An airplane had just crashed. No wonder it shattered upon hitting the earth, because there was no one left to operate it.
"It's been almost one hour since everyone disappeared from my sight," Noren whispered, eyes locked on the plume of smoke rising into the sky. "The status of the whole Earth is still unknown."
There was nothing he could do. Even if he could reach the wreckage, it was already burning, lighting the dry cornfields on fire. The flames were spreading across the fields like they had been waiting for this chance. He needed to leave. Staying longer felt like waiting for a second disaster to strike.
As he turned away from the flames, something stirred behind him. He could still see the orange blaze in the distance, yet it felt close, almost personal. The air around him pulsed with invisible heat. He shivered not from fear, but from the sense that he had walked away carrying something with him. It was as if he had unleashed a fire-type aura. The flames weren't just in the field they were following him in spirit.
Trying to shake it off, he walked along the cracked road, eyes flicking to his phone. Social media was still accessible, surprisingly. The dominant platform in the city, BondX, was still online. A recent post appeared on his feed, brightly colored and filled with emojis. It had been an invitation to a weekend celebration called The Mayor's Motor Gala. a flashy party arranged at the edge of the cornfields, featuring cars, music, food trucks, and bonfires. The mayor himself had promoted it as a unity event for the city, calling it a chance to reconnect after a tense month of news about mysterious lights in the sky.
That explained everything. No wonder he hadn't seen a single vehicle near his apartment complex. Even the so-called intellectuals who usually scoffed at such gatherings had shown interest. Everyone had gone to the gala, probably judging others while sipping drinks and pretending to care about community values.
Noren walked up a small hill on the outskirts of the city. From the top, the view opened into a wide field. Cars, trucks, and motorbikes were scattered everywhere. The festival site was massive, the cornfield stretching alongside it. The tents, decorations, and empty chairs stood like ruins of a celebration frozen in time. Everyone was gone. There was not a single trace of movement.
He noticed a small building beyond the hill it looked like a store. But even if he walked, he doubted he would reach it before nightfall.
"What should I do?" he asked aloud, scanning his surroundings.
His eyes landed on a bicycle near the roadside. It had been abandoned just before the end of the cornfield stretch. Relief washed over him. The fire wouldn't take long to reach this point, especially with the dry weather. Without wasting time, he hopped on the bicycle and began pedaling quickly, then slowed as he reached a downward slope to conserve energy.
"So this was the party area," he muttered, passing rows of deserted cars.
He checked inside a few vehicles. Some still had keys inside. Most of them weren't expensive just regular family cars, pickups, utility vans. One vehicle caught his attention. It was a red jeep, slightly worn but strong and reliable in appearance.
"You'll do," Noren said, placing his hand on the hood. "I choose you."
Before taking the jeep, he decided to check the small building he had seen earlier. Up close, it turned out to be a mini supermarket. That itself was surprising. In an undeveloped section of the city, even a tiny market was an accomplishment.
He walked inside cautiously. The lights were off, but shelves remained stocked. As he picked up snacks, water, and canned food, a strange guilt crept in. When he glanced upward, he saw a security camera above the counter, watching silently. Something about it unsettled him.
Noren froze, then dropped everything onto the floor and rushed into the back of the store. He found the surveillance room easily. Most systems were still running. Curiosity overwhelmed him. He had to know what the camera had recorded, especially around the time people vanished.
He scrubbed through the footage, stopping at a familiar frame. The last video recorded showed a boy Jeffy filming a video for BondX. In the background of his selfie, Noren saw it again. The light. But this time, one of the colors was different.
Green.
It wasn't part of the original spectrum he had seen. The rest of the lights were the same as before, but now green had appeared as a new addition. And the way it pulsed made it stand out even more.
"This doesn't follow any known pattern," Noren muttered. "It's not the rainbow spectrum. Rainbows have seven colors, and this includes something golden."
As he stared at the video, a grim possibility took hold of his mind.
"The Earth might have suffered something... orchestrated.But then why had he been left behind? Was it random? Or did it have meaning? Could the Egg Theory actually be true? "
Noren wasn't just someone good at mathematics. He had always been obsessed with astrophysics and space science. For a self-proclaimed nerd like him, the idea of being chosen by the universe didn't sound too far-fetched.
Still holding the thought, he looked once more at the screen and hit pause. The green light glowed in the freeze-frame like an eye staring back at him.
He exhaled slowly.
"Whatever's happening... I need answers."
And for that, he would need to keep moving.
Noren planned to stay there for a while, long enough to recover both physically and mentally from everything that had happened. He walked back to the section of the mini supermarket where he had dropped all the items earlier.
"If the owner of this place ever comes back, wouldn't I owe him a debt? I'm about to live off his property while he's gone... heh heh heh," he said, letting out a dry laugh. It was the kind of smile only a shameless and suddenly homeless person could make and even Noren found himself chuckling at how absurd it all felt.
He started putting everything in order. His first focus was the surveillance room. If this was going to be his temporary base, he wanted to monitor the area and keep track of any changes. He also noticed a small creative gadget near the entrance: a custom doorbell alarm rigged to ring whenever the door opened. It looked like a homemade mechanism, probably designed to alert staff whenever someone entered the store.
"Even in a mini supermarket like this, I doubt they needed more than a couple workers but this thing's pretty handy," he said aloud.
Strangely, the bell hadn't gone off when he first walked in, which meant it hadn't been working. After a bit of tinkering, Noren reset the system and tested the trigger. It worked now. Every time the door opened, a sharp chime rang out through the quiet store.
It was a small step, but in a situation like this, even a gadget like that could make a huge difference.