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Immortality

December 11th, 2009 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #

  You often see movies or books about people who can never die, but usually they also heal super fast from any wound or injury.  Just a thought on my end, but what if you can never die, but you heal at a normal rate?

  The scary part about this is that the normal person can relate since no fast healing is involved.  The person in the character is essentially still conscious no matter what happens.  What’s to say this doesn’t occur in real life? Obviously you can’t heal from everything or live forever, but what’s to say your consciousness doesn’t continue drift along out there?

  It probably wouldn’t work that well as a film because you can’t show the inside of someone’s mind (supposing you take a first person perspective).  From an outside observer though, that might work.  Ideally, a book would work better so you can see the main character’s thoughts.

  The story would probably go something like this:

  An ordinary everyday person, Tom, is involved in a freak accident (sky diving?) in which he is the lone survivor.  Tom is confused about why he is the only one to survive and is left in a crippled state.  Over a few years, however, he begins to recover and regain full functions of his body.  He considers himself lucky and the media calls it a miracle recovery.
  Tom meets new friends and associates, but he also makes new enemies.  He eventually incurs the jealousy of one fellow, Jacob, who sets out to ruin him.  A staged accident is set up in which Tom and his new friends are fatally hit by an automobile.  Tom is again the lone survivor and remains conscious long enough to see Jacob at the scene.  When Tom wakes up, he is in a body bag and apparently everyone thinks he’s dead.  It isn’t until they are preparing him for his funeral that someone realizes he is still alive.  They check his pulse and say they must have missed it when they checked during the accident.  Tom is not as badly injured as during the beginning of the story and recovers fully within the year.
  At this point, Tom tries to take revenge on Jacob (to which no one believes is the murderer).  One night, Tom stages a trap at Jacob’s home (Jacob lives alone) and meets Jacob face-to-face.  Jacob tries to explain that he was jealous of Tom but not enough to commit murder.  There is a moment where even the audience wonders whether Tom imagined the whole issue and whether it was just another freak accident.  Tom doesn’t believe him and is about to attack him, but Jacob pulls out a gun from behind his back and shoots Tom in the heart.  Tom collapses and Jacob panics at what he’s done (perhaps he was telling the truth about not being a murderer).  Tom, however, realizes he can still think and rationalize, although his body cannot move.
  Everyone thinks he’s dead until the bullet is extracted from his heart and it starts beating again, despite being wounded.  They keep him alive, thinking he’s in a vegetable state, but Tom recovers after a while.  Jacob is still around and had claimed self-defense, that Tom was crazy.  Tom sets out to kill Jacob again and finally succeeds by killing Jacob with the same gun used on him.  Tom himself becomes freaked out over what he’s done.  He tries to remove the bullet from Jacob, thinking Jacob would recover the same way, but Jacob is dead.
  Over time, Tom realizes he cannot die, although he can be hurt.  He becomes very influential and wealthy but also corrupt over the illusion that he is all-powerful.  The point-of-view of the story then shifts to an outsider victimized by Tom’s schemes (family cheated or reduced to financial ruin).  The outsider we see is very innocent in nearly every way, trying to negotiate at first with Tom to no effect.  Tom’s schemes get worse and worse, causing the outsider to lose loved ones, to which the outsider snaps and sets out for revenge.  The outsider eventually tries to kill Tom, cornering Tom alone in his office.  Tom laughs it off, thinking he cannot die.  The outsider impales Tom with a knife, thinking Tom is fatally wounded.  Tom collapses on the floor and begs the outsider to call an ambulence, claiming he is sorry for everything; the outsider regrets the act but claims Tom brought this on himself.  However, we see the outsider beginning to lose confidence and regret killing Tom.
  At this point, it appears that Tom has figured out how to move no matter how injured his body is.  Tom removes the knife from his chest, and still bleeding, he tries to kill the outsider, who panics.   Tom appears deranged as he pursues the outsider, and the outsider does everything to try and immobilize Tom.  Yet, Tom keeps pursuing the outsider no matter how injured he gets.  Tom nearly resembles a zombie at one point, in that he continues to move despite being heavily injured.  The outsider has clearly gone crazy and attacks Tom in more and more over-the-top fashions.  When Tom loses most of his limbs and the outsider continues to attack him, Tom begins to realize he isn’t invincible afterall, but it is too late and Tom loses his head after it is crushed, and his remains are disposed at a waste site never to be found.
  Yet, Tom is still conscious and even he doesn’t understand how.  He is still alive despite being virtually crushed to bits.  It takes him centuries to recover but he does eventually regenerate his entire body.  Over this agonizingly long period of time, he starts out loathing everyone else but eventually misses the old life he had towards the beginning of the story.  He starts regretting everything he’s done and all that’s happened to him.  Once he fully recovers, he essentially tries to start a new, virtuous life.

  The story could continue with him trying to avoid the temptations for power that he experienced in his past and the effects of him outliving all his friends and family.  However, maybe that can play in as a sequel or something - who knows? I think the story before that is interesting enough on its own. :P

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