I'd been dying for the past month. I knew it, but the side effects of the 1st stroke had made most of it just a painful blur. My own fault, really, as I knew what too much blood sugar would do to me. I was just too addicted - typical American. When the end came, I was glad - my body had become a useless weight, giving me no joy of life any longer. When the world faded out, I had no idea what to expect - but it certainly wasn't THIS:
I woke up laying on my back on sandy ground, bright sunlight overhead. I felt WONDERFUL! No aches or pains, a clear mind...or maybe I was just having delusions, I thought as I opened my eyes and looked around. I, no WE, were near the top of a gentle sandy slope, with a featureless grey stone obelisk in the center and six large stone domes equidistant around our hill. The WE, were a large number of other humans seemingly in exactly the same situation as myself, opening their eyes and many were starting to get up.
Everyone I could see was a young adult, and all of us were wearing essentially sweatshirts and sweat pants, though they felt a bit more thick and sturdy than those I was used to. They also had more pockets than usual - full cargo style or better. Feeling like the only old person present, I sat up and looked myself over. It was hard to tell without a mirror, but everything I could see or feel looked and felt YOUNG - like in my 20s. OK, score one for the afterlife!
The next obvious thing about the crowd is that they were a VERY mixed group, but mostly darker skinned or Asian, and only a few others that were obviously European in origin. This became even more clear as people started talking - in a wild variety of languages and accents. Several were kneeling and praying, a few just immediately ran away from the group in terror. Other people were simply enraptured in looking at their own bodies, possible trying out movements they hadn't been able to do in years - I almost felt like that myself. Instead, I started milling around to find other English speakers.
Turned out there were several native English speakers and several more with a passable knowledge of it. When we gathered, we had about as many as the other large group - which seemed to be based around Chinese and/or related languages. The Spanish based group was about half our size. There were a fair-sized bunch that just walked around in confusion and couldn't really communicate with anyone.
We quickly determined that we had all just died and woken up here, and no one had a clue about how or why. One young man claimed to be just 14 - but looked the same age as the rest of us. From what we could see and describe to one another, we all looked about 20. A couple people reported that their tattoos were gone, and another said she still had her birthmark - no one had any warts or moles. Everyone had about 2" long hair, and no facial hair. I excused myself to go check out the obelisk, and a few others came with.
The grey stone seemed featureless and smooth, a triangle 4' wide at the base coming to a point about 20' up. Upon touching it, though, writing appeared just above where I placed my hand:
Village 2024-8-14-14.3582
Diagnostics: STR=10, DEX=10, END=10, SPD=10, Reset=1
And everyone else got EXACTLY the same result, no matter how strong or weak they looked, and each got it in their native language, we soon found out. Soon afterwards, we found the message changed after about 30 seconds:
Vote to allow village growth: Y/N Current default NO. Growth begins at 25% YES.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I left it alone for now - better to check the place out before recruiting any more people. No further messages or options came up in the next 5 minutes, so I heading off to check out the domes. Again, totally generic stone, and each was about a 60' hemisphere with an opening (no door) that was about a 4' wide 8' high arch. No light inside other than what streamed in the doorway. And so it was with all six - a single doorway arch facing the central obelisk.
Exploring further, there were well defined upslope and downslope directions and vegetation started about 30 yards outside the outer edge of the domes. At the lowest point of that 30 yard border was the bend of a small river, maybe 15' wide and about half as deep at the center. From the area of bare river rocks around it, it was flowing at maybe half peak volume. It was fairly sandy with smooth stones, so a fairly old river, we guessed.
The vegetation started as low grasses and mosses close to the village and became progressively large and denser the further I looked. Common, uncommon, and downright strange plants were all around, and I tried a few strawberries I came across - delicious! These gave way to groves of fruit and nut trees later on, and I'd guess about 30% were recognizable, almost all edible types (and tasty too, from the few I tried). Obviously, food and water were not going to be problems any time soon.
After a couple hundred yards of garden, there was a 3' high stone wall, seemingly encircling the entire complex. Beyond it, I could see movement, and hear common (and same strange) woodland sounds. I realized then that there hadn't been any such things in the village or garden areas. Could animals not cross for some reason? Could we? I decided to play safe for now and headed back - picking up assorted goodies to share and snack on along the way.
As I was walking back, munching on some kind of apple-pear, I noticed it was starting to get dark...but the sun was still directly overhead! Looking more closely, I noticed I COULD look more closely - the sun was obviously no where near as bright as before. Not wanting to get caught too far out in the dark, I sped up. Reaching the grass, I decided I was close enough (after all, there really wasn't anywhere special to go, so long as I knew where the village was), and just watched the dimming process. Over the next several minutes, the sun faded into a full moon, and the stars came out...but I slowly realized they weren't stars, they were moonlit reflections of land features very, vary far away.
In all directions, a wide, glittering dome stretched up into the sky, faintly moonlit. A central star of some kind? Or maybe not - the whole thing could be an illusion, but either way, the power and scale needed for it to work were beyond belief. And why reincarnate us here? Was it all a giant petri dish experiment?
Fortunately, the moonlight proved enough for basic navigation, and I made it to one of the domes. When I stepped inside, I was greeted in a foreign tongue by a young lady. When I said I didn't understand, a man came up and pointed across the compound, saying "Engrish da", in a heavy accent. So I headed out the the far dome, where I was greeted by an Indian-looking woman who asked if I was an English speaker, and welcomed me in when I replied.
It was warmer inside, as it had become a bit chilly outside once darkness fell. A couple industrious folks had scooped out gourds to bring water inside, and I traded a couple drinks of water for a handful of nuts. I asked if people were going to go with the "Village Growth" option or not, and they told me it was undecided - they were working out language groups and trying to get a way to at lease talk to everyone, but there were at least 3 people with no common language with anyone else, and one pair who could talk to each other, but no one else.
Beyond that, people had been trying to make simple stone tools from river rocks, and doing simple weaving with some of the grasses and bushes as material. One no-language woman seemed to be an expert weaver, and others had gathered food for her and made her a water gourd. Two from the Spanish group seemed good at getting sharp edges from broken rocks, so there was hope of simple tools tomorrow. The biggest problem so far was the lack of restrooms - people had just been going off into the bushes.
Talk wound down because we just didn't know much, and I got some good sleep - the dome stayed at a comfortable temperature all night, and the sand floor wasn't bad as a bed.