[Play dead]
It was the same exact voice that Luke had heard time and time again. The voice of his gift and his guardian angel.
Except this time around, he should've been dead. So why was he still continuing to hear those whispers?
Feeling for his surroundings, he felt himself buried under numerous lukewarm objects.
Having felt these surroundings, it wasn't too difficult to understand the position he had found himself in.
He was currently buried in a pile of corpses, and from the low rumbling vibrations, he felt they were being moved somewhere.
He had no idea how he had ended up here nor any clue where he was headed, but there was one thing he knew for sure. He had to play dead.
With no way to track the time, he wasn't sure just how many hours he had been stuck under this pile of fresh corpses.
It was only once he felt the vibrations of whatever vehicle he was in fully stop that he knew that they had arrived at their final destination.
Focusing on his senses, he heard the sound of two people approaching. Although he could've called out for help and asked them for assistance, he didn't.
Now more than ever was the moment he needed to listen to the whisper.
Closing his eyes and slowing down his breathing, he began to play the part of a corpse.
In a swift motion, the once dark environment turned bright as if someone had suddenly lifted the blinds off a window.
"Ugh, do we really have to give up such high-quality material?" Someone asked.
"Not our choice, kid; it's not like we would've gotten them anyway." Someone else replied.
"I know. I know. But what if we you know?" Someone nudged.
"Steal one? You don't think those freaks would notice that one's missing? I'm not gonna die because of your petty greed, kid." Someone else scoffed.
Listening into their conversation, Luke was repulsed; although he could be wrong, the high-quality material they were speaking of were humans, human corpses.
Slowly, the pressure that he had been feeling on top of him began to lessen; they were offloading the corpses that were above him.
Once the pressure fell to almost nothing, he began to prepare to be offloaded as well.
He felt the touch of something grabbing hold of him; from touch alone, it resembled the shape of two human hands, except they were large, too large for any human.
"Hmmm, this one's pretty special." Someone commented.
"It's almost like he's…"
The hands began prodding and poking; even if it was using only a fraction of its strength, Luke could feel the pressure begin to become too much.
"The hell are you doing? You tryna destroy the product or something?" Someone else complained.
"Alright, fine. I was just curious." Someone said annoyed.
In contrast to the feeling of being squeezed, being tossed into the air was both relieving and a shock.
It was short-lived, however, as he felt himself falling back on the familiar feeling of corpses.
Although it had absorbed some of the impact, he felt that at least one of his bones had been fractured by the throw.
Now that he was no longer in the direct attention of those monsters, he gritted his teeth to prevent himself from voicing the pain.
"Alright, that's all of em, let's go back." Someone else replied.
"You know, why don't we just hand the products to the bugs?" Someone asked.
"You really wanna deal with those slimy freaks? You're one naive little shit." Someone else chuckled.
"Come on, let's go. We'll get our commission after the bugs get the product." Someone else commanded.
"And how long is that?" Someone asked.
"Give or take a few days. They'll send out a guy to pick up the products whenever they're free."
"So we just leave it here? No random monsters gonna take some of it?" Someone asked.
"In the Queen's territory? That bitch controls every single life form in her kingdom; I'd hardly worry." Someone answered.
The two mysterious figures' conversation slowly began to fade into the distance as they walked back to wherever they had come from.
It was only when Luke couldn't hear them that he finally began to relax.
For the first time since he had awoken after his death, he opened his eyes to the world that lay in front of him.
Looking towards the sky, two bright suns stared back, blinding the poor Luke into closing his eyes once more.
Taking a deep breath, he accepted the reality that stood in front of him. He had died and somehow reincarnated into another world.
The two suns which had blinded him just a few seconds ago, already proved he was no longer on earth.
The one thing that he was thankful for though, was that his mysterious gift had actually transferred over into whatever hell he stumbled upon.
Knowledge was in essence the crux of his gift; it allowed him to hear whispers of advice, truths, thoughts, events, and the future.
It was precisely due to this gift that he had managed to become the most influential person on earth by the time he reached his mid twenties.
Lottery numbers, government secrets, insider info those were all but a tiny fraction of what he was able to hear.
Knowledge was power, and he had used it to his utmost advantage. Though looking back he supposed none of it truly mattered in the end.
After all, despite how much power he had back on earth, at the current moment he was laying on a pile of corpses, battered and hurt.
But despite the fact he had died and been stripped of everything, he couldn't help but feel an ember of excitement flicker in his heart.
Having reached the pinnacle of power on earth, he had begun to feel bored missing the trials and tribulations that had tempered him on his journey to the top.
Now though, a whole new world of opportunities was laid out in front of him. It reignited the passion he had once lost.
Leaving his remarks on the past behind him, Luke stood up, no longer laying on the pile of corpses behind him.
Out of all the things he needed to do, the first was to get the hell away from these corpses.
For one he sure didn't want to be there when the designated collector arrived.