Upcoming Novel Release "No One Dies": First Two Chapters
Release date: October 21, 2026
I’m happy to announce that my latest novel will be released in October.
No One Dies is a book I’ve been working on for over five years. It follows the protagonist, Ethan Trask, a tech company founder who invents immortality, as his invention unravels both society and his own psyche.
It’s a deeply philosophical book that’s meant to examine the nature of how a person becomes evil despite their best intentions.
Without further ado, here are the first two chapters so you can decide for yourself if it sounds like something you’d enjoy reading.
If you end up liking it, I’d be grateful if you preorder it on Amazon. Right now only the e-book edition is available for preorder. The print version will be available on release day.
No One Dies
“The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.”
- Karl Popper
Book I: The Idealist
“I think I’m becoming a god.”
- Last words of Vespasian, 79 AD
Chapter 1
Life #1
Ethan Trask couldn’t take his eyes off the dead body.
So this is the first person NeuroConnect will bring back to life.
He had been dreaming about this moment ever since his wife and daughter had died. As he stood staring at the body he remembered the exact second, standing there on the side of the road, when he had learned that they were gone forever. Death was a cruelty that nature inflicted on the living above all. If he had anything to say about it (and he did), he would make it so that no one ever felt the pain of watching their loved ones die ever again.
The woman was on her back, her eyes closed. She looked young. Too young.
“How old is she?” Ethan said.
Mia, the technician, swiveled around to face him. She looked down at a tablet in her hand. “Twenty-two.”
Like everyone else who had participated in the memory upload portion of the trial, the young woman had been paid. What had she needed the money for? College tuition? A down payment on a house? Building up a nest egg? At her age, finances (like all other big decisions) revolved around future plans. The future and their own existence in it is a concept that all young people inherently believe is inevitable.
Most people refused to accept the reality of their own deaths. Sure, if you asked them, they would agree that they would die one day. But they always imagined that the so-called one day was so far off into the future that it was almost hypothetical. The majority already lived their lives as if they were immortal, no new technology required. How many days had this woman wasted, thinking that she had all the time in the world?
Now she was dead, and Ethan was about to find out whether it was possible to revive her. The whole world was about to find out.
Ethan moved his thumb to the side of the screen on the tablet and scrolled back up to the top. He looked at the name in bold letters above the smiling photo.
Melissa Vera.
Ethan committed the name to memory. For better or worse, he was conscious of the fact that he was living through an important moment and he didn’t want to let a single detail slip away. Whether he would be remembered as a visionary or a fraud all hinged on what happened next.
He watched as the technician applied electrodes to Melissa’s head.
The electrodes sent several jolts of electricity through Melissa’s skull. Her body didn’t shudder with the force of the electricity. This was real life, not a scene in a movie. Instead she just… lay there. Motionless. Nothing had happened. The computer monitoring her heart rate still showed a straight, flat line. A second jolt of electricity yielded a similar lack of results.
“Third attempt,” Mia said. Ethan nodded. He wanted to say something helpful but came up short. He put his hand on his chin and waited. Come on. This has to work. There’s no way we did all this for nothing. Please.
A jolt of electricity went through Melissa’s head for the third time. Again, nothing happened.
Ethan turned around and started to walk out of the room. Bearing witness to his own failure was just too painful.
Then he heard it: a gasp of breath.
The computers that monitored Melissa’s vital signs began to light up. The room was filled with quiet beeping as the various electronic monitors began receiving signals from her body.
Her heart was beating.
She was alive.
Holy shit.
Mia put a hand over her mouth. She looked up at Ethan. “We did it.”
As much as he shared her excitement (hell he could feel the hairs on his arms standing up right now) he knew that what they had just accomplished was actually the easy part. “It’s not over yet,” he said. “We still have to insert her memories”.
Ethan thought back to the clause in the standard-issue contract that all the test subjects had signed, one that had made him pause and briefly second-guess the entire project when the lawyers had asked for his approval. According to the contract Melissa had signed, Trask Industries had agreed to pay for her lifelong medical care “in the event of memory download failure or other complications resulting from participation in the trial.”
Memory download failure. That’s a mild way of putting it.
Ethan shuddered at the thought of living the remainder of his life without any knowledge of who he was. Of not being able to remember your loved ones or any of your accumulated life experiences. A life experienced as nothing more than an empty shell, passively taking in stimuli with no ability to interpret it. It would be like living with Alzheimer’s, only much, much worse.
This better work.
The beeping from the monitors and the sight/sound of Melissa’s shallow breathing were the only signs that the formerly dead woman was now, in fact, alive. Her eyes were still closed. Ethan wondered if she was dreaming. What type of dreams did someone have when their entire memory had been erased? It was hard for him to imagine what a human brain would come up with when it was nothing more than a tabula rasa with no visual, auditory, or emotional experiences to draw from.
Of course, there was the possibility that Melissa wouldn’t dream at all. Maybe it would be like going under anesthesia. You blink and then just-like-that you wake up feeling groggy and disoriented, wondering what the hell had just happened and how it had gone by so fast.
Ethan closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall with his arms folded, listening to the sound of Mia’s fingers as she typed. She was about to wirelessly transfer Melissa’s stored memories from the server directly into the chip embedded in her brain.
The small room they were in seemed too mundane for the moment. It both looked and felt like a normal doctor’s office, the type of place where you’d go for a routine checkup. The centrally-located standard-issue reclining medical chair that the patient was seated in was lit up by a generic fluorescent light shining down from the ceiling. Mia, who was still typing, was seated in a utilitarian swivel office chair with wheels, the same type that could be found in any medical facility on the planet.
The room itself might not have gravitas, but it matched Ethan’s vision of what his technology would one day become. He actually wanted NeuroConnect to be banal. He wanted death to become nothing more than a minor inconvenience, a temporary speed bump rather than a permanent tragedy. At most, a person would lose thirty days worth of memories, and that’s only if they happened to die on the last day before their next Save Point. It would be a near seamless transition from one life to the next.
Ethan’s thoughts were interrupted by… silence. The constant clicking sound from Mia’s slender hands flying across the keyboard had abruptly ceased. Still leaning his head back against the wall, he opened his eyes and saw that she had spun around in her seat.
“I just finished the upload,” she said. She looked at him without blinking. “Should we wake her up?”
Ethan took a long, slow breath in through his nose. He looked at the unconscious patient. Without taking his eyes off her, he slowly nodded. “Do it.”
Mia turned back to face the computer and clicked the mouse several times. “Done”, she said.
They both looked at the young woman and waited. Ten seconds passed.
Then thirty.
Forty-five.
Ethan tried to resist checking his watch and failed miserably. He knew that the procedure could take up to five minutes, but he couldn’t imagine waiting that long. In certain contexts, five minutes can pass by in the blink of an eye. In others, observing the secondhand drag its way across the face of a clock feels like watching your entire life drain away. He realized that he was holding his breath. He exhaled and had to consciously choose to breath in and out normally.
The monitors continued beeping.
Heartbeat: Normal.
Oxygen levels: Normal.
Consciousness was the one vital sign that couldn’t be tracked on a computer. Not the ‘are you awake’ version of consciousness as merely the technical opposite of unconsciousness. But the ‘are you fully there’ version. It was something he’d have to see and judge for himself. Despite the advancements in medical technology, the defining aspect of humanity could still only be understood by human intuition. ‘You’ll know it when you see it’ was as cutting edge as it could ever and would ever be.
Ethan looked down at his watch.
One-minute-and-thirty-five seconds.
He looked up just in time to see Melissa’s eyes open. If he had looked at his watch for another half-second he would have missed it. She inhaled sharply and instantly covered her eyes with both hands.
“It’s so bright,” she said with a hoarse voice. After removing her hands from her eyes, she squinted and looked around. “Why does the room look different?”
Mia took off her glasses and covered her open mouth with her hand. She looked at Ethan with wide eyes.
Ethan stepped forward and put his hand on Melissa’s shoulder. “Melissa, my name is Ethan Trask. I’m the owner of Trask Industries. You have no idea how happy I am to see you right now.”
Melissa was still squinting. “The owner of the whole company? What? Why are you here? I thought this was a routine appointment?”
“Trust me,” he said without even attempting to contain huge smile spreading across his face, “Routine is the last word I would use to describe this moment.”
Melissa pushed herself up into a seated position and looked at the floor while running her fingers through her hair. She looked up at Ethan. “But I come here every single month.”
“Tell me the last thing you remember,” Ethan said. He made eye contact with Mia and pointed at the tablet on the desk behind her. She picked it up and prepared to take notes.
Melissa rubbed her eyes. “I feel so tired.”
“I understand, but this is extremely important. What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I guess it was... laying down in the chair for my memory upload. That was only a couple minutes ago, though,” she said. “Is that what you mean or are you talking about something from earlier?”
Ethan grabbed a chair from against the wall. He dragged it across the floor and took a seat directly in front of Melissa, elbows on his knees, looking at her from eye level.
“Melissa,” he said. “This is going to be hard for you to hear, but I’m going to tell it to you straight. You had a stroke.” He was consciously aware of the fact that he was the first person in history to ever have this conversation. There was no established procedure for telling someone that they had died and come back to life. Maybe one day psychologists would conduct studies and come up with a standardized, formulaic way to break the news. But that day wasn’t today. Ethan had to make it up on the fly.
Melissa began to smile. A strand of hair fell in front of her face, and she brushed it back, causing the gold bracelets on her wrist to jingle.
“I’m the first one, aren’t I?.”
Ethan nodded. “That’s right. At this time, it’s extremely important that you answer a series of questions to make sure that your memories were restored properly. Do you think you can do that?”
“Go for it,” she said.
“First things first, tell me what your most recent memory is. It’s okay if it isn’t perfect, there are no wrong answers. I just want to see how your brain is functioning.”
Melissa breathed in and slowly blew the air out. “I remember coming here for my upload appointment.”
“Be more specific.”
“I remember parking my car in the parking lot out front,” Melissa said. “Then I checked in at the front desk and sat in the waiting area for a bit. The guy who normally does the procedure opened a door and called me in. I lied down in a chair exactly like this one, but the room was different.”
She paused and put a finger to her lips. She looked around the room and glanced over her shoulder. “Sorry if that’s not right, but that’s what I remember.”
Ethan raised his eyebrows and shook his head in surprise. “No, don’t be sorry. That’s way more detail than I was expecting. It sounds like your most recent memories transferred over perfectly.” He leaned back in his seat. “How is your perception of time? I mean, does it feel like this all happened a long time ago or does it feel more recent?”
“It feels like it literally just happened five minutes ago.” She paused. “Wait, how long ago was it? What day is today?”
“Your memory upload appointment was on -”
“October 2nd,” Melissa said.
Ethan looked directly at her eyes. “Today is October 28th.”
Melissa put her head in her hands. Ethan decided to say nothing. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what she was going through. What would it be like to lose almost an entire month’s worth of memories?
Ethan watched the second hand slowly tick away on the wall clock directly above Melissa’s seat. After a minute, he put his hand on her shoulder. “I know this can be hard to deal with, but we have people you can talk to.”
Melissa lowered her hands, continuing to look at the ground. Her long black hair obscured her face from view. She turned her head to look up at him and brushed the hair out of her face. She was fully smiling (with both mouth and eyes). “This is so fucking cool.”
Ethan laughed. “You know what,” he said, shaking his head. “I was thinking the same thing.”
Melissa laughed as well, tears streaming down her face.
“Let’s see if you can stand up,” Ethan said. “I’m sure you feel fine, but hold on to my hand just in case.”
Melissa put her feet flat on the floor, grabbed Ethan’s hand, and stood up. She took a single step forward. She wobbled slightly, placing her other hand on Ethan’s shoulder before letting go and taking another, more confident step. She slowly paced from one end of the room to the other.
“How do you feel, honey?” Mia asked.
“I feel alright. That first step was a little bit weird but everything’s good now.”
“Do you think you can walk down the hall to a different room? We want to ask you some more questions about your long-term memories, and it’ll probably be more comfortable if we do it in the Interview Room. The decor is a little bit more inspiring compared to...this,” she said, gesturing at the bland institutional wall art.
“Sounds good,” Melissa said, nodding.
“Alright, I’ll lead the way,” Mia said, opening the door.
Ethan followed them out.
Chapter 2
“OK,” Mia said. She swiped her thumb on the screen of the tablet in her lap before looking up at Melissa, who was seated on a soft leather couch directly opposite.
The moderately-sized room was designed with muted colors and comfortable furniture. According the psychologists, the test subjects wouldn’t be in the most stable of mental states after reanimation (“And that’s putting it mildly”, they had said). The color scheme had been designed to evoke a sense of calm. It looked like a well-decorated living room.
A window on the far wall provided a scenic view of the rolling hills on the outskirts of the city. A small bird landed on the windowsill, took a few steps, and flew away.
Ethan took a seat in a large reclining chair. The armrests could be flipped up to reveal a concealed syringe filled with sedative. No one knew what type of reaction to expect from the patients. They had to prepare for the worst.
Of course, Ethan didn’t think it would be necessary in this case. Melissa had reacted much better than he had anticipated. If anything, she seemed almost too happy to be here. Given the range of possible outcomes, Ethan couldn’t complain. He settled in and watched from the side of the room as Mia began the interview.
“Alright, Melissa, we’re going to start by running through a series of basic questions about your family to make sure your memory is functioning normally,” Mia said.
“Sounds good.”
“Are you married?”
“Yes.”
“Your husband’s name is?”
“Brian.”
“Good. Any kids?”
“Yes. I have two sons.”
“Names and ages?”
“My oldest is Andrew. He’s 2. My younger son is Michael, six months.”
“Good,” Mia said.
Ethan leaned back in the seat. He was only here to observe. Once NeuroConnect officially launched, these tasks would all be performed without his presence. He trusted that his team was trained to perfection. He knew they didn’t require any input from his end. For now, however, he had to be here to make sure that everything went smoothly.
“Next we’re going to test your long-term memory,” Mia said. “When you first signed up for the NeuroConnect trials you gave us a series of questions and answers about your past that you said you would never forget. We’re going to go through those now. It should only take a minute or two and then you’ll be free to go.” She looked up from her tablet and smiled. “You’re doing great so far, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Melissa said. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Great.” Mia looked down at the tablet and read off the first question. “This one is easy. Where were you born?”
“Allentown, Pennsylvania.”
“What was the name of your first elementary school?”
“Lincoln.”
“How old were you when your parents divorced?”
“Eight.”
Ethan looked at the almost unbelievably beautiful view outside the window. A formation of birds fluttered across the picturesque landscape of green hills. He let the question and answer session fade into background noise as he focused his attention inward, thinking about the future. Once the formality of the memory check was over he would have to call up the executive team and brief them on the day’s events. It was much too early to celebrate and there was still a ton of work to do, but the first major hurdle had finally been crossed. The technology worked.
He watched as the first rays of the sun began to rise over the tops of the distant pine trees before turning his attention back to the room.
A small drop of blood ran out of Melissa’s nose. She swiped it away with her hand.
“What year was your youngest sister born?” Mia was still looking down at the screen of the tablet she held in her lap.
“Uh, it was nineteen-ninety-seven, I think,” Melissa said.
More blood came out of her nose. She wiped it away again.
“What was your first boyfriend’s name?”
The blood began pouring out in a slow, steady stream. Melissa frantically wiped it away. Ethan leaned forward in his seat. Shit. He looked at Mia, who hadn’t noticed anything.
“Um, I don’t remember.”
“Take your time.”
Melissa pinched her nose to stop the flow of blood. A small drop of red appeared in the corner of her left eye, then streamed down her cheek.
“Mia, we’ve got a problem,” Ethan said.
Mia looked up from her screen. “Shit.”
“What’s happening?” Melissa began crying, red tears flowing down her face. The blood began pouring out of her nose in a torrent, staining her sleeve and spilling into her lap and forming a pool on the light-colored leather couch.
“Mia,” Ethan said with a level voice.
Mia was temporarily frozen in her seat. No matter how well trained, everyone’s first instinct is to freeze up in a crisis.
“Mia!”
Mia shook her head. She tossed the tablet on a small table and stood up. She walked over to the bright red alarm with the word EMERGENCY written on it. She raised the small clear plastic shield and pressed the button.
Ethan listened as a voice came through from the other end of the line. “This is Trask Industries Emergency Medical Team. Do you need assistance?”
“Yes”, Mia said. “Code Red.”
“I’ll send someone right away.”
Mia closed the plastic lid and turned around. She involuntarily flinched backwards at what she saw.
“What’s happening to me?” Melissa’s face was covered with a bright red sheet of blood, now pouring out of both ears in addition to her eyes and nose.
“It’s okay,” Ethan said with a level voice, trying his hardest to stay calm. “We have doctors on the way. Everything’s going to be alright,” he said, not believing a single word that came out of his own mouth.
The truth was that Ethan had no idea what the hell was happening. His first guess was that the electrical signal that they had sent through her skull had ruptured a blood vessel in her cranial cavity. If that was the case, then she was as good as dead. If this much blood was pouring out of face, it was likely that the internal bleeding inside of her skull was much worse.
“Melissa, listen to me,” Ethan said. “I need you to stay calm. Help is on the way.”
“WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?” Melissa stood up and began walking towards him, causing blood to spill all over the carpet. She stood directly in front of him. “HELP ME!”
Ethan stood up from his seat and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Melissa, listen to me. I need you to lie down on the couch until help gets here. Can you do that for me?”
It was too late. She lost consciousness and collapsed, hitting her head on the armrest of Ethan’s chair on the way down.
Ethan took a knee beside her. His hands felt warm. He held them up to his face and stared at them. They were completely covered with blood. The front of his shirt was stained with enormous red streaks. Despite logically knowing that the human head contained more blood vessels than any other part of the body, it stunned him to see just how much blood had come out in such a short amount of time.
“DOWN THE HALL, ROOM FOUR-OH-TWO!”
Ethan heard the voice booming in from the hallway. He listened as the sound of multiple sets of rubber-soled shoes running and squeaking on tile floor got louder and louder as the emergency team made their way closer to the room.
He put two of his blood-stained fingers on Melissa’s neck. There was no pulse.
The team of white-coated doctors and nurses entered the room.
Ethan looked up and shook his head.
No One Dies is available now for preorder on Amazon. The official release date is October 21, 2026.
