Disclaimer: The Show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

Night of the Comet

Chapter 2 – Dust

No One's POV

Tori slept for another hour, but when she woke back up, Ryder hadn't returned. It was annoying, but not all that unexpected. Ryder did what Ryder wanted to do and that was that.

Starting to get dressed, Tori muttered. "That's Ryder, Love em and leave em, at least Jade liked to cuddle, when she wasn't accusing me of cheating on her."

This wasn't their first time they had spent the night in the fallout shelter. It had been installed in the 1950's by the then owner and was concrete with a layer of lead. By the time Tori and Ryder had come around, the shelter had been long since forgotten. That made is a perfect spot for their little trysts.

Hungry and not in the mood for a half-eaten bag of Cheetos, Tori finished dressing, freshened up and headed up to the theatre lobby. There she helped herself to a bag of Twizzlers from the concession stand and eyed the tempest machine.

"DMK, you're going down. No one and I mean no one bumps me out of the top ten."

So after turning the lights back on, Tori diligently played Tempest and much to her satisfaction, soon wiped DMK off the high scores list.

Taking a bit of licorice Tori smiled. "Finally, something's going way."

Then she thought, "Joyce, damn, she's going to be pissed. I can't imagine what kind of nasty message she left for me."

Tori then walked to her purse, which was sitting on the concession counter. Then she pulled out her phone and turned it back on. It had been off since last night. A moment later a message indicator popped up; one had been left last night about 20 minutes before the comet arrived.

Hitting play, she soon heard what sounded like a somewhat drunk Andre'

"Hey Chica, sorry you can't be here. Comet's going to be here soon and we're having a great time. Robbie, Cat, me and the others. Well everyone save for Jade and Beck they had some argument half an hour ago and she split. We're missing you and have a beer ready for you, if you care to grace us with your presence. Cat and Robbie say hi, Love ya."

By then Tori found herself regretting forgetting Ryder and just showing up at Andre's party late. Then she realized something.

"Joyce always leaves me a message, chewing me out. Nothing….Hmnn…"

Then Tori checked out the slap to see if there were any pictures of the party. Sure enough there were some of Andre and co at his house having a grand time, drinks in hand. However, Tori quickly noted something.

"That's odd, the pictures end right about the time the comet arrives."

Looking at the pictures, Tori could see that very last one was uploaded by Robbie, about a few seconds after the comet arrived. All the picture consisted of, was a blurred picture of some lights in the sky. After that, no one uploaded anything.

Then she went to twitter and for the first part of the evening, there was the normal tweet traffic, with people reporting on the various parties, but like the pictures, the tweets abruptly stop right at the time the comet arrived.

It didn't escape her notice, that not one single person she followed on twitter and she followed more than 300, had tweeted anything since the comet arrived. The same went for Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. They had all gone dark almost, exactly at the same time.

Shaking her head, Tori dismissed it all, and placed the phone on the counter. "There all probably just too drunk or still passed out to do anything. Give it time."

"I wonder what it's like outside." Tori mused, as she walked to the front doors of the theatre.

Normally one could see outside, through the glass, but since it was Christmas they were all covered up with decorations, making it impossible to see anything.

Curious, pushed open the door, placed a trash can to keep it from closing and stepped outside.

The first thing she noticed was the silence. It was a strange empty calm, that simply didn't sit right with her.

Tori had grown up in L.A and was more than used to the myriad of sounds she heard every single waking hour of every day. In L.A. noise is a constant companion, only today, that companion has gone elsewhere.

Tori listened again; there was nothing, no car horns, no traffic, no music, no construction equipment, no nothing, except for low wail of the wind.

The more she heard nothing, the more unnerving it became.

Stepping out in front of the theatre, she could see the sidewalk was littered with stuff, but she didn't pay much attention to that at first as, she looked up and down the street.

Everything looked normal save for one disturbing fact. The street, as far as the eye could see was deserted; nothing was moving, save for a single piece of yellow paper that the wind carried down the street.

By now the hairs on the back of Tori's neck began to stand up. "What the hell, sure it's Saturday, but no cars, people. What the…."

She did see a few cars, but they were parked alongside the road. Again she looked both up and down the business district and there was nothing. Taking another step, Tori's foot accidently kicked a small object.

Looking down she could see it was a small tan purse and next to it was a skirt, shoes, socks, yellow top, bra just laying out on the ground. Kneeling down, she could see the socks were still in the shoes and underwear could be found inside the skirt. It had just been discarded.

Baffled, Tori turned her attention to the purse and opened it. Inside was a compact, cell phone, wallet, make-up items, Kleenex, everything a woman's purse should have. She even opened the wallet to see it contained credit cards, $53 dollars and a driver's license belonging to a 34 year old woman, named Carrie Smits.

There was something else, it was a red dust that surrounded the immediate area of the clothes. In fact some of it was in the clothes and the shoes.

Then Tori looked to the other objects on the sidewalk and to her increasing confusion she could see more clothes and more dust.

Making a quick survey, she counted more than 17 sets of complete clothes. 9 of the sets were women's clothes and 8 men's clothes. None of them looked old or worn out, like something someone would get rid of, in fact several of them looked brand new. Each set of clothes had red dust in them and as before valuables had been discarded with the clothing, she found watches, rings, cell phones, purses and even wallets filled with cash and credit cards.

All of it had been simply discarded, abandoned for no apparent reason.

"Ok, this is now gone beyond weird." Said the Latina, with increasing trepidation.

A second later she heard a sound behind her and realized the garbage can she had used to hold the door open had shifted and allowed the door to both close and lock.

"Oh, rat farts" Cursed the Latina, knowing that she was locked out of the theatre.

Tori's POV

Ok this weirdness with the clothes and dust was bad enough without me being locked out. My purse and phone are inside. I then remembered that sometimes when Ryder goes out for a smoke, he'll prop open the back door of the theatre. He may have done that, so it's worth a shot.

I started down the street to get to the alley that would take me behind the theatre. Again I found more sets of clothes and dust. I just don't get it, people leaving clothes behind, but some of this stuff is expensive, Gucci purses, diamond rings, cash, I don't understand any of it. I'm getting the feeling more and more that something is horribly wrong.

I walk around the building and soon find myself in the alley behind the theatre. Much to my frustration the back door is closed and locked.

"Damn"

It was then I spotted something on the ground just outside the door, it was a set of keys, which I picked up.

It wasn't just any keys, its' Ryder's keys as I recognized the rabbit's foot on it. I then noticed the pipe wrench that had been left sitting only a few inches from the keys.

Shoving the keys in my pocket, I picked up the wrench. Much to my disgust, it's covered in blood.

I drop the thing and back away, only then to see something else. Ryder's motorcycle is parked where he left it last night, just down the alley. Where did he go? Did he come back?

The feeling of unease inside me, was growing exponentially.

"Ryder?" I call out as I take several cautious steps towards his bike.

No answer, just that deafening silence that I can't escape.

By the time I reached the bike, my heart had started to pound, but there's no sign of him. It's then I hear a noise coming from behind me.

Spinning around I realize it's coming from behind a nearby dumpster.

Advancing on the dumpster, I call out. "Ryder, Are you OK?"

My heart nearly skips a beat as suddenly a large figure leaps out from behind the dumpster and into the light. It's not Ryder however.

It's an African American man about 6'2". He's wearing blue coveralls that say, "Holt's Body shop and Auto repair" and work boots.

But that's not what really catches my attention, it's his face. His eyes are an odd shade of grey and rather sunken in, he doesn't look even remotely normal. In fact, he looks downright creepy.

Only then do I realize he's holding something in his hand, it looks like someone's foot and it's covered with blood and several of the toes have been bitten off. The sight of it nearly caused me to lose my lunch.

"Come here!" growled the man, as he dropped the foot and began to move towards me.

Now my heart was really pounding, as I backed up towards the motorcycle. "Look I don't want any trouble Mr."

This time he didn't respond, and just kept advancing on me.

"I put out my fists. My daddy taught me self-defense. If you know better, you should run."

The man instantly charged, but I ducked to the side and as he passed me, kicked him in the side of the knee, causing it to give out and him to tumble to the ground. I made the move to back off, but he had already grabbed my ankle and pulled me down.

Before he can pull me closer, I take my free foot and kick him in the head repeatedly, until he released me.

However he gets up about the same time as me and charges. I then hit him with a roundhouse kick and several short jabs to the face, causing him to howl in pain. Another kick knocked him back to the ground.

"I'm going to kill you."

Undeterred, he got back up and charged, but this time, I had picked up a wooden board and smashed him in the head.

A moment later, he crumpled to the ground, seemingly stunned.

I had to get away from this weirdo, and realizing Ryder's keys were still in my pocket, ran to the bike and started it. Not wasting a second, I threw it in gear and zoomed off.

All I wanted, was to find someone to help me, but as I got farther from the theatre, I only found more of the same, empty clothes and dust and no people. Though as I emerged from the business district I was able to get a good glimpse of the sky.

It was covered in this bizarre red haze that was exactly the color of the dust everywhere. It cast a reddish light that kind of made everything look like it was coated in blood.

I came to a stop at a stoplight to find a running car at it. But looking inside, there was no one inside; just clothes and dust.

I was seriously starting worry. Soon I got off the streets and onto the 405 freeway. For the very first time in my life, I was the only thing moving on it. There were cars on it, but none of them appeared to be moving. They were all still: either parked or in a few cases, appeared to have crashed.

Maybe I was half in shock from the attack, but I couldn't wrap my mind around any of this.

I was about halfway home when I came to a stop near a large grey Mercedes that was parked on the 405. Looking in the window, I spotted a set of what appeared to be expensive clothes and dust on the driver's seat.

For some reason I opened the door and looked at the clothes. They like all the others had dust in them, even the shoes. But I felt something in the clothes and pulled it out.

It was a small round object with 2 short wires coming off it. Stamped on the device was the lettering.

"Jacobs Medical devices."

It was then I realized what the thing was, it was a pacemaker. My grandpa had one and even showed me a picture of what it looked like.

Putting down the pacemaker I felt the dust. It just felt like normal dust, but how did it get in there with the pacemaker and where did the people go?

I started to think it through, tried at least.

"Clothes are there as if there person in them vanished, the pacemaker was left behind in the clothes. Only thing else it the dust…."

"The dust?"

I felt the substance in my hand once again, it was reddish maroon and felt slightly gritty.

"The dust?

My stomach suddenly turned inside out as I realized what the dust was.

"OH SHIT, THE DUST! IT'S NOT DUST, IT'S PEOPLE. THEY DIDN'T LEAVE, THEY TURNED TO DUST. THE COMET TURNED THEM INTO DUST. OH FUCK!"

With a shriek, I backed off and quickly brushed off the people dust, which had come to cover my clothes.

"Ew, ew, ew."

So naturally I spent several minutes freaking out in the center of the 405 as the enormity of the situation dawned on me.

Everyone was dead…..absolutely everyone was dead. Except for me!

I'm all alone…..

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