Warehouse 13

"Where is Everyone?"

By A. Rhea King

"I saw a vision in my sleep

I saw the last of human mould,

Around that lonely man!

Some had expired in fight,-the brands

Earth's cities had no sound nor tread"

—Thomas Campbell

Chapter 1

There wasn't a sound. As her eyes opened she became fully aware of that fact. Then she became aware that wasn't really the correct thought. There was sound. She heard lights quietly buzzing, somewhere air or wind whispered through a tight space.

Claudia Donovan sat up, staring down the airport terminal. The. Empty. Airport terminal.

Her heart leapt when she heard someone cough and she turned. Her heart returned to a normal beat when she found the person Steve Jinks lying on the floor next to her. She also realized he was the ONLY person.

"Steve," Claudia said.

Her voice echoed in the silence, so she repeated his name quieter. "Jinksy." She got to her hands and knees, crawling to him.

He rolled onto his side, toward her voice. That made her smile. At least he recognized her.

"Are we… I dunno," he muttered, "I don't want to know. My head hurts. Does yours… Did someone hit us over the head, because my—"

"Hey. Shut up." She batted his arm. "And open your eyes, dufus."

He opened his eyes. It took him about as long as it had her to realize what was wrong with the situation. He sat up, taking in everything slowly. He looked at her. They were close enough they could kiss – if that was even a remote a possibility.

"Claudia... We're…"

"If you think being the only two people in the Munich Airport is weird, you should stop talking and listen."

He stopped talking. For minutes he even held his breath. "I don't hear any planes, or…Anything. It's silent." He got to his feet and trotted to a window. She followed him. There was nothing moving outside and the planes sat gleaming in the sunlight, free of their human crews and passengers.

"The last thing I remember is falling asleep on the plane," he looked down at her.

"Ditto."

"So if there are no people, who landed our plane and how did we get to the airport without being woke up? You sleep like a leaf."

"Thanks." She flashed him a smile. "You sleep like a log."

He almost smiled – but the situation was a little too pressing to make jokes.

"What the hell happened?" Steve said, looking back outside.

#

That same thought crossed Arthur Nielsen's mind as he rolled onto his side to sit up. He stared at the fireplace, blinking away his fuzzy vision. Then he realized he had no glasses on, which accounted for the fuzzy vision. He patted his pockets and then spotted his glasses by the couch. He pulled them on and the world cleared up. He got to his feet.

"Artie," a voice said behind him.

He turned, watching Leena walk into the room. She had her hand to her head.

"How did I get here?"

She shook her head. "I have no idea."

"Are you okay?"

"No. My head is killing me."

Artie took her arm and guided her to a couch. He sat down next to her, looking at his watch. He tapped it, and then tapped it again.

"My watch has stopped."

"So has mine," a familiar voice said behind them.

The two watched Mrs. Frederic enter the room. She was staring at her watch.

"How… How did you get here?" he asked.

She looked down at him. "I don't know. I was in Egypt and then I woke up on the kitchen floor. I heard you and Leena speaking."

"I was on my way to Des Moines. The last thing I remember is being in my car and then… Here."

"Something is wrong," Leena said.

Their attention turned to her. She looked at Artie.

"Something is very wrong. There aren't any birds."

The three held their breath to listen. She was right. The birds that usually sang nonstop from the trees around the bed and breakfast were gone.

"Something very bad has happened, Artie."

Artie patted his pockets until he retrieved his Farnsworth. He tapped buttons and it didn't even finish a ring when the anxious faces of Claudia and Steve appeared.

"ARTIE!" Claudia said. "Artie, we're in Munich and—"

"There is no one here, Artie," Steve finished. "We took a chance and left the airport. The entire city is deserted."

"One point three million people have vanished." Claudia finished.

"Alright. Alright. You two are okay? You're not hurt?"

"Other than being stranded in a creepy empty metropolitan, yeah. We're great."

"Leena and Mrs. Frederic are here with me, we're okay. I have to get a hold of Pete and Myka. Do you think you can still look for the artifact?"

"There isn't anyone in the city. We could rob a bank without anyone stopping us."

"Get the artifact and then wait at the airport. Let's not jump ahead of things until I can figure out what happened and how… How to fix it." Artie hung up before Claudia or Steve could ask him how.

"We don't know how extensive this is, Artie," Leena told him.

"Why don't you go into town and find out?"

"You want us to separate?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

"Don't you think we should right now? Leena is right. We don't know if people are missing just from Munich or everywhere. We need to know."

Mrs. Frederic considered the fact and then headed for the door. Leena followed her. Artie adjusted the dial and tapped a button. The Farnsworth started ringing…