Jon Turner woke up to silence so complete it felt like the world was holding its breath.
Usually, he woke to the sound of his mom banging pans in the kitchen or his little sister arguing with cartoons, but today… nothing. His alarm didn't go off either — strange, because he never forgot to set it.
He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and listened.
Still nothing.
"Mom?" he called out.
No answer.
His room felt colder than usual, as if the house itself had gone still. Jon hopped out of bed, grabbed a hoodie, and stepped into the hallway. The lights were on — that was normal — but the house felt wrong.
He checked every room.
Empty.
The front door stood slightly open.
A chill ran up Jon's spine.
He walked outside. The morning sun was bright, the sky a perfect blue, but his street was dead quiet. No neighbors leaving for work. No kids waiting for the bus. No dogs barking. Every car sat parked. Every house door was open just a crack… just like his.
"Hello?" Jon shouted.
His voice echoed — something that had never happened before in their crowded little neighborhood. He walked toward the road, looking for any sign of life.
Nothing moved.
No wind.
No birds.
Not even insects.
It was like the world paused halfway through living.
Across the street, Mrs. Delaney's laundry hung frozen on the line. At the bus stop, backpacks and lunch boxes lay scattered across the grass. A single shoe sat in the middle of the street as if its owner vanished mid-step.
Jon's heartbeat quickened.
He walked toward the school. His footsteps echoed far louder than they should have. Every driveway, every lawn, every store he passed was empty. Not just empty — abandoned. Like everyone disappeared at once.
At the intersection, he stopped.
There were footprints in the dust — weird ones. Too big for a human. Three-toed. Deep.
Something had been here.
Something still might be.
He swallowed hard and forced himself to keep walking. Maybe Mikey was still around. Mikey always woke up too late to disappear with everybody else. And Jessica… well, Jessica was the first person he thought about when he realized the world was empty.
She always hummed in the mornings — a soft, shy tune he could recognize anywhere.
He wished he could hear it now.
Jon reached the school. Doors were flung open, papers scattered everywhere. He stared at the emptiness, fighting the urge to panic.
"Okay…" he whispered to himself. "Think. There has to be someone left."
Then he saw it.
On the baseball field fence hung Mikey's lucky red cap — the one he never took off. It was ripped along one side, almost clawed.
Jon grabbed it, his hands shaking.
"Mikey, where are you?" he whispered.
Silence.
Then —
Clang.
A metal crash echoed from across the field.
Jon tensed.
Something was out there.
And he wasn't sure it was human.
He tightened Mikey's cap in his grip, took a deep breath, and stepped toward the sound — unaware that this was the moment his entire life would change forever.