Light shone in through the window, illuminating a clean room with only a few pieces of furniture.
Inside the room, a black-haired man with an average appearance lay flat on a bed.
He wore a white shirt, black trousers, and a pair of mismatched socks.
As the morning rays of sunlight fell on his face, he stirred, disturbed from his sleep.
His eyes snapped open, and a familiar ceiling came into view, confirming that he hadn't been swept away by the ongoing disaster in his sleep and that he was still in his apartment.
Phew~
Leon sighed in relief and sat up on his bed.
However, his relief was short lived as he noticed something strange.
"It's eerily quiet."
Looking out the window, he saw that it had been a while since the sun had risen.
At this time of day, his dog would be barking to be fed. His cat would be snuggling up to him, meowing for attention. His beautiful, angelic roommate would be preparing breakfast and a cup of coffee for herself, filling the apartment with the scent of food. And the honking of cars would occasionally be heard coming from the streets outside his apartment window.
Yet today, none of the usual things happened.
In their place, a strange, suffocating silence had taken over the apartment.
Leon's gut twisted with unease.
"Anybody home?"
His desperate voice echoed through the apartment, but he got no response.
His unease deepened.
He got up from his bed and rushed out of his room, checking the entire apartment but finding no one.
It was empty.
His pets and roommate were nowhere to be seen.
He charged out of his apartment building and discovered that the streets were empty for miles.
He could no longer lie to himself.
"IT got them all while I was asleep."
Everyone that mattered to him, he had lost them overnight!
In these uncertain times, he knew such a thing could happen to anyone at any time, even himself. He had mentally prepared for it, but when it actually happened to him, he experienced unbearable pain as if his heart had been stabbed by a knife.
He collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down his face.
The pain of losing his entire world to the unknown was driving him crazy, and the fear of knowing it was only a matter of time before he would vanish into thin air like everyone he'd ever known was constantly torturing him, like a slow-acting poison, gnawing at his senses.
He cried until his eyes burned and his throat ached.
Feeling like he would go crazy if he sat still, he began wandering the empty city aimlessly.
He wasn't the first to experience such an extreme level of loss and mental anguish, and he wouldn't be the last.
After all, ever since that day, joy and hope had become distant memories, while cruelty and loss had become the only constants.
26th July 2027.
That was the day a disaster with no precedent began.
Humans and animals from every part of Earth began disappearing in large numbers, vanishing without a trace.
No one had any idea about how these disappearances were taking place or how to prevent them. In the face of the disaster that had descended upon every race on Earth out of the blue, everyone was equally helpless!
When even the governing bodies and relevant authorities expressed their helplessness about the raging disaster, panic spread like wildfire throughout the human civilization.
Naturally, panicking didn't help a single soul. It only made matters worse, shutting plenty of things down and causing human society to spiral into a vortex of misery and despair.
The disappearances were random, meaning anyone could vanish at any time.
Today, it could be the president of the strongest nation and his entrouge.
Tomorrow, it could be your best friend or the love of your life or both of them.
The worst could also happen.
You blink your eyes, and the next thing you know, everyone you'd ever known or cared about has disappeared from the face of the Earth. You are all you have left, and you have no idea how long you've before your turn to disappear comes as well.
Sounds terrifying, right?
Unfortunately, this was the grim reality for millions of people across the globe.
A disaster of this scale was unprecedented, and it left the glorious human civilization utterly devastated and thoroughly crippled, ending global trade, destroying the economy, and much more.
In these challenging times, some people lived in constant fear, wondering if they would be the next to mysteriously disappear. Others believed the end times had come. They spend their days indulging in their deepest desires and fulfilling their every wishes, convinced that nothing mattered anymore. Before dissapearing, they wanted to experience everything they had once hesitated to chase whatever it may be.
Of course, there were also those who refused to give in to despair or submit to fate. They searched for answers in the densest darkness, clinging to the hope that there was a way to survive the disaster.
"How long has it been?"
The sun began to dip below the horizon.
Leon realized he had spent half the day wandering aimlessly, lost in his grief.
He stopped walking and sat down on the pavement.
A suicide prevention ad played on a nearby billboard, but Leon ignored it, lost in his thoughts as he wondered what he should do next.
Others in his shoes either took their own lives or went crazy.
These crazy people lived meaninglessly, just waiting for death to come and take them away.
Leon didn't want to follow in their footsteps.
He didn't want to commit suicide nor did he want to sink into madness.
He wanted to resist fate and survive this disaster.
He wanted to find the cause of the disappearance and destroy it. That's the only way he felt he could avenge his people and take revenge for his race.
"Whatever is behind these dissapeareance, I refuse to leave myself to its mercy."
Determined to pierce through the thick veil of mystery and uncover the truth, he went home, sat before his computer, and scrutinized every piece of information he could find online about the mysterious disappearances happening around the globe.
As a result, he discovered an unremarkable yet undeniably crucial detail
Whatever the victims were carrying or wearing at the time of their disappearance vanished with them!
His pets had vanished with their name tags, so this information was 100% correct.
"If disappearing doesn't mean an inevitable end, but rather being pulled into another space for some insidious purpose, I will have a greater chance of surviving there if I bring weapons and living essentials with me."
Even if his theory was incorrect and disappearing meant death, he would only be spending his last days in discomfort, which didn't mean much to him now that he had lost everyone he held dear.
He only owned a handgun.
He strapped himself with it, grabbed his car keys, and went out in search of better weapons and supplies.
He drove to the nearest police station.
It was devoid of any signs of life.
Leon believed the officers of this particular station had been caught up in the recent waves of disappearances, vanishing without a trace.
He entered the station as if it were his own home and headed straight for the weapon locker and storage room.
He went inside and saw that the firearms were secured inside a heavy-duty metal cabinet, locked with a sturdy padlock.
Too lazy to search for the keys, he pulled out his handgun, aimed at the lock, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A loud gunshot echoed through the empty station.
The bullet hit the padlock, shattering it. It was no longer capable of keeping the cabinet locked.
Leon yanked the cabinet doors open, picking up a lot of good stuff and equipping himself with them.
Needless to say, he left the station a very satisfied man and drove to the local supermarket.
There, he grabbed a large, sturdy handbag from a shelf and filled it to the brim with life-saving essentials.
He slung it over his shoulder, determined to keep it on him at all times until he gets picked up from Earth and thrown into another space.
An average person would feel strained carrying this much equipment.
But Leon, who had undergone years of rigorous training in the military and completed missions for his nation in harsh, inhospitable environments and inhumane conditions, had a hardened body and extraordinary willpower and endurance.
He was able to carry it all without compromising his mobility or feeling mentally strained.
Yes, he was a soldier before the world started falling apart.
He returned to his car and began driving toward the nearest military base, approximately 50 miles away.
If it was as empty as the police station, he wouldn't be polite—he would loot it for all the good stuff it had.
On the way there though, he vanished from his car, becaming one of the poor souls who mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth!