The world had once been locked off from the Memory Lands, or so June had been told. In most places, the dead couldn’t even make themselves noticed. In some places, usually places where there had been the right mixture of emotions, or where many people had died at once, the dead, those who hadn’t Moved On, could press against the veil. For a short time. The Earth, or rather the billions of living people in it, usually healed any rips in the veil, once again keeping the two realms separated. That was why most legends of haunted houses were either in deserted places, places where death was an ongoing affair, or places where the inhabitants were transitory, like theaters.

But for the first time in human history, there were no humans left to heal the veil. No bustling billions to bring life back to a region, to keep living and forget the tragedies that helped bring the dead and the living into contact. But even so, for those who had come “up top” there were only a few places where the veil was thin enough to let you easily journey into the Memory Lands.

“You know,” Sally said as she walked on the grass. “That’s what I miss. Not being able to feel the grass under my feet. I loved to run around barefoot. Mom hated it.”

“Yeah,” June said. “Flip side, you couldn’t float through closed doors.”

“And, if you wanted to learn how to form a body…” Hank said. “There’s always that.”

“Yeah, not for me,” Sally said. “Some of those people are… creepy.”

That’s an understatement. June shook her head. Those who could form a body out of ectoplasm, actually interact with the material world, were strange. So was anyone that did too much to their body.

Because this is a memory. June stared down at her hand, the little mole that she’d hated on her wrist. You could make it go away, after all, but that was you. So you were making a little of what you were vanish, in favor of what you wanted…

She shivered at that thought. What she was, her memories, was all June had now. In fact—

Something moved down the street, the sound of smashing metal loud in the quiet night.

“Okay,” Hank said. “Wonder what that is.”

“Too big for a dog or a cat,” Sally said.

Those that are still around. The end of humanity had been hard on the animals that had tied themselves to humanity.

“Let’s go see!” Sally said, darting down the road. June and Hank followed her.

The noises got louder until they turned the corner. There was the police station, and piled in front of it, cars. On the steps to the entrance, mummified bodies, some of them torn apart by animals.

Not everyone had died immediately, but everyone had died in the first few hours. Enough time to run for help.

Not enough time for help to come.

Besides, there was nobody to help. The aliens’ weapon had been scattered on Earth long before they’d activated it. Every human was infected, and the police in the building had been dead and dying, just like the people who had run to them.

I guess I was lucky. All June remembered was a lethargic pain, leaving her without enough energy to do more than wonder why some of the kids were running and screaming and others were just sitting or lying down, blood dripping from every orifice. The ones who hadn’t gone easy like that, they were a little wonky, even now.

But now, there was a legged robot in front of the police station.

“Wow,” Hank said. He wandered up to it, hands in his pockets. “Take me to your leader, alien death machine.”

The robot didn’t respond. It had four legs, ending in a metallic globe. Several thick metallic tentacles emerged from the trench that ran around the globe. Some of them had what looked like guns on them, although June had never been much into that. Her little brother had been the sci-fi freak, but he’d Moved On.

“Can’t see us,” Sally said. “I wonder why he’s here. Hello Mr. Robot! Everyone’s dead.”

Hank shook his head and wandered over to a corpse that was leaning up against a bike rack. “Let me try something.”

“Hank…” June groaned. “Don’t try to corpse walk.”

“I won’t do it very long. Just wanna see what Mr. Robot is going to do.”

June stared at Sally. “He’s using your name. Why is he using your name for it?”

“It’s descriptive?”

Hank was slowly fading into the body. June bit her lip. Sure, they were dead, and it wasn’t like anyone was in there to protest, but…

It was still a little creepy.

The mummified body no longer had working muscles to move, but the memory of those muscles was still there. The memory of walking.

And that was all that was needed. Memory. Just like the memory of a drive through endless fields on a Harley could remind Hank of the days he was. June smiled.

Now she could remember it.

Possessing a corpse was hard, and Hank had never been that interested in scaring people in the world, so all he could do was twitch and—

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Fast as lightning, one of the tentacles whipped around and a column of light linked the robot and the corpse for a moment, before the corpse exploded, flesh and clothing bursting into steam.

Sally shrieked in surprise as the cloud that had once been a person dissipated to show Hank, his hands on his hips.

“I guess the Invaders didn’t think they would get everyone,” he said. “So they must have dropped these robots so that they’d go to places where people would go for help.”

June looked up, and above her, the night sky was marred for a moment by a streak of light. Falling star or Invader?

“But why now? We killed them all,” Sally said. For a moment, her cute face grew gaunt, her teeth more prominent.

Memory was important, and June remembered erupting out of the atmosphere, millions, billions of spirits with her, a mass of the dead, all claws and teeth and rage…

And steel and guns do nothing against that, June thought, as she walked up to the robot, the device ignoring her.

“Maybe they just had them on a timer?” June asked. “Doesn’t matter in any case. I’m sorry, Mr. Robot, but you missed the fight.” She patted it on its hull. “Don’t worry. It wasn’t a long fight.”

“Yeah. Well, the nights starting to get old,” Hank said. “And I don’t want to have to spend the day hiding from the sun in a basement or sleeping, so let’s get moving.”

“What, you don’t want to spend the day in a small room with two attractive girls?” Sally asked, fluttering her eyes.

“No, my heart is given to another,” Hank said, running a hand back through his greased black hair. “And neither one of you can compete with her, so why hurt your feelings?”

“You’ve let me down gently,” June said. She shook her head. “Let’s get going.”

And with that, the three left the square to the dead and the tool of their murderers, the robot waiting for a battle that would never come.

----------------------------------------

As they walked, the city changed. There were still the dead, but the moon seemed to change, becoming brighter as it descended. Around the three a softly glowing fog started to rise. For most of human history, a place where the veil was this thread bare was a one in a million occurrence. Now you could find places like this almost anywhere.

“Here we are,” Hank said.

June and Sally nodded. There was a ravine here. Well, a symbolic ravine. A living person would only see the fog, hear the frightening sounds and, if they could see June at all, would only see her walk into the fog, her body vanishing from sight. The ravine was…

“You know, I wonder if it’s always been like this?” June said.

“What do you mean?” Sally asked.

“The idea of going down into the Memory Lands. Did we get the idea of lands of the dead being down there because people saw this or a ghost returned and talked to them about it, or did the living think of it first and that put its imprint into the Memory Lands.”

Hank said nothing for a moment. Then he started sniffing.

“Hank?” June asked.

Then Hank started bawling like a very bad actor. He threw his arms around Sally. “Did you hear that? She just turned seventeen, and now she’s thinking such big thoughts instead of just having fun. Where did I go wrong, Sally? Where did I go wrong?!”

“There, there,” Sally said. “Not everyone can be a juvenile delinquent.”

“Are you done?” June folded her arms. “I was just curious.”

“Well, you could always talk to one of the guys who study this stuff,” Sally said.

“Eh, death’s too short,” Hank said. “Besides, a lot of them Move On. Let’s get on down. Busy time today.”

“Another race?”

“Another race. You two coming?”

“Sure,” June said. “I don’t have anything do to. What about you, Sally?”

“I’ll be there!”

As they talked, they kept moving. The sides of the ravine rose up, and soon they couldn’t see the moon or the stars, the rocks coming together to form a tunnel.

There was no need for light, not for them, but June held out her hand and conjured a little ball of bluish fire.

It just felt more comfortable.

The pathway broadened out, then got narrow, but there was always room for the three to walk side by side. Others appeared. June and her friends weren’t the only ones who went up top at night. Given that it was always night somewhere on Earth, the path was always sort of crowded. According to the older ghosts, most ghosts tended to Move On relatively quickly. The most common ones who stayed had suffered some trauma, faced an injustice, or were just tied to the world by some powerful emotion.

Which means everyone the Invaders killed is more likely to stick around. And unlike the long-term residents of the Memory Lands, many of June’s compatriots, like June herself, tended to visit the Earth.

“God have mercy. God have mercy. God have mercy…” June and the others stopped as a long row of robed and cowled figures marched past them. June winced as a long sleeve was pulled back, revealing a rotted hand, maggots chewing the flesh.

A ghost was about memory, and what you saw yourself as. If you saw yourself as a corpse…

“Sisters and brother, join us.” The last figure paused and turned to them, their face hidden under the cowl. “There is still time to save yourselves, for if we were judged unworthy of the Rapture, we may still remind God of our faith that He will remember us. We are Forgotten but His mercy endures.”

“Um… I’ll think about it,” June said. Hank and Sally were tense. I hope these ones don’t get violent. People had a ton of explanations for why they’d ended up in the Memory Lands instead of heaven or hell, and some of those explanations involved things like “suffering nonbelievers to live.”

“Think well, but not too long sister, for even should our faith cause God to turn His face to us one more time, He will not gaze upon us forever. And those who fail the second test shall be forgotten forever more.”

With that, the figure rejoined the long line.

“God have mercy, God have mercy, God have mercy…”

Their words faded. Other people were coming down, some in groups, some alone. Some with bodies that had been cleansed of any memory of mortal frailties, and others that seemed to be caricatures of what they had been.

“Well, here we are,” Sally said. “Happy birthday, June!”

“It was great,” June told her friends. The path ended in a broad cave mouth, a vast plaza in front of it. June walked to the edge, Mike and Sally by her side. Above them, the moon gleamed with a pallid light, as it did all the time. There were no moonsets in the Memory Lands. And below them, the plain, covered structures, ten-thousand years of memory given form.

“So let’s go home, so we can get ready for Hank’s race,” Sally said. She took June and Hank’s arm in hers, and started walking for the ramps that ran down to the Memory Lands. Some people were lining up for the elevator, and a few were just throwing themselves off the edge.

If you were dead, a fall couldn’t hurt you, after all, but June wasn’t used enough to being dead to try that.

Besides, she was with her friends, and it wasn’t like she was racing old age anymore, was it?