Westvale

II

II

Westvale awoke to an impressively dull, and inactive day. Unlike yesterday, not a fly buzzed around, an odd silence presented itself. Everything was awfully quiet. As Westvale is and was ignored by the entire Milky Way galaxy and beyond, Clara burst out of bed when a helicopter flew by, attacking the dull vibe of the town with its noisy cluster of blades flapping around in the clear blue sky just as Denny had predicted. It was already ten in the morning. Clara got through her morning routine in just enough time to hear her neighbor's car leave to wherever he was headed to. There were six hours until her hike with Ben, so she called her friend Ronald to see if he would be able to give her a ride to the observatory. Her call never made it through, her phone answering her with a low-pitched beep. She sent an SMS, but that never got received either. She ignored the disturbance and got dressed to go by her store and grab some things. Her grocery store and the other mini-mart were the only means of getting food in town unless of course, you grew something in your backyard. On her short way to the store, she didn't notice a single person walking the streets. Only a few cars but barely any pedestrians. Being Sunday, Clara imagined most people were at home, going about their days at the normal Sunday pace. After fifteen minutes of shopping in her own store, more like the storage room and file cabinet, she left, locked the entrance, and started walking home. A few blocks away from her destination, she noticed a man walking in a very eerie pattern. He couldn't walk for the life of him and had his skin covered in what appeared to be rashes or severe skin irritations. Clara stopped and looked at the man across the street. Not even five seconds later, he fell to the ground. Clara rushed across the empty street and kneeled trying to aid the man.

"Can you hear me? Sir, can you hear me? Give me a sign, move or something."

Given the clear immobility of the possibly drunk man, Clara got her cell phone out and dialed 911. To get to the clinic, you had to walk at least another ten minutes, something pretty hard to do when you have to drag an unconscious person with you. She waited and waited for the responder to say something but the only sound the phone would make would be a low pitched 'beep', just like the one she got when calling Ronald. Dazzled as to why no one was answering the phone, given it was an emergency number, she dialed again. The same result came across. Clara checked the man's faint heartbeat and stood up. She waved to a person walking a few yards away, and surprisingly enough, Ben was now rushing towards her already in his firefighter uniform. As mentioned, he was tall and a little skinny, with pale green eyes and brown hair. His eyes were long and thin, his face quite symmetrical.

"Ben, I can't believe you're here right at this moment."

"What is all of this?" asked Ben quite panicked.

"This man just fell to the ground; his heart is barely beating."

"Have you called an ambulance?"

"Yes, and I'm being answered with a beep. I tried calling Ronald today, same thing."

"Let me try with my phone."

"Go ahead, but hurry."
Half a minute past only for Ben to notice that his phone seemed to answer with the same 'beep' sound.

"Nothing. Grab his legs".

Ben grabbed the guy by his torso and Clara by his legs, both trotting across the desolate and vast Westvale, making it to the clinic in around eight minutes. Weirdly enough, they came across no one else in town. It was like yesterday's festivity had caused everyone to vanish or perish unexpectedly. Ben kicked the clinic's glass doors open, only to encounter a complete fiasco in the main hallway of the clinic. A scene that truly shocked both of them. Nurses and doctors were rushing everywhere, running in every direction possible. A nurse came rushing towards the two.