by Jeff Gunzel
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Chapter 1
Smooth wooden benches provide little comfort. Walls of brown stones encase the oval-shaped room.
For hundreds and thousands of men, this dank, musty room is the last sanctuary they will ever see before going to the afterlife.
The air is full with the usual sounds of grown men crying and whimpering while curled up on the floor. Men who consider themselves brave and hearty when tested by life’s trivial challenges now rock back and forth as they hug their own shoulders, sobbing uncontrollably while relieving themselves where they are. Others laugh hysterically as their minds break like twigs spun through a tornado. The rest remain quiet and reserved to their fate while they kneel on cold stone, praying to the deity of their choice, with no answer or sign forthcoming. Ironically, praying seems to make men feel more in control when giving up all control. It is easier to believe your life was never yours to begin with.
Even through the pungent smell, sheer emotion carries the strongest scent of all. The air is thick with pure terror. Only the strongest men could resist the onslaught of the looming reality swimming around the room. It would seem death itself is more welcome than the reality of having to think about it.
A warrior sat back against the cool stone and began to take in the whole scene. A room full of dead men who could not accept the cruel reality of their fate was nothing more than an annoying distraction to him now as he tried to clear his head for the upcoming test of survival—a test he not only didn’t fear, but found a strange sense of exuberance and even acceptance for. After all, we all meet our end sooner or later. No sense fearing the inevitable.
Continuing to let his mind relax, he found the cries and whimpers of the irrelevant souls in the room begin to fade into a muffled, distant hum, becoming nothing more than background sounds similar to wind rustling through the leaves of trees off in the distance.
With the warrior’s mind coming under a relaxing trance—a battle tactic learned long ago—his conscience drifted to the events leading up to his newest challenge. He thought back to a life that no longer belonged to him...