Nathan was laying on the ground, presumably in the position he’d died in. Pushing himself up, he glanced around. A perfectly flat floor stretched out farther than he could see, colored a brilliant, unchanging white. When the ground met with the horizon, it abruptly transformed into a complete black and filled the sky entirely.

He knew that he was dead. There was a feeling, deep in his soul, that told him so. It was likely that this was the afterlife, or something related to it. And despite that, an unnatural calm, soothing feeling had lulled in his body. Still, he had no memory of how he had died. He knew who he was, where he grew up, and so on, but the last thing he remembered was attending one of his college chemistry lectures.

While he was thinking, he reached down to feel, but was surprised when his fingers could not discern a texture in the white floor. It was hard, sure, but there was no grittiness, smoothness, or bumpiness. As he was pondering this, a new voice shocked him out of his introspection.

“How does the ground feel?” Nathan looked up. The melodious voice gave way to a stunningly beautiful young woman. Perfect blonde hair framed a perfect face, in which rested a set of deep blue eyes. Her curvaceous body was covered by a cloth that reminded Nathan of a toga.

He shrugged in response, his eyes drifting downward gaze at her scantily-covered torso. “It doesn’t feel much like anything.”

The woman smirked knowingly. “Like what you see?”

Nathan snorted and looked away, immediately disinterested. “So? What are you here for?”

“Are you not even going to ask who I am?”

“Something tells me you wouldn’t answer.”

She laughed. “Well, you’re not wrong. I’ve come to make you a deal.”

Before she could say anything else, Nathan cut in. “I refuse.”

“It’s—what? You refuse? You haven’t even heard what it is,” she protested, her voice going up an octave.

He shook his head. “I’m dead. I’m not supposed to even exist right now. I’m not about to make a deal with you. I know how these scenarios go, I’ve read about them. Somehow, I’ll end up selling my soul to you. So no thanks. I think I’ll take my chances.”

The woman stood there silently, her mouth hanging open. “You’re doing this because of a book?”

“Well, multiple books, but yes.”

“You idio—do you know who I am?”

Nathan rolled his eyes. “Of course not. You didn’t tell me.”

Her face went red and she glared at him for nearly a minute before talking. “Whatever. I don’t care. It doesn’t even matter.” Waving her hand, she continued, “Try not to die again.”

He frowned. “What? Die? I’m already—” he was cut off when his body stopped existing.

…

Nathan groggily got up, his head pounding. Trees filled his surroundings, which surprised him until the memories of his death and interaction with the weird girl came back.

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He reached his hand out to one of the nearby trees, leaning on it to help get his feet under him. I imagine this is what that girl meant when she said ‘try not to die again’. I’m alive.

His body was the same—black hair, skinny limbs. All in all, pretty forgettable. Unlike most of the books written about reincarnation, though, he didn’t work a dead-end job as a salaryman. He’d barely started college.

Nathan picked a direction and started walking. If he didn’t find civilization soon, he was dead. Again. First world countries didn’t exactly put survival skills high up in the ‘necessary skills’ list.

The forest around him was similar in every direction, and thankfully, the weather was rather moderate. Still, it was only a matter of an hour before he started getting thirsty. He occupied himself by listening to the sounds of birds chirping and the wind blowing.

It was pretty calming, despite the nagging fear that he wouldn’t find his way out of the wilderness. He kept at it until he picked up something different from the edge of his hearing. Stopping his trek, he focused and realized that it probably came from a river.

Well, I’m not going to jump to any conclusions. Might as well follow the sound, though, just in case.

At first, it was pretty difficult to determine the direction that the sound was coming from. At the distance he was at, he didn’t know whether it was straight ahead or angled to the right or left.

Waving a fly away, he walked around for another half hour before the sound was audible enough to reliably follow. And at that point, it was rather obvious that it was coming from a river.

Soon enough, Nathan emerged onto the tiny riverbank and heaved a sigh. The air had been getting warmer as the sun rose, and he felt a deep sense of relief for finally making it to a source of water.

And even better, the river was beautiful. It was rather small, but he could see directly through the crystal-clear water to the rocky bottom. I’ll probably still die of dysentery, but at least I’ll have my dignity.

Sitting down on one of the rocks nearby, Nathan thought about his next steps. Even if he had more knowledge of genocidal leaders than of survival skills, he knew that following the river was crucial.

Unfortunately, he could see nothing but trees as far as the river was in view, right until it curved out of sight. Resigning himself to a long hike, he kneeled by the river to drink. That is, until a growl drew his attention.

Almost instinctively, he pulled away and jumped to the left. Which, of course, was a horrible decision, because there was a boulder there. Yelping in pain, he whipped around to face his opponent.

It was a, well...he didn’t know. It had brown fur, but wasn’t any animal he could think of. The beast came up to his knees, and its snout reminded him of a pig.

It had also gone silent after he rammed his shoulder into a rock, which caused him to frown. “How cliche is thi—” he said, cutting himself off when the animal started growling again.

It was small, but looked almost as vicious as a chihuahua. Unfortunately, Nathan had little confidence that he could fight off either.

He backed away, closer to the river. “Come on, buddy,” he laughed nervously. “There’s no need to escalate this.” As he made eye contact with it, his hand reached down to grab hold of a good-sized rock.

The calm facade that he took pride in crumbled, and he felt his heart rate rise through the roof as his legs trembled.

Running or turning away from it was a definite no-go, because it would catch up in a second and tear him apart. Maybe it didn’t like loud noises? Everyone knew that bears didn’t respond well to them.

He took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs, but instead of acting hesitant, the beast moved forward and deepened its growl.

Shit, Nathan cursed. But before he could think of anything else, the animal leapt forward. Even with the adrenaline soaring through his veins, he still couldn’t move in time. With a sickening rip, it tore into his leg.

Doing the only thing he could, Nathan brought the rock down on its head, harder than anything he’d ever hit before. With the impact, its loosening jaws were squeezed back together, crunching further into the flesh of his calf. Disgust and terror mixed together, and he brought the rock back up to hit it again. And again. By the end of it, Nathan was screaming hoarsely while the animal rested slackly on the ground.

As soon as his leg was released, he fell to the ground and scooted backward, trying to put as much distance between them as he possibly could. His breath was coming in short gasps and his arms shaking, but he managed to look back over at the beast. It was no longer moving, whether that be because it was dead or unconscious.

A minute later, he was resting up against a boulder and holding his leg out in front of him. The pain hadn’t set in yet, but the sight itself was enough to make him dizzy. Chunks of skin were gone, and pieces of bleeding muscle hung loosely.