Dead Ends: How to Survive the Afterlife Book 3 Read online

  DEAD

  ENDS

  TONY MOYLE

  Also by Tony Moyle

  ‘How to Survive the Afterlife’ Series

  Book 1 – THE LIMPET SYNDROME

  Book 2 – SOUL CATCHERS

  Book 3 – DEAD ENDS

  Sign up to the newsletter

  www.tonymoyle.com/contact/

  Copyright © 2018 by Tony Moyle

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

  First Published: July 2018

  ISBN

  Limbo Publishing, a brand of In-Sell Ltd

  53 The Sands

  Ashington, West Sussex RH20 3LQ

  www.tonymoyle.com

  Cover design by Lucas Media

  For…

  Myra D, Erica R, Emma T, Richard C, Di D, Brian E, Dave E, Kieran W, Gerald M, Sue M, Ian H, Louise M, Nick D, Carmen M, Colin M, Beth M, James M, Tom D, Simon J, Emily R, Pru L, Karl H, Russell C, Tegan T, Steve J, Faye S, Paul S, Steve D, Dave C, Sarah S, Ben W, Chloe H, David M, Michelle H, Barry C, Jack V, Wayne P, Vicky W, Nicky P and Simon Capel.

  “Without your positive encouragement there would be no afterlife” T.M.

  dead

  /dɛd/

  adjective

  adjective: dead

  1: no longer alive.

  ◦lacking emotion, sympathy, or sensitivity.

  ◦devoid of living things.

  2: complete; absolute.

  ends

  /ɛnd/

  noun

  noun: end; plural noun: ends

  1: a final part of something, especially a period of time, an activity, or a story.

  ◦to emphasise that something, typically a subject of discussion, is considered finished.

  ◦ a person’s death.

  ◦ (in Biblical use) an ultimate state or condition.

  2: the furthest or most extreme part of something.

  3: a part or person’s share of an activity.

  4: a goal or desired result.

  Notes from Book 2 – Soul Catchers

  (Note: Contains spoilers)

  An eleven-year-old Chilean boy places a flower at the foot of a gravestone. It’s John Hewson’s. On the reverse is a patiently chiselled message, ‘God Protects the king.’ John’s mother confronts the boy, David Gonzalez, believing he is responsible. He explains that he’s investigating John’s death and she reveals that he wasn’t killed in a car crash after all. His death came as a result of a single bullet wound to the chest.

  In Hell the demons call a council of creatures. Senior demons are summoned to explain how John’s soul has escaped from the metal box suspended above level twelve. Between Primordial, guardian of reincarnates on level zero, and Brimstone, operator of the Soul Catcher, they formulate a theory. John triggered the Limpet Syndrome again, releasing a second part of his soul and drawing a previously removed part from Nash Stevens, a rockstar that John once possessed. The two oppositely charged parts of his soul attract each other, leaving the neutral part free to wander.

  Asmodeus sends for Laslow, who was last seen shooting John in Limbo. Laslow, once carrier of Satan’s soul, confirms that John had become angrier towards the end, proving that the positive part of his soul left first and the negative second. The message ‘Newton’s third’, which was burnt on the inside of John’s box, is a reference to revenge.

  David Gonzalez reviews a list of names under the heading Newton’s Third. The first name is Laslow’s. When David reaches Limbo to confront him he finds his decomposed corpse nailed to the white funnel. Other than the souls streaming into Limbo, and a rather disturbing boisterous soul called a ‘shadow,’ the only survivor of the massacre is the Clerk. He explains how Heaven’s Soul Catcher was turned off and how Limbo, along with twelve neutral jurors, were used to decide on the final destination for all souls.

  On level zero, Sandy Logan, former politician and current plastic pigeon, has worked out what Emorfed is. At a pass over event, where the reincarnates finally let go of life, Sandy identifies a shrew suffering from a form of Tourette’s. The shrew is what remains of John, his positive and negative personalities struggling to live with each other. Sandy and Ian protect John from the demons and concoct a plan.

  Victor Serpo, formerly Agent 15, has escaped to Canada with the remaining samples of Emorfed, which he sells to the highest bidder so the recipient can escape their emotional pain. A strange, unregistered patient turns up. It’s his old boss, former Prime Minister, Byron T. Casey. Although Byron was shot by Laslow, his body was healed at the peak of the solstice and Satan took up residence in his body. Using an apple, Byron explains how the soul is split into three parts with each part being managed by Hell, Heaven and a potential ‘third way’, a place for neutral souls that lack a god. Byron convinces Victor that his Emorfed patients must be killed to stop the shadows, a by-product, from infecting Hell.

  David visits Donovan King to seek therapy for his premonitions and his complete lack of emotions. Donovan knows what ‘God Protects the King’ means. It refers to a mysterious historical figure called Baltazaar who lived in Phoenician times. Donovan reveals that Herb, Nash Steven’s old manager and Emorfed victim, has killed himself. This makes David suspicious and he travels to Herb’s funeral to find out more. There he bumps into Nash Stevens who freaks out about how much David knows about John Hewson.

  On the island of Bryher in the Scilly Isles, Violet Stokes, former head of the animal welfare group JAWS, and Fiona Foster, the reporter who broke the Emorfed story, are raising their two adopted children. One is an eight-year-old boy called Scrumpy, who’s obsessed by pirates. The other is Grace, a pale white-haired girl with an amazing affinity for science. She’s the daughter of Faith, who still suffers from her exposure to Emorfed.

  Victor and Byron start assassinating Emorfed patients. In Monaco they come into contact with Baltazaar, who has taken up residence inside the old preacher Donovan King. Byron and Donovan create a terrible geological storm as they battle over the fate of the Emorfed clients.

  In Hell, Sandy and Ian enrol a group of strange volunteers to help them steal Faith’s soul from level twelve. They include a sociopathic cat, a racist spider, an evangelical ox, a gibbon who plays practical jokes, and an extremely slow sloth. Meanwhile, the senior demons, including the reclusive dark matter demon, Mr. Noir, seek out John on level zero. Sandy and Ian succeed in finding Faith’s soul and unleash the shadows to fight on their behalf by infecting all the murderous dictators on level ten. Sandy also persuades the lesser demons, led by Fluffy and Red, to start a rebellion against the senior demons who are forced into retirement on level zero.

  David follows Nash to the Scilly Isles where he befriends the boy Scrumpy and gains employment on their farm. Through Victor’s connections Byron learns of David’s location and starts to plan his next move. Nash, fearful of who David is, informs Baltazaar of their location through prayer.

  Mr. Brimstone heads to the library to help find more information about John. John’s book is massive and contains more than fifty lives, but the front cover has been worn away, withholding who John really was. Brimstone discovers a new sapling growing beneath the two oak trees, a sign that the ‘third coming’ has arrived. A new book, laminated and blank, suggests this new neutral god is eleven years old.

  A battle erupts in Hell between Brimstone, the six reincarnates and the shadow souls. In the melee Faith’s soul is sent back to her just before the heart is removed from the Soul Catcher, stopping it
working and sending a small ball of metal out into space. The shadows also kill John on Sandy’s command. In Limbo, the Clerk watches as the walls slowly expand from the increasing volume of souls arriving but not leaving.

  Back on Bryher, Byron and Donovan descend on the farmhouse determined to kill David, who they believe is the third coming. David meets Grace for the first time and recalls how a girl of her exact description was involved in John’s car crash. Byron kidnaps Scrumpy and takes him to the next island. David pursues him in Grace’s high-speed red tractor. When he finds Scrumpy he swerves to avoid Grace in the road, just as John had done so many years before. It transpires that John’s death was a premonition of what would come to pass.

  Baltazaar confronts David before setting fire to the tractor and forcing David to trigger the Limpet Syndrome for a third and final time. A small ball of metal ascends into the air. It arrives in a strange world covered in meadows of white grass in the shadow of a giant red sun. Grace, who has the power to stop time, escapes with Scrumpy in his boat. Byron, not convinced that David was the ‘third coming’, follows the girl, who manages to escape. It’s clear to Byron that the ‘third coming’ isn’t a ‘he’, but a ‘she’.

  In Hell, Sandy has taken over management of Hell while Ian and the other reincarnates have been banished to level zero. Brimstone warns Sandy that souls will eventually evolve. While the senior demons watch their very first pass over a voice speaks to them invisibly from the air. It’s John’s.

  - CHAPTER ONE -

  LIFE

  In the beginning there was a bang. Apparently it was big. Not that anyone was there to witness it. The discovery of said ‘bang’ came more than thirteen billion years later when a bunch of scientists pointed some complex equipment into space and confidently pronounced that the microwaves were behaving strangely and making funny whooshing noises. Technically, if it was a ‘bang’ it was not precisely at the beginning. A bang can’t happen in a vacuum. Something must have existed beforehand to trigger all the commotion normally associated with any explosion. Difficult to start a firework display without the crucial element of an actual firework. Maybe it wasn’t a bang, or big, or even at the beginning? Let’s start again.

  Near the start of space and time, but definitely not at the very beginning, there was probably an event which may have been big, but was certainly noticeable billions of years later when overconfident scientists predicted, due to nothing more significant than the length and volume of microwaves, that there might have been a bang. Or possibly a minor cosmic burp. That’s the problem with science, you have to sit on the fence until all possible evidence is available.

  Scientists want us to believe that the ‘bang’ came from something called the singularity. An object so small you’d struggle to see it through the world’s most powerful microscope. Yet this infinitesimally dense speck, surrounded by total nothingness, contained every observed and unobserved object in the universes. Just remember that the next time you’re packing for a holiday and convince yourself it’s physically impossible to get everything inside your suitcase. Everything that was, currently is, or ever will be in the future existed inside the singularity.

  Everything.

  The view out of your window, the chair you’re sitting on now, and even the complex chains of organic matter contained inside the bottom that sits on it, were all crammed inside. It would stretch most people’s imagination just to think of fitting your arse, chair and living room inside an invisibly small single point of ignition, but then consider the billions of stars, associated celestial bodies, and multiverses that were also contained within it. And you thought the story of Adam and Eve was far-fetched.

  Non-religious types often cite the illogical and whimsical nature of faith as an explanation as to why God doesn’t exist. How can anyone build the Universe in seven days? It’s irrational to believe that Moses parted the Red Sea with nothing more than a chariot and a first-class prayer, or that Noah crammed two of every animal on a vessel no bigger than a canoe. Noah’s story looks reasonably safe if you consider that all of Noah’s animals, and the rest of existence, were inside the singularity. If we believe in science, that is. Belief isn’t just about fact, it’s also about who you believe in.

  There is one aspect of the Big Bang theory that scientists do agree on. None of them has the first idea where the singularity came from or how it got there. They agree it was there because they’ve got lots of graphs, and how can you argue with a beautifully intricate Venn diagram? Whether the singularity produced the gods or the gods produced the singularity isn’t important. It was so long ago even they can’t remember.

  What scientists can validate is that the singularity got bigger. Expanding outwards, it produced material: dark, light and some other stuff in the middle no one has come up with a convincing formula for yet. Over time, and with a nasty cold front weather system in attendance, this material started to cool and collect under immense pressure to form subatomic particles with interesting names like strange quark and gauge boson. These clumped together to form larger particles until, with the moral support of gravity and other such forces, these larger objects eventually coalesced into planets, solar systems, galaxies and the Universe.

  The Universe is impossibly big. This isn’t a statement based on some overly complicated dissertation from a professor with too many letters after their name and a brain the size of a space hopper. Just look out of your window. See if you can spot the edges? Didn’t think so. Anyway, if it wasn’t huge it would be called a tiny-verse instead.

  And there wasn’t just one of them either.

  As matter and energy spewed rapidly into the expanding space, the fifth force dragged the competing energies into different regions. Oppositely polarised particles pushed and pulled against each other, squabbling for position around a central point. Four unique Universes formed, three in rotation around a fourth one that sat in the middle like an intergalactic cosmic fidget spinner. In a tiny portion of that central universe, orbiting around a star with eight brothers and sisters, floated a planet that John Hewson once called his own. This central Universe was responsible for the creation of the human race. John could no longer be counted amongst their number as he was currently residing in uncategorised forms in two of the other universes, some light years away from each other.

  As the universes cooled and expanded, conditions were created that allowed the formation of organic matter and complex molecules. With the extension of time these molecules evolved into simple living organisms. Each of these simple life forms possessed the potential for a living spiritual force that developed in tandem with the physical form like an unseen virus. The soul. As the physical host developed the ability to produce sentient capabilities, so the soul evolved its capacity to collect energy in the form of electrical signals.

  Why humans developed these sentient responses more quickly than other creatures isn’t entirely clear. What is indisputable, however, is that each soul’s host demonstrated characteristics unique from each other. The human drive for survival and advantage manifests itself in the properties of the soul within. All of them had the basic capacity for sustaining charge, attracted by and sourced from three competing universes that span around the cosmos, holding the energy suspended, for now, inside its own unique organic vessel.

  All but some.

  Some souls evolve.

  And just as Darwin documented in his work on the evolution of species, evolution is only possible as a consequence of a mutation.

  The peripheral universes were, until recently, designed as a resting place for three unique forms of energy that only existed inside souls. One attracted purely positive energy, one negative and the last neutral. None of them were currently performing their cosmic responsibilities with any aplomb.

  Following a bout of vandalism from a mob of dead dictators, egged on by a bunch of mutated shadow souls, Hell’s Universe had lost the use of its Soul Catcher, a mysterious machine with the ability to suck souls towards it. Hea
ven’s Universe had turned their Soul Catcher off more than a millennium ago to farm Emorfed, the recycled remains of souls, capable of suppressing human emotion by removing all but the neutral elements of the soul.

  And in the thirteen billion years prior to a small ball of metal landing on its surface and getting nosy, the final Universe was known only to gods, the only visitors since the singularity burst and started all this nonsense.

  All three exits for the soul were now celestial dead ends. The soul had only one route after death. A place known as Limbo, located in the Earth’s mantle under the surface of Switzerland. It would soak up these souls with the same exuberance a piece of crusty bread does with gravy after a nice roast dinner. Something would have to change. If it didn’t, the consequences for the human race would be catastrophic.

  *****

  Perching on the edge of a vast chasm, a small ball of silver metal basked in the frenzied glow from a deep red sun far closer to the limits of an orbiting planet than Einstein would recommend. Solar flares leapt from its surface like great pink salmon escaping upstream for the breeding season. The flares licked the translucent surface of this unknown world with the fervency of desperate window-shoppers on the first day of a sale.

  The liquid metal within the ball swirled within the confines of itself as if its eyes were repositioning to analyse the next feature of the landscape. A sense of order and uniformity oozed from every natural landmark from foreground to horizon. The chasm below the ball was the only topographic feature without a monotonous sense of conformity. The excavation of whatever lay there had all the hallmarks of a hurried and slapdash mugging. No attempt had been made to return the landscape to its original state, no regeneration to mask what had been done there. It was difficult for the ball to judge the size and scale of this deep quarry because, number one it was a ball of metal, and number two it didn’t have eyes. Which really didn’t explain why it knew a large hole was stretching out in front of it.