The pain stopped.

Thomas, fully aware of what happened, expected darkness and judgement. Something. Instead, he stood beside the hospital bed as nurses covered his body. His wife wept silently while his son stared at the floor. He felt for them, but knew they were now released.

Someone touched his shoulder. A small woman in a grey coat stood beside him.

"First day?"

He nodded.

She smiled kindly and pointed through the window. Beyond it stretched a city so vast its edges blurred, crowded with the countless dead moving between towers of light.

"Come on," she said. "Orientation starts soon."