Asylum Apocalypse

There were good days and then there were bad days. Today seemed to be the worst of all. I was stuck in traffic, already late to work, there was a huge coffee stain on my blouse and my heel broke, nearly twisting my ankle as I had tried hurrying into my car this morning. I was very sure my boss Mr. Lakes was going to fire me for sure today. I was supposed to be in the office by nine setting up his presentation for the big sales pitch. My phone was ringing wildly and my hangover demanded immediate attention.

Usually the traffic is very systematic in our city. I didn’t know what was up with everyone.
I answered the call.
“Hello?!”, A panicked voice answered the call.
“ Hey MK! I promise I’ll be at the office in another half an hour! Do you think you can hold him off for some more time?” I panicked.

“What the fuck is up with you?! There has been a fucking alien invasion and you want to talk about the FUCKING sales pitch?!”, MK, my usually sane and serious colleague, my only friend since childhood, the I-Don’t-Fucking-Joke-Around kind of person, shouted back at me.

“Look I know I am late okay?! Just manage him for some more time please!” I was angry and frustrated.

It was at that moment I saw a huge spaceship slowly creep over and cover our city in its shadow. I dropped my phone.

Holy fuck. Chaos unfolded before me as thousands and thousands of people abandoned their cars and houses and started running hither, tither. Scattering and running into each other. Screaming and panicking, crying, holding onto their loved ones. I sat in my car. Too shocked, way too fucking shocked to do anything.

A guy ran into my right sight mirror and fell over. He got up and started running again. People were breaking windows, doors, trying to get into the buildings. It was a scene from the movies. My phone rang again, breaking my reverie.

“Hello?”, I whisper.
No one answered. I heard a metallic screech and a whirring of small tiny screws.
I ended the call.
I looked outside my window. The thing was huge. It blocked the sun. It was big enough to cover the entire city! It had blue and green lights on it running across the bottom metallic surface. A sudden quietness seemed to settle over the whole city. Like vacuum in space. I could not hear any screaming anymore or any movement. I don’t know if it was shock, denial or I had suddenly gone deaf, but I could not hear a single sound.

I got out of my car, slowly cautiously. I shut the door. Sure enough it made noise. That was strange. I looked around and shards of glass hanging in mid air caught my eye. They looked like they were simply suspended in mid-air. The man behind the glass shards with a plank of wood in his hands too stood frozen. It looked like as if someone took a picture and instead of capturing and freezing the action on the camera, it froze the man in real life.

This was so fucked up. There were more like him. All stuck in various actions and positions. I walked around looking for any body else, like me. I started running, calling out. If the aliens were above me very capable (I assume) of detecting me, then they might as well hear me.

“Please! Anybody! Is anyone there who could move around like me!”, I cried out. “Please!” I know I made absolutely no sense. I felt like I was going batshit crazy. I tried calling people but no one answered.

As the day wore on, I saw no body else. The ship did not move nor make a sound. It did absolutely nothing, except hover over the city the whole time. I walked slowly towards a Walmart. I was hungry and tired and sleepy. There were people inside, frozen. I went straight to the deli. There was a stove at the back. I guess they cooked the free samples here. I toasted some bread, cracked open a few eggs and fried some chicken. I ate alone slowly, on the tables kept at the furniture section. I packed more food, water and clothing in suitcases. I also took knives, blades and money. I put them all in a trolley cart, covered it with a sheet and walked back home.

I looked once around my neighbourhood for any other sign of life other myself. But found no one. I tuned into the news channel on the tv, no one covered the news. I packed all my other essentials. I was car sitting for my neighbour, he had a nice big sedan. My things would for into the big blue car. I packed everything, ready to leave town.

The next morning, I woke up early. It was very cold outside. This was odd because it was the middle of summer. I quickly ate the turkey sandwich I made myself last night and started my journey out of town. I didn’t know where I was going I just had to get out of town. The space ship was still above the city, except today the lights were blue and purple instead of green and blue.

I quickly drove as fast as I could, manoeuvring through the frozen people and abandoned cars scattered on the road. After about an hour I reached city limits. The space ship was casting a shadow exactly at the border. There was sunshine on the other side. I pressed the gas pedal as hard as possible.

The car crashed really hard into an invisible wall.
I gained consciousness after a long time and my head ached very much. My vision was blurry but I knew that I was not in the car anymore. I was in a different place. Panic spread through my body. I tried to get up. I heard a sound approaching me, getting closer and closer very fast. I wanted to throw up. My whole body hurt.

“You are awake.” The voice softly remarked.
“Who are you? What do you want?”, I croaked.
“I am Fred Larson. I am your doctor. I just want to help you.” He sighed patiently, as if he had done this hundreds of times.

“What happened to the aliens? How did everyone unfreeze?” I asked.
“Ah…they went away,” he sighed again, “Here I need you to have these medicines before bed everyday okay?”. He handed me a little box of little pills.

“Will they help with the pain?” I ask studying the little box.
“They will help with more than that.”, he said his blue eyes pouring into my own.
He got up straightened his big white coat and took his writing pad from the bed stand. “Now go back to sleep, my dear”, he said gently going out of the room.

The room started coming back into focus, slowly. It was a small square room. The bed I was in the corner of the room. A small painting of purple flowers was on the opposite wall. The room was very white. The bedside table had a neat little tray of lots of medicines.

Suddenly I overhear voices outside.
“Her hallucinations are getting out of control,” the doctor’s voice sounded tired.
“What do we do now, Doctor?”, a female voice asked.
“We have to continue to keep her under observation for another month, the board said that they cannot give us permission to move her yet, nurse.”, the doctor answered.

“But what if she had another episode?” , Nurse sounded worried.
“Hampshire’s Home for the Mentally Ill have offered to take her in at the end of the month, we just have to keep her sedated long enough. Here, I have updated her medicines in the report.”

There was a shuffling and ruffling of papers. My head felt heavier and heavier. My body started becoming number and number. I drifted off into the unconscious, thoroughly sedated.