#eclipsawrites

[solareclivse]

operative || original story ☆

elora was just a normal, granted very late, nurse going about her uneventful life when she realized, the world was completely empty. Not a person, animal, or even insect in sight. Her life begins to drastically change when she gets an emergency alert on her phone and a notification to report to a "handler"...

a possibly dumb story, written by yours truly ~ eclipsa

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I jolt awake suddenly and look over at the bright red lights on my alarm clock. 7 am. Two hours late.

"Oh, no no no. This can't be right." I snatch the clock off my nightstand, tears slowly forming in my eyes. I overslept. How could I oversleep? I fall out of bed and rush through my morning routine, just barely stopping to pour myself a cup of day-old coffee, still sitting in the pot, on my way out of my house. When I step outside something seems, off, different than usual. But I don't have time to fool around with what's different about an already bad morning. I was never going to hear the end of this from Lisa. I quickly get into my car and swerve out of the driveway, barely missing my mailbox. When I get onto the road I look around and notice something is strange again, no cars.

"At 7 am, really? Maybe my luck isn't so bad after all." I mumble, pushing the speed limit a little to get to work faster. There are no cars around so why not? When I arrive at the hospital I pull into the first empty parking spot I can find. Except, every other spot is also...empty? Maybe everyone just parked on the second floor for some strange reason. I don't have time to question every little detail so quickly brush it off and rush straight to my post for the morning.

"Lisa I am so sorry I-", I stammer out, looking up from checking my bag for just a minute to notice, no one is in the hospital. But the hospital never closes, we always have people no matter what. Patients, doctors, residents, nurses, someone, should be here.

"Uh, hello? Anybody there?", I call out, my voice echoing off the empty hospital walls. I walk over to a window in the waiting room and look outside. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not a car in the street, not even a bird flying through the air.

"What is going on..here?", I quietly whisper to myself., pulling my phone out of my pocket. No signal. I run over to the computer behind the receptionist's desk. No internet, nothing. "This can't be right, I must be dreaming, right?", I think quietly, pinching myself.

"Ouch", I exclaim softly, maybe it's just a really realistic dream? I try putting my finger through my hand. Solid flesh, as expected.

"If I'm not dreaming then what exactly is going on here." I think out loud, cautiously looking around.

"Warning, emergency alert. Warning, emergency alert.", a loud automated voice boomed from my phone. I jump and quickly take it out of my pocket to find that my phone screen was black with a big red and white block that read, "EMERGENCY". I frantically tap the screen, trying to quiet the loud announcement, when my screen suddenly changes.

"Report to handler and await further instructions?" I read aloud.

Handler? Is it talking about Lisa? My boss? I've never heard of any "handler" before.

"This must be some sort of prank", I scoff to myself, "Ha ha guys very funny, you had me going there for a second." I look around, hoping for everyone to suddenly come out and give up the act. No response. My phone is still screaming emergency alert at me. I cover my ears and put it in my pocket to try to muffle the noise. I walk over to the window and look outside again. Still no one. Sighing, I grab my keys and bookbag and head to the hospital entrance. When I walk outside and look around, the air feels stale. The only noise is my, still, very loud phone. I angrily take it out of my pocket again to see if I can turn it off, but to my surprise, there's now a map displayed on the screen. The destination is a nearby Starbucks, just a few blocks away. Since this was the only lead I have, I start walking.

"This has gotta be the craziest dream I've ever had. Maybe I should lay off the late-night binge-watching and ice cream tubs, sugar is bad before bed anyways."

When I reach the Starbucks it looks pretty empty, just like everywhere else. Great, another dead end. I round the corner to go back to the hospital, only to run right into something hard. I stagger back, rubbing my forehead, and look up. It's a person dressed in all black, sunglasses, hands in pockets, the whole mysterious get-up, looking right at me.

"Oh! Jesus, you scared me", I say putting a hand over my heart, "Hey, do you by any chance know why there's literally no one around?", I asked awkwardly. Silence.

"Um, hello???", I chuckled nervously, "Are you okay?" I ask, waving my hand and stepping closer to them.

"Are you Elora?", they asked in a deep voice.

I took a step back, "Yeah, who's...asking?", I replied slowly backing away.

"Your handler. Headquarters requests your presence immediately", they reply, completely emotionless.

"What? Handler? You must have the wrong person, see I was just trying to get to my shift an-", they raise their hand, and interrupt me.

"What you were doing before is irrelevant. Headquarters requests an audience with you, and you have a job to do. Let's go." they stated.

"Look, I don't know who you think you are, but I'm not the person you're looking for. If this is your idea of a joke, cut it out. I don't know what's going on here but I want no part of it. I don't know what " headquarters" you're talking about, and I've never seen you in my life so there's no way possible you're my "handler". I don't have a handler and I don't appreciate the way you're talking to me, so I must be on my way. Have a good day." I say annoyed, turning around to leave.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that Elora," they say grabbing my arm, "When headquarters requests an audience with you, you go. If you will not go willingly, I'm afraid I'll have to resort to using force, and trust me, neither of us wants that."

"Like I said. I'm. Leaving. Now get out of my way.", I say forcefully, narrowing my eyes at them and snatching away my arm. I turn around to leave once again but this time I'm met with strong arms wrapping around my neck and a cloth over my nose and mouth. I scream and kick, trying to get away from them.

"Apologies Ms. Elora, but you left me no choice."

The last thing I heard before the world faded into darkness.