The Omega Existence

Chapter 1

Ben sat at his desk when it had first started. Everyone remembered where they were on that fateful day. He had been furiously typing up a proposal for his next client who was due in later that day. He remembered his frustration after calling his wife Sandra for the fourth time that morning to ask her to pick up his daughter Cassie from primary school. Work once again overrode his promise to pick her up from school. It had seemed more important at the time, somehow.

He sighed, fogging up the thick bullet proof window he lent his head against. The rain outside the speeding black sedan mirrored the rain is his heart. It had been a wild two days, and Ben still couldn’t believe what had happened. He closed his eyes to recall people vanishing into thin air, leaving nothing but their clothes. When Jackie the admin girl, had faded in front of his eyes, he had questioned his own sanity. Opening his eyes again to avoid the following memory, he realised he still did. Each hour Ben prayed that he’d awake to realise this was all a twisted nightmare that he could finally escape from.

“You need some sleep,” Andrew declared, his unsettling bright green eyes seeming to watch for Ben’s reaction. Ben had known Andrew for over ten years now, and he was still unnerved how his eyes contrasted against his black hair and dark skin. His noble brow showing the first signs of his age, Andrew’s smirk pulled tight against his cheeks.

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” Ben wearily replied hoping that he could end the conversation before it began. He was tired, much too tired to think straight. The nightmares that awaited him though sent shivers down his spine at the very thought of drifting off into that maddening world called his subconscious.

“You’ll end up that way if you don’t get some sleep. If you truly wish to help people, you need to learn to help yourself. You taught me that Ben.”

“I also taught you to respect your elders,” it infuriated him that Andrew could somehow maintain an effective conversation and talk on his I-man at the same time. He could barely make his own work properly and yet it was child’s play to Andrew. In Ben’s childhood, they had first begun the new biotic technology. Now almost every citizen had a small, super computer grafted onto their forearms that could send signals directly to their cerebral cortex. The computer that you could control with pure thought had sold like wildfire across the world. 

“Respect, not obey. Besides respect doesn’t count for anything when you’re dead,” Andrew’s smirk faded as he forwarded off another email.

“Really Andrew, could you at least keep it on silent if you’re talking to me?” Ben was constantly distracted by the tiny beeps acknowledging new messages.

“I don’t like the buzz, it gives me headaches.”

“Sandra used to get headaches.” It was a topic Andrew clearly wanted to avoid as he joined Ben to gaze outside as they made their way closer to their destination.

It wasn’t long before they arrived. The driver, a young Pakistani man, waved them goodbye as he released the doors.

“Are you ready?” Andrew questioned. Ben’s response was immediate as he pulled himself out of the car. They were greeted by an overeager crowd of reporters jostling and screaming out questions they couldn’t possibly answer.

“Why are people disappearing? Is this an attack, if so, how is it? Is our government aware of the technology that would be involved? How did you predict this would happen?”

Ignoring them all the two men were ushered quickly through the mayhem and into the secure walls of the central world agencies head office by six burly CWA agents.

Ben hated the place. The very existence of it seemed to cry out to the world’s hypocrisies. If he could have ignored the summoning he would have, but it was as if his soul were telling him to go. He had wished his book had gotten this much publicity fifteen years ago. He would never have needed to go back to work. Although, if he had never written that book all those years ago, he wouldn’t be in this situation with millions of people around the world demanding  his head as if he were somehow the mastermind behind the disappearance of over three billion people in under two days.