Death With Interruptions Trivia Quiz

Answer: New Year's Day

On New Year's Day, no-one dies. Although car crashes cause incomprehensible damages on this day, there are no fatalities. The country carries on as it did before, but no funerals are held and no bodies are buried. Notoriously, the Queen Mother remains on her last breaths, eternally, as she lays in her bed.

When this odd news spreads, the world discovers the truth that death no longer has a say. Life continues eternally. The churches are concerned. With no death there is no resurrection and there is no church. Funeral services and undertakers have taken to performing ceremonies for family pets whether their deaths are natural or accidental. Even retirement and Eventide homes have taken on a new approach. With no-one dying, senior citizens must renew their life insurance past eighty. Once at this age, legally, they have their first death.

This can be renewed another eighty years down the line. Surgery is performed with no risks. A world without death. Fancy that.

Answer: Suspended Life

With people worried about their religion, needing the hope of resurrection and death like they need bread to eat, many continue to philosophize about their predicament. A family, more privileged than others, is stuck with two issues: a grandfather unable to sustain himself yet unable to pass on and an infant, unable to survive but stuck in a state of arrested death.

The family comes to an agreement to cross the boundary line of the country with the two in tow, dig a grave, and bury them not knowing if their plan will completely work.

When they return, their town discovers the truth and spreads the word beginning an odd exodus of the country's sick and eternally dying. While the government is somewhat okay with this idea as it culls some of the demographic which, since its growth since the new year has been sustained, presses on, people are concerned about the status of murder in their new circumstances.

The government plans to put the people at ease by allowing for vigilantes and spies to catch people in the act and bring them to trial accordingly.

Answer: Four

Vigilantes and spies are soon left by the wayside. While other countries are angry about the new bodies in their soil, a group known as the 'maphia' has set out to put a stop to their interference. They pose a choice to the government- harm vigilantes by 'disabling' four every day or let the death problem be placed into their hands.

The government lets this go, and soon, people are found crossing the border with the terminally-ill in tow to finally put them to rest. Other countries realize this very quickly though and put a quick stop to it with armed guards (though no one is harmed).

The Maphia poses a quick solution though: bring the bodies over the border, then, when deceased, return them for burial. Undertakers, now dedicating their work to the burial of dead pets and animals, are thrilled.

They're back to work. The hitch: all of those who voluntarily cross the border to take their last breath are ruled as suicides on their death certificates.

Answer: Republicans

As time goes on, more and more people are sent to die and returned. This bodes well according to economists as it would have destroyed the economy due to the growing number of permanent disabilities. While many people could have been upset under the circumstances, citizens instead show respect and care for individuals in this country of suspended death.

The Republicans, however, find a need to stand up. With the monarchy in place, royalty continues eternally in their reign. Although many get older and need to be placed in the care of royal infirmaries, there is no change in government whatsoever.

They call for an ever-changing presidency to rule over the nation. The current king and prime minister have a chat about the issue and realize two things: they don't feel the need to change the government and soon, the nation will run out of money. Too much is being spent on old age pensions, and it's draining the government dry.

Answer: Director-General of Television

One day, an envelope simply appears on the desk of the country's Director-General of Television despite the fact that no one could possibly go in and out during the night. Upon reading it, the man is shocked, frustrated, and confused. He immediately dials up the Prime Minister to discuss this piece.

As it turns out, it's from 'death' (with a lower-case 'd'). After seven months, the decision has been made to resume with life (and death) the way it was meant to be. Everyone, at the stroke of midnight, who was meant to die over the past seven months will pass on, quite simply.

The Prime Minister and the Director General of Television are the only ones to know about this before an official announcement is made on the news that night giving citizens minimal time to say their final goodbyes.

They do this to prevent rioting and catastrophe, and it works. While the country is shocked, everything happens as planned. The Undertakers Union is pleased with this outcome- coffin productions and funeral homes are up in terms of profits. Ironically, the President of this union has a heart attack ten minutes before midnight and drops dead at the turn of the clock.

Answer: A flag

After seven months without death, over 62,000 deaths are recorded in one night. As a mass 'clean-up' is called into action, the families of the deceased hang the nation's flag from their windows to denote that their house contains one of the many inevitable casualties. Newspaper sales instantly rise, each containing a copy of the letter handed out by death. Churches, Eventide homes, and hospitals all witness immediate changes in service to compensate while the Maphia changes their plans altogether to immortalize themselves within the country despite the return of human expiration.

Their plan: head to the funeral homes and force them to pay up every now and then for security. If they don't pay up, the place is destroyed. Finally, the Queen Mother passes away.

Many regard these days as the end of an era.

Answer: Violet

Death's new system is put into action. A week before the date of death, the deceased receives a violet envelope containing a warning that they are to die. This allows for time to wrap up loose ends and say their goodbyes. This, of course, has two sides. On the positive, death becomes natural again. On the negative, the country's political and economical systems are once more thrown for a bit of a loop. Citizens feel worried.

The omen of a violet envelope looms in the distance and people unmistakeably receive theirs in the mail over the next days. Scholars discover that death is a female figure due to her handwriting and make attempts to work out who, where, and what she is, but to no avail. In reality, death is in her home sending out these letters, working tirelessly to make the system work. One day, however, a letter comes back unopened. Resending it, it comes back unopened once more.

The man who is to receive the note is a 49-year-old man (who turns 50 on the same day). Death sends the letter once more to confirm the problem.

Although the man was to die two days earlier, he still lives on. Death's system demonstrates its first flaw and she is genuinely distraught. A man, who was only supposed to see 49 years, has just seen his fiftieth.

Answer: Cellist

Death decides to perform some field work by moving herself down to a level of human perception (as death is normally all-seeing and all-knowing). Transforming herself, she heads to the cellist's house to find him sleeping in bed with his dog. The man is normal and everyday and performs the same expected tasks that any man would perform. Death observes him for hours, looking around his house and watching him awaken in the night.

Unfortunately, she doesn't know what to do; she can't kill him as it's outside her jurisdiction. Because of her fault, she is disappointed as only death, who feels very few emotions, could be. Returning home, death checks her books as she has no way of contacting a superior above her in this predicament. Having always been told 'thou shalt not kill', ironically, she is surprised to find that in an anomalous case such as this, she has free hand, as per regulations, as to what she does to amend the situation.

This thrills death, giving her a feeling that she is more powerful that always thought. Calming herself down, she sends out her daily letters and goes to work 'amending' the problem. To do this, she decides to change both the date of death and the date of birth for her cellist one year ahead of what's written in his file.

Answer: Moth

The funny thing about death is her tendency to never admit defeat. Letting the cellist die a natural death without receiving a letter would allow for that return to complete innocence that she removed in the first place. Death instead continues to observe her subject, following him from home to work and on daily excursions.

She sits in on one of his orchestral performances and feels a twinge of pride as he plays a solo piece as she watches from the audience. On one day, the man takes his dog and a book to the park where he reads about entomology. On one page, death looks over his shoulder as he reads about a moth known as Acherontia atropos, the Death's-head Hawkmoth.

This creature, with a skull shape naturally appearing on its back, is one thing that death considers would be perfect to replace her violet letters, however unlikely that may actually happen.

The three of them return to the cellist's house together.

Answer: One

Before departing for a week, death leaves the letter hand-outs to her trusty scythe who is meant to send out the proper amount on each successive day. She heads into a nearby door and emerges in a human form dressed in a fashionable outfit. She first purchases two concert tickets, one for a Thursday performance and the other for a Sunday performance, before staying in a hotel overnight. On the first concert, she sits in the box and watches her cellist perform. She meets him at the stage door after the performance for an autograph but he is oddly attracted to her. It isn't until he returns home that he can wrap his mind around their odd conversation. She calls him and has a chat about the letter she has for him. She promises to give it to him on Sunday.
As the weekend rolls around, death never attends the second concert performance and the cellist fears he may never see her again. He ends up running into her at the park the following day and she says that she can not give him the letter. She disappears as he places his head down.
That night, death reappears in the cellist's house and he plays his cello for her before they both head to bed together. In the night, he falls asleep and she remains awake. Heading to the kitchen, he takes his purple envelope and burns it in the kitchen sink. Slowly, she returns to bed, closes her eyes, and falls asleep as well.
The following day, no one dies.