The vanishing

Quiet.

That’s all I hear as of now.

A dream.

That’s what it is.

A large grassy field with wind.

Blue sky too.

Usually I don’t talk like this.

Dreams are different.

But this one is different from the others.

Empty.

I don’t like it.

It feels weird.

——

It’s been uh… a few hours? Maybe? Since I woke up.

Right now I’m just sitting in my room. Not much is in it. A bed, piles of clothes, television, my xbox, and a few pillows. A single red LED light hangs above.

It’s 2026, but I have an Xbox. I did want one and I had money…

Anyways. Point is either I’m deaf or the first to wake up. It happens a lot, and I do live in a house of silent sleepers.

It’s cold too. So cold I have to wrap a blanket around myself like a cape. My chest feels oddly heavy.

I’ll be fine. Just watch movies for a few hours until my roommates wake up.

———

Where were they?

My roommates haven’t woken up and the time is almost 1:00 PM. And I haven’t heard a single sound from outside. Not a dog barking, plane flying by, no traffic, gunshots, or ANYTHING for signs of life.

I push myself up, putting my regular clothes on. The slight amount of stubble I have has bits of sweat stuck inside.

Then I check my phone.

No notifications. It might just be a busy day, who am I to judge? Maybe the router is out too.

Not much traffic either. No traffic at all actually.

It’s weird, I don’t even hear beeping.

Maybe I am going deaf—

No. I can’t have a panic attack over it being a little too quiet in the morning. I should enjoy my peace while I can.

My little trip down the stairs takes less than thirty seconds.

I enter the communal kitchen. It’s a large space, more than enough to fit and feed everyone. A single stove, fridge, and an ungodly amount of kitchen cabinets painted white. The rest of the house is overall the same style.

There’s a radio sitting on one of the counters. The dials make it channel 98.7, the classic rock station.

Guns N Roses is playing right now. I don’t know what song, but I vibe to it anyway as I make myself and roommates some eggs. Hell, I even dance to it.

After fifteen minutes, there’s still nothing.

“Jean!”

Jean’s the only dude I don’t actively despise and the one that’s usually up second.

“JEAN! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE BEFORE I EAT YOUR FOOD!”

Nothing. “God damnnit…”

———

Ending up in Jean’s room reveals everybody is straight up gone. The only thing I see in his room is his half made bed like he was just getting out of it. The blanket and his slightly yellow pillow are still crumpled.

Under his blanket is my black cat. I call him Dave because he just looks like he’d be a Dave if he was human. His eyes are dilated and he’s shaking and hissing.

“We’ll be okay, Dave. Jean is probably just being an ass and left early.”

I’m not so sure when I look through his room window. The rest of Arvington, California is—

Usual traffic is frozen in time. The cars are all stopped as if their drivers were just kidnapped.

There’s no planes in the sky.

No birds.

Not even the sight of other people. Everyone is just… gone like the wind carried them away.

And faint, garbled wheezing. Baritone. Then a voice that says my name. It comes from somewhere outside the room.

That’s not Jean. Somebody’s in my fucking house. A shotgun is under Jean’s bed somewhere, usually for messing around. I crouch down, hearing my knees pop subtly as my arms feel around for the wooden stock.

It’s nearly ten pounds when I hoist it up and aim at the door. The glint hurts my eyes. Damn Jean and his gun polishing.

Wait.

I check the gun, pressing break-lever to open the single-shot. There’s one round. I shut it.

“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE WHOEVER YOU ARE!” Despite this my hands are shaking and I’m sweating like there’s no tomorrow.

They say my name again. It’s even more fucked up this time. Their footsteps are more like stomps as they move further into the house. I think they’re in the kitchen somewhere.

Slowly whoever it is walks up the stairs. It’s only now I see them down the end of the hallway.

Ten feet tall. Arms and legs are lanky as all hell. Whatever it is only has half a jaw, the rest bending outwards and crunching sickly. Its silhouette is like a thin man. The eyes are beads of black.

Not human.

Before I even fully register it I pull the trigger. The kickback doesn’t send me onto my ass because I dug my feet into the ground and pressed it against my shoulder, but the stock still hurts my shoulder.

The bang sends my ears into a ringing that also absolutely burns with every second.

Hot blood hits my face. Whatever I just shot is on the ground, neck covered in… blood. Real blood, but a completely wrong color that reflected light. I run over to it and start hitting it in the face with the stock, trying to get it to stay still.

The crunches… it sounds like bone. I’m pretty sure this monster is organic as I bash its face in for a few more seconds, black fluid splattering across my once pristine floor.

My faint breathing is shaky. I rub my ears, staring at the still corpse I just killed.

The shotgun clattered to the floor. I reach for my phone and pull it out. There’s not even a single bar of service at all, and my attempt to dial 911 fails because they don’t pick up.

Fuck this.

I run over to my room, slamming the closet open and grabbing an empty bag. Some freak bio attack happened while I was asleep like one of those shitty at-home movies me and my friends used to shoot all the time as kids. I’m leaving.

Everything is thrown into the large hiking backpack I have. Handgun in my nightstand with two magazines, two bottles of sunscreen, a few bags of snacks, lots of tape rolls, way too many socks, bottles of water, two cans of cat food, and anything else I can reach that might be used in the future.

I’ve seen enough movies to know where this is going.

Right now it’s cold outside, so I hurredly put on a large hoodie and a beanie. Then I grab gloves, using them to wipe the blood off my face. My hiking boots squeak against the floor.

Last item is Dave. My hiking backpack has a special slot for him with some airholes and a transparent window. One pouch for food and another for water if he ever starts meowing at me.

I gently grab Dave from under the blanket and put him in the pet pouch. The zipper fights me for a few seconds until I finally manage to get it shut, all while Dave watches me.

I walk out of the house. Guns N Roses is still playing as I leave.

Water and slush is everywhere, crunching under my boots as I walk. The cars are really empty. Every window I check, nobody is there.

I don’t see any people walking along the street. The skyscrapers in the distance are devoid of people.

My breath is visible in the afternoon light. The biting cold is still felt even through my jacket, so I put my hands into the pockets. It also acts as a good anchor for my nearly forty pound hiking backpack.

The bag is starting to dig into my shoulders.

I need shelter. But where? I basically have anywhere I want if everywhere is as empty as I stupidly assumed.

Maybe it was just an evac notice and I missed it. But why would everything look like they just vanished out of thin air? A hundred thousand people don’t just run.

The sky is completely clear. A snowstorm passed a few days ago.

The cold adrenaline coursing through my veins finally vanishes. My breath freezes completely. Man I packed up too early. What if I’m dreaming?

I can’t be. I never have dreams like this.

My mind needs to not be scrambled like this. All I have to do is find shelter for the night.

Time to go. I’ll deal with the crash when I get inside.