《Jacks Tale.》


 Prologue.

    I was jolted awake by the screech of speakers, bumping my head against the window I was leaning against. I lowered my hood, squinting in the sudden brightness, as the train compartment I was in slowly came into focus. I raised my arms above my head in a much needed stretch, a large yawn escaping me. The screeching of the speakers finally stopped as the Conductors voice came through.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen, we will shortly be arriving in Ballarat. Please check your seats and surroundings to insure you have all your belongings. Thank you." he said.


    Finally, I thought, as I leaned forward to get my backpack from under the seat. Shaking off the last bit of sleep, I stood up slinging the backpack over my shoulder as I reached up into the luggage rack to get my duffel bag. Thus equipped with the majority of my worldly possessions I headed towards the nearest door.


    I stretched my legs while I waited and it wasn''t long before the train started to slow. Looking out the window I could see the train station so I picked up my bags and moved to the door. The train crawled into the station and ground to a halt, I pushed the button to open the door and stepped out onto the platform.


    I guess now would be a good time for introductions. Hello, my name is Jack Weaver, I¡¯m 29 years old, roughly 5¡¯10¡± tall, slim with short dark brown hair and hazel eyes. If I had to describe myself with one word it would be ¡°Average¡±.


    Now that the introductions are out of the way, let us continue.


    I walked down the platform and exited the train station, heading toward the taxi rank. The taxi rank was empty so I sat down and took a bottle of water from my backpack and decided to wait. I sipped the water and within a couple of minutes a taxi arrived, I put my bags in the back seat hopped in, gave the driver my address and away we went.


    Now seems as good a time as any to fill you in on the rest of me, so here goes: The reason for me carrying the majority of my possessions upon my back is that today is moving day. I had decided a month ago that due to increased cost of living in Melbourne, and the fact that I never really enjoyed the city anyway, that a move was in order.


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Luckily my job could be done from anywhere as long as I could access the internet. I make my living as a Researcher. Basically people pay me to find information for them. Thankfully, I¡¯m quite good at it.


    I had chosen to move to Ballarat after a few days of research and found it fit my criteria. It was a relatively cheap place to live, decent infrastructure, population just over 100k and it had history, being the site of a major gold rush in the latter half of the 1800¡¯s and has the honor of being the home of the Eureka Rebellion, the only armed rebellion in Australian history.


    This was not my first time in the town as I had come here twice in the previous weeks to look around and find a nice quiet place to rent. The town, like most old towns, was a mix of the antique and the modern. Large stone buildings took up most of the real estate in the main part of town with the buildings getting more modern as you moved from the center.


    The place I had chosen to rent was only a five minute drive from the train station so it didn¡¯t take long to arrive. I paid the cabbie as we pulled up to the house, grabbed my bags and exited the taxi.


    The house itself was a small 2 bedroom, 1 bath with a tiny backyard and equally small front yard. It was only me living here and I don¡¯t require all that much room. Aside from the stuff in the bags my bed, computer and everything else that was too large or heavy for me to take on the train would be arriving tomorrow, in the care of the removalists I had hired.


    Walking to the front door I unlocked it and entered my new home. It was getting dark outside, but inside it was already pitch black. I took my phone from my pocket and switched on the torch function. The electricity wouldn¡¯t be switched on until sometime tomorrow, not that it mattered at the moment seeing as the only electronics I had on me were my phone, a powerbank for the phone and the electric lantern I had picked up for tonight.


    Moving my phone around I shone the light around the entry hallway. The walls were cream colored and the carpets dark gray. I walked down the hall into the living room and dumped my bags on the ground. The house smelled musty so I continued on through the house, opening windows a little as I went to let the rooms air out. A cool September breeze slowly freshened the air.


    That done, I headed back to the living room, which was to be my bedroom for the night. I opened the backpack and took out my water, snacks and the electric lantern. I turned the lantern on and switched off the torch on my phone. I then took a sleeping bag out of the backpack and unrolled it on the floor.


    Sitting down on top of the sleeping bag I took my snacks and water and had something to eat. While doing that I checked my emails on my phone and because I had nothing else to do at the moment I watched some stuff on Youtube for a while.


    A yawn made me realize it was starting to get late so I plugged my phone into the powerbank and set about getting ready for bed. I didn¡¯t feel like showering, so I changed into my pajamas and went to close the windows I had opened. After a brief stop to empty my bladder I returned to the living room and got into my sleeping bag.


    Checking my phone it was 11:20 pm. I double checked my alarm to make sure I was awake when the removalists arrived in the morning. That done I switched off the lantern and tried to make myself as comfortable as I could.


    I laid there staring at the ceiling for a while, going over my plans for tomorrow. I probably should have brought a pillow. I finally managed a comfortable position and even without the pillow it didn¡¯t take much longer before sleep claimed me.

 Chapter 1.

    A sound woke me. I sat up slowly, sleep clouding my brain, and reached for my phone to stop the noise. The time on the phone was 6:18 am, but it wasn''t making a sound. The sound was gradually getting louder, an all encompassing droning sound that I could gradually feel with my entire body. As the sound continued it was starting to get painful, a light throb at first that reached a crescendo making me grip my head and scream. My vision wavered, my mind spun. Just before I lost conciousness, a glance at my phone showed the time ticking over to 6:19am September 2nd 2017 and then darkness.


    A bright light woke me. I struggled to sit up and wished I hadn''t as my vision swam and I almost vomitted. Getting control of my stomach I looked around me. My house was gone. I was still in my sleeping bag but my house had dissapeared. My belongins were gone, and I was surrounded by grass.


    My phone dropped to the ground as I slowly stood up, wiggling a little to get out of the sleeping bag. Looking around I could see poeple slowly standing up, confusion on their faces. A scream rang out, I whipped my head around in the direction of the scream, almost throwing up again. A woman stood not far from me looking at the ground, screaming.


    Reaching down to pick up my phone, I tried to check the time, but my phone was off. I hit the button to turn it on but nothing happened. I thought that it may have been damaged in the fall when I stood up, but there wasn''t a scratch on it.


    Looking around again, I noticed people walking toward the screaming woman. I too started walking towards her, stumbling a little, and as I got closer I could see what appaeared to be a man on the ground, laying on his back. The woman was now gripping the mans clothes, a keening sound coming from her mouth.


    As I got closer my brain finally figured out what I was seeing. The man was dead. I could see a rock sticking out from under is head, red liquid spread around it.


    People slowly gathered around the woman. One couple moving closer, the female toward the woman, the male to the man on the ground. The female wrapped her arms around the sobbing woman, making comforting noises, as the male checked for a pulse.


    Shaking his head, he looked around at the people gathered. "He''s gone." said the male.


    I glanced at the people around me, some were crying, some had horrified looks on their faces. My mind was racing. All I could think is "What the fuck is going on?"


    The female managed to get the woman to let go of the mans clothes, pulling her into a hug. As if this was a cue conversation started around me.


    "Where are we?"


    "What the hell is going on?"


    "Mummy i''m scared. Why is that man on the ground?"


    The people with children turned them away, walking off a few meters. There they sat, comforting their children and probably themselves.


    As the talking got louder, almost shouting, an older gentleman raised his voice above the din.


    "Everyone be quiet!" he shouted. And surpisingly they did.


    "Thank you." he said in a normal tone. "Now, if we could all move away a bit, give Judith some space, we can try and figure out what''s going on."


    People began moving away in groups, murmring amongst themselves. I decided to follow the older gentleman.


    We stood or sat around in a circle and begun trying to figure things out.


    The older gentleman looked at me "Hello" he said "I know or recognize everyone here, but not you."


    My mind was finally starting to work again.


    "Wait a second" I said "Everyone here knows eachother?"


    Nods and yeses all around. Okay then, time to kick the brain into gear. Next question.


    "I take it you all live nearby each other?" I asked, nods and yeses again.


    " Most of us live on the same street, some the same block." said the older gentleman. More nods and yeses.


    "Okay then, does anyone recognize any of the landmarks around here?" I asked.


    People started glancing around. I could tell they recognized the surrounding landmarks. That means we haven''t moved, everything else has. There were no houses, no roads nothing man made as far as the eye could see.


    "What does this mean? What has happened to everything? My name is George by the way, what''s yours?" asked the Older Gentleman.


    "My name is Jack, I moved into number 54 yesterday evening. As for what this means, either this is all a mass hallucination, I''m dreaming, we''re in an alternate dimension, we''re all dead and this is the afterlife or..." I explained.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Or what?" asked George.


    "Or this is our Earth, the same place we went to sleep last night, and something or someone has managed to erase all man made objects." I continued.


    Everyone started talking at once but my mind was still going. What about our clothes, I''m still wearing my pajamas. Then there''s my sleeping bag and phone. Maybe whatever caused this couldn''t distinguish between the sleeping bag and my clothes, and I think when I lost conciousness this morning I was holding my phone.


    "Does anyone have anything with them besides the clothes they are wearing?" I asked. Some people dressed in work and casual clothes starting pulling items from their pockets. Cellphones, car keys, wallets, cigarretes all manner of things one might have in their pockets.


    Okay, I thought, I was holding my phone when the sound happened, maybe because the sleeping bag was zipped up it was seen as clothing.That means anything we had on us when the sound occured this morning must have been safe from whatever did this.


    That''s when I noticed that despite everything that was going on I was completely calm, almost excited. Nobody was panicking and I think if any situation was to induce panic, it would be this one. "Does anyone feel scared or emotional?" I asked.


    The people around me stopped talking. One woman said that she felt nothing but a sense of excitement and maybe expectation and everyone agreed. I could feel what she meant, and it seemed to be getting stronger.


    Everyone lapsed into silence as they contimplated what this could mean. Obviously whatever did this had also done something to our minds. Under normal circumstances atleast a handful of people should be gibbering messes right now but the only person showing any kind of emotion is Judith the crying woman.


    George spoke up "Maybe we should search the area and see if we can find anything at all." Everyone agreed and started moving off in family groups or solo like myself.


    I went back to my sleeping bag and picked it up. If this is actually happening, I thought, this is going to come in handy. Too bad I hadn''t been wearing shoes. I rolled it up as best as I could and carefully made my way to the nearest hill.


    Cresting the top of the hill I could see people everywhere, most sitting or standing in groups. Turning around it was the same everywhere except the mountains to the East. I couldn''t see anything else so turned around and started heading back down the hill.


    I got back to where we had been and sat down on my sleeping bag. People slowly started trickling back. When everyone had gathered George asked "Did anybody find anything?"


    "Just more people." I said. Others stated the same. Nobody had found anything.


    "Well what I didn''t find was Lake Wendouree. It''s gone." Said George.


    "Wasn''t Lake Wendouree an artifical lake?" I asked George to which he nodded. "Well that somewhat narrows down the possibilities. If this is our earth then whatever happened to the buildings and roads would have happened to it. Alternatively this could be a parralel universe where humans never evolved or were wiped out and never built it."


    "I think we should start gathering people and moving somewhere safer, we''re in the open here." Said George. "We should head to those trees to the East."


    I looked to where george indicated. The copse of trees was maybe a kilometer away, a few minutes walk if I had my shoes. Others were in the same predicament having been asleep like me.


    Everyone agreed and started heading that way but I stayed sitting on my sleeping bag thinking. I was going over the possibilities in my head again. George asked me if I was coming and I said I would join them shortly, that I needed a minute to think.


    What could cause something like this? God? A rip in spacetime? I''m certain this isn''t a dream or hallucination, whatever is going on, this still feels like reality. The lack of emotion points toward an entity capable of altering a persons mind or some type of mind altering substance.


    Okay, let''s go through the options.


    God. Being an atheist I''ve never believed in God or any Higher Power, but this certainly fits under the Act of God category. Only question is, Why? What would motivate God into basically deleting all man made objects? Perhaps instead of a flood he just wiped out everything, reset to 0, the end result will most likely be the same. Billions will die. From starvation, exposure, dehydration. I was already thirsty and hungry.


    Option 2, Alternate reality. To my thinking this one is more likely than an act of God. The Multiverse theory has been around for decades. Maybe a rogue black hole appeared and warped the fabric of space. But then why would it be so selective? A black hole can''t tell the difference between things.


    This is looking more and more like option one. Perhaps not God but a Godlike Entity? The Universe is vast, there has to be something out there somewhere.


    Standing up and dusting off my sleeping back, I tucked it under my arm and started heading towards the trees. I had to walk carefully the closer I got, sticks were jabbing my feet through my socks. I really wish I had my shoes.


    As I was trudging along I started hearing the same sound that I heard this morning. I stoppped walking immediately. The sound was slowly building up like last time but stopped before becoming painful. I could feel something moving through my body, starting from my brain and ending in my toes. When the energy reached my toes, my body locked up and started to vibrate. It wasn''t painful, it actually felt quite good.


    Suddenly the vibrating stopped and my ears popped, though I still couldn''t move. The energy in my body seemed to shiver and I felt a burning sensation in my hands. Again the sensation wasn''t painful, but it didn''t feel good either. I put all my effort into moving my right hand but it wouldn''t budge.


    I must have stood like that for a good ten minutes, I could see people directly in front of me in the same situation. My eyes and mouth were both dry from being unable to close them.


    I was starting to get dizzy when a bright flash of blue light enveloped everything. When my vision cleard a rectangular blue box appeared before my eyes.


    With that the blue rectangle dissapeard. The ground started shaking and suddenly I could move again. But before I could move the ground shifted. A hole opened.


    I fell into darkness.