Alone

Chapter 1

Brad wasn't getting much sleep. He always woke up a lot in the middle of the night and randomly when he I didn't want to. Tonight his goal was to sleep through the night and have a good rest. First he had some hot milk and then he went to bed.
He started counting sheep. 1,2,3,......45,46,47......98,99,100......176,177,178,......291,292,293,......339,340,341. He was so tired so he just fell asleep. It felt like seconds just before he woke up.
Somebody had turned the light on. Brad didn't feel like telling somebody to turn the light off, because that would wake him up even more. The light was still on. "Somebody turn the light off." He said in a sleepy voice. The light was still on.
"Somebody turn the light off." He said again. The light was still on. "I said, somebody turn the light off!" He said it was still on. "That's it." He said. He got out of bed but found that the light was not on; it was coming from outside.
An intense bright light was coming through the curtain cracks and it was so bright that it lit up his room and made it look like the light was on. Brad pulled aside his curtains and looked out the window. He was almost blinded by bright light. He closed the curtain immediately.
Through the crack, he saw shadows moving. The shadows looked very familiar. Then he thought he saw some kind of square and the light disappeared. Then he saw something get smaller and smaller as it went up into the air. Everything seemed almost back to normal, though it looked much darker because of the light.
Was it a dream? Yes it was a dream. How could of that happened? Brad thought he needed to go back to sleep, so he went down into the kitchen. Then he saw something weird. The second hand on the clock wasn't moving. They were stuck at 3:25. He wanted to make some warm milk, so he got some milk, poured it in his cup, and then went to the microwave. It was blinking 12:00... 12:00... 12:00...
Then when the milk was finished heating up, Brad drank it. He felt like something was missing. Oh yes, Jack his dog was missing. He was usually sleeping in the kitchen. "Jack!" He called. "Come here." Jack didn't come. "Come on Jack!" He said. Still no answer.
I need to tell my brother, Mark about this Brad thought. So he went up to Mark's room. "Mark!" He said. No answer. Brad was jealous that Mark was such a sound sleeper. "Mark!" Brad said again. Still no answer. Then he went to Mark's bed. He wasn't there.
Maybe he went out on a walk with Jack, Brad thought. Then he saw Mark's shoes. He went out on a walk with no shoes with Jack in the middle of the night?! Brad thought. I need to tell mom and dad. He walked over to their room. "Mom, dad." Brad said. "Mark went out on a walk with Jack with no shoes." No reply. He checked their bed. They were gone.
Maybe they had gone to the Jones' house. They were Brad's neighbors. Mrs. Jones was sick so maybe they were helping her. But why in the middle of the night?
Brad rang the Jones' doorbell. Ding dong! No answer. So he tried knocking on the door. Nobody came. Then he found that the door was unlocked. They usually kept their door locked at night.
He walked in the house. "Mrs. Jones!" He called out. He knew Mrs. Jones couldn't get out of bed because she was sick. He checked her bed. She wasn't there.
Brad went to the other neighbors. He didn't know them as well as he knew Mrs. Jones, but he knew they had cats. The cats were usually sleeping on the windowsill or playing in the backyard, but they weren't there. He knocked on the door. There was no answer. He tried opening it and found that their door was also unlocked. "Hello!" He said. Nobody answered.
Brad did that to every house on his street, but with no luck. He kept walking down the street, panic starting to well up inside him. By the time he reached the highway, the Sun was starting to rise. There were still lots of cars on the road, but there was nobody in them and they were all stopped. He walked, then ran between the silent cars, SUV's and trucks. In desperation, he jumped up onto the top of a car. He yelled, "Is anybody out here?" He could hear the echo. "Out here, out here, out here, out here?" "Or am I the last one on earth?" "On earth, on earth on earth, on earth?" There was no reply. All was silent.