Getting trampled to death by a crash of rhinos was not the best way to go.

Eean Sampy didn't think about death much, but when he did, he always expected to die from old age or heroically saving a life. He didn't expect to be on a safari with his family for his seventeenth birthday or to fall out of the Jeep when the rhinoceros group scattered. He thought his death was going to be cooler, but no, he had to be squashed by five thousand pound beasts. It probably wouldn't look good on his resume to the afterlife.

His death happened so quickly. The last thing Eean ever saw was a giant gray foot coming down on his face and that was it. He could hear the horrified screams of his family for a second longer after the foot squashed his face. He would never get to see his friends again. Or ever drive a car again. Never get to smile or laugh again. Not even get into trouble again. And it was all taken away in a matter of seconds. He always took things like that for granted.

Eean opened his eyes. He was lying in a field of yellow flowers. The sky was a brilliant blue, there were no clouds, the sun was shining, and the air was the perfect temperature. This must be Heaven, he thought to himself as he stood up. Nothing ached or hurt, in fact he felt the best he'd ever felt in his life. Er, his previous life. He looked around and saw nothing but the field. I thought Heaven was supposed to have, um, more people. He began to walk around, searching for signs of life. He didn't see anything. Not even an animal.

"This might be a problem." Eean said to himself after a while.

Even if this was Heaven, he was still starting to feel hungry. And tired. And cold. And lonely. He desperately wanted to see someone. The lovely sun was starting to sink, adding where to sleep on Eean's long list of worries.

Lost and frightened, Eean made his way into a small patch of woods. It would provide cover for the night, and maybe protect him from whatever- if anything- lived out here. He could possibly find some edible berries. The idea of food stirred Eean into moving faster.

Eean jumped when he heard a low sound coming from the inside of the woods. He crouched, ready to run- or fight, of course. Inching behind a bush, Eean peered over the top to catch a glimpse of the creature. He let out a small gasp when he saw that the creature was, in fact, a person. It looked like a young man about Eean's age. He had caramel brown hair that hung over his eyes, and was tall and lanky. The boy was wearing a long sleeve tan t-shirt and long dark jeans. He was humming to himself and gathering branches in his arms.

The young man heard Eean's squeaking gasp and looked over at him. Eean's heart dropped when he noticed that the guy had bandages wrapped around his eyes. He noticed that the boy had bandages on his wrists, too. Eean was glad that he could not see the man's eyes because his gaze through the bandages was intimidating enough.

Eean stood, watching him warily. "Hello, can you help me?" He asked as non-threatening as he could.

The guy stared at him for a couple moments longer before dropping the sticks and letting out a shrill cry. He tried to hide behind a tree, which he failed at, probably because he couldn't see. Then he tried to get behind a bush, but he tripped on the sticks he dropped. When the hiding didn't work, he began trying to take the bandages off his eyes.

"Don't let him take off those bandages!" Someone cried from behind the panicking guy.

Out came a young woman about the same age as both of the young men, but maybe a little older. The girl had brown hair braided down her back and was a little taller than Eean. She grabbed the alarmed guy's hands and pulled them away from his eyes. "Lance, Lance, everything's fine. You're okay." The girl pulled the boy named Lance close and stroked his hair. He was shaking slightly.

Eean was petrified. He stood like a statue, wide eyes focused on both of the two in front of him. "Um..." he began awkwardly.

At that same time, three more people appeared: a very tall, thin guy with blond hair that was spiky and looked like it hadn't ever been brushed, a shorter, equally thin girl with long blonde hair and bangs, and another short girl who looked about fourteen with a dark brown ponytail and big blue eyes. They all appeared unnerved and worried.

Eventually the boy named Lance regained his composure and stood up straight again, but still trembled slightly. All six of the people there stared at each other in uncomfortable silence. The girl with the braid held Lance's hand tightly and sympathetically eyed Eean. The others glared, while the boy with the unruly blond hair had a mischievous smile tugging at his lips.

Eean cleared his throat. "Is this Heaven?"

The boy with the smile laughed. "No, this is Hell-" he answered, but was interrupted as the blonde girl beside him elbowed him in the ribs.

Lance shook and cowardly shifted behind the girl. The girl holding his hand grasped it with her other hand and shushed him. She looked at Eean again. "I wouldn't talk yet. Lance gets scared easily; it's not your fault. He had an accident in his previous life that left him blind. He's jumpy now." She patted Lance's back. "I'll explain,"

Eean just nodded and swallowed nervously.

"We're all dead." The braided hair girl said. "I'm Olivia, and this is Lance. The boy who rudely answered your question-" she glared at the blond hair guy- "is Charley. The girl who elbowed him is Greyce. They're twins, if you couldn't tell. And the last girl is named Jodi." Olivia waved a hand at each of them as she called their names. Everyone just smiled or did nothing when they were introduced, but Charley shot Eean some finger guns as he was named.

Eean waved slightly. "Hi." He said plainly. "I'm Eean. Um, where are we?" He asked Olivia.

Lance flinched and Olivia shrugged. "I got here six years ago. I died at eighteen, and as far as I can tell, I haven't aged at all since I made it here. Lance came along two years after me. Then three years after him, it was Jodi, and then Greyce and Charley a year after her. Now you're here ten months after the twins." Olivia scratched her arm with her available hand. "No one has aged, and nothing has really changed. We've had to survive by building a home, making food, and defending ourselves against the weird creatures that come out at night." She looked up at the moon that was beginning to rise. "Speaking of night, we better get inside. You're one of us now, Eean, so starting tomorrow you're going to have to help us make it around here. You'll probably help Charley with reinforcing the house and defenses. But that can wait until the morning. We must go." She turned and let go of Lance's hand. He seemed fine with it. Olivia started off in the opposite direction in which Eean startled Lance. Everyone followed suite and Lance also followed without any issues. Eean filed in behind Lance, but stayed a respectful distance away, in case he frightened him again.

Eean was still trying to take in all the information. It was all too much and they were moving way too fast. If this wasn't Heaven or Hell, then where were they? And why weren't there any more people than the five he just met?

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice when Charley fell back to talk with him. "Look, we know about as much as you do about this place." He began and Eean jumped a little. "The only thing we know is that this is our home now, and we have to do our best to survive out here."

Eean turned to him. Charley's green eyes were sympathetic but they had a twinkle in them that wouldn't go away. "But if we're already dead, then why do we have to try so hard to survive?" Eean asked as he kicked a small stick.

Charley sighed and looked ahead at his friends' backs. He stuck his hands in his pockets. "That I don't know." He replied. "But Olivia thinks that we were given a second chance at life. The thing about that is that if we are in fact alive again, where are we? Why are we here? Where's everyone else? And it bugs us even more to know that we probably aren't ever going to get an answer."

Eean glanced up at Charley. "I don't like this." Yawning, he looked up at the rising moon. "I just wanted to end up in Heaven after I died! I didn't ask for this!" He scowled and closed his eyes.

Charley laughed bitterly. "And you think we did? We're in the same boat as you, floating down the same river. We're just trying to make it through every day, hoping something's gonna change and our lives are going to get better. It hasn't happened yet, but we can't lose hope. Losing hope is deciding that we don't want to live anymore." He stated straight ahead, his Adam Apple working its way up and down as he spoke.

There was something that still bugged Eean. "If we're living again, doesn't that mean we can die again too?"

Charley just nodded. "No one has, but we think it's possible. Some of us have gotten injured, so we think we can die."

Eean swallowed. "How'd you guys get injured?"

"The Night Cats,"

"What?"

"The things that come out at night and–"

There was a loud rustling up ahead and someone screamed. Probably Jodi or Olivia. Charley and Eean looked at each other, alarmed.

"Run! Run home and grab weapons! The Cats found us!" Olivia shrieked over a loud hissing noise. She gave an outraged howl and the hissing was cut off.

Charley reacted before Eean did. He ran away from the sound, going right. Eean tore through the woods after him. "Where are we going?" He called out.

Charley didn't answer, but kept running. Eventually, they emerged from the forest and into a field. In the middle of the field, a small wooden house was sitting. A small garden was planted next to it. Charley sprinted across the field, not stopping even after he stumbled in a hole. Eean followed a little bit slower, but stopped when he saw another, bigger shape hurtling across the field toward Charley.

"Charley!" Eean yelled. "Behind you!"

Charley turned a bit too late, and was knocked to the ground by the large animal. It was making a hissing sound similar to the sound in the woods. Pinned between the ground and the creature, Charley dodged the animal's snarls and bites. Eean panicked, not knowing what he should do.

"Hey, newbie!" One of the girls from earlier hollered at Eean. Eean turned and saw the shorter, younger girl with brown hair in the ponytail. Eean thought her name was Josie or Jodi or something like that. She was running at Eean and Charley with two spears in one hand, and a shovel in the other. "Catch!" She threw the shovel at Eean's feet and continued toward Charley and the creature.

Eean picked up the shovel, not knowing what she wanted him to do with it. "Attack the creature, bozo!" She cried. Sticking one of the spears in the animal, the creature made a horrible hissing sound and reared up, knocking the girl– Jodi, Eean realized –to the ground. Charley rolled out of the way and took the other spear that Jodi dropped. Charley charged the animal too as Jodi got up. Eean stood there watching, but then decided to run at the creature too. He didn't know what good a shovel would do though. But when he made it to the creature, it gave off a horrible shriek and flopped to the ground. Eean then saw a spear sticking out of its neck, dark green blood pooling out. Jodi was standing behind it, panting and sweating. She was covered in her blood and the dark green of the creature's. Charley was on the right side of her, picking up his spear. He didn't look much better than Jodi, and was just as dirty. He coughed and stared at the body, wiping the blood off his face with the back of his hand. The other hand was holding the spear.

"W-what was that thing?" Eean asked shakily, still holding the shovel.

Jodi cleared her throat and bent down to inspect the creature. "One of the Cats." She said gravely. "Apparently they're carnivorous, and will eat any type of meat, but prefer to eat us." She messed with the Cat's pointy, scaly ears. "Luckily they always go hungry when trying to attack us." She sighed and stood up, brushing herself off. "Let's go find the others." Grabbing her spear, she set off towards the woods they came out of earlier. Eean and Charley followed.

Eean looked at Charley, who still appeared grim, but his eyes were twinkling. "Next time, try to be more useful with the shovel," he told Eean, who wasn't sure if he was serious or not. Eean only nodded.

Silently, they made it back to where they left off. Olivia was there, checking on Greyce, who looked unharmed but dirty, and comforting Lance, who was trembling.

"He never knows what's going on." Charley whispered to Eean, who was staring at Lance. "He can't see so I understand why he's scared all the time."

"But why-" Eean murmured back, but was interrupted as Charley shook his head.

"I'll answer all your questions tomorrow." He muttered and Eean turned back to the others. He wasn't surprised to see that they didn't look shocked about the Cats and their attacks. They walked back together to the field where the house was, and Eean let his thoughts wander. Why were they the only ones here? Where was everyone else? Why were they here? It was all too confusing and he desperately wanted answers. And if the others were here for longer than Eean was, then they desperately wanted answers too.

Olivia opened the door to the small house, leading a curious Eean and the others inside. The house was bigger on the inside than the outside. When they walked through the door, they ended up in a small lounge area with stools and a table. A door to the right brought them into a compact kitchen, with cabinets and a small dinner table. A door to the left of the lounge led to the bathroom that had a shower and a toilet. In the back of the lounge, two doors that were side by side opened to reveal two identical rooms. The left bedroom looked more girly than the right bedroom. Overall, the house was definitely no mansion, but a place to sleep was good enough for the group.

"I'm going to sleep," Greyce yawned, heading straight to the left bedroom door. She waved slightly without looking back. "See everyone bright and early."

Jodi and Olivia quickly followed in pursuit. "Eean, you're going to sleep in the same room as Charley and Lance. They can help you settle in. You better sleep good because we're getting up at dawn to begin the day's chores!" Olivia smiled and closed the door behind her.

Soon it was just Charley, Lance, and Eean together standing awkwardly. Eean didn't know what to say, and he didn't want to say anything he would regret. Plus, Lance was staring at Eean, perhaps unintentionally, and it was creeping him out.

Charley cleared his throat, bringing Lance out of his trance and made Eean thank him for getting Lance's bandaged eyes off him. "Let's go into the room and sleep. Eean, you can have my bed until we can make yours." He opened the door with a creak and disappeared into the darkness that was only illuminated by the moonlight coming through a small window. Lance followed slowly and precisely, leaving Eean wondering how long it took him to memorize the house's pattern.

The inside of the room wasn't very impressive. Just a bed on each opposite wall and a window on the far wall. Each bed had a Chester drawer by it with not much on top except a candle on each. Eean surveyed the room and found where Charley patted the bed farthest on the right. "This is mine. Here, go to sleep. I'll take the floor." He grabbed a blanket from his bed and sprawled out on the floor.

Eean swallowed nervously and sat down on his given bed, glancing out the window at the starry night. He missed home and his old life. He wanted it back. Why did he have to die so early? And to be sent here of all places? God must have really dealt him a bad hand, and God was playing poker with him. Did he even do anything to deserve this? Did the others do something bad? All of these questions were burning holes into Eean's mind, leaving no room for anything else. Whatever the case, he was going to have to help everyone else survive out here. But how long would they have to keep living their second lives? Olivia said that she and the others hadn't aged since they got here. Would they live forever here in this wasteland? Eean sighed silently and tried to calm his racing mind. He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of Charley's snores and Lance's small and quick breaths.

"Goodnight, Eean,"

It was barely a whisper, but Eean definitely heard it. It wasn't Charley because he was asleep. Could it have been his old family letting him know they were still here? He smiled at the thought and tried to steady his breathing.

But it could've also been Lance.

AN: Sorry this is kinda long lol 🥲 but if y'all have any suggestions I'm always open!