Me and Bill had always been best friends. For as long as I could remember, we were inseparable. We would hop on our bikes every morning around 11

Me and Bill had always been best friends. For as long as I could remember, we were inseparable. We would hop on our bikes every morning around 11, when school was out or we had no other commitments, and spend the day exploring town or wandering through the woods.

I remember one summer we snuck into the abandoned warehouse about 10 minutes from our houses and camped there for two nights – we were always up to something like that… those were the days.

When you’re young, you think those friendships will last forever, until they don’t. After finishing Secondary School and choosing different colleges, that’s when things started to unravel; he went his way, and I went mine. It was inevitable, I suppose, and deep down I probably knew that, but it still hurt.

We still hung out occasionally, but it was obvious he was moving on. Our meetups went from every free day to once a week, then once every other week… you know how it goes.

Things hit rock bottom a few days ago when I messaged him on Snap asking if he wanted to watch the comet that evening with me. He replied with a picture of himself with his new friends captioned: “Nah”.

That was the final straw. If he wanted to move on without me, fine. I decided against going to see the comet, as I didn’t want to be there with just my parents and no one else. So I turned in early that night, while everyone on my street – heck, the entire town – went out to watch.

Forget that. Looking back, it sounds childish, but you have to understand that this was a year of self-deception all crashing down at once. I couldn’t be bothered anymore.

I went to bed shortly after hearing my parents close the front door. My sleep was dreamless.

…

When I woke the next morning, it didn’t take long to realize something was wrong. I got dressed, stumbled downstairs and washed my face. Then I remembered what Bill had said yesterday, and my mood instantly soured. What a jerk. I finished washing up and headed into the hallway. A quick glance at the floor made my blood run cold.

My parents’ shoes and coats weren’t there.

I checked the shoe cupboard, looked in the living room, searched practically everything on the ground floor.

Nothing.

It was only when I gathered the courage to open their bedroom door that my worst fear was confirmed: the bed was empty. Whatever happened last night, they never came home.

I wanted to call someone. I wanted to search the entire town for them. I would spend all day looking if necessary.

I tried to think rationally. I needed to eat something first. Searching an entire town on an empty stomach would be foolish, I knew that much.

With trembling hands, I poured a bowl of cereal and added two scoops of my dad’s protein powder – I needed strength, I reasoned. I sat on the sofa in front of the TV and tried to temporarily distract myself.

That’s when the second strange thing happened: the news channel showed an empty room. Nobody was there.

The only sound was the faint buzzing of some appliance in my house. It was eerie. The newsroom was still, silent. You might think it was just a still image, but I could see the big screen behind the news desk still playing a looping animation.

I grabbed the remote and flipped through channels.

All the same. Either static or empty rooms. The cameras just left in place and broadcasting, with no interruption.

Something serious had happened last night, that was clear. But what could it have been? Everyone had been outside, watching that stupid comet: a mere speck in the sky.

I finished my cereal, put on my shoes and coat, and, after a deep breath, went outside. Walking down the path toward the gate, I glanced over the fence into my neighbor’s garden. She was there, at least – in her wheelchair. I sighed with relief. At least someone was normal. I called out to her.

“Janet?”

Her frail body creaked as she turned her head toward me at an unusual angle. Her eyes were… vacant. Unfocused. Glazed over. Her mouth was moving, but whether she was forming words or just twitching, I couldn’t tell.

“Janet? Are you okay?” I called out.

She didn’t respond. Instead, she pulled herself off her chair and started to drag herself toward the wall separating our gardens. As she got closer, I got a better look at her. She was drooling.

I could start to hear what she was saying, but it was just whispers of nonsense. I swear I heard her whisper something like “It’s beautiful, you just have to see, let me show you.”

She then started to scratch at the brick wall, desperately trying to pull herself up, but lacking the strength to lift herself. All while maintaining what seemed like eye contact with me, or maybe looking past me… I don’t know. Her eyes were milky white so I couldn’t tell which way she was facing. It was… unsettling.

I didn’t know what to think anymore. My parents were my priority, so I just rationalized it as an elderly woman having some kind of episode, pushed it to the back of my mind, and left her to it.

I opened the gate and stepped out onto the main street. I’d never seen it so… empty. It was quiet. Nobody around. I wasn’t sure if I’d prefer an empty street or one filled with people in the same state as Janet.

I pressed on though.

I remembered that the night before they had mentioned going to the top of town, near that abandoned warehouse where there was a hill with a great view of the comet. Seemed like a good place to start.

I passed the corner shop and took a quick glance inside. It was empty, of course, unmanned.

It wouldn’t hurt, I thought, I mean… nobody’s around.

I slipped inside and grabbed a pack of crisps. I tried to stay as quiet as possible, even though I was sure the place was deserted. It was just… maybe I was fortunate there was a wall separating me from Janet earlier.

I was about to leave the shop when I changed my mind and headed back in, this time grabbing two more packs and some generic energy drink.

That should last me for a while, I thought.

I made my way out of the shop and, as I turned the corner, I caught sight of a large group of them. People. Sort of clustered together about fifty meters away, backs facing me.

I opened my mouth to call out but then stopped myself.

How do I know they’re not like Janet? I thought.

I decided it would be best to stay inside the relative safety of the shop, at least for a little while, peeking out every few minutes. The road was long, and they would definitely spot me if I lingered too much in the open, so this seemed safer.

They didn’t move for a solid five minutes, maybe more. And as time passed, my patience waned until I decided I should probably make a move.

I took another look. There were about twenty of them, all packed together, motionless, staring at… who knows what. I tried to see what had captured their attention but couldn’t spot anything unusual.

I took a deep breath and stepped back onto the road. I slowly walked away from them. They were blocking the way to that hill, so I’d have to take the longer route. It wasn’t a problem – I still knew the way – but I wanted to spend as little time out here as possible.

After a few minutes, I turned left and continued walking.

I started to think. What if Mum and Dad ended up like Janet – like those people? Would I be able to help them? Fix them? No, they had to be fine.

I can’t be the only normal person left – that’s just not possible.

I took comfort in that thought. Surely someone else must have gone to bed early like I did, right? That was the only explanation I could think of as to why everyone was acting this way… while I was still normal.

I was grateful, of course, but I was still wary. What caused everyone to be like this? I turned right. I mean, if the news stations are empty as well, wouldn’t that mean this has happened across the entire country?

A chilling thought.

I was close now, anyway. But as I neared, one question kept repeating in my mind: Why me?

…

I had arrived at the hill where my parents and most of the town had gone. And here there was… nothing. Nothing at all. Empty. My heart sank – all I could see were cans of energy drinks and wrappers littering the grassy ground. Other than that… there really wasn’t anything else.

I think this is when all the emotions I had bottled up throughout the day finally surfaced. I guess I had hoped so much that I was right, that they would be here, that everything would be okay, that things would go back to normal, that I’d deluded myself with an impossible reality.

Of course they’re gone. Everyone else is.

I sat down on the wooden bench at the top of the hill, defeated. A tear escaped my eye and rolled down my cheek. I wiped it away and then just started crying. Sobbing. It was all just so messed up.

I sat there on the park bench, my face red and puffy, for about 10 minutes before I finally decided to pull myself together and stay strong. If I was the only normal human left, then I couldn’t just give up and let myself waste away.

Then I remembered: the warehouse, I hadn’t checked the warehouse.

I slowly got up from the bench, wiped my eyes, and with somewhat renewed determination climbed down the other side of the hill toward that building. It still looked about the same as when Bill and I had camped inside it all those years ago but… now that I was looking at it, I couldn’t help but wonder: Had that massive hole in the roof always been there?

I didn’t remember ever noticing it, although I hadn’t been around there for quite a while, so there was still a chance the roof had collapsed during that time but… now that I was looking at it, I could see how the area surrounding that gaping hole in the roof had been charred, burned.

My hopes started to rise.

A lot of people could fit inside that place. It was big. It seemed entirely possible that they could be hiding in there, waiting this out.

I ran down the hill as fast as I could without tripping and then circled round the fence to the far side, to see if the opening that Bill and I had used was still there. To my surprise, it was. In fact, that entire section of wire fence had been almost torn off. People had been here.

My hopes continued rising.

My shaking hands rested on the door to the building and pushed. I knew they were in here.

It was dark inside, impossibly so. I grabbed my phone and switched the torch on. I quickly panned it around the room and once I deemed it safe, I turned my attention to the door and pushed further. As I pushed it open, I noticed I was in a corridor leading into probably the next section. It was when I looked into one of the rooms along it that I saw them.

Mum and Dad.

I ran towards them, calling their names.

“Mum! Dad! It’s me – Michael! I didn’t know where to find you guys and I’ve been…”

My voice turned hollow.

“Mum?”

She was looking at me, or past me maybe, with those same milky unfocused eyes that Janet had.

I was too late.

I didn’t know what I was going to do, but before I could even make a decision, she spoke.

“Michael?”

I looked back to her.

“Mum?”

“Michael, where have you been?”

“I… I was out looking for you.”

“Don’t worry about that now. You’re here with us, and the rock.”

I was confused.

“The rock?”

“Yes,” she said, excitedly, “let me show you. You’ll love it, I promise.”

Her grip on my arm was strangely tight. She led me back into the corridor and down into the next part of the building and, as I looked back, I saw Dad just sitting there, unaware I had been in the room, muttering to himself and playing with his hands.

I could see a green pulsating glow coming from the room ahead of me, impossibly bright. My mother opened the door and pushed me inside.

“Now,” she said, “look at the rock.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and faced the other way.

“Michael,” she said, her voice now stern but still soft, “Look. At. The. Rock.”

And so I did.

…

It was incredible. It was everything and nothing. It filled my vision yet it was small. It spoke to me in a way that I needed, telling me that everything would be okay and that I was safe now. I was with it now.

Michael, stay here. Keep looking Michael, the voice said.

And I did.

I could feel all my fears and troubles just melt away – I can’t really describe it to you but it felt incredible. It spoke with the voice of a thousand and with the conviction of a million. I somehow knew that it wanted what was best for me, for all of us.

I realized that all those people I had seen on the street that day wanted this for me, for me to be happy. They weren’t mindless, I valued them now. I no longer felt any fear.

I hadn’t blinked in minutes.

What was I looking for? I thought, and in truth, I couldn’t really remember.

All that mattered was that I was here in this room with that rock.

I sat down and kept looking, smiling. My mind went blank.

It told me stories about how it came to us to free us, to save us and how we would be joined by its creators soon. And it all sounded very good.

On its way through our galaxy it had noticed our planet, changed course suddenly to go towards us and splintered off into a million pieces, bringing its gift to as many as possible. Each chunk would grow and spread until all of us were being rewarded with its gift, until the rest come.

I don’t honestly know how long I was in that room just staring at it, but time flew by. I slowly stood up and broke my gaze with the rock. Just a little break, I thought, I’ll come back as soon as I can.

The rock agreed and let me stretch my legs.

I finally broke eye contact with it for the first time in what felt like forever and looked around the room. It had been washed green, but I had no issue with that. In fact, I decided that green would now be my favorite color.

I felt happy and free.

It was only when I looked at the people surrounding me that something felt wrong.

Over the loud almost heartbeat that this rock was making, I could see and hear people writhing around in blind ecstasy. It started to unsettle me.

Michael…

I heard the voice calling.

Michael… come back and I’ll tell you more stories. Look at me again.

But I found now I didn’t want to.

I faked a smile, and fighting the urge to just look back around and fall back into that state I was in again, I slowly left the room.

I could hear the rock calling for me. Begging for me to look at it. Promising me the world and more, and believe me it was hard, but I had to stay strong. I kept walking and didn’t look back until I had made it back out to the wire fence around the building.

…

I haven’t felt the same since.

It felt almost like withdrawal, if that makes sense. I was constantly fighting the urge to go back inside and rejoin it. But, in the last day or so I’ve been feeling a lot better. I’ve stopped shivering as much and can now coherently think about anything other than the rock for longer than ten minutes.

I’m writing this now in hopes that anyone is still normal in the world and to warn you to be careful and avoid what I did because… I guess I was lucky. I don’t know how long I would’ve been there for if I hadn’t come to my senses.

As I mentioned earlier, the rock spoke of more of its kind joining us, or whatever that means. Safe to say, I’m not optimistic about the future.

Stay safe.