Alice couldn't sleep. Her neighbor's dog was barking nonstop while sirens could be heard coming from a park nearby. Something was happening outside.
In bed, looking at the ceiling, the young woman recalled her day at work. Arriving early, interviewing people, writing reports, being the last person to leave the building. She was exhausted; even at home she couldn't stop thinking about work. Alice was the perfect definition of a workaholic. She never had time for family or friends and her social life was nonexistent. However, that life style was necessary because she was, after all, the rising star of the best law firm in town… the only law firm in town - but this is a small detail Alice didn't really care about.
Unlike her desk in the office, her one bedroom apartment was a mess. The young woman didn't really consider her place a home. To her, the tiny apartment felt more like a dormitory or a hotel room.
While thinking about mundane topics of her seemingly uneventful life, she noticed all the noise coming from outside had stopped. No barking. No sirens. Nothing. Alice thought getting up to take a look, but ultimately she decided to go to sleep, after all, she had to wake up early and go to work the next day.
- - - -
Alice slowly opened her eyes. She couldn't see or hear anything. She got up and looked out the window. The streets were empty. She looked up and noticed the sky was completely dark, no signs of stars or the Moon. "That's weird," she said.
She looked at her cellphone. "Midnight? But that's when I went to bed." She tried to go online to check on the news. "Maybe this is some kind of rare astronomical phenomenon," Alice thought. But there was no Internet signal. She then proceeded to the living room hoping to find something on the television, but none of the channels were on air.
Looking at her apartment, dark and quiet, Alice finally said: "Something is not right." She grabbed a flashlight, put on some clothes as quickly as she could and went out. "Maybe a neighbor would know what was happening," Alice pondered. She knocked on the door of every resident in her building, but no one answered. She went back to her apartment and sat on the bed. The young woman tried to think about a reasonable explanation to what was happening, but after a few minutes of contemplation her practical mind gave up on trying to figure out the situation and decided to move; it was time to leave.
She wasn't sure about where to go since she didn't have any friends in the city, but she knew she had to find someone who could explain what was going on. After putting some of her stuff in a backpack, she got her car keys and drove to the nearest police station. "Maybe the cops know something."
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Alice arrived at her destination fifteen minutes later. She expected to find people on the streets during her short trip, but the city was empty. At the police station, no signs of life either. No cops, no guards, no help. The battery-powered radio at the station was still working, but her attempts to communication were in vain, she couldn't reach anyone; the radio, just like the Internet and her phone, was useless.
The gravity of the situation finally started to reach Alice. "What happened to everyone? Where did they go? What should I do?" Those were her thoughts as she sat on the cold floor of the police station, yearning for someone to find her.
- - - -
One hour had passed since Alice's last attempt to communicating via radio. She didn't know what to do or where to go. That entire situation seemed too surreal. Her only hope was that everything that had happened until that point had been only a dream. But the young woman knew she wasn't dreaming, she was a realist and for that reason her state of inertia didn't last for long; she was already considering her next move. "Where should I go next? That's gotta be something I can do!" she thought.
Not long after Alice started making plans in her head, she heard footsteps coming from the entrance of the police station. She immediately got up and went to see what it was. As Alice approached the main door, she saw the figure of a tall man with dark skin wearing military clothing.
Before she could say anything, the man pointed a gun at her and shouted: "Who are you? Identify yourself!"
With an unemotional look, Alice answered: "Dude, what you think you are doing?"
The man looked at her with a troubling expression. He wasn't expecting that kind of comeback. He pulled off his gun. "I'm Lieutenant Richard Armstrong. I'm with the 13th Royal Regiment of Fusiliers from the British Army. I was staying at a military base a few miles North of here for joint training exercises."
"A British army guy doing training in the US, huh?" said the young woman. "Well, my name is Alice. I came here hoping I could find some help."
"Any luck?" asked the man.
"No. There's no one in the station, and although their radio is still working, I couldn't reach anyone."
"Great," he sighed.
"By the look on your face, I can see the situation in the base is no different," guessed Alice.
"Yeah. I was in my room when I noticed things had become too quiet. I've searched the entire base, but everyone has just disappeared. Electricity and the radio were still working, but I couldn't contact anyone. That's why I came here."
The two of them looked at each other. They were both clueless about what was happening and didn't know what to say. Alice decided to break the silence: "At least we now we're not alone in this. Maybe we can find other survivors."
"Survivors?"
"Sorry."
"No, it's fine. It is true that we look like survivors."
"Well, you know what survivors do in the movies, right?" asked Alice.
"Yep, they band together."
The two newly self-proclaimed survivors agreed cooperate. After a short discussion, Alice and Richard decided that the best course of action would be to head to the military base. They thought they needed to rest for a while before making any important decision. They could also get some provisions from the base and prepare themselves for the journey they would soon have to go. It was clear that staying in that empty town wasn't a viable option. They had to go on and continue looking for other… survivors.