Kale yawned and got up from his computer chair to stretch his cramped muscles. It was the night of the deadline of the graded assignment exam for his biotechnology course and he had spent the past few hours typing away at the keyboard like a desperate maniac.
As he went out of his dorm room to the common area to grab a cup of coffee to stimulate his now mushy brain, he saw that others from his dorm hall had serious looks on, looking at the television as if they were enraptured.
"What's going on?" Kale asked nonchalantly with a yawn, as he opened the fridge to grab a can of coffee.
The others looked at Kale, sighed and turned back towards the tv screen.
"I don't know how to explain it. See it for yourself." Kale's friend Tom, who was also among those folks, said with a somber and serious look. His voice sounded grave and a little scared.
"Did something happen?" Kale asked in surprise as he clipped open the can and gulped in some coffee, before walking towards the tv.
"We are reporting on the mysterious phenomenon found in the hospitalized individual in Geneva, Switzerland." The reporter explained in her daily briefing as she continued. "The individual, a maintenance engineer at the particle accelerator experiment at CERN, was involved in a freak accident and began showing abnormal symptoms and has currently been isolated and being observed."
As she said that, a jerky video that was clearly recorded via smartphone began playing in tandem. It showed a man tied up in a hospital bed, clearly showing signs of violent behavior that had to be subdued with restraining belts. But even then he was growling like an animal,
However, that was the least interesting thing about the affair. What Kale saw shocked him and he turned serious. He saw that the man's body was turning transparent. His skin had completely turned transparent like a tadpole's and his internal organs were clearly visible, but even they had turned translucent.
"What the heck?" Kale exclaimed in shock. "What exactly happened to this guy?" He asked his friends.
They shook their heads in confusion as well. They were equally stunned and shocked by what they were seeing as well.
"The person seemed to have been involved in some critical scientific experiment at CERN that seems to have backfired. Now the entire facility has been shut down." Tom explained what the news had been informing them earlier.
"Could it be the result of radiation exposure?" One of the guys on the couch, a tall man with fashionable glasses asked as he adjusted them with his right hand index finger.
"Radiation exposure can cause such a phenomenon? His skin seems to have become more transparent than clear water!" Kale wondered in shock.
At that moment, a breaking news notification flared up on the television screen.
"Breaking news, several other co workers of the first victim as well as three first responders are beginning to show similar symptoms. All personnel at CERN have now been ordered to self quarantine. The facility has been completely sealed and a team of medical and physics experts have been assembled to investigate the matter."
Kale shook his head. "Well, I'm tired. I was working on that blasted assignment all day. I'm heading to bed y'all." He fist bumped with the others, before returning to his room and slamming down into the bed.
As the night passed and time turned to 6 am, Kale's phone began blaring its alarm, waking him up. He groggily rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand as he checked his social media as was his usual habit.
However, he was surprised by what he saw. There were no updates by any of his friends since yesterday night, which surprised him, since his feed was usually clogged when he woke up.
Kale checked the news, and found that there were no updates either, since yesterday night.
"Weird, how come no news has been updated?" Kale wondered to himself, as he yawned and ignored the matter before heading to the bathroom to freshen up.
After taking a hot bath, he felt rejuvenated and let out a pleasurable sigh. He checked his phone and found no updates. He was confused at this point, but shrugged.
"I'll go to the mess and have a quick breakfast." Kale thought to himself, as he stepped out of his room. He discovered that the dorm's corridors were empty as well.
"I guess people were awake discussing that freak case the entire night." Kale shrugged as he headed out. However, he found that all the streets were empty and absolutely quiet.
There was a pin drop silence around him. Kale could literally hear the swaying tree branches and the leaves rustling due to the gentle wind breeze. The atmosphere made him feel a little creepy.
Kale felt unnerved by the situation, so he hurried to the mess to grab a breakfast. After completing his assignment, he was done with the semester, and didn't have anything on his plate for a couple of weeks.
When he entered the mess, he found that it was shut. This surprised him, because the mess usually opens right at 6:00 am for early wakers like himself.
"There's no one here..." Kale thought to himself as he circled around the mess building to see if the back entrance was open.
A sinking feeling began to emerge in Kale's chest, as he had a terrifying premonition that everyone seemed to have disappeared. He quickly rushed back to the dorm and knocked on the doors of his cohabiting mates' rooms.
However, there was no reply from any room. Shocked and in dismay, Kale began running around the university campus, only to find that the entire world was empty, devoid of any other person other than him.
"How can this be? How is this possible? Where did everyone go?" Kale yelled out in the empty corridors of the main office building of the university
He walked out to the open grass and sat down with a dazed expression, the shock and fear of the unknown slowly lending itself to confusion and panic.
"Why did everyone except me vanish?" Kale murmured to himself in a trance, as he looked up at the sky.