Milk Carton Boys

September 10, 1987

"Police reports have been spread that sixteen year old, Xavier Montero has been stated missing, the adolescent was last seen by his friends at a party, 72 hours later and there has been no sight, or even tracks that Xavier has gone missing. If seen please call 1800-72-"

I woke up. Like any other morning, something seemed off though, "maybe I left pizza in my room. I'm surprised mom hasn't yelled at me for school. Fuck I've probably woke up early." I roll over onto my side to check my clock on the bedside table, with my eyes still closed struggling to find it. I furrowed my brows, exhausted I raised my head from the pillow to see it missing. Well, after looking around, seemed everything else was too. I jolted up in bed, my bedroom was dull, the wallpaper tearing, the floorboards seemed to be rotting, dust filled the room, the air thick and gray. All that was left was my bed and my wardrobe, the blue paint pealing away and the handles rusted. What the fuck. This had to be some joke, maybe something I smoked last night is still messing up my eyesight. I got up out of bed, I somehow had gone to sleep fully clothed, shoes and all. Okay, weird. Trying to make myself slowly across the floorboards that bent underneath my weight, I got over to open my wardrobe, there seemed to be a note tacked to it:

"Xavier, we've left, we don't know if you'll ever see this letter, we don't even know if you're still in this world. We have left the state, myself, your mother, Lizzy and Alex need to leave this town behind, you've been gone for too long, and deep down we know you're not coming back. We love you. And we'll always remember you in our hearts. Till we meet again in another life, Dad x"

What do they mean I'm not in this world? Am I dead? That might explain some stuff, but this didn't seem right; I'd gotten back from the party last night and I woke up, that was it, nothing in between. I shakily tore the paper off the door, swinging open the wardrobe to find all my belongings stuff in. Compared to the rest of the room, the dust hadn't touched my belongings inside. I found my weathered backpack at the bottom of the wardrobe, I picked it up, put the note inside and took out my walkman.

Out of batteries.

With what else I could find I packed some clothes, some cassettes, my wallet (with money), swiss army knife and lighter. I pulled on my sweatshirt and slung my bag over my shoulder and tightened the laces on my shoes. I pushed through the gap of my door frame and the now unhinged door of my room and made my way down the hallway to the stairs. Everything was dull, the polish had worn off the wood, the dust thick and coating the window ledges, every step down felt like I might fall through the wooden boards.

The great main door had a stained glass window, the once beautiful mosaic and the painted tile floor was shattered, the white paint scratched off and the hinges rusted. Seeing the rest of the house like these, I felt...alone, truly alone. My family was gone, I had woken up this morning like nothing happened and now I'm deserted in a place I've grown up in. The outside are was chilling, the breeze hitting me, feeling the tips of my fingers turn blue. Winter in the middle of June? That wasn't exactly something you'd normally get here, but compared to how much has already happened it didn't really surprise me.

The sky was clouded, completely covered in a gray, white and black, the sun completely covered. I walked down the path to the road, taking one look back at my once bright house that was filled with warmth, now a cold abanoded estate. I nodded to myself and started walking down the road to the town centre. The entire street was empty, deshevilled houses lined the cracked bitumen, plants of all kinds overgrowing in the abandoned neighbourhood. It was a good thirty minute walk until I found the outskirts of a town still living, people bustling, kids walking to school in raincoats, mothers gossiping with coffees in hand; at least I'd found some place that actually looked alive. Though the cars were a bit different, and some of the people had their hands up to their ears and were talking to themselves and the voice in their head, not to mention the clothes, far too boring for my liking, maybe punk had died overnight or something. I was close to the town centre now, I turned a corner and spotted a 7/11, the neon sign lit up in the gloomy weather. "Maybe I can buy some batteries". The walk so far had been boring without music, and today felt like a Grateful Dead kind of day. Good thing I brought a bunch of their cassettes.

I pushed open the door and the bell chimed. "Well that's one hell of a renovation." I thought to myself, everything was so white, too bland. Everything was so bland. The cashier took no notice of me and went back to her...um...gameboy? I think, it was pretty flat, but she kept tapping on buttons, eyes fixated on the console.

Aliens, maybe. I shrugged and searched the corner store, finally finding the batteries next to the chips and vending machine. With the batteries I picked up a 6-pack of Dr Pepper and a pack of gum before making my way up to the brainwashed cashier. She gave me one glance of disgust before making a deal of sighing loudly and rolling her eyes before putting down her device. I looked around to the back of the cashier, the great cupboard of cigarettes, before I could even start looking for malboros my eyes practically popped out of their sockets at the prices. Twenty-five ninety-five. What has the world come to? It probably was aliens, with all the boring clothes and weird abandoned houses, and weird gameboys and huge cigarette prices and shitty music that played in this fucking Seven-Eleven.

"That'll be $17.65"

My eyes went back to the girl, her voice so monotoned it was unsettling. I nodded and pulled out my wallet counting out the money. My eyes went back to her console, I couldn't help but ask.

"What's that?" I gestured to the console, she seemed to laugh in response.

"Dude, that's my Phone."

"Your what?"

"A...Phone. Y'know, a thing you use to call people with? For apps and stuff? Where have you been, under a rock?" She laughed sarcastically before taking the money I put on the desk.

"Shouldn't it be connected to something if it's a phone?"

She seemed to look at me like I'd just grown another head "You sound like my Grandpa, he's always complaining about how everyone has their own phone now, how his family just had one stuck to a wall."

I tried to laugh it off, "I thought everyone just had a home phone."

With my bag in and I pulled out my walkman as I exited the store, pulling a few batteries out of the packet and replacing the old rusted ones. If my fucking walkman is broken I'm going to scream. I hoped for the best and put in Grateful Dead's 'In the Dark'. As I pressed play and putting on my headphones I felt the warmth of the music settle as the first notes of touch of gray started. Thank fucking god.

What to do now...I could make my way to Tyler's house, I doubt school would be a thing anymore since of the state that not even my family knew where I was, and the lack of them even being in the same state as I was. What if Tyler's gone? The whole group, Tyler, Jaimie, Mason, Jane, Kevin, Maria...Maria. Oh god, what if she was gone too? We'd only been together for four months but we got along so well together, we went to concerts together, I even bought her ticket to Iron Maiden. I'd only seen her last night at the party, she looked amazing, her black hair was all spiked in every which way, wearing her green doc marten's and plaid skirt and leather jacket and black lipstick and piercings. God, she looked beautiful.

After picking up the essentials from the drugstore and buying lunch at a pizza joint I made my way down west of town to Maria's house. I had to see if she was still there, if she wasn't I'd go find her, I had to see someone, a familiar face, just so I could know I wasn't alone.