The Delusions

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In Processing, the largest soul terminus in existence, Edi faces a disciplinary after her incident at work. She has spent forty seven years in Admin, processing the newly dead, a version of eternity she never imagined for herself.

Arrivals are meant to move through the stages in order. First, extract delusion. Second, answer HR’s questionnaire truthfully. Yet the system depends on a kind of honesty that few can manage, and some may never pass at all. As leaderboard numbers begin rising at unprecedented rates, rumours spread. Humans are about to become a banned race. The earth is going to be repossessed.

Amid the growing chaos, Edi keeps hold of one private hope. She wants to see her son again, the child she was forced to leave on Earth when she died, and she wants to be the one waiting for him, even if HR protocols forbid it. Looking out at the millions arriving, she is left with a single question. What might any of us be willing to do for those we love at the doors of eternity.

Against stars, constellations and comets, a mass extinction event begins to unfurl, watched by the entire universe, as Processing decides it is time to take matters back into its own hands.