Under the Cover of Darkness

Error 404

Mike nursed a cup of freshly brewed coffee as he looked down from his apartment onto the deserted street below.

He took a sip thinking to himself how quiet it was for a Saturday night. Mike was not the 'going out social' type. He was more your stay-at-home socialiser.

"I have friends all over the world - none in this country, but all over the world!" he would often joke.

He returned to his desk and laptop. Mike was not one for tablets or communicating by phone apps. He liked to be seated in his chair behind a bank of three screens, each one displaying his favourite social media site.

However, like outside, his virtual world too was having a quiet night in. He posted to all his usual contacts only to be greeted with silence. Mike even posted something defamatory about a celebrity hoping to get a reaction from the site owner. But nothing!

Frustrated, he went into the kitchen to microwave himself a pizza. When he came back there was a notification on his Twitter page!

With a triangular piece of pizza hanging out of his mouth, he eagerly read the message.

'Mike, Sup! You there dude?'

'Yo! Christie, yeah man I'm here!'

'LOL-beginning to think the world had ended. No-one posting!'

'I can't reach a soul here either.'

'All quiet too in the Motor City, that's if you don't include the commotion outside my apartment.'

'Drunks coming home from a night out?'

'No, more like someone trying to break-in to the apartment across the hall.'

'Maybe you should call the cops?'

'Might just do that now they are hammering on my door. Stay online, I'm about to open a can of whoop ass on those clowns.'

'Take it easy dude!'

'It's OK, I'm packing. Back in a mo.'

Mike sat looking at the last tweet from Christie. The little cursor blinked waiting to race across the screen. Mike sat there nervously thinking about his friend.

After fifteen minutes, he tried to hack into the Detroit Police Department website to see if any disturbance had been reported in Christie area. But all he was getting was 'Error 404'.

Then, his Twitter page came back to life. However, it wasn't Christie this time but someone called 'Midnight Cowboy.'

'Hello you don't know me. I'm Christies cousin, I'm worried about him. There is some strange shit going down here tonight.'

'Hi, he broke off halfway through our chat. Said there was a disturbance outside his apartment. Said someone was breaking in, I tried calling the cops but their site was down.'

'I'm telling you man, it's a zombie apocalypse.'

'Stop shitting me this is serious dude!'

As Mike typed, he became aware that like Christie, he too was experiencing some kind of altercation going on down the street below. He ignored it up to the point when he could now hear it outside his own apartment.

'You're not going to believe this, but the same shit Christie had, is kicking off outside my apartment also.'

'Leave it Mike, please don't go!

Mike!

MIKE!

No more Tweets

'Mike you there?'

'MIKE. NO!'