It sent a shiver up my spine just thinking about it. I could still feel the cold and the fear that seeped beneith my skin, it lingered.

"So how exactly did you escape?" The question came from a young military psychologist sitting across from me in a small "interrogation" room within a makeshift base that had been setup on the perimeter of the city, the City of Death. She briefly looked up from her notes at me while I tried to formulate an answer. I tried to remember, but everything was so hazy and I couldn't tell what was a dream and what was real.

"I... I'm not sure. My memories are all jumbled up and I can't remember much of anything. How long did you say I was in there?"

"Two weeks, give or take. We don't know exact timing, but based on reports of your disappearance, where you vanished from, up to when you were found here on the outskirts, two weeks is our best estimate." She responded. I squirmed in my seat. No one has ever come out of the City of Death and survived, and in the few instances someone came back, even after just an hour, they were decaying at such a rapid rate that by the time they got to a med tent, they basically turned to ash.

"There's no way!" I proclaimed. "We both know what happens to people that enter the City, most never come back and those that do, turn to ash." My mind was racing, "how is it that I was in there for two weeks and now I am back on the outside and there isn't a scratch on me?!"

"That's what we would like to know." She said matter-of-factly. "This is unprecedented and we would like to know everything that you can remember." She had stopped burying her face in her notes and was looking at me intently, rather, she was visually examining me from head to toe. I felt a bit uncomfortable at her intent gaze, but knew she was just trying to help, as far as I knew.

A researcher accompanied by two armed guards knocked on the door and the psychologist motioned for them to enter. The researcher and guards entered and the first thing I noticed was the guards were not the usual mobile base guards, these were the type that were sent to transport highly classified information or informants and typically came from the Green Beret or SEALs or other spec op/black op backgrounds, something very very serious was going on. The researcher handed the psychologist the documents while the guards were on edge and hyper-vigilant. After a few minutes the psychologist closed the documents and handed it back to the researcher and motioned for them to leave. The researcher stepped back towards the door and one of the guards stepped forward to the psycologist and held out a firearm. What the fuck was happening right now?! The psycologist motioned to her own firearm in a shoulder holster and the guard withdrew. Both guards and the researcher stepped to the edge of the room near the door, but where not exiting, all of them had their gazes intently fixed on me.

"I'm sorry Leutenant Fenn." She said to me with an emotion in her voice that I could not pinpoint. She quickly unholstered her firearm and shot three times. I reeled backwards in my chair and my head hit the ground hard. Everything was quickly becoming hazy and I looked down to see 3 bullet holes in a tight grouping in my chest, kill shots to the heart.

_'how come I am still conscious?'_ I wondered to myself. I tried to move my body but was unable to, the world around me was hazy and permeated a black mist. I tried to yell, but nothing came out, what was happening?! I then started to hear voices.

"I'll take care of it from here." It was the psychologist, she was in the room, I could see her back to me as she was speaking with the researcher and two guards. The researcher and two guards soon left and I could see the psychologist checking the door, then quickly grabbing a gurney and setting it down next to me. She kneeled down and looked into my eyes. "Good, looks like you're still with me. We need to get you out of here pronto, so be a good boy and play dead. If you start to feel anything come back, do not move, we need them to think I terminated you." She shuffled my body onto the gurney and placed a sheet over me.

I don't know how long it took, but there was a myriad of corridors we went down and it seemed like in every one of them, someone needed to lift the sheet and look at the dead, me. I could slowly start to sense feeling coming back and I fought as hard as I could to just stay still like she asked. We eventually reached an outside area and I was quickly placed in the back of an ambulance and I could hear muffled sounds of the psychologist speaking with some people. It seemed like the discussion was getting heated, but then shortly after trailed off and someone got into the front of the ambulance, turned the ignition and drove off. I didn't know if it was safe yet, but I had expended so much energy trying not to move, that I was completely exhausted and lost consciousness.

I was awoken to the ambulance travelling down a bumpy dirt road and out of force of habit started to stretch when I quickly remembered what was happening. "Ah, good, you're awake." I heard her voice ring out next to me. She pulled down the sheet that was covering me revealing the interior of the ambulance and her smile as she was leaning over me. "It's okay, you can move now, though it might be a little unusual after getting shot in the heart." I started to sit up and could feel a very strange sensation in my chest, but there was no pain.

"Uh... What is happening? How come I am still alive?" I questioned as I began moving and stretching my body.

"Short answer, the Devil." She replied.

"The What?!" I exclaimed.

"Longer answer: you have been chosen by the Devil based on your unique constitution and skills to help with some work that needs to be done here on the mortal plane."

TBC