by Mark Gordon
Chapter 7
The Crazy One
The offices of the Police Station were empty and abandoned, as Sally had guessed they would be.
“Hello? Is anybody here? I need help,” she pleaded, knowing there would be no answer.
She had no idea what to do. It seemed as if everyone on the planet had evacuated and left her behind. She walked back where the streets were still abandoned and listened carefully, but apart from the occasional bark of a dog, she heard nothing.
She walked, and marvelled at the change that had come so suddenly over her city. 'This is science fiction,' she thought. How could a city of over three million people just disappear into thin air? It was impossible surely? And then she heard it - the sound of glass breaking! She froze. If there were anyone around to see her standing there in the street, they would have mistaken her for a statue. She waited. There it was again - the sound of breaking glass. No mistake this time. She felt immense relief; she wasn’t the only person left; there was at least one other. Because the city was so quiet Sally had no idea how far the sound had travelled. It might have been kilometres away or just around the corner, and although she was desperate to make contact with another person, she was wary. Society’s rules, for the time being anyway, were suspended, and the wrong person in this situation might be capable of anything. She decided that discretion might be wise right now and she moved into the nearest building, all-night café, that would give her a view of the street. She pushed through the door and found a spot in the shadows behind the counter where she knew she couldn’t be seen from outside.
While she hid, Sally considered her situation. With no information available, there was literally nothing she could do but stay safe and wait for some kind of resolution to this nightmare. She had somewhere to live, she had plenty of food and water, and she was healthy and intelligent. As far as positives went, though, that was it. Negatives on the other hand were abundant. No mother, no people, no information, no friends, no services and no clue as to what to do next! As she listened for the approach of whoever was randomly breaking those windows, Sally realised that from now on she would be making up the rules as she went along.
After almost ten minutes of silent waiting Sally was about to give up and head outdoors again. Then she heard the noise. It was a human voice. She couldn’t tell if it was a lone voice or a group because all she could hear were fragments of talking, and then silence. This pattern repeated for a minute or two while she hid in the shadows of the café, until eventually the source of the noise came into view. Sally had a clear view of the person as they paused on the footpath outside. It was a male, in his early twenties she guessed. He was dressed like a lot of men that age - skinny jeans, t-shirt, black hoodie and sneakers. She watched him cautiously. The man turned slowly and stared across to the other side of the street. She couldn’t tell what he was looking at but she heard him speak.
“Wakey, wakey sleepyheads!”
That didn’t make sense. The man turned and faced the café. Sally froze. He seemed to be looking straight at her. The man tilted his head slightly to one side. She was panicking now and desperately wanted to run, but she knew that any movement would give her position away. His head tilted back the other way. 'Shit!” she thought. 'He can see me!' The man held his position and stared at the cafe's plate glass window. Then he smiled. Sally shivered. It was the smile of someone who had moved to another place; a place that normal people never wanted to go to; a place where things were horrific. Sally was about to leap to her feet and flee to the rear of the café when she realised that this man hadn’t even seen her. He was simply watching himself in the window's reflection. She wondered what he saw.
“Come on sleepyheads,” he said to nobody. “Come out and play. Please! I’m boooored!”
This last word clawed its way out of his mouth as a tortured plea. Sally wasn’t sure, but she thought she could see a tear rolling down his cheek.
“Pleeeeeaaaase!” he screamed, suddenly aggressive.
Sally shuddered. This was a person to avoid. She wondered if his mental state was an existing condition, or if he had cracked under the strain of waking up in a city where everyone had vanished. Sally was scared. She didn’t want to become like him, but she knew that it was a real possibility. She was trembling and she wanted him to go away. Then, without warning, the man’s head turned sharply to the left, as if he had heard something. He walked out of Sally’s view. She waited a minute or so and then crept quietly to the front door of the café and peered around the edge of the doorway. She watched the lonely figure of the man walk away for almost a minute. That was enough for her. She headed home.
