The Incident at Blackgrove

Chapter 7: The Incident, Pt.2 (The Aftermath)

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a house with something strange. The front door was ajar...and someone was standing in the doorway. I parked in front of the house and rushed over to the front gate. "Hello?" I called out. The figure didn't answer, nor did it stir at my sudden outburst. It just stood there, one hand on the doorknob, its features obscured by the darkness inside the house. Abandoning my manners in light of the current situation, I unlocked the gate and ran over to the front door.

My heart stopped once more. The figure at the door was a mannequin.

The mannequin was that of a man, perhaps middle-aged, wearing a sweater and slacks. It looked as if it were trying to leave the house. I gently removed the mannequin from the doorway and stepped inside, not thinking once about the odd feeling of entering a stranger's home. Behind the male mannequin was a haunting sight.

On the floor were three more mannequins. They seemed to be a mother and two children. The mother was sitting with her legs underneath her and her left arm outstretched towards the mannequin in the doorway. The two children were hugging the mother on either side. What happened here? Where were the people that lived in that house? Where was everyone, for that matter? I still hadn't put it together in my tired, groggy, and terrified state.

Next to the mannequins inside the house was a TV, which was on, but playing static.

Forgetting why I had come into town in the first place, I decided to see what had happened in the rest of the neighborhood and whether or not there were any survivors. I went door to door, knocking, receiving no answer, trying doorknobs that remained locked. I hadn't deigned to breaking in just yet, so I moved on. I reached a house that had somewhat see-through window curtains. I peered in as best I could and all I could see was a huddled group of silhouettes, unmoving. I kept staring, expecting them to move, but they never did. I felt incredibly unnerved at this point.

That morning felt so unnatural. I felt alone and watched all at the same time. I decided then to call 911, for what it was worth. I could hear my phone calling 911. It rang. And rang. And rang. And, as I expected, no one picked up. Instead, I got that same warbled jingle and an automated voice repeating the same message that played over the loudspeakers the night before. I guess it makes sense to have that message be what plays should no one pick up the phone. I decided I would have to try to go to the police station myself and see if I could find some help, but I didn't know where it was.

I drove to the town square and found a town directory. Getting out of the car, I felt the breeze go by me and some trash fly by. The emptiness of the town was imposing. I felt so helpless. I went on with my objective, unsure of whether or not it would really do any good. The town directory had a big star on it by the square that said "YOU ARE HERE." I looked around for a police station, and thankfully there was one nearby, just a few blocks away.

Once I got to the police station, I found that the doors were locked, like most everyone else's. This was the point where I realized that NOT breaking and entering wasn't as important as getting help, so I found a big rock nearby and used it to break the glass on the door. Entering the police station, I finally realized how futile my situation really was. Every single police officer in the building was a mannequin. All in uniform, the mannequins stood more or less by their desks in a normal standing pose. Some looked as if they were midway between points, posed as if they were running somewhere. It was frozen chaos.

I slowly progressed through the dark station, feeling like the lone survivor of some horrible apocalypse. The relative silence throughout the station, save for the ticking clock and ambient sounds, felt like its own entity, pushing me down. The frozen in place mannequins were like ghosts on unholy grounds. In the back of the station, there was a long hallway. The lights in the hallway were off and the light that came in was from the windows behind me. It was dark, but from what I could see, several mannequins were on the other end. They looked as if they were running away from the door on the other side of the hallway, which looked to be open.