Dead not dead

"I've done good work." Nathan coughed out the words, his voice gurgling on seas of unseen phlem.

"You have, love. You have." Vicky squeezed the dying man's hand.

"Then why cry?" He said it to his wife, to the room and to the world.

"For me, love. I will miss you. I cry for my own loss. For our children's loss and for your friends loss... for us. Not because of business unfinished." She smiled and touched his face.

Nathan lost consciousness and did not wake again. Instead, in his fevered dreams, he saw a black cord stretching into infinity and heard a voice he did not recognize.

"Dude! How was it? Can you hear me, man? How was it?" A young man dressed in orange and black looked expectantly at him.

He looked down and saw his own young body. It hit him. He was 23 years old again - or rather always had been 23 years old and his name was Demetrius. He was still alive. He was not Nathan and he had not just died. He turned at looked at the sim-bed from which he had just arisen. A primal holler of joy flew from his throat.

"Fuck yeah! I'm not dead." Demetrius gave Austin (the previously unknown man in orange and black) a whallop of a high five. "That is the most awesome thing ever!"

Austin blinked. "Which part, man?"

"Dying and then not being dead." He cackled. "That, my friend, is a fucking amazing thing."