Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

It was a crisp fall morning on October 7th. John loved the smell of the fall air, and the feel of the cool breeze on his skin. It was a shame he couldn't feel the breeze though, because his winter coat kept it from him. He hated having to wear the thing when the weather wasn't below 50 degrees. His mother was so overprotective; sometimes he wished she didn't worry about him at all.
The sun was glorious this morning. It was shining from a cloudless, pale blue sky. It was a shame that John's winter coat only made him resent the warmth radiating from the happy ball of gas. He was sweating all over, and he hadn't even walked half a mile yet. He felt he ought to just take the coat off. But he knew if he did that he would be spotted by one of his mother's friends. He didn't know why his mother liked having such busybodies as friends.
Perhaps it was these thoughts that kept John from noticing the peculiarity of his surroundings. He had been automatically looking both ways when he crossed streets, but there had been no need. There was nobody out. Not a soul roamed the streets of John's neighborhood. There was nobody waiting for buses on the corners. There was no traffic. There were no hostile dogs in people's yards. There was nobody coming out to pick up the morning paper. On John's way to school that morning, he didn't see a single living being outside, inside, or anywhere in between. He was completely alone.

When John reached the school, he was greeted by an eerie silence. There were no noisy children roaming the campus. There was no one being dropped off late for class. There were no younger grades out for early recess. Nothing. Nervously John crunched across the schoolyard to the big front doors of the school building, each step sounding unbearably loud to his ears. He felt absurdly rude; it was like he was in an outside library. When he reached the doors he slowly put both hands on the handles of the doors. With a deep breath, he pushed himself into them. They opened with a small squeak, and he was inside. He was inside a painfully quiet school building. Was he alone? It sure felt like it, but he couldn't be sure. After all, the school usually WAS quiet during class. Maybe he was just being paranoid. So, slowly he walked down the hall and approached his classroom. He put his hand on the doorknob. Inexplicably, his heart was pounding in his throat. He took three deep breaths, and he threw open the door.
Nothing. There was not a single student in his classroom. There was no teacher either. John blinked. Is it Saturday? He wondered. No, it wasn't Saturday. He knew because he had just delivered the Sunday paper yesterday. And if it was Saturday, the school wouldn't be unlocked anyway. What's happened? John wondered to himself. Where could everybody be? I can't be the only one here! It's impossible!

BANG!

John jumped out of his skin. That bang was the loudest sound her had heard all morning. His heart started beating ever faster, and he began to feel light headed with terror. "What on earth is going on? What WAS that? What am I going to do? Where IS everybody?," John didn't even realize he was talking aloud to himself. All he knew was that he was panicking, and that he was going to faint any minute now.
He fainted.