John Lindqvist - Handling The Undead

Who will want to be cremated then?

Radio

[From Morning Echo 06.00]

According to military sources this morning, there are around one hundred and fifty graves left to be opened. All of Stockholm's cemeteries will, however, remain closed to the public for the rest of the day…

Twelve people are still missing. In three of the cases, the graves have been found dug up, and the deceased removed…

Press conference currently underway in the Stockholm parliamentary building…

[From Morning Echo 07.00]

Family members of the reliving have gathered outside Danderyd Hospital. Head physician Sten Bergwall tells an Echo reporter that at present they cannot allow visitors.

'We still don't know enough. The reliving have been isolated but are receiving the best possible care. As soon as the situation is considered safe we will let in visitors. That could be today, that could be in one week.'…

…from the press conference just ended:

Minister of Social Affairs: At the parliamentary meeting this evening we have decided to prohibit all burials and cremations for an indeterminate amount of time. The four people who have passed away in the Stockholm area during the night have admittedly not shown any signs of awakening, but…

Journalist: Is there room to store so many bodies?

Minister: Yes, for the moment at least. The morgues have never been this empty.

Journalist: But down the track?

Minister: Down the track… we will have to think of something. As you can imagine, there is quite a lot that must be… thought of in this kind of situation.

… the police have now found two of the reliving who were missing. In both cases, family members had concealed them in their

homes…

[From Morning Echo 08.00]

Staff at Danderyd Hospital with whom Echo news teams have spoken say that the situation has been chaotic throughout the night. In certain wards cooperation has been impossible.

At a crisis meeting earlier this morning it was decided that staff from all wards would be shifted around in order to offset further conflicts…

Even military sources report certain phenomena breaking out in cases of direct contact with large gatherings of the reliving…

Sten Bergwall discusses the practical difficulties of caring for

the reliving, particularly those who have been retrieved from the ground, 'Well, technically they are dead, with all the resulting consequences for the human organism. In order to put this more simply, we have had people here all night with equipment in order to change our ordinary rooms to cold storage… on ethical grounds we would rather not use the morgue, but… we are talking of close to two thousand people… '

The funeral home Fonus says that they will naturally comply with the government's recommendations, but they request a swift notification on technical grounds…

Television

[TV4 morning news 08.30]

In the studio: STEN BERGWALL (SB), head physician at

Danderyd. JOHAN STENBERG US), Colonel. RUNO

SAHLIN (RS), PhD in Parapsychology.

Interviewer: If we could start with practical matters. How many reliving are currently at Danderyd?

SB: One thousand nine hundred and sixty-two. A few more may have been admitted as we are sitting here.

Int: From what I've heard there have been several reliving who have… died again during the night.

SB: That is correct.

Int: Do we know why?

SB: Not really, no. But primarily this involves a few reliving who were… in a very bad state to begin with.

Int: How do you know they've died?

SB: [ smiling ] I could say 'you just know' because that is the case, but more concretely there is a certain… electrical activity in the cerebral cortex that can be measured with an EEG, and when this ceases, there is death. According to current definitions. And the EEG that has been taken on the reliving shows that a certain rudimentary brain function has restarted.

Int:]ohan Stenberg, there has been talk of telepathic phenomena?

JS: Yes.

Int: Is it true that those of you who have been in direct contact with the reliving have been able to read their thoughts?

JS: No, the phenomena that have been reported have exclusively involved the living.

Int: Can you tell me about the conflicts that have broken out?

[JB looks at SB, passing the question over to him.]

SB: Well, I don't know what has occurred at the cemeteries, but it is true that we have experienced some… differences of opinion at the hospital.

Int: Because you've been able to read each other's thoughts?

SB: There are conflicts in all staff teams and in a stressful situation they have a tendency to come to the fore. We have no reliable evidence that it really is… mind-reading that is the basis for this.

Int: Runo Sahlin…

RS: I think it's remarkable to see two grown people deny evident facts only because it happens not to fit their world view, and the facts are as follows: when a large group of the reliving assembles a kind of force field arises that makes it possible for people around them to read each other's thoughts. I have been to Danderyd myself and experienced this.

Int: Sten Bergwall. How do you explain this?

SB: [ sighing ] The electrical activity in their brains… the amplitude is at most half a microvolt and the frequency of the alpha waves alternates between one and two Hertz. The frequency can therefore be compared to that of a newborn and the amplitude, that is, the strength of the electric current, is so weak that… what would be the comparison? Someone who is going to die in a few seconds. That weak.

RS: You're trying to explain this field not by the fact that their electrical activity is so strong, but that it's so weak?

SB: What I'm saying is that we have never seen patterns like this

in living, fully grown humans. It is not impossible that certain kinds of… side effects could arise. We are still waiting for the RMV's results in order to be able to say anything about how it is biologically possible that these bodies can live. [ Sarcastically, to RS ] But maybe you already have an explanation?

RS: Yes. I think their souls have returned. [ Laughing ] If I had been sitting here yesterday morning, telling you that 'tonight the dead will awaken in their graves' I think you would regard me as not simply-ridiculous but completely off my rocker. The idea of the soul is ancient and is still cherished by many. There is evidence for the possibility of thought transmission…

SB: Evidence.

RS: Weak, I admit. But it is a possibility. It is not completely out of the question. As opposed to, say, the dead coming back to life. That is impossible. Well. And now they have come back to life. And yet you still regard telepathy and the existence of the soul as an absurdity.

Int: Johan Stenberg, what do you say about all this?

JS: I don't believe it is the role of the military to speculate in questions of theology. [ Looks at RS ] There are others better qualified.

RS: Well, then. If there is a soul it would consist of energy. Some form of energy. The source of this field-which we have all experienced-can't be traced to the brain. No. Why not accept the existence of something outside the body that nonetheless belongs to the body, a transcendent substance that…

JS: Forgive a simple soldier, but I have never heard that the soul is located anywhere but inside the body.

RS: When we're alive, yes. But it's accepted that the brain is functioning in a hitherto unknown way in this… state of reliving. Why couldn't the same be true of the soul? If a large number of souls were hovering, so to speak, outside their bodies, could that not give rise to… how can I put this…