Chapter 1: Disappearance and Death

It had been twenty-four hours since the object was supposed to hit the Earth but is now fully orbiting the moon. I wasn’t smart enough to understand what was going on, and in fact, no one on Earth admitted to understanding it.

My mother and I had holed ourselves up in the house relying on the food we had in the fridge and just praying that no one was sick enough to light our apartment on fire. The gunfire outside had died down, but smoke could clearly be smelled on the wind.

“Horace, we’re running out of food.” My mother says worriedly after exploring the fridge.

“We have enough for two more days if we include the snacks in the pantry. We just need to wait for everything to stabilize before we go outside. I’d rather not be shot by some crazed lunatic because I wanted to eat a full proper meal.”

“We’re young, we need to eat proper meals.”

“I’m young; you’ll be fine.” I sigh at my mother as she scowls.

Our interactions have been like this my whole life as far as I can remember back. We acted more like siblings than mother and son, and I think that’s why we’ve managed to stay sane through all the tough times.

I was hoping that some sort of normalcy would return, but I knew that wouldn’t be the case. The news channels had been full of reports of mass killings and suicides. So much death caused by the potential end of the world and all of it was unnecessary.

“Horace, are you alright, you’ve been staring at the TV for the past ten minutes and its not even on anymore.” My mother gently sits down beside me on the couch.

“Yeah, it’s just… what do we do now?”

“We do what we’ve always done, Honey. We keep going forwards with both our feet, one step at a time.” She wraps her arms around me, trying to comfort me.

There was ringing on our phones, with the TV turned off, the alert didn’t hit it.

“National Alert: NASA has said they are sending probes to this new celestial object. Initial measurements say that this object that we thought was a rock has a near zero mass, and therefore should not affect tides nor lunar cycles.

Scientists are unaware of how such an object could possibly exist.

Due to the unreasonably high amount of crime, there is a government lockdown effective immediately. Please do not leave your homes for any reason until military personnel have cleared your respective cities and tallied deaths.

Stay strong and live long.”

My mother and I just give each other a weak smile. There was nothing more to do than just wait around for the military to clear everything.

“Well, I guess since there isn’t anything better to do.” My mother stands up and walks over to the drawer under the TV cabinet.

“I don’t want to play monopoly this time.”

“Why? Worried that your mother will beat you?”

“Oh, your on.” I give her a nasty smile as we set up the game to pass some time.

……

…

Five days had passed since then, and we were finally allowed to resume our somewhat normal lives. My mother was called back into work, and the pizza joint I worked at shut down because the owner was now in prison for killing tens of people.

I did get a payout from the government in this case, but as expected, many people who are still alive got these money handouts and the economy is not looking good. I just had to pay twenty dollars for a litre of milk.

The shelves were also barely stocked in the grocery store, most people having stolen most of the goods. I kind of regretted my pacifist attitude in this moment, now that everything was unfolding the way it was. I should have gone out and stolen a good supply of food.

The streets were filled with crews of people working to clear debris and wrecked cars. Some buildings had been lit of fire and collapsed from the damage. Every now and then you would see a corpse in the piles of debris or slumped over in a car.

At first it was shocking, but after a few days it just becomes commonplace to see someone else dead. The running statistic is twenty percent of the world’s population had died, either by killing themselves or from others selfishly fulfilling their desire to kill others in the collapse of society.

Even though the giant rock hadn’t collided with earth, it was still a world ending disaster because of the people. It was infuriating, sad, yet somehow also expected. We all knew that the cause of the world ending would be the people that lived on it, it had been theorized since the dawn of man that we would ruin ourselves.

Tomorrow, I’ll get a job to earn some more money for the rapidly increasing price of everything. Hopefully, it would all go back to normal with time, but my pessimistic thoughts told me otherwise. At least I was physically strong, so maybe getting a job as a member of cleanup would be good.

Then again, that’s only a temporary job, I’ll have to find something more stable as time goes on. There won’t be cities to clean forever. Maybe I could just open a restaurant of my own, as property prices will probably fall once the dust settles and people realize that there is a lot of empty space with all these people gone.

“Horace! Great news!” My mother comes rushing in the door, full of excitement.

“What?” I stand up from the couch, excited for my mother.

“I got a double promotion! My direct boss died, and his boss went to prison, so I got that spot. They promised that as long as I stay with the company for five years, they’ll give us as much money as we need to get through this tough time!”

“That’s amazing, I’m so happy for you mom!” I run over and give her a hug.

“You don’t have to worry anymore; we can move into a big house together… We can live our dream lives out.” She hugs me tightly, starting to cry.

……

…

Five months passed, and everyone was now used to the second purple moon in the sky.

Scientists still have absolutely no idea what it is, as probes that get near it either mysteriously disappear, or are destroyed and sent back into the atmosphere suddenly. Additionally, the amount of people that had died or disappeared totalled to nearly forty-five percent of the world’s population, much higher than the initial estimates.

Even though it was caused by humans, it has been labelled as a mass extinction event. We’re still feeling the effects now, after all the dust has settled. Most major cities have already been cleaned enough to call them liveable.

“Horace, I know it’s hard, but you need to stop watching the news.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to be late for work.” I sighed as I turned off the TV.

“I can’t believe you took this job, are you sure you want to do this?”

“No, but with how the world is changing, I can’t just hold still and let the world keep on moving without me. One step at a time with both my feet, remember?”

“Still, you’re going to be out searching for missing people and corpses… its hard work, not just physically.” My mother puts a hand on my shoulder, clearly worried about me.

“It’s fine, I can take care of myself. Besides, the money is too good to pass up, plus I get money for every unidentified person I find.”

“Alright, fine. Go, before you’re late.” My mother just shakes her head as I rush out the door after putting on my shoes.

I make my way to the newly opened military outpost near the edge of the city. It takes roughly twenty minutes to walk all the way there from my apartment. We already completed orientation, so this should be my first real shift.

Upon arriving at the barren gray tent, I see the commanding officer who hired me.

“Horace, this way.”

“Sir, yes sir.” I give a quick salute and walk behind the officer.

“Thanks again for taking this position. It’s a heartless job, but a job that must be done. Prepare yourself, because we have to attend a debrief. There’s some information not being shared with the general public and is only being told to you because of your new position.”

“Are you sure? I just started a job, should I really be learning this information?”

“It’s relevant to your new job, so I would say so. Though, if it leaks out, you’re going to be the number one suspect. We’ll just track you down.” The officer states matter of factly.

“Understood.”

I obediently follow the officer towards the back section of a different tent, yet it was also a boring grey. Inside, there were many men in uniform all sitting around a table with stern looks on their faces. The atmosphere was solemn and depressing.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The officer I followed gestured to a chair at the end of the table. I felt extremely out of place in my red t-shirt and blue jeans with all these men in uniform.

“Horace Pliskin, thank you for coming on such short notice. Due to the nature of your new position, we are seeing you as a part of this military operation and thus deem it necessary to inform you of an ongoing situation.”

A deeply tanned man with a gruff voice speaks to me. It may be his voice, but it felt like it wasn’t going to be fun information that I was about to learn.

“What do you think of this situation as a whole?” The gruff voiced man asks me while staring into my soul.

“It’s an absolute tragedy, sir. So many people taking their own and others lives on a whim, now we’re left to clean up what’s left.” I told him my honest thoughts.

“Well spoken, Mr. Pliskin. I cannot agree more with your opinion, however, we’re here today to discuss something a bit more sinister. The new rock up there is probably a weapon from a civilization more advanced than ours.” The man pauses to gauge my reaction.

I think about it for a moment and come to the conclusion that it makes sense. A rapidly approaching object that suddenly stops beside our moon and seems to weigh virtually nothing. Probe missions have returned nothing as instruments fail close to the object.

“I see you aren’t all that shocked, but that’s still just a theory. There has been a massive surge of people going missing and some returning dead to the exact spots they were reported missing. What we’ve been doing is collecting data on these people, and everyone around the age of twenty-two to twenty-five and under seem to go missing and never return, same with people fifty and over.”

I look down at the table, staring into the wooden grains, hoping to see something that wasn’t there. Mentally trying to escape.

“Everyone between that age range disappears for a few hours at most and then returns where they were… deceased. Now, to pull this all together, we’ve strapped a few people in the age range of the people that return with some cameras that record vitals twenty-four seven. Once they are deceased the camera takes the last five hours of footage and stores it.”

“My new job must be to retrieve those cameras. Why not send military personnel or just have the data sent to you after they return.”

“We tried already.” The man hit his fist on the table and grit his teeth.

“I’m sorry.” I lower my head further.

“It isn’t something you can control. We can’t send military; the public already hates us. We don’t have enough non-uniformed men to send to this job. Additionally, any transmitting technology breaks down after these people disappear and any transmitting technology within ten meters. Hence you were hired, and you aren’t the first we’ve sent, but mysteriously, none are returning and refuse to talk to us when we track them down.”

“You’re hoping I will?”

“You’re the first that applied to the job of willingly looking for the deceased. Everyone else was hired under different pretexts and we’re hoping it is a difference of mentality that matters. On that note, we’ve prepared some equipment.”

Placed suddenly in front of me was a laundry list of items. First was a small laptop that looked to be lightly armored, then was a watch, along with several USB sticks. Then placed was a full bulletproof vest and a badge that said I was with Valencia Private Security.

“Everything but the laptop and USBs are for you to keep even after our contract with you is finished. Installed on the laptop is a program that will track the location of the cameras that have been triggered. Several of which are within city limits.

All we need you to do is insert the USB labelled ‘A’ into the camera on the deceased, then after the light goes green, put USB ‘B’ into the laptop, data will transfer automatically. After that, bring the laptop back to us. I don’t know if the others watched the footage, but just to be safe, do not, under any circumstances watch the footage that was recorded.”

“Understood.” I nod my head solemnly.

“Use the badge whenever necessary to enter secured buildings and residences. If misused, we will find you. We are letting you keep it in good faith that you will continue to help us after this is figured out.”

“Understood, sir!” I shout confidently.

I salute the man as I stand up, grabbing everything I was given. Putting the vest on and the gear into pockets where they all fit, including the small laptop into a pocket on the stomach of the vest.

“Godspeed, Mr. Pliskin. We will await your return.” The man salutes me back.

As I leave the tent, escorted by no one, my mind spins.

Why was I chosen, was it really just because I was the one who applied to do this? Was it really all that simple, or was there something I was missing here?

The rush of information left me with many questions, and very few answers. All I knew is I had a job that paid by the hour and gave a commission, so I better work hard. I wasn’t just looking for dead people, I was going to a location where there was a dead person…

This wasn’t anything like the orientation that was more like extended interviews and talking about the types of dead people I could find. I guess a few months really can change how someone thinks about death…

Fuck, I need to just hole up for a while after this one. I’m not cut out for all of this stuff I don’t think. Too much stress for my small mind to handle in such a short amount of time, but I was somehow managing to keep a hold on things for now.

I pull out the laptop as soon as I enter city limits and open one of two programs that had been installed on the laptop. Wait, how did the tracking work if transmitting technology stopped working within a radius of ten meters… it was probably a ‘last known location’ type of thing.

There were five locations I could head to that were all about the same distance from my current location. I would have loved to use a car, but most people stopped using them when gas prices raised by about a hundred times.

I picked a random one that seemed to be on a residential street.

Upon arriving, I see roughly six people standing on the lawn of the property I was supposed to be entering. A lot of them were crying and one was banging on the door with another on the phone with probably the police.

“Hello, Horace Pliskin with Valencia Private Security.” I flash my badge to the most composed looking person there.

“Please help, my brother… he signed up for this thing with the military and now hasn’t left his home for five days. This isn’t like him at all. He’s not even answering his door.”

The woman hugs me and starts crying. I quickly think of a way I can get into the home to grab the footage before these people see what I am doing. From the sounds of it, they blame the military for this since they don’t know the full picture.

“Don’t worry ma’am. Does your brother own this house?” I ask while patting the woman on the shoulder.

“Y-yes.”

“Alright, do I have permission to enter the premises to do a welfare check on your brother?”

“Yes! Please!” She lets go of me so I can enter the house.

“I am Horace Pliskin with Valencia Private Security; I have been told to enter the premises to do a welfare check on the resident. Please wait calmly outside while I enter the building!” I shout to the rest of the small crowd that had gathered.

The man knocking on the door backs away as I walk up to the door, and I try the handle. It turns as if to open, but the door doesn’t open. The deadbolt is probably locked.

I walk around the building and try the back door; it also appears to be locked. I want to get in non-destructively, but if I need to get in, I need to get in.

I walk around the house while checking for windows large enough to crawl through. Finding a large window that appears to lead into a bedroom, I take out the screen and try to push the window open. It works and I climb into the house with the family watching.

“I’ll clear the house and assess the situation. I will let you enter after that, please wait outside patiently.” After saying this loudly to the people outside and close the window, locking it discreetly.

Now for the mentally scarring part.

I searched the house for the man, hoping it wasn’t visually scarring in any way. I wasn’t given a description on what these dead bodies would look like, but from the sounds of it, it was hopefully going to be fully intact.

“Valencia Private Security! Anyone home?” I shout into the house as I check room by room.

I open the door to the bathroom, only to be greeted by a horrific stench of rotting body. It wasn’t like it had been months like some I had smelled, but this is the first one I get to see face to face as it begins to decompose.

I spot the camera mounted to their arm. It was a spherical camera with many different lenses to capture as much as possible it seems.

I steeled my mind as I get close to the camera and put the laptop on the counter beside the sink and launch the USB connect program.

First was ‘A’ into the camera itself.

On the side of the camera was a rubberized cover that nearly crumbled when I touched it. I carefully inserted the USB, failing the first attempt and flipping it. It quickly lights up red and starts flashing.

I just need to wait for it to turn green now.

It felt like an eternity before it finally turned green, and I plug USB ‘B’ into the laptop and watch as the program lights up with a file transfer notification. Two more minutes pass and the video file is transferred to the laptop.

I quickly pack everything up and look at the camera on the guy’s arm. I leave the band but take the camera and stash it in a pocket. These people hated the military already, if they knew that they recorded his death just to learn what was happening, I’m sure they would be furious.

I walk to the front door of the house and steady myself. This was going to be rough, and if the police are here already… I will have some explaining to do. Hopefully my badge will carry me out of this situation.

With one final deep breath I unlock and open the front door, looking at all six people and not seeing the cops yet, I don’t even hear any sirens yet. I look at all of them and finally speak.

“I’ve cleared the house, and other than me, I couldn’t find any source of forced entry. Unfortunately, he has passed away. Probably a few days ago. I’m so sorry.” I lower my head and place it on my chest.

Most of them break into tears while the oldest man there just grits his teeth. I let them all enter the house and as soon as the begin exploring, I make a fucking break for it. No time to think, I need to leave.

Before they even knew anything was wrong, I’m already gone around the corner. I was breathing heavily from the stress and exertion. I slowed my pace until I was at least four streets away from the house.

The sheer amount of time I had been running was insane, probably about five minutes of full force running. Adrenaline sure is scary. I checked my phone to see if it would work, as I hadn’t even thought about it getting destroyed in that ten-meter range.

Thankfully, it seemed to be fine now, and I could connect to the internet. Which means it was the body causing that interference, and not the camera which was still in my pocket. It felt so surreal that a human corpse could be causing a tangible effect on technology, what could that even mean?

I make my way back to the military camp to hand over the laptop. I don’t know if this is what they wanted, but I followed the tracker and the program told me it was a success. I also didn’t watch whatever video was transferred over.

It had only been a single hour since I left this compound earlier, but it felt like a lifetime.

“State your name and purpose.” A man standing at the entrance to the compound stops me, was this some sort of new procedure?

“Horace Pliskin, I’ve returned from a job and need to report to any commanding officer.”

“One moment please.” The man turns away and speaks something quietly into a radio.

I stand there awkwardly as the man keeps radioing back and forth. I only catch a few of his words as it seems he had an earpiece in. something about ‘suspicious’ and ‘asking for a commanding officer out of nowhere’.

“Alright, please follow me Mr. Pliskin.” The man speaks firmly.

I follow him as he leads me through the compound. It was a different route than the one taken this morning. I was brought to a much smaller tent that was opposite to the meeting tent I was in just an hour ago.

The man gestured for me to sit in a chair on the far side of the tent.

Without hesitating, I oblige the request and sit in one of two chairs in the tent. The other chair was across from mine at a small plastic folding table. The man quickly leaves me alone without saying another word, and I begin to get nervous.

“Mr. Pliskin, you’ve returned much earlier than expected.” The man with the gruff voice from this morning walks into the tent by himself and closes the flap that acted as a door.

“I won’t say it was an easy job, but I got it done. You guys contacted the police about me already, right, cause I did stumble on a distressed family while I was collecting the footage.”

“You shouldn’t need to worry about the police. Now, the laptop Mr. Pliskin.” The man sits at the table in the only other chair in the room.

I take the laptop out of the pocket on my vest and slide it across the table to the man. He stops it with ease and hesitantly opens it. While he does that, I also take out the pair of USBs and place them on the table, no longer needing them.

“Did you watch the footage?”

“You told me not to, so I didn’t.”

“Good, before you leave, let me take a look at what you’ve collected. It isn’t that I don’t trust you, you understand.” The man opens the video on the laptop, keeping the audio muted.

“I understand.” I nod my head knowingly as the man skips through the video, looking for the moment the camera caught what killed the man.

I wait patiently, knowing that I had done my job properly.

Slowly, the look of abject horror creeps onto the face of the man and he slams the laptop shut with so much force I thought it was going to go through the table.

“Mr. Pliskin… have you in any way tampered with the footage?”

“No sir, I wouldn’t dare.”

“Then…” The man pauses for an uncomfortable amount of time.

The silence went on for a full minute before the man closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He opens the laptop again and turns it to me after playing the footage from presumably just before something happened to the man.

It starts with the man on the toilet, exactly where I had found him in the bathroom. It looks as if he is humming a tune and playing along as some kind of conductor, without the audio, I can’t tell what’s going on at all.

Suddenly, the scenery shifts rapidly. Text flashes on the screen that alternates between ‘NOT YOU’ and ‘SEARCHING’. Then… the scenery finally stabilizes and there is a blue circle in the sky high above a purple hued rock…

The laptop closes as I realize that the man had died to the vacuum of space. He was transported by whatever this big space rock was into space and… he had no chance to fight back. Pulled from his life completely randomly by an object that was clearly searching for someone or something.

“What do we do?” I nervously ask the man.

“I report to those above me and wait for orders. For now… I don’t know. We’ll have the money and a bonus transferred to your account. Stay safe, Horace Pliskin…”

The man picks up the laptop and the USBs and walks out of the tent slowly.

The shock too my brain was too much to handle. I didn’t know what to make of the situation, and could only hope that I wasn’t next… my mother… she’s in the danger zone…

I rush out of the military compound and run home, not even thinking about anything more. Paranoia was destroying my mind as I rushed as fast as I could home. I couldn’t stop thinking about the worst-case scenario I sprinted up the stairs of my apartment building, nearly breaking down the door as I unlock it with my key.

“Horace, you’re home early.”

Without even responding I rush over to my mother and give her a big hug. I was so glad to see her still here… I was worried… it could happen at any time…

“Horace… what’s wrong honey. Did it all finally get to you? You can talk to your mom; I’ll support you as much as you need.”

“I’m sorry, Ma.” I couldn’t squeak out any more than that through my tears.

……

…

It took a few hours for me to calm down. The paranoia that had been running through my mind had culminated in a nasty way, causing all the emotions that I had been holding back over the last few months to rush forwards in a flood of tears.

“Now that you’ve had some time to calm down, what’s got you so worked up?” My mother asks me as she brings me over a soothing tea.

“The purple moon… its… its not just a rock.” I hesitate to tell my mother, knowing that she’ll think I’ve gone insane, but I need to get it off my mind.

“Honey, what are you talking about?”

“It… kidnaps people and kills them. The job… it was to find one of these people and recover footage. The moon… it’s alive or somewhat sentient or maybe machine.” I grab my head, knowing I sound like a crazy person.

“Horace… That’s not possible, Honey. Finish your tea and try to get some rest. I know it’s still light out, but you should at least try and sleep.”

“Yeah… you must be right.” I agree with my mother hesitantly… maybe it was all just a setup. I’ve heard crack theories that the military would do strange things to people to incite incidents… but to go this far…

I finish my tea and walk to my small bedroom.

Posters of old cars lined the walls, a plain black bedsheet greeted me as I fell face first onto my bed.

I was exhausted and just wished all of this craziness would end.

Just then I feel a falling sensation as everything around me starts to morph and twist. Panic tore through my mind as I shouted, but my voice wouldn’t come out.

“FOUND YOU.”

An extremely eerie voice runs through my surroundings and deep inside my mind.

“LOCATED.”

The word floods my vision as everything goes black, then quickly light floods my vision and I hear electrical buzzing all around me. The noise accented with mechanical whirring.

“Welcome to Landing Zone Five.” A loud feminine voice breaks through all the noise.

“What-” I look around in a panic, not understanding anything I was seeing.

“You’ve landed on the Space Station Xalarus, orbiting the star XA-Ignus. Welcome to the start of a new adventure!”