that the unburnt didn't just walk back out of their tombs and got on with their lives until they either decayed or were burnt to ash like all the others.

The city and the graveyard were fast becoming one place where the living and dead were interchangeable.