Day 682

The church was covered in little black rocks that glistened far more than any rock ought to. No matter how dull or dark it was outside, the church sparkled like a perfect night sky. Somehow something about those little lights made it feel safer than anywhere else in the whole city. Perhaps that's why everyone tried to hide there when the tsunami came.

They say drowning is a slow and agonising way to go but they're wrong. Firstly the sheer force of the wave sent me sprawling into a parked car and made everything go dark and hazy around the edges. I never stood a chance as it dragged me up and hurled me into a street light. The last thing I remember was the crunch my spine made as it hit and then it all went dark.

When I woke up Everything was tinged blue and slightly out of focus, like I was seeing it through frosted glass. The sound of bells filled the air and I began to see vague figures moving towards the cliffs where the church sat. They weren't all humans, I saw dogs, cats, birds and even a few horses all heading the same direction and all half walking/half swimming.

The closer we all got to the church the easier it got to see, as if peering under curtains instead of through them. Along the way I noticed that everything was lying in ruins. Buildings had crumpled like wet paper with all manner of detritus lodged through them. Cars, roads, telephone poles - everything looked like far more than a tsunami had happened.

Still I wondered, if I'm dead - and I'm almost certain I am - and if everyone else is dead, where are our bodies? Surely with the crowd of hazy shapes you'd see a corpse or two floating up ahead or trapped in a car, impaled or crushed. There was nobody - there were no bodies.

As we all reached the church at the same time we saw a queue of creatures forming, waiting for the main doors to open despite the windows being broken. As the door opened one single being was let inside and the line would shuffle forwards slightly. We all joined the queue without a second though. After all, what else was there to do?

When the goat in front of me went in I found I couldn't see through the open door no matter how hard I tried. The goat ran in like it was being chased by the devil himself. I took my place on the church steps and waited to be called in, to find out what we were all doing waiting here.

Maybe all of our bodies were inside and they were matching us to them before we could move on to the afterlife? What if this was the afterlife and the queue would just begin again when I entered the church? What if there was a monster in there, something that ate the dead! Can I die twice?

The door opened, everything went white and suddenly I was standing in front of the tsunami again.

We all were, and more joined us by the minute.

All lined up on the cliffside.

All to protect the church.