It was another late Friday night drive, however this time it was my birthday. My girlfriend and I had been out partying and we were planning on heading home to have a romantic movie night.
We left a friend of mine’s house. On our way home while we were contemplating the movie we should watch, I noticed a strange glare behind me. I let off the gas, slowing down some and I looked closely in my rear view mirror and noticed it was a car flashing it’s brights rapidly behind me. It was 2:26 am and this was usually an empty road with no one to be seen. I figured something must’ve been wrong so I hit the brakes and pulled over.
The car flashing its lights pulled over as well, but about 50 feet back. I wondered why they had chosen to keep so much distance between the two of us. I looked over at my girlfriend and told her to stay in the car reassuring her that I would return shortly with an answer. As I walked towards the car I noticed the door was wide open, although I never had that great of vision I was sure that the car was empty. I walked right up to it and clearly no one was there. I looked around to gather awareness of the area I was in, looking for the man or woman who could’ve been in this car.
I continued to look around and began to recognize the area, this was about a quarter of a mile from my house. It was normally hard to tell where my house is without seeing it, due to the fact that it was mostly trees surrounding it and a single 12 mile road. However, I was sure my house was close. As I strutted back to my car I thought this time my vision must be playing some sort of trick on me, because there’s no way my girlfriend would go completely against my wishes and exit the vehicle. But as I got back to my car it was true, she was gone. I began to panic wondering what could be going on, I looked around and there was nothing, not even the chirp of a cricket.
My first thought was to call the police so I reached into my pocket, grabbed my phone and was disheartened to discover that it was dead. So I hopped in my car to make my way to the police station but as I cranked the car all I was hearing was a clicking noise. The battery was dead. All there was left to do was go home. So I ran, I ran the fastest I ever have. So many thoughts rushed through my head. I thought this must be some elaborate scheme to surprise me for my birthday. So much had happened in the last 10 minutes it hadn’t even crossed my mind that it was my birthday. I was happy, thinking this must be a surprise party and a prank was being played on me.
I bursted through the door ready to be surprised. I turned on the lights and the living room was desolate, no one in sight. I scrambled all over the house looking for any human presence. There was no one, I was in utter distraught to discover I was alone. I looked myself in the mirror pondering upon my own sanity. I said out-loud “Am I going crazy”. This was uncommon coming from me because I rarely talked to myself.
I walked all night until the sun was rising and I found myself in town. There was a car running with no one in it so I figured I can return it to whomever it belongs, but I have to take this chance. So I drove and drove, and it was clear to me everyone I had known, everyone in this town, had disappeared. I thought had the rapture started and I’m all who is left? No, it can’t be, I live a much more honest life than that of some of my friends. I left my town to look for any sign of humanity, and this is where we are today.
Two weeks later I find myself in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over 300 miles from home. I’ve found people and everyone seems to be quite normal. However, when looking at multiple maps, my hometown had never existed. For some unknown reason I am all that’s left of my town and there’s no evidence to prove my story, So i’m left here today wondering, what exactly happened on my birthday that night?