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So. this is going to sound weird― but, just hear me out, okay? Actually, no one’s going to be able to read this, so it doesn’t matter, really.

Unless someone somehow gets her filthy hands on this…

Anyway, normal Wednesday, right? Wrong.

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First thing I usually notice when I walk out of my school are the seventh and eighth graders. Screaming, loud, probably physically incapable of being quiet…. things.

But today when I walk out of school, everything is quiet. Too quiet, in fact. I turn around and walk back to the building and pull on the doors, thinking that there might be an assembly or something, but they’re locked.

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I walk home in silence, looking around. The houses are deserted too. What happened? 
Right as I cross the second street, I hear it. The shuffling of feet on the dry pavement. I turn to the source of the sound, and right before my eyes, I see a student. I start to walk up to him, but he’s awfully disheveled.
“Hey, um… person… do you know what’s going on?” I ask in a timid voice. He looks at me in terror and sprints away. Weirdo. I cross the third street and I hear a rustling sound behind me. I sort of ignore it. 

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Suddenly, I feel a force by my shoulder. I try to keep up or resist, but she’s going too fast and I happen to be carrying a 20 pound backpack. It’s nice to get a close up view of the ground, but my legs have chosen this specific moment to not cooperate. I look up. I can tell the someone is a she. Either that, or it’s a boy with really long, brown locks of hair.

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The person tugs me into the room and right before she closes the door, I see a glimpse of her face. I can’t recognize her. At least not by only seeing half of her face. Then I notice the room. It’s pitch black. Suddenly I get really mad. Does this person have any manners?

“Yeah, no,” I yell into the oblivion. “ It’s not like I needed to go home or anything. It’s not like I have 5 hours of homework to do, plus a presentation due tomorrow. And it’s not like I needed your name or anything. Do you even have any manners?”

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Everything is quiet. Then a familiar voice answers.

“Nice to see you too, doofus.” The mysterious someone steps out into the light. Audrey has her hands on her hips. Giving me a death glare. “Is that how you treat strangers?”

Audrey and I have been friends for a while now, and I should have expected that she’d be the first person the check out what was going on.

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“Um… so what’s going on? Surprise party?” I ask hopefully.

She shakes her head. “I don’t know either. I got back from school and saw that my house was empty, so I went out to look for everyone, and that’s when I bumped into you.”

“And of course you had to lock me in a closet,” I mutter.

“Yeah, well I didn’t recognize you at first but then I heard your voice and realized that it was you. I just want some answers.”

“Well, I have nothing,” I replied. What was happening?

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Suddenly a knock on the door sounded and I went to answer it. It was the same guy that was wandering the streets earlier. I wasn’t sure what to do. This guy was either part of what was going on or was like Audrey and I, oblivious to the rest of the town.

“What’s going on?” I demanded. Something weird was happening.

I let him in.

“Something is going on, and I’m pretty sure we’re the only people in this neighborhood at the moment. Either that, or someone’s planning a giant surprise party.” I give Audrey a look that said: See? I told you so.

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Audrey sighed. “And of course I couldn’t have found someone who actually knew what was going on. Great. Well. how about we just scout around?”

And scout we did. We checked everywhere in a one mile radius, but nothing. We even broke into QFC because we were that desperate. The lights were still on in there and me, being the weirdo that I am, rushed to the candy section just to make sure that I had enough twizzlers to last me for a month.

It turns out that there’s still power and everything, just no people anywhere except for us three.

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after a few days
The next few days were spent exactly the same. Wake up, gather food, lunch, look for people, dinner, sleep.

One day, we went out to the highway to check things out and we saw the weirdest sight. Cars scattered everywhere on the highway, multiple car crashes, and bodies. Out in the road.

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We checked their pulses. They had been gone for a while now and they weren’t coming back anytime soon. We checked their wallets too to see their driver's’ licenses. We didn’t recognize any of them. If this many people had died in one week, then how long would it take before it got to us and anyone else that managed to survive?

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End of chapter 1