He would've sat there for an hour but he simply couldn't as time was no longer what it used to be, he was still alive though even in this desolate world.

Time flowed through him and his heartbeats became the new unit of time in this distorted world.

It would've been night by now if the sun moved, so it was still 3 in the evening, the sun shining brightly, covered only by the occasional clouds. However, for a night owl like Ralph, this was just another bad news. He was drenched with sweat and couldn't continue to move this way and the weight of things on his head was too much for him at the time.

He threw the drenched clothes and took another pair to the shower, he needed to cool down both his body and his emotions.

He had too many thoughts in his head but to not get overwhelmed, he decided not to at the moment.

The weakness hit him and he sat down on the floor as the shower cooled him down, After a good while he got out, changed his clothes, and with heavy steps walled up to his bed and collapsed.

For his sedentary lifestyle that jogging around the town was too much, he woke up to feel hunger pangs and his dry throat, complimented by muscle aches all over his body. It was a good thing that he fell on the bed or he wouldn't have the time to think about these things.

He gave a weak smile as he looked at the stairs that he had to use to get to the ground floor using his broken body.

When he drank a jug of water and ate an entire bowl of ice cream, in that order, he finally had the strength to analyze his circumstances.

When he thought about it, he realized that he knew very little about this world, so much had changed in a single day.

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All living things except trees and himself seem to have disappeared, Clocks all over the house stopped working at the same time, even those that weren't electric, The Sun seems like it didn't want to make way for the night anymore.

Where had all the people disappeared to? They couldn't just have disappeared into thin air but then again, they might have.

This thought made his heart ache, His last words to his parents hadn't been very lovely. He had even decided to apologize when he met them next time but how could he now? This thought stabbed him again and again till he was unable to think anymore.

He sat there crying when he thought about how he could no longer see them. He controlled himself to not be consumed by his wallowing, it didn't work very well as he stood there for a long while.

After he straightened up, he filled his bag with a water bottle, some food, and other bags. He went through the neighborhood to look for others and in the meantime, gathered food from their homes and put it in his bag, stuff that wouldn't be rotten for some time, he would eat that till he could cook.

This continued for several thousand heartbeats he finally gathered enough to last a few weeks.

Although unnecessary, Ralph faced unknown circumstances and it was better to be safe than sorry as he didn't want to go grocery shopping now and then, and walk long distances to reach the supermarket.

He sat down and decided to make a list of all the new things he learned from the trip he made.

NOTES:

1 Cars found slammed into poles with no one inside and belts strapped as if they disappeared mid-drive.

2 While it feels like time has stopped it doesn't make sense that electricity still runs through wires, theoretically, it shouldn't have been possible for the charge to flow.

3 Was it only him in the whole world?

This still couldn't be verified yet.

All of this seemed like something far more sinister was at work.

For all that was different or weird, he still had to survive and gain information if he wished to escape his fate.

Ralph had to learn how to drive if wanted to find out more and hopefully find more people, dead or alive.

Safety wasn't always in numbers but after being stranded most people would still search for other humans.