Resurrection. Do you know the word? Surely you do, its a common word, at least these days. But do you know its true meaning? Its power? Once I was a Christian young man, but that was before I died. My story begins long ago, and its contents elude my memory still. Probably because I died. I don’t think memories transfer over well after death. I know I was Christian because I was Reborn wearing a crucifix. The feeling I’ll never forget. Resurrection. All I remember is Darkness; for ages and ages, Darkness. But then, all was light, my body was molten, catalyzing my nerves to inflict the utmost amount of pain; yet all the same, ecstasy. The tumult was relentless, exponential. It invaded my soul and ripped my mind from the abyss. I was falling, upwards. I climbed and climbed and climbed, I rose until the force impressed upon me was unbearable, then it was before me. Blue. Nothing but blue. The pain was gone, replaced by heaviness. My veins pumped liquid iron to my bedrock muscles. The brightness was piercing, my eyes watering. But something shaded me. I couldn’t make out the silhouette, it looked like a child’s toy. “Hello?” It spoke. Whatever hovered above me spoke. “I know you’ve been dead a millennia, but get up already! My grandma moves faster than you.” My head moved side to side, fingers wiggled, toes curled. I had realized I was alive, yet did not believe it. The opaque blur of my vision dissipated, I observed my surroundings. I was leaned up against what remained of rusted old sedan. It was a wasteland. Not even the grass thrived. Plumes of it sprouted here and there, surrounded by their dead ancestors. A great wall jutted out to my side, looming over the junkyard of scrap I lay in. I rose my hands before my eyes—I was clothed? I looked down at my legs with a struggle to see it was not just my arms, obviously. I felt my head, it was covered by a firm helmet, yet it did not feel like I was wearing one. “Look, I know this is probably all very new to you, but we’ve got to hit fast-forward, okay? We’ve got Fallen on our backs.” Fallen? I strained to test my vocal chords, which were covered in dense mucus. “Who’s Fallen?” I asked. “He speaks! I was beginning to think I chose the wrong specimen.” I shook my head and began to attempt standing. “Look you’ve been dead for longer than anyone on Earth’s been alive, combined. So if you’ll come with me, I’ll fill you in as best I can.” I looked around for the voice but failed it find it. “Where are you? Where am I? I was dead?” The child’s toy reappeared in front of me. It was white, with a piercing blue eye. “Yes you were dead, I’m right here, you’re on Earth. Now can we get going?” I shuffled forward. “What are you? You look like something a child would play with at Sunday school.” The eye narrowed. It flew around me and began pushing me forward, towards a gaping hole in the wall some ways in front of me. “Don’t call me a toy again. I can just as easily leave you for the Fallen.” “What in the sam hell is a Fallen?” I broke out, refusing to walk further. An alien war cry filled the air, followed by three more. My head snapped to the horizon from whence it came. In the distance, I saw it. It was giant, four-armed, with a rifle as long as I am tall. It raised it in the air with a piercing shriek like a wolf in the wild. My body worked. My legs ran. My head turned back every couple steps to observe it. “Now you’ve got it! There’s Fallen! Go!” He disappeared before me into a blue smoke. “You’re just gonna abandon me?!” I cried as I made my way to the hole. “Don’t worry, I’m still with you. Run.” So I ran.