Grey Comes the Silence

May 1, 2004 7:39am (Shimodate)
April 30, 2004 6:39pm (Ottawa)

My story begins the day before yesterday, but in a way that never truly happened.

I, along with around 30 other English teachers are gathered together in the conference room of a hotel who's name I cannot recall. This being Japan it is unlikely I would have understood the name if I could recall it in any case.

The meeting has just begun, and Janine, our Performance Supervisor is explaining today's agenda. I wonder if it's supposed to be that dull before the apocalypse?

I don't know what happened at this point, something disastrous, but I felt nothing except sleep overcoming me quite suddenly.

Awakening an unknown time later, I am at first aware only that the lights in our conference room seem unusually dim. Next noticed is the silence. Absolute silence, where the only audible sound is easily recognizable as the unsteady beating of my own heart.

I know before looking around me that the others are still there, and I worry at their unnatural silence. Curiosity generally overcomes fear in most humans, and I felt the need to understand the silence in that dim place of my awakening.

Around me were my fellow teachers, leaned back upon their chairs, slumped as if sleeping peacefully despite our location. I barely need to look to know that no breath stirs within them. I knew they were dead after seeing the first in repose, Janine.

The magnitude of this disaster strikes as a stunning blow to me, perhaps fortunately, because it numbs me enough to prevent panic.

Like a sleep walker I rise from my seat, and wander out of the conference hall. The silence it seems is not limited to our room, somehow I know it wouldn't be. The silence rules all now.

Outside the building I look out upon the city, and realize that the lights here are subdued as well. The sky is grey, and the pale light with which I see is equally so. There is no sign of sun, moon, or stares in the silent world. Shadows stretch bizarrely from the from the foot of buildings, each at a different angle completely.

My grey light it seems has no single source. Perhaps no source at all but my own mind.

I don't look long around that area, I already know what I will find. I am alone with my grey light and silence now. Even the animals have joined with it, I don't see any, but that alone is enough to tell me that I needn't look.

How far does my grey silence stretch? My first thought is that it covers all now, that there may be only a few scattered people like myself left to greet the grey dawn. If so, then I must find them.

Acting on instincts I don't understand, I close my eyes and imagine myself high above the city. I see myself standing so tall that skyscrapers look like toys beneath my feet. When I open my eyes, I am unsurprised to find it true.

colossus was a small man when compared to me. I can see in every direction for almost forever. The greyness fills everything. The buildings look like badly constructed toys. All silent.

Perhaps I am still in my shock induced mellow state, because I'm not at all concerned about being immense. I walk across my grey city, wondering only idly why my footsteps make no sound, and why I don't crush the buildings I stand on.

Somewhere out there I know there are others like myself. I must find them. For some reason that is the only thought I have as I stride across this grey land of death.

I feel a presence long before I see anything, and in the blink of an eye I am only 5 foot 11 again.

I stand before a hotel much like the one that hosted my meeting. I think of all things as mine now, lacking evidence that anyone else exists that might have a claim on it.

Inside this hotel is another like me, I can feel them Awakening from their own sleep just as I had. Very well, then this city is ours, not mine. That's better than holding exclusivity on damnation.

We will stride across this greyness together, and awaken the silence at least a little Maybe there are others. We will find out.

And then I woke up.

Interesting dream eh? Sorry if it seems disjointed, but dreams usually do. I had to write quickly before it faded from my mind.

The only part left out was who the other survivor was, because I don't know. I know that it was my best friend, but that it was nobody I've ever met. More like the personification of all my friends combined.

Anyway, goodmorning!!