"You ever have one of those days where you wake up and you can't tell
if you're still dreaming or not? You open your eyes, and look around
your room, and everything just seems so surreal, you could swear you
were still asleep in your bed. Then, you go about your day like
normal, and everything's just the same as it always has been, and that
feeling goes away after maybe five minutes or so. No big. The line
between reality and dream is made clear, and you realize you're wide
awake, and everything's peachy.
...But ever since THAT day, that line's never been clear. Not even
close." ~ Caleb "Cale" Walker, on the recent worldwide incident.
____________________________
Cale's eyes opened to the sight of his white dorm room ceiling, for
the hundredth time, just like every other day. The light of day shone
through his window and lit up the room. And, just like every other
day, the thing that had woken him up was his damned alarm clock that
never seemed to work right, and either woke him up an hour too late,
or an hour too early. Turning over onto his side though, Cale could
see from the time displayed, that it had done the later.
"Well, so much for class." He groaned as he sat up, his eyes only half
open.
Looking at Cale on the street just at a glance, one wouldn't think
anything special about him. That was because there wasn't anything
special to see. Just another 5'11" brown-eyed college student with a
thing for not combing his short brown hair and going to his first
class in the morning in his pajamas. Then again, who didn't do those
things in college? That was the norm.
Cale rubbed his eyes and reached over to his bed-side desk for his
phone. The screen blared the message '3 Unread Texts' and Cale already
knew exactly who it was texting so early in the morning. Opening the
text messages, his guess was confirmed. Crystal, his girlfriend,
texting him "Good morning" at 8:05, "Are U up yet?" at 8:30, and "Hey,
where R U?" at 8:55. Cale puzzled for a second on how he hadn't heard
his phone go off, before pressing the volume button on the side and
learning that he'd had it on vibrate for some reason. Cale face-palmed
on the inside, before dropping the phone on the floor, and laying back
in bed to stare at the ceiling.
He couldn't tell what it was exactly, but something about the day
seemed weird. It was a surreal feeling, like he wasn't sure he was
even awake yet. Maybe this was all a dream. Cale didn't think anything
of it though. He'd felt that way in the morning before, as had
everyone else he was sure. The feeling would be gone soon.
As he laid there in bed, Cale let his eyes droop a bit. In his head,
he could hear a slight grumbling that seemed strangely calming. It
grew a little louder, and suddenly, Cale noticed that his bed seemed
to be shaking slightly. His eyes opened at the realization that the
grumbling wasn't in his head, and he sat up in bed, with a look of
confusion on his face.
Suddenly, the room jerked quickly, and the next thing he knew, his
second-floor room was at a slant, and his bed, along with every other
piece of furniture in the room, began to slide across the tile floor
toward the opposite wall.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA!" Cale exclaimed as he slid with the bed,
almost falling out as it hit the far wall.
Outside, he could suddenly hear screams and sirens. The foundation of
the building creaked everywhere, and Cale jumped out of bed as fast as
he could, before quickly gathering his phone, keys, and wallet, and
heading out the door.
The hallways were in a panic, and Cale was swept with the crowd toward
the stairway and to the first floor. Bodies moved all around him,
shoving him against just about every fixture between the stairwell and
the exit, before finally, he'd made it out the door, and into the
parking lot of the building, where an even larger crowd had gathered
at the foot of the building. Cale made it through the mob, and to the
far side of the parking lot, before he turned around to see what
exactly had happened to the building.
Sure enough, the whole building was slanted on it's side somewhat, and
a large crevice could easily be seen in the ground leading to it from
somewhere down the street. On one side of it, the ground had lifted a
good six feet, so even with the crowd around it, it wasn't hard to
spot.
"Dude, this is bad-ass!"
"Are you kidding? There was just a freaking earthquake! That's BAD,
dumbass!"
"Man, bad or not, this shit's going on Youtube. Get your camera out!"
"Oh, I hope no one was hurt."
Cale listened to the conversations around him from various students,
but didn't pay much attention to them. His head was still spinning.
This all just had to be a dream. He was sure of it!
The sirens off in the distance seemed to grow louder, and soon, police
vehicles began to make their way into the parking lot. A loudspeaker
from one blared.
"Attention. An immediate evacuation of the South side of town is now
in effect. Please make your way to the North side of campus, where an
emergency evacuation bus will take you out of the area. I repeat: An
immediate evacuation..."
"Evacuation? Are they serious?"
"So much for my Youtube hit."
"Just get a few pictures or something with your phone and get over it,
superstar."
Cale stood with his mouth slightly ajar still focused on the building
and the crevice.
"What... the hell?" He muttered to himself, before stepping backward
as a portion of the crowd began to file past him. He turned and
followed, absorbed in his thoughts. The crowd grew thicker as groups
from other parts of campus joined en route to the North side.
"Oh wow, I can't believe there was an earthquake HERE of all places. I
didn't know we were anywhere near a fault line."
"We're not. Didn't you have the news on? This is like the twentieth
earthquake like this just today! Apparently, they're happening
everywhere worldwide!"
"Seriously? Man, that's insane!"
"I know, right?"
Cale stopped short. "This is happening... worldwide?" He asked to no
one in particular. He jumped a bit when he got an answer from behind
as someone suddenly wrapped their arms around him.
"Yup! This is going on everywhere!" A light, female voice chimed.
Cale spun around and found himself looking at a young woman, maybe
half a foot shorter than him, with wavy black hair down to just past
her shoulders. Her complexion and hair color told Cale right off the
bat that she was of Hispanic heritage. She wore a light blue sweater
and jeans, with a white undershirt. He'd never seen her before.
"Uh... do I know you?" Cale asked.
"Nope! Not in the slightest! But I know all about you, Caleb Walker,
age 20, height five-foot-eleven, weight 167 pounds, blood type AB
positive, and shoe size 12 mens." She said as she poked Cale in the
chest.
"Wha... how..." Cale was at a loss for words.
"Oh, that's just a sample of what all I know about you. If you'll come
with me now, I'd really appreciate it. We really need to hurry though,
since this is the last location that stage 1 is supposed to take place
at, and I want to at least get to talk to you a bit before stage 2
happens and you may not be able to speak English anymore." The girl
said, before grabbing Cale's wrist and pulling him out of the crowd to
a solitary tree nearby.
Cale pulled his arm away.
"Wait, hold on for a sec! WHAT?!?! What the hell are you talking
about???" He asked.
"Oh, nothing. Just the end of the world as you know it." The girl said
lightly.
"By the way, my name's Ani. That's A-N-I, got it?" Ani beamed as she
emphasized the spelling.
"Now, on to the subject at hand: You. In a short bit, you're gonna
feel a bit funny, and things are gonna get a bit weird, but trust me,
you'll be fine when you come out of it."