The building was scarred from battle but mostly intact. I made my way through it to the upper floors where the hostages were held. Something wasn’t right about the whole scenario, but I couldn’t identify what was out of place.
Until I reached the upper floors.
Where the hostages were going about their business as usual. The manager stepped out onto the floor and saw me.
“Who the hell are you, and why the hell are you creeping around like some super secret soldier?”
“Um. I’m here to rescue you?”
The manager watched me stand up and we stared at each other for a few seconds. She had a blood stain on her shirt. A large one. Too large. Too fresh. Nah…
“Another one? God damn. I would have thought that damn beacon’s batteries had died by now. Who sent you? Go back and tell them there’s nothing here. Wait. You see me.”
“Yea. And you have a hole in your chest.”
“Hey! Meet the new shit!” She yelled to the others on the floor. Programmers and mail runners stuck their heads out of cubicles and around corners.
“We haven’t had anyone new in… um… how long has it been?” A large man ambled up to me. He looked intact until he reached up for a bottle of champagne on the shelf. As he turned I saw the back of his head was missing. He was also missing half of his hand but didn’t recognize that. The bottle was knocked off and broke on the floor.
“Shit! That’s going to soak through! They’ll know something’s up!”
“Aww, shit. Yea. I hate it when they come up here. They’re still pissed so there’s going to be a lot of yelling.”
I heard footsteps and saw movement through the broken doors of the stairwell. Three armed men burst through. One of them was wet from something dripping from above.
“Hey! I thought we told you to knock off the… oh. It’s that girl. Hi. Are they throwing a party for you? You staying?”
“You… saw me?”
“Oh yea. You lit up our sensors like a firecracker! Haven’t seen anything living in a long while you know. You looked like you were having fun, so we just let ya be. Spooking one person gets old fast. Either they figure it out and continue ransacking for goods, or they run like hell. Now groups… that’s where the fun is!”
“You’re… dead.”
“Yea. We all are. But you can see us?”
I pulled the manager’s shirt aside. She was missing her lung and only a few strands of muscle remained of her heart. “All y’all dead.” Everyone nodded. “Oh. Okay.” I just accepted with as fact and relaxed.
Now everyone was staring at me in confusion. “Boo?”, said one of the hostage-takers.
I shook my head. “Sorry, guys. My bad. I was given bad information. I thought all y’all were still living and I was supposed to get the non-combatants out of here. Y’all bound to the building, I take it? I can cut ya loose if you want. Move on to the afterlife of your choice and shit.”
“Why would we leave?” “I finally got my coding done! I don’t wanna leave!” “You know what waits for me? Oblivion. I’m an atheist, there is no afterlife for me.” “Took me a year to realize I was dead, that’s how numbing my job is. I’m used to it now. I’m at peace. Why leave?”
No one wanted to leave. Not the hostage-takers, not the hostages. They had built up a nice little afterlife for themselves in the building and made a private slice of heaven. The hostage-takers took over the lower floors, along with those hostages that still wanted to play out the drama. Everyone else retreated to the upper floors where they continued their round-the-clock programming jobs.
“Because the building is going to be destroyed.” A round of denials and dismissals answered me. “This whole city, or what’s left is going to be razed.”
“It’s a monument to war. That’s what I heard. The last great battle was here.” “Who won?” “The worms.” “Ha!”
“Yea, well, public attention has moved on. The land was sold, at a premium. No one cares for monuments anymore. No one wants a physical reminder of what happened. The living has moved on, and wants to pretend they aren’t still as bloodthirsty and savage as what led all y’all to y’all deaths. Point being, this building, this whole area, is going to be destroyed, dug out, and paved over. If y’all are tied to this building, there’s no telling where y’all are going to wind up. Especially with y’all identities still wrapped up in this place.”
Hostage-taker and hostage alike looked at each other in concern. “But… this is all we know now…”
“There’s more. Out there. Beyond there. Just say the word, and I can open the door to let y’all through.”
“I’m staying! And I’ll kill the first bitch that tries to make me leave!” The leader of the hostage takers tried to slam his fist into a table for emphasis. His arm fell off. One of the programmers picked it up and helped him reattach it.
“That’s the thing! They won’t try! They won’t care! Nothing on their financial statements makes reckoning for the dead! They’ll just raze out this building from under you, and fuck all else! If anyone sees you and admits it, they’ll either be fired or medicated or both! The living does not reckon for the dead.”
One by one I looked at them. They either shook their head gently, or turned away from me. They muttered on about things that happened the day of their death. I knew I would not be able to force them.
I tried to make a beacon here for myself. So when the building was razed I would know and come to help the dislocated spirits move on. But each attempt failed. That’s when I noticed the electricity was still running. The city is dead, but the lights are on? I understood the nature of where I was at.
The building itself is a ghost. The building and the city were not scheduled to be razed. They had been destroyed long ago. The ghost of the building itself was holding the other spirits within it. It would have to be all or none.
“Ah. I get it now. Okay. I spoke wrong earlier, folks. You’re right. All y’all are in this together, and all y’all have to leave at once or none will leave at all.” I nodded in understanding. “You guys are at peace as you are now?”
“Yea!” “We have Reenactment Thursdays!” “Donuts and coffee on Tuesdays!” “It’s always Tuesday.” “I’m not complaining!” “Nothing hurts anymore and I don’t worry about shit anymore.”
“Okay. Then I’m leaving y’all as is. Have fun, guys.”
“She’s leaving?” “Yea, she’s living.” “But… ” “No. Let her go. We have code to finish.” “And I have a rifle to clean. Again!”
I made my way down to the entrance of the bombed out building. All the other ghosts were still upstairs having fun. I patted an exposed girder. “Sorry. I didn’t understand earlier. When you’re ready to give them up, call me.” I felt something tug on my trinket belt. A new key was added. I nodded, stepped through the shattered front door, and entered oblivion.