Dan stopped at an intersection, It was completely barren of life it seemed. Not one car was in either direction or at any distance from him. There were no birds chirping and sunlight was blocked out by the thick gray mess that surrounded him."This is starting to bug me." He proceeded past the stop and further into the town.
He drove a steady twenty miles per hour and glanced to his left to see a small dinner. It was completely empty, just like the streets. "Maybe they're people behind the count-"
His cars engine thumped and ticked loudly inside its hood. Black smoke began to bellow out obstructing his view. "Damn!" He pulled hard to the right, trying to avoid running into the middle of the street as he did it. He heard another loud crash inside engine and with one last puff of black smoke it finally just quit.
"Son of a-" He flew his door open and jumped out. "What the hell!" He kicked the cars tire out of anger, hurting his front toe a bit in the process. He watched a few moments as it continued to emit smoke. "Maybe there are people in the dinner that could point me to a mechanic."
He strolled forward and noticed that he'd accidentally run over a paper stand. "This just isn't my day." The stand was completely smashed, papers were all over the ground. "I suppose I'll be paying for that." He spoke to himself and meandered past the scattered papers and damaged car.
He opened the door to the dinner and a bell ran above his head. He expected to feel the cool breeze of the working air conditioner as he did it but there was no breeze, not even a tiny gust. In fact, it seemed to be warmer inside than out.
On a slow pace, he observed the void structure. Three booths were to his left and right, they were big enough to hold five people each. In front of him there was a large counter that three cash registers sat on. It looked like the type of place you would take your friends or co-workers right before your big day at work. He could just imagine teens and adults alike laughing and eating their breakfast, predicted what might happen during their following day. That was not how it was, at least not anymore. Now, the booths offered nothing but silence.
Standing in front of the first cash register in the middle of the counter he inspected the back to see if anyone was there. He could hear nothing nor see anything, just more taciturn.
He saw a bell next to the register and rang it. He watched to see if anything would happen, nothing did. He rang it a second time and again, nothing happened. He rang it a third time and then slammed his fists against the surface of the long counter. "Alright! I've had enough of this!" His eyes filled with rage as stared back into the building. "I have to be at a meeting in three days and my car broke down!" He shouted, darting his head back and forth trying to spot someone. "Can anybody help me!"
There was no reply, not even a titer. "Hey, I broke your newsstand!" He looked back and pointed at it out the window behind him. "You want me to pay for it your gonna have to-"
Dan halted his furious rant upon a spine chilling site, It was snowing. In the middle of July? He sluggishly ventured outside, beginning to become more and more unsettled. "What the hell is going on here." He asked himself, catching a snowflake in the palm of his hand. "What a second." He rubbed the substance between his index and thumb. "This isn't snow!" The stuff was just as gray as the thick smog around him. "It's ash!"
He vigorously patted his hands against his shirt and brushed all the ash off of them. "This is getting just a little too weird for!" His heart began brutally pounding inside his chest. "Alright very funny!" Dan started spinning in a circle into the street, looking around the whole city. "I bet you do this with all the tourists!" He smirked, even though he felt like he just wanted to run as far away from the town as he could. "You can all come out now!" Of course, no one did. "This is getting-"
He heard a crunch under his foot as he was fruitlessly trying to contact someone. Dan brought his foot up and uncovered a newspaper he'd throw out of the stand earlier. Picking it up and noticed the headline, "Order Kills Many Police Officers." Right below it in slightly smaller letters it displays, "Town in Chaos!" Below that headline in even smaller letters, were the most petrifying of all the others. It said,"We've Been Expecting You Danny."
Immediately, he released the document from his hands and let it fall back to the ground. He glimpsed back at his vehicle in a great state of panic. "Sorry old girl, but I've gotta get outta here!" His instinct of yearning to just sprint finally took over as he jogged toward the direction he'd came.
When he reached what used to be the intersection all he found was one really big cliff seeming to go strait down. "No!" He fell to his feet in anguish, trapped. "Now what am I gonna do!" He peeked over the side of the rock. "No chance of ever getting down this thing." Dan got to his feet and did his best to calm himself down. "It's alright, there's gotta be another way outta here somewhere." He backed away from the cliff side. "I just have to find it is all!" Dan rotated back in the direction of the murky city and sighed. "Guess I'd better get started."
Back at the house, the house Dan wished he was at, Jennie, Jason and Ginger sat watching television together. All of a sudden, Jason began feeling a cold chill go down his spine. "Mom, do you really think dad's alright?"
Jennie, holding sleeping Ginger in her arms out her finger over her mouth informing him to keep it down. "Yes, your father is fine." She stroked her daughters hair as she spoke to him. "He would call if something were to have gone wrong."
Unconvinced, he began nervously brushed his arms. "I know, I just have a bad feeling is all." He responded as goosebumps began to appear all over his body.
Jennie, distressed by her sons anxiety put on a smile to try and calm him. "Don't worry sweetie, everything will be alright." She patted him on the shoulder.
Dan made it back to the dinner, along with his old wrecked car in front of it. It had stopped smoking at least. "Ill be back for you later." He patted it on the hood which was now as cold as ice. "Sorry I left you earlier." He spoke to it as if it were a real person.
Upon re-entering the dinner, nothing had changed. It was the same dreary room he'd left earlier only now, he was more frightened. "Guess I'll search the back." He advanced forward and when he passed the double doors.
He found himself inside an old looking kitchen. There were two large stoves in the middle of the room. The metal was shiny, Dan could see his reflection against their exterior. Behind them there were cabinets, sinks, and counter tops to lay food and dishes on to the sides. "Hello?" He yelled, hoping for someone to reply to his desperate call. No one came and no one appeared, just like before. "Where is everybody?" He continued to scan the room to find there was a back door at the bottom right of it. "Maybe through there?"
Heading to the door, he tripped over a mop bucket that was just out of sight. He came crashing down to earth with a thud. "Damn you!" He shouted at the inanimate object. Soapy water covered his blue jeans as he got back up and kicked the bucket away. It bounced off the counter side and then the back of the stove, making loud thumping sounds against them as it did. "Moving on." He commented to himself and approached the door.
As he reached for the door knob to investigate what was beyond the door, Dan heard scratching and banging sounds coming from inside the stove behind him. Startled, he twisted around quickly and pressed his back against the door, his heart racing once again. His conscience wailed at him to run, go as far away from this place as possible but his logical side kept him here with two simple but incredibly true words. Run where?
Noticing it was coming from the stove, he inched away from the door and approached it. The noises amplified and became more ferocious as he got closer to it. He clutched the handle of the stove and it got even louder. So loud he longed back for the silence that had once made him uncomfortable just a few seconds ago. Finally, mustering up all his courage, he yanked open the hob and immediately the sound vanished from the room.
He peered inside the oven and there were no scratches, no bumps, there was nothing. "What the hell!" He grasped the stoves handle again and slammed it shut. Hearing something rattle inside, he opened it back up and closely inspected its interior. He realized that the stove wasn't all empty, there was something sitting in the far back of it.
Reaching his arm inside he looked at the ceiling as he did. He could feel something metal, something cold against his fingers as he tried to get a grip on the object. Once he did, he pulled it out and found it to be a fully loaded Kel-Tec P-11 handgun. "Whoa!" He held the dark gun in his hands, feeling a deep sense of protection as he did. "You might come in handy!" His nerves began to unwind as he sat back up. "Now, let's see what's beyond that door."
Gun in hand, he strolled to it with a sense of confidence now. Placing his hand on the knob he slid it open. Finding it to be a small, dark supply room which turned to the right a few steps ahead of him as he gingerly moved inside it. Upon entering, he heard someone weeping and talking to themselves. "Why! Why did you leave me!" A young woman screamed.
He dashed forward and came across a young lady sitting on the floor with her back turned to him. She couldn't have been older than nineteen. She seemed to have blood all over her shirt and in her blond hair. He rushed to her side, very concerned. "Are you alright! What happened!" He put his hand on her shoulder.
She didn't even flinch when he placed his hand on her shoulder, she just stopped crying. "I'm fine."
"But you were just-"
"I said I'm fine." She didn't turn to face Dan as she spoke. "You like pointing big guns at little girls like me?"
"I'm sorry about that." He let go of her shoulder. "What's your name?"
She put her hands together and knelt her head down. "Mona."
He smiled and crossed his arms with his weapon still firm in hand. "Well Mona, my name's Dan, Dan Brown." He watched as she still sat motionless. "What are you doing here?" He asked.
She stood up, grabbing something on the ground as she did. "I came looking for my sister."
"Your sister?" Dan questioned, seeing that she was holding a slip of paper in her hand
"Yes my sister." Mona brought the paper to her face. "We were separated here."
Noticing it was a photo, he frowned out of pity as she gazed at it. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
She turned to him, her blue eyes fuming with anger and her face stern. "There's nothing you can do to help!" She screamed and then scuttled past him and flew toward the door. "Nothing!"
"Mona!" He reached out for her but she was gone within a split second. "What's with her?"
He heard a clicking sound in front of him, this brought back fear in his heart as he grabbed the knob of the storage room door.
"Die you pig!" The woman shouted as she locked the door tight.
Dan still tried to giggle the door open but to no avail. "Mona open this door!" He pulled and pushed on the door.
"Never!" She screamed.
All of a sudden, a loud siren began blaring from all directions. "They're coming!" Mona madly shrieked and then ran away, leaving Dan trapped inside the room.
"Wait!" He pounded on the door. "Mona! Who's coming!" The earsplitting siren got louder, causing him to cease his pounding and drop to his knees. He pressed his hands tight against his head trying to keep the siren from deafening him. "What's going on.." His mutely said to himself as his eyes began to glaze over and his consciousness slipped away from him.