The woman was gone. All that was left was a pile of sparkling ash. I didn't touch it. Suddenly, even the ash vanished, right in-front of me. I stood there, bewildered, for what felt like five minutes. "Well, I believe you now."
"Heh heh. Well, on the plus side, now we know the explosions won't hurt us. Let's get going."
"She's- she's dead, right, that was real, right?" I couldn't comprehend it.
"If seeing is believing, she was definitely real."
When we arrived at the apartment building, there was no guard on duty in the lobby like usual. The explosions had become almost like background noise, so frequent that I hardly noticed them anymore. This was going to be hard to process. As we took the elevator up to my floor, we heard a few explosions and screams as we passed by each floor. (What is happening?) We went straight into my apartment and turned on the television. The headline, in bright, red letters read: Stay Indoors- A Shelter in Place Warning Has Been Activated by the Federal Government for the Following Areas. No one knew what was happening. The newscasters were speculating. Some said it was a terrorist attack with a new kind of weapon. Others said it was biological warfare. A few, on some of the local stations, even suggested Aliens might be to blame. One thing was for certain- as time went on, the death toll climbed unimaginably higher.
"You reckon it's happening everywhere?" asked Codey.
"Hearing the ones in our apartment building was enough to make me think it's everywhere. I don't know if it's safe to go outside anymore."
"Everyone's going to need to come out at some point. People will need food." Codey didn't make me feel any better.
A few minutes later, one of the newscasters exploded. I wasn't paying attention to the lady on the street when she exploded, so I could finally see what it looked like. Just as Codey had said, the person protruded outward, and you could see everything. Then, almost as if there was a sphere drawn around the person, each particle turned into a sparkly dust or ash after reaching a certain point. It looked extremely eerie. The other newscaster screamed and they quickly went off the air. I took the time to look out the window, hoping to clear my thoughts. What I saw was frightening. The streets were empty. No cars, no pedestrians. (Did they all make it inside? Did they no longer exist? Did they run the other way?) I was struggling to calm down. My breathing labored.
Codey grabbed my hand. "C'mon Fin, we're still alive, we can make it through this. Since we've made it this far, I feel like it won't happen to us." This did calm me down a little. "Anyways, it's my turn to make dinner tonight, right? I'll use the bathroom and then go down to my apartment."
"Alright," I said. (Maybe this is a dream. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and none of this will have happened. I can go back to work and see everyone again.) I got up and poured myself a glass of water. I felt safe in the apartment. I changed the channel to a comedy show to relax. That red government warning wouldn't stop flashing in the corner of my screen, continuously reminding me of the situation I was in. Then I heard Codey cough.
I knocked on the bathroom door. "Hey Codey, are you all right? You've been in there for awhile"
"Yeah I'm just fine. Don't come in." He coughed again. (I'm just paranoid. Nothings wrong.)
"Alright, I'll leave you be!" Ten minutes passed and Codey still hadn't come out of the bathroom. His constant coughing and the lack of an explosion told me he was alive. "Alright Codey, I'm coming in!"
"No wai-" he tried to protest.
I looked down in shock. Codey was hunched over the sink. The same sparkly ash was coming out of his mouth and landing in the sink.