ANGUISH - A Collection of Stories

A SILENT WORLD

I begin to wake up on the cold, wooden floor. I open my eyes and check my surroundings. I am in a place I'm not familiar with. An old log cabin with old furniture. I don't know where I am, nor what happened to me. I think I was abducted, but if I was then I should be tied up, with a gag over my mouth. Christina, I say in my head. My name, Christina. I stand up and look out of the window. I see trees, burned trees. A forest fire must have taken place while I was asleep. I wander around the cabin. I walk to the refrigerator that was ajar. I open it and a body falls down. I scream. I might be in a serial killer's house. I look at the body's face and realize that it wasn't a body at all. It was a mannequin.

The mannequin had a face, a face you would see on a wax sculpture. Realistic, but not human. The mannequin also had clothing. It wore a suit with a dull grey and brown design. More questions circulate in my head. Am I in a ghost town? Are there any humans here beside me? I walk away from the mannequin and out of the cabin. I turn around and look at the old cabin. It had something wrong with it but I don't know what it was.

I walk away on the ashy ground, with the debris of all kinds scattered everywhere. I continue to walk until the ashy ground merges with a small road. This road connected to a bigger junction, and it began to look like a town. On the sides of the streets were various buildings, from small shops to residential houses. This small stretch of buildings looked like a small town. And every building had mannequins, not like in clothing shops to advertise the products, but like actual human beings who were customers visiting a store.

There was a man who was walking his dog, a pair of electricians fixing a streetlight, a child buying ice cream from an ice cream cart, a group of kids on their bikes, and an SUV that looked as if it was being driven. All of them were not moving, even the dog. It was awfully quiet, so quiet I can hear pins drop.

They weren't moving but they had emotions on their faces. I walk towards the vehicles and see those who were inside. I scream and step back. The bodies in the car were not mannequins. They were actual human bodies with mangled faces. The smell of the rotting flesh was repulsive, almost making me throw up right there on the spot. Their faces were not only mangled, they looked like burn victims too.

"Stay calm, Christina," I say to myself. Out of the corner of my eye, I see something move inside a building near this car. I turn and see the footwear store was unlocked. I run towards the small store and push the door open. I enter and find nothing but empty shoeboxes. I'm guessing the store was robbed, it looked like a mess. Overturned shoe racks, torn shoeboxes, blood on the floor. I hear some scuffling and see an upside-down shoebox was moving.

I go towards it and lift the box. A wounded squirrel looks at me and recoils, thinking I'm a threat. The squirrel, with a badly wounded leg, slowly moves away from me and tries to go to the counter. I follow it and find an empty cash register. Right next to it was a radio. I pick it up and suddenly I hear a loud noise from outside. Then I realize it was a countdown.

"20, 19, 18, 17..." a robotic voice counts. I'm confused. This place is really weird. "GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" a panicked voice comes from the radio. "NO ONE BELIEVES THAT A HUMAN IS STILL THERE. GET OUT! AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN!" the voice continued to tell me. I run out of the store and try to know why I should get out. "13, 12, ..." the robotic voice continued to count.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six..." the voice went on as I try to regain my senses. I start to turn my head left to right, trying to take in what's happening, but I only become dazed. "GET OUT! YOU'RE AT A TOP-SECRET BOMB TESTING SITE!" the voice from the radio frantically says. I drop the radio as I have a terrifying realization. The last thing that I heard was the robotic voice's final countdown as an aircraft flies over the streets, starting the bomb's descend.