Chapter 6

THE PIT IN MY stomach only grew as we passed every empty house in that neighborhood.

Not one person in sight nor any signs of life.

No cars passing by, no bikers, no joggers, no elderly people having their usual morning walks and no kids playing in their driveways which is the usual scene I often witness every time I came to visit Corrine. No dogs barking, no squirrels playing around in the trees, even the chirping of the birds are missing.

There are no people, no animals, no nothing.

Though this town is typically quiet and peaceful at times, this one seemed different. It's a new type of silence. More extreme compared to the ones we observe inside a public library or during a class having a midterm exam that equivalents noisy to cheating, so the students are forced to be quiet as they answer their exams.

This type of muteness is deafening, making me feel agitated and restless.

For a second there, I find it hard to believe that Mongrove has suddenly turned into one of those rumored ghost towns circulating the internet. Like the one in Japan where dolls inhabited the village in replace of real people or the ones in Arizona, a town deserted by its inhabitants and was left in ruins.

Realizing this now, questions, lots of them, pondered in my head, ringing in my ear.

What the hell is going on?

This is like that zombie series that took us long enough to finish. The protagonist suddenly woke up afters years of being in a coma and found his city wrecked and deserted and totally plagued by the undead. So far, we haven't seen any zombies. At least not yet. Hopefully, we'll never see one 'cause being eaten alive isn't the best way to die.

We finally reached town and it made no difference. It had the same emptiness to it.

The very first time I arrived at the small town of Mongrove, Portland, I remembered the bustling streets, the townspeople passing by with their bought goods, a couple enjoying an afternoon coffee at Cafe Helena's and a bunch of kids excitedly running towards the arcade.

All of the things that I've observed on my first day which now the town lack thereof.

The scene was so creepy and mystifying, one can not even came up with a rational explanation for this.

I see stores with their open signs hanging behind glass doors, a hotdog cart with burnt hotdogs on the grill, a car with its doors left wide open, and a half-eaten dinner at another restaurant nearby. We even came by to the police station earlier and surprise, surprise, no one's on duty.

It's like people just stopped doing what they're doing and left or something.

"So what now?" Leon asked with his mouth full of Cheetos he nicked from Helga's cupboards.

"I honestly don't know. . . " I muttered.

"We can't ask help from the police or anyone for that matter. Hell, I can't even contact my Mom." Elli whined. "She's usually up by now and she doesn't even answer my texts."

"Mine, too." Terrence waved his phone nonchalantly.

I bit my lower lip as I checked my phone to see whether my Mom had replied to my attempts of getting a hold of her but there was none.

I'm beginning to get worried.

You know that strange sensation you feel in your gut when you wake up in the morning, thinking that this is going to be a rough day? Or at just a particular time of the day where butterflies fill your belly but you know it's not the good kind of feeling? Like the time when you were nervous for your first day at your new school or when you are about to pitch for a championship baseball game.

It's that kind of feeling though even more intense.

"Hey guys, here's a thought.. . " Leon popped another Cheeto in his mouth. "What if this is a world parallel to ours and we were kidnapped by a mythical being and the only way for us to get back in our world is to do a quest for that mythical being like the ones in the--"

"Anime you were watching?" I raised a brow.

He thought for a moment as if thinking about the idea deeply before grinning and say, "Yeah" rather enthusiastically.

I made a face. Two years ago, Leon discovered the wonders of watching Japanese cartoons. Since then, he was completely hooked. Maybe that's why he has come up with this crazy parallel world crap. In my opinion, he watches too much anime.

"Leon, how many times do I have to tell you, this is the real deal. Not just something straight out of an anime-cartoon-whatever you always watch."

"But it could be." Leon wiggled his eyebrows in excitement. "And it's not a cartoon, it's called anime! There's a big difference."

I rolled my eyes. Whatever.

"We should try and find out what's really happening here." I suggested, now completely annoyed. "It's the only way for us to get some answers."

"How?" Terrence asked. "Every channels are in static which means we can't acquire any news or information and the phone lines are dead."

I didn't reply. To be honest, even I don't have an idea where to start.

It was Leon who thought of looking it up on the internet, the first idea he suggested that was actually useful. Better than his anime-based theories. We went inside the local library to use the computers. The local library was a small establishment with a beat-up air conditioning creating a jarring noise. Other than that, it was so quiet you can hear a pin drop. It was a librarian's dream come true.

It took us a few hours to do research and so far nothing. No news, no tweets, no new posts, not even a status update which is unlikely in this generation where internet and social media is the norm. Most people can't live without the internet nor can they ignore the itch of posting, reposting or ranting in Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. It's like the whole world suddenly just stopped moving.

Then, a thought occurred to me. If this town has mysteriously lost its residents overnight and it is safe to assume that in some places or others countries or even the whole world, had suffered the same fate. . .

Are we really the only ones left?

I mean, is it even possible for the seven billion human population in the world to just decimate overnight? Needless to say, we are the only remaining people in the whole planet.

That idea scared me. Right now, my palms are getting sweaty and my heart is pounding. I fidgeted in my seat. I gaze at my friends, their game faces on and determined to find some answers, dread washed over me with the thought of telling them might trigger the same feeling I'm feeling right now. I engaged myself into an arguement soliloquy with the other more reasonable side winning. So I kept it to myself for now and continued to search for something on the internet that may or may not debunk my theory.

Now, the thought of aliens invading our planet and abducting the human population can be a reasonable theory. Even Leon's idea of us getting kidnapped and thrown off into a parallel world without any habitants than us doesn't sound so far-fetched anymore. For all we know, Leon's theory might be correct.

Well, take note that there's no assurances to that.