In a brightly lit hospital room in the city of Kingston 21 year old Nathan Shiv on the 4th floor, room 215 as he suddenly wakes up from his week long coma.
"Why is it so bright in here" Nathan tsks as his memories and surroundings start to come to him…As his eyes begin to refocus and adjust to the light, he feels a bad headache whilst moving the bed covers off him to gather his thoughts.
"Ah…I'm in a hospital right now; I guess I lost my match for the season this year" he cries indwardly as this was his senior year in high school on the varsity wrestling team and it's currently August 8th 07:14, the clock on the wall shows.
He begins to look around for the remote control typically found in any hospital bed to call the charge nurse.
After waiting with no response for 15 minutes Nathan begins to walk to the oddly visble cracked large hospital window to check the scenery.
"Pretty nice…" as he takes in the the sun rise and looking down at the blobs of people moving around and even standing completely still. After about another 15 mins he goes to the door to open it, but doesn't as he notices how silent it's been since he's been awake.
Normally one would hear the carry carts, an ekg, the tv that doesn't switch channels, sounds in the corridors and let alone the things hooked up to a person in a coma not working and being dead silent…
[I'll check the window first….just in case]
After looking through the window he see's not a soul there on either ends of the corridor but trash and knocked over gurney's, medicinal supplies and trays.
"Yeah totally not creepy, and I don't have any of my personal stuff to call my mom and even my glasses are gone!"
[Alright I'll go outside the room and see if there's anyone around, the silence is foreboding right now].
Standing in the corridor stretching left and right he walks to the left side passing the elevator since it's apparent that anything electrically powered doesn't work at the moment. He slowly walks into the stairwell on the fourth 4th slowly making his way down until he reaches the first floor.
Opening the door meticulously slow and scanning the lobby, not to his surprise there isn't anyone else here either besides the chaotically mess as if a fire alarm went off.
Being in the lobby and no longer in the 4th floor, the once blobs he saw are now hideous humanoid looking figures! Some with ears in places where it shouldn't be as they stand there motionlessly and others casually walking around with a mouth as a face aimlessly walking, but none of them had eyes.
"…."
Breathlessly seeing said things, he has a gut feeling he shouldn't make any sounds or draw himself to any forms of attention. After taking a quick mental break he slowly crouches around to the front desk in search of food or water, only a few steps away from his original position.
[I guess I'll eat some of these honey salted nuts and get some water.]
Naturally there were other things but they had wrappers or needed to be open inside to reach it, which is the last thing one wants to avoid noise on purpose or accident. Minutes go by after he's suplemented his body his headache pain is noticeably lessened.
He checks out the backside of the hospital doors and sneaks out, concealed by fences just in case someone or something decides to look at him
[I need to make my way back home to see if my family is okay, and to make sure I'm not being delusional….its only a 30 minute walk away.]
Carefully walking alongside the fence he observes the 'creatures' roaming about unaware of his presence in the streets and grass, none of them have eye balls as well, just some with sockets as if they were removed.
Discerning the situation he moves further away from the hospital towards the open grass field… seeing that they haven't responded to his appearance in the open, he trepidly starts to move faster as a sense of dread comes upon him when some of them turn their heads and bodies in his direction as if they're looking out for something or someone.
[It's pretty obvious that these things are very vaguely aware that im here somewhere from either the sounds of my movements, or worse they have a keen sense of smell for human beings….still they have yet to reach a speed that would make me worried that I've been found out.]
A few minutes go by as he reaches the street adjacent to a 24 hour store that still has it's lights on and it has a less amount of those 'Things' around it for some reason.
[Phew…] he inwardly takes a breath to lessen his aprehension if at all.
Walking up to the store he checks around to see if anyone is there, which there isn't and he lets himself inside looking for more water.
After enduring what felt like a mountain of weight as he snuck around outside the hospital, needless to say he was sweating a decent amount, as his life could have very well been on the line. After all he's still in the hospital gown so it was risky sacrificing his dexterity in his hands or possibly creating noise from the salted nut jar or any water bottle he may have grabbed.
[I'll rest here to collect my thoughts and replenish myself. I shouldn't talk or make any noise just yet even if the door is closed, these guys could hear my bare feet walking in grass 25 meters away! ]
Suddenly a sound similar to hydroflask being dropped was heard in the steet. Being that everything was so still and quiet the noise felt like it was amplified to a greater extent, it felt like even the wind ceased to exist in this silence. Hearing this, Nathan decides to look through the broken front glasss window sticking out like a sore thumb.
[What is she doing!] he says after seeing a young woman in what seems to be in her 20's hastily picking herself up after presumably tripping to the ground.
In the next moment Nathan hears a cacophony of sounds as if a formation of marines or soldiers did a facing movement out of sync.
[NO!] the woman desperately covers her ears with military like headphones? and runs in the direction of the most crowded parts of a typical city surrounded by stores; And moving away from Nathan's sight.
"Oh…" Nathan follows suit in her actions and covers his ears before rushing behind the cashier counter and hiding under there.
Seconds go by.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
The sound was horryingly loud, it sounded like having tinnitus but max volume from multiple sounds waves.
"AhAAAhh..aAhhh" Nathan felt deaf during this period of sound, his ears ringing, eyes unable to focus and he lost complete awareness as if he was even on the ground or dreaming at the moment and almost loses consciousness.
The Sound stops
Footsteps and sounds are heard moving about outside the store,streets and the surrounding area. The sounds continue for about 33 minutes but everything is back as if nothing happend in the area at all.
Unbeknownst to Nathan he was in a semi conscious dazed state for the past 2 hours before he even get's his bearings.
It's around 12:00 judging from the position of the sun
"…" standing there absent mindedly he looks over himself and see's dried blood that came from his nose and a little bit from his ears, thankfully it's nothing white….
[This place has been devastated by the powerful sound waves or pressure those 'creatures' exuded. I'm only 12 minutes from the house I need to hurry.]
Moving towards the shattered and broken glass door before stopping. Instead of seeing the usual big ear, eyeless and still 'creatures' there are now more 'creatures' without eye sockets with varying displaying sizes of muscle mass, teeth coming from their faces, spikes and razor sharp lines across their body….After seeing that, he no doubt changed his mind and went to the back door that was made out of metal instead, thereby avoiding not only the 'creatures' but also the glass shards; Slowly and soundlessly opening the back door with just a dozen or so in sight he's finally outside the store.
Making his way through the bushy tree like area and proceeding to safely walk a good distance away he's only 5 minutes away from his home.
[Now that my mind is somewhat stable, I wonder who that woman was with that military grade headpiece. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be in such pain right now, but at the same time at least I gained more of a reason to not alert those things…]
he says remembering how desolate the state that this city street was in.
Continuing for another 5 minutes he reaches the neighborhood called Silverbrook, the place he grew up in. It's a nice gated suburban neighborhood for the middle class workers where his dad James Shiv, his mother Magdalen Shiv and his little sister Katie Shiv. Unfortunately his dad died about 5 months ago and now it's just the three of them, nonetheless they continue to mourn and move forward like the happy family they once were…
Standing at the entrance of the gate.The once was Silverbrook was now devasted, all the windows or any kind of glass was shattered, the houses were falling apart as if something smashed into them or an earthquake happened, the street littered with cars, bicycles, trash and other things one would find in a home.
"No….." What could have possibly happened while I was away? Where is my family? What am I meant to do? What can I even do???
As he stared at the devastation with a sullen view he crouches suddenly and start slowly walking to his house, almost forgetting that there were a few of the things from earlier here as well; Although there are only a handful it's more than enough to take out one Nathan if he wishes to die.
Climbing into his room after trying his best to wipe the glass away he starts searching for his belongings not willing to waste another minute in hopes of finding his family and knowing what's going on with the world in the internet.
"Finally I found my glasses and my phone, let's see what's going on right now"
It's SOS there aren't any service towers up right now or everything was shut down, either way Nathan decides to make preparations.
"Its almost 2pm, I should change over to proper attire,eat, sleep here and begin planning what I need to do in the morning with a clear mind."
Thereafter he begins to sleep in preparation for the next early morning day.