1 Dying For a Job

Death. It's not a foreign concept, with all of us having felt the inevitability of death in some form or the other. All beings die, but we humans keep going through our lives and schedules as if we are free from this inevitability. Something which never ceases to amaze me.

I was a prudent man (at least, I thought so) who turned 20 a few weeks ago. Alexander 'Alex' Crawford, an athlete, a certified gamer, reader of web novels and fiction books. After a trip to the mart for groceries, I came across a woman distributing pamphlets. Going through it casually, I was surprised for it was job recruitment offer with the weirdest job profile:

[Company: M.Q.A.

Job Title: ID Quester

Location: Multiple Locations

Terms: Full Time

Salary: Minimum- twice the normal industry level, rest performance based

Requirements: Adaptability to any situation

To apply for the same, sign below and return it to the woman distributing the pamphlet]

To say I was weirded would be an understatement, but to satisfy my awakened curiosity, and for no reason other than the morbid fascination regarding the existence of a job with such requirements, or rather the level of insanity or sense of humor which the person responsible for this prank would require, or the amount of effort that person put into this prank, how elaborate this scheme was; for no other reason, I signed that sheet of paper and returned the same to that woman, and looked at her in expectation, thinking that there would be something more to it, looking around for cameras or people recording it for laughs.

But, there was nothing. That woman simply accepted that piece of paper with a smile.

"That's it? What about the job? How would you contact me?" I asked with skepticism coloring my tone and mischievousness in my eyes, sure to make this participant of the prank at least feel a bit embarrassed for choosing me as a target for this prank.

This woman, who could by described as completely ordinary, the one whose face would be lost in a crowd, looked me straight in the eyes, and replied," We already have all that we need. Your consent was the only thing that we needed." The woman's eyes now held a tinge of regret and pity, as she continued," Your sacrifice will be remembered. You will be contacted soon." The woman who was originally no different from any person, suddenly changed. There was no physical or visible change, but he changed in some enigmatic way, one moment I was talking to a fellow man, but the next moment, I was talking to … God.

Now, I have no interest in being forced to participate in frankly pointless discussions about existence of God or Gods or superiority of one Religion over the other. Each to their own belief, and all that. Now, the reason I called her a God, was because of her presence. She began excluding a pressure, it was as if I was facing an existence which deserved my absolute devotion, and each cell in my body bowing down in reverence; as if I had run a marathon and was struggling to breathe. There was no malice, no anger or any ill-intent in her gaze but the force itself was so strong, so all-encompassing that it felt inevitable. All this happened in a single moment, a Goddess now and an ordinary woman a blink later.

After saying her piece, she left without giving me a second glance, leaving me stupefied in a trance, with my heart beating non-stop and my back covered in cold sweat.

An indefinite time later, I roused myself from my stupor and looked around for that woman, decidedly scared and creeped out by her gaze and words, trying to get some clarity but no luck seeing her again.

'As if she disappeared into thin air'-a treacherous part of my mind whispered, but I suppressed it while suppressing the shudder which seemed to pass through my body at this thought. Walking down the alleys had never been such a strenuous task, the same locality he had been living for about two decades, but now each alley seemed treacherous, the usually docile shadows now seemed to house horrors, with each of them eying me as prey.

After an apprehensive journey back, I could see my house just across the road. Even now, my nerves were still tense, with my instincts ringing that things were not as simple as they seemed.

You know, I actually did not believe in fate, destiny, or the works. Rather than saying I didn't believe, it's more like I had never given it much thought for it seemed more of a thing used to blame stuff on, something to justify your regrets with. But after meeting that lady, and signing that slip of paper, I started believing in Fate. Why? Because somehow, I knew, that after signing that sheet of paper, the trajectory of my Fate changed, and because of one impulsive decision, I was Fated to die tonight.

I would have looked like a fool to a passerby, standing near the corner of the street outside a closed down shop, looking around agitatedly as if waiting something to jump me when I was distracted. Well, my patience bore fruit when I saw what were unmistakably headlight of a truck rushing perfectly in my direction. Too dark to make out the drivers face, the vehicle approaching too rapidly to make a well thought decision, I trusted my instincts and rapidly rushed towards the closed shop, circling around the showcase and ran straight to the back door. Now, this used to be a thrift shop, selling random bits but was currently closed for the owner had some medical issue and was hospitalized. The matter of importance here was that there was a hidden back door, or rather a second entrance which was surrounded by concrete walls forming some decoration, also used to store some steel beams and some heavy items.

The path here was narrow, and in no way would the truck be able to get me here. Thinking that it was a perfectly feasible plan of action, I kept my panic aside and mechanically carried out my plan. I would be lying if I said I was calm and composed, for it was but a normal thing for me to survive such things. No, my heart was hammering in its cage, I was a nervous wreck, with my palms sweaty and legs trembling. I stood there, motionless, waiting for the impact of the truck hitting the walls, and so did the impact arrive. I thought that this would be enough to stop the truck, but apparently it wasn't enough. Well, technically those walls did stop the truck, but what they couldn't stop was the petrol or diesel or whatever inflammable liquid it was carrying, which managed to escape its confines and rushed to the space created due to the crash, which was also a place which naturally had an incline.

Yes, you guessed it right. The inflammable liquid rushed down to the area where I lay banged up due to the impact which managed to launch debris all around the place, harming the only human present at the scene, which was me. I was banged up, not seriously enough to kill me but enough to be temporarily unable to move. I would have survived, had the liquid not rushed into that area I was laying in, drowning me. I would have drowned, if the crashed truck had not exploded, lighting up the cargo it had been carrying, which had by now doused the entire place, burning me while I was drowning. So, I died by drowning, which later turned into death by immolation.

I didn't suffer much, but even while dying, I still had only one thought in my mind 'At least I went out with a bang'

With this thought in mind, as I lost my senses, feeling the grasp of death and about to give in, the pain stopped and a blue screen flashed in my eyes.