... am I dead?
… am I dead?
Peter Hunter
… a white flash from the pistol's muzzle pierced my consciousness before the burning pain of the bullet entering my body…
… the percussive explosion numbed my hearing…
Not - surprising, as light travels faster than a bullet - and that in turn is faster than sound…
… but from a gun only a few feet away - three, almost simultaneous events… so why had my brain miraculously separated them…
… an ultra-sense… only released at the moment of death?
But was I dead - I could not move or feel anymore…
… could not see or speak - neither could I hear, but I could think… believe… a form of consciousness not aided by the use of my senses and certainly not capable of communicating to anyone that I was anything other than dead…
… active brain - inactive body.
With my body signalling death and my brain telling me I was still alive I had a hell of a problem - and I wondered if it was unique, could it be… could it have happened to others?
Nothing I had ever thought of, had prepared me for this. Many are the times I had pondered my eventual method of going - what I preferred if I had a choice of execution. Hanging… too prone to a bodge. Electric chair… I did not relish my last memory the smell of my own roasting flesh…
… accident, illness…
… but all the those and the others seemed too slow… and I dreaded the realisation. Once I had been near to drowning and I had not found it at all pleasant…
… no, shooting. Preferably when I did not know or see the event coming - shooting would be my choice… but now it happened …
… dead - but not brain dead…
this I had not bargained for…
End
© Peter Hunter 2012
Peter Hunter's full-length thrillers are available on Kindle
