I had left two phones recording. Each recording was just under 9 hours. They had been recording while I slept. I wanted to record anyone or anything walking through the rear yard or the street in front of the house. But the videos showed no movement other than the trees.

From the video, it was also clear the sun had still not moved from its position high in the sky. The thought of that made me feel…I can’t describe it, fear? Worry? Horror? Apprehension? Dread? Panic? I can’t explain it. Try to find a large tub, throw in a lot of fearful emotions, then mix them for an hour or two. That should equate to my current emotional state of mind.

While scrolling through the video, I also thought about what could cause something like this; but found myself lacking rational ideas.

I am an electronics engineer. Ask me to write some code or build circuits. That I can do. But I know very little about the planets and their orbital dynamics around the sun. I know the standard stuff, that the earth goes around the sun, along with the other planets, and that some planets have moons that go around them in turn….

‘The Moon,’ I thought.

Usually, you don’t see the moon in daylight. But could it be? What if the moon was ripped out of the Earth’s orbit? Could that cause the earth to slow down its spin to such a degree that the sun would appear to stand still in the sky?

Useless speculation, I thought. I don’t have enough information.

I packed my stuff, loaded the cart, put on my backpack, put a leach on Sam, and set off toward the town’s station.

***

I was standing on the sidewalk of a street intersection, flabbergasted at the sight before me.

We had been walking for almost 5 hours, taking a break here and there, and I had just packed away Sam’s water bowl and was looking down a street, hoping not to spot a bus stop in the distance. No such luck; All three roads had stops, which meant I was forced to guess again which one led to the station. I double-checked the bus schedule to ensure that one of the road names of the current intersection was not on it and got irritated when it was not.

When we first set out from the bus stop I had taken the schedule from, we were seventeen stops from the station. I estimated we could get there in a few hours. Yeah, I was wrong about that estimate. Even though I take the bus to and from work every week, I had forgotten that some bus stop names; were not always the name of the street the stop was on. It could be the side street it was next to, a bicycle lane or path going between buildings, or the name of a school. With a few bus stops, I walked far down long streets only to find it was the wrong road and stop, then had to go back and try another street. One stop took over an hour to find, as I had to walk through several side streets to find the correct stop. I still don’t know what that bus stop was named after.

‘Well, I’ll try straight ahead this time,’ I told myself. Of course, I had been wrong before, but there was still a 1 in 3 chance it was the correct road.

As I turned around to retrieve the cart handle, I stopped as my attention was drawn to what lay before me.

“You lazy…” I said while looking down at Sam.

She had climbed onto the cart and was lying on the blankets covering the food, water, and other supplies.

“And what do you think you are doing? Do you expect me to pull you around? “ I said jokingly while staring down at her.

She did not move, her eyes just gazing up at me. Then, finally, after a few seconds of our little stare-down, her tail started to wag.

“Dammit, you win,“ I said, smiling, scratched her head, then took the cart handle.

“Next time, it’s your turn. Then I can nap while you pull the cart. Who am I kidding? We'll probably end up in Albuquerque with you leading the way. “

***

So, I broke into another house. This time it was not to sleep for the night. I say night, but the sun has yet to move from what I can tell. So, I should have said, sleep for the unending day. I had broken into this lovely little home, not to sleep but because I was a bit miffed. Oh, you don’t know what miffed means? It means Irritated, Annoyed, Upset, Frustrated, and Displeased, among others. Anyway, I was in this house because I was a bit miffed, and I really had to use the toilet, nature’s call, and all.

Sitting here on my thrown, I was contemplating again if I should get a car to drive around in. But after a minute, I again discarded that idea. I had seen a few flipped and crushed cars, and one looked like it had been peeled open. Recalling that memory sent a shiver down my body. There was nobody in it, just a lot of blood. I figure, by the looks of it, the troll must have taken whoever had been in that car.

We arrived at the bus station half an hour ago. But even before I got there, it became apparent that this was not the city’s central station. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. When I first saw the bus schedule, it read.

Maytown Bus Station

I read it as Maytown station and thought, ‘YAY, I need to go there,’

I figured from that name that it was the main bus terminal in the city. It is not. The central bus station is called.

City Center Station

If I had checked more bus schedules as we passed each stop, I would have seen a stop called City Center Station on some of them. But I had become annoyed, going down the wrong roads to incorrect stops. So, I started to look only for the bus number route I was following and skipped the other schedules.

At least something good has come out of this trip. I found a map. At first, I was disheartened, as it was one of those maps with lines of different colors to show where to go. I don’t know what these types of maps are called. But it shows where public transport intersects and such, but not all city street names like a real map. When I looked at it again, I saw it had the names of stops and a few extra notes about the areas. It showed where the hospital, police, and fire departments were, as well as stadiums and other public places like it. When I stepped back, I found it gave a general overview of the city with a simplified road layout for the different bus lines.

I spent the next 30 seconds trying to get the map out of its frame and was about to get the mighty crowbar and go all half-life on it. When a single brain cell lit up and reminded me, I have a phone with a camera. So, I did the boring thing and took some pictures, which I was currently viewing on my phone, trying to decide what path to take to the police station. It appeared to be further away than the bus route I had just followed. But, using this somewhat useful map, I should be able to get there without too many detours.

‘Well, time to stop moping and continue my little journey.’ I thought to myself. Half a minute later, I was getting off my throne, only to stop a second later as I was losing my balance. My left leg had fallen asleep. Two seconds after that, I was lying on the bathroom floor, feeling my leg tingling and starting to hurt from the slightest movement. I looked down at my left leg while trying not to move it.

“You are my favorite left leg. But, if you keep falling asleep on me like this, we're going to need to have a serious discussion about our future working relationship. “ I said in a slightly pained voice.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

***

We had been walking for hours. Well, I had been walking, and Sam had been napping on the cart. When we came upon a supermarket, I hoped to find more water bottles inside, so we strolled up to it. I took out a flashlight and peered in through one of the windows, trying to light up the inside. It appeared as if this store had not been looted. There were bottles along a wall, along with snacks and other stuff you would usually find at the front of a store.

SLAM

I jumped back, tripping and landing on my ass, quickly fumbling for the gun on my belt; while still staring at the window. I used my other hand to aim the flashlight, pointing it at the store window. On the other side of the windows security gate was a giant rat, and it was angry.

The rat stared at me, growling, then lunged at me, only to be stopped by the window’s security gate. I quickly stood up, pointing both my flashlight and gun at it, when another rat slammed against the window, then another.

I stepped back, my heart starting to race even more. There were a lot of those things inside that store. I saw something to my side and flinched, only to realize it was Sam. She ran up to me at high speed, then immediately started barking at the rats inside the store. To my surprise, they ran away from the window. I was elated for a brief second until I realized.

‘They must know how to get out of the building,’ the thought terrifying me.

I took off with Sam by my side, turned around the corner where I had left the cart, gripped the handle, and started to run. I kept glancing back, fearing the rats would catch us.

We ran for kilometers before I finally had to slow down, and after a few more minutes stopped to rest and catch my breath. I was still clenching the revolver in my right hand, expecting those rants to appear at any moment. I walked over to a bench and sat down, Sam jumping up on my left side and putting her head on my lap. I started stroking her, more to try to calm myself; than to calm her… What is… Can it….

“What the fuck is going on in this city” I blurted out in a scared tone.

I sat there, my mind racing, then glanced at the cart. Why was it here? Why did I run to get it? That was stupid. The rats could have gotten us. I could have run faster without dragging it along. I just sat there berating myself, wondering again why I did not just run or shoot those rats. What had prevented me from pulling the trigger?

I continued to run the events through my head for a few more minutes, then forced myself to stop and took out my watch. It was close to 20.00. I glanced up at the sky.

“Are you ever going to move?” I asked the sun. It did not reply.

I pulled out my phone and examined the map photos, and a moment later, I knew roughly where I was. I looked down at Sam and then thought for a moment. I could keep going, but if there were more of those rats around, I would rather rest up and gather my strength for today than keep going and run while tired from those things.

I was maybe an hour or so away from the police station. If I walked in the correct direction, I would get there faster, but I knew by now that would not happen. There were dead-end streets and other roads that did not have connections to where I wanted to go. Locating a better map was a high priority at this point.

I got up and started to walk a bit. I wanted to find a place to relax and recharge. There were apartments around me, but they usually only had one exit. And given the rat problem in this city. I would prefer a house with more than one exit.

***

I have a fear of heights. But to my amazement, my desire to figure out what the hell is going on in this city was stronger. I was currently sitting high up high in the cabin of a construction crane overlooking part of the city. This lovely crane was taller than most buildings within a few kilometers, and I must admit, the view was lovely. I had climbed up here to take some photos of the city’s layout, to help better navigate this transportation map. But, I was, though, having a slight problem. For the last five, maybe ten minutes, I had been stuck up here. Why was I stuck, you ask? Well, each time I attempted to crawl down, my legs turned to Jello, and I started to shake. See? Not a big problem. As long as I don’t look down, that is.

An hour later, I was breaking into a house I had spotted from the crane. This house caught my attention because of the solar panels on its roof. A few seconds after entering the home, I flipped a light switch.

‘Yes, power,’ I thought while sporting a smile. I first scoured the home for USB chargers and then set the power banks I had collected to charge, along with the phones. I placed one phone in the back and one on the front road to record like the night before. I then checked the home’s freezer. It was still running and had food in it. So I set some of it to warm while I worked.

I then went to the cart and took out a HAM radio I had taken from a house a few hours ago. My father had a HAM radio, and I could remember a bit of what he had taught me as a kid. I placed it on the kitchen table, grabbed a long wire I had found at a construction site, and went outside to the backyard. I walked over to the flagpole at the end of the yard and hoisted the wire to the top of the pole. I then stretched it back to the house’s back door.

I hooked everything up. I double-checked that the monopole antenna had ground and was hooked up correctly, hoping I had remembered everything. I turned it on, and it lit up. I then stuffed a chicken leg in my mouth and started going through channels.

A few hours later, I had given up. I had scanned the frequencies manually in the hope of finding any signal. I even extended the wire to the next yard and climbed a tree to get it high enough. After that, I removed 1/4 of it and rechecked the channels. I then made it half its original length to see if that was the issue—still nothing.

I turned off the radio, double-bagged the food waste, entered the bedroom, and changed the bed covers. A few minutes after that, I was out cold.

***

I awoke more or less flying out of bed. Sam was standing looking all confused at me. It took me a second before my brain finally emerged from sleep mode. Realizing I might have had a nightmare. I sat down on the edge of the bed as Sam approached me, so I gave her a little attention.

About thirty minutes later, I had just finished rechecking channels on the HAM radio and was disappointed to still not find any signal. Then went and got the food off the stove. Next, I went through the video recordings on both phones. Yeah, the sun was still not moving, and the shadows had stayed in the same spot through the over 8 hours of video recordings, with only the leaves moving. Then, just as I was about to stuff a meatball into my mouth, I froze. The Camera had moved.

I dropped the meatball and rewound the video. Forty minutes from the end of the video, the camera moved, along with the leaves and branches outside the front of the house. I went 30 seconds back again and let it play in real time. I heard a loud bang as the trees and camera moved.

I got up and ran outside, looking up and down the street. I could see nothing out of the ordinary. I ran to the house garage looking for a ladder, but there was none. Then went a house over and looked through their garage window. No ladder.

“What kind of houses don’t have a ladder, “ I said, annoyed.

I wanted to get on the roof to look over the other buildings. I went to the next house but could not see inside the garage. It was locked with no windows. Then, just as I was about to run to the next one, it started to rain. I looked up and could not see a single cloud. Within a minute, it began to pour. I turned around and started to run back to the house I was staying in. It was like the heavens had opened up the floodgates.

I was soaked by the time I got back. I looked down at myself. I was dripping wet. I took off my clothes and hung them to dry over some chairs. Then went back to the kitchen to rewatch the video and see if more sounds were further back in the recording. Where was Sam?

“Sam,” I said in a loud voice. But she did not appear.

“Sam, come here, “I said in a nervous voice.

Had she run out after me? Was she still outside? I started to feel worried. But just as I was about to run out in the heavy rain, she poked her head around the doorway to the bedroom.

“What are you doing? “ I asked her.

She had a head lowered and a fearful look. Wait, I know that look. I looked over at the kitchen table where I had been sitting before I ran out. I first saw the gun on top of the HAM radio, then took a few steps towards the table and noticed they were missing.

I turned around and walked towards Sam.

“You little thief,” I said with great annoyance.

Sam took off back into the bedroom. That little thief had eaten my meatballs.

Waiting for the rain to stop, I packed everything into the cart and backpack while more meatballs from the freezer were heating up. I was contemplating going back to the crane. It was not far away. But the thought of climbing back up in that thing…

With that sound or, rather, shockwave on the video, I needed to see if something exploded. And if there was a fire, that could spell trouble for me if it spread. I did not want to go up there again, but it was the only way I could see over a large part of the city. Maybe I could find helium tanks somewhere, blow up some balloons, and have a phone recording under them. That would give me a panoramic aerial view like a…

I slammed my head against the table. Then hit it again and again and again…

A couple of hours later, I was sitting on the ground outside an electronics store smiling to myself. At the same time, a drone was flying above me.

When I was younger, I flew model planes that ran on gas. But luckily for me, drones have batteries, and they are sold in many stores. The city might not have power, but some homes do, and I can recharge them there.

I continued my trek toward the police station. The drone helped me navigate the city streets. If I became unsure of which road to take, I just let the drone fly high and look at the aerial view. It was only an hour later that I froze in panic.

I had found the troll.