After the beginning of silence

The city stood still, as if time itself had come to a halt. Emilia Ashford gazed out from her lab window, surveying the streets below. What once was a bustling metropolis was now eerily quiet, its towering buildings casting long shadows over the empty roads.

Cars lay abandoned mid-street, their owners long gone. No one knew where they had disappeared to, or why they had vanished without a trace. But Emilia had a theory a theory she wasn't sure she wanted to prove.

"quiet", as they called it, had begun weeks ago. It was quiet at first: communications between small towns were cut off, and there were isolated incidents of entire neighborhoods losing power overnight. Then calm descended on the city, followed by panic.

The government rushed to evacuate, but it was too late. Within days, entire neighborhoods had surrendered to whatever alien force was present. Now there weren't many people left.

She was alone. Emilia wasn't literally alone, but the people she was with were few and desperate. She had always prided herself on her ability to remain calm under pressure, but even she couldn't ignore the unease deep within her.

There was a calm, and they still didn't understand what it was. There were no natural disasters, no signs of chemical warfare, no evidence of mass illness. Just… nothing.

Her gaze shifted to the small group of survivors who had been greeted by the three others, all of them looking confused and nervous. Aaron, the ex-soldier, was sitting sharpening a knife, his eyes constantly scanning the surroundings. His distrust of everyone was noticeable, though Emilia couldn't blame him.

Diana, their unspoken leader, was on the rooftop, watching. She hadn't said much since their arrival, but her determination was evident in every move she made. The youngest, a teenage boy named Mark, was fiddling nervously with a radio that hadn't picked up a signal in days.

"I'll go check the lab again," Emilia said, her voice breaking the heavy silence. Aaron groaned, barely paying attention to her, as Mark gave her a hopeful look that maybe, just maybe, she would find something to make all of this go away and save them.

Downstairs, the lab was as cold and sterile as ever. Rows of computers and monitoring equipment lined the walls, each trying in vain to make sense of the unfathomable. Sitting at her workstation, she began running the same programs she had been using for the past few days, hoping for any new data, any anomaly that might give her a clue.

Nothing.

The "Quiet" wasn't like anything she had ever seen before. It didn't behave like a disease, nor did it affect everyone the same way. Some people vanished without a trace, while others, like her group, seemed to be immune for now. What terrified her most wasn't the people who disappeared, though. It was the way the world around them was changing, becoming something…else.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. Diana appeared at the door, her expression as calm as ever.

"Did you find anything?" she asked in her clipped, professional.

"I didn't find anything, but I'm still looking," Emilia replied, not bothering to hide her frustration. "No patterns, no signs. Just… silence."

Diana nodded, leaning against the doorframe. "We can't wait much longer. Supplies are running low, and the others are getting restless."

Emilia sighed, rubbing her temples. "I know. But going out there… I don't think it's safe."

"There is no safe place," Diana said simply, "but we have to move soon, before this thing gets to us too."

A shiver ran down Emilia's spine. "Quiet" was coming to them, that much was certain. And if they didn't figure out what it was or how to stop it, there would be no one left to remember what the world was like before.