It’s difficult to believe that just yesterday at this time, everything was fine. Commonplace. Ordinary. I would give anything to trade that monotony for my current reality.
Friday night went exactly as I had expected. Everything has fallen into complete and utter sameness since I started this semester. Wake up in my cramped studio - still the cheapest off-campus apartment I could find. I didn’t want to live in the city, so the commute is (barely) worth it. Drive to the park and ride. Catch the bus that takes me out to Milwaukee. Suffer through three or four of my classes. Ride the bus home. Eat dinner quickly, standing over the sink, no plate, as I stare blankly out of my window. Go to bed, alone.
And that’s exactly what I did, minus the “eat dinner” part, as I was so exhausted. I fell asleep on the bus home, one side of my face half-numb from being pressed against the cold windowpane for thirty minutes. It was around 6:00 P.M. that I arrived back in town, and it was already completely dark outside. I supposed that wasn’t too unusual; the sun really starts to set earlier now that it’s October. I threw my bag down and laid on my bed, still in my clothes, and passed out for the night.
My dreams were restless, uneasy; a sense of impending doom prevailed in all of them, even though I can no longer remember what they were about. A particularly bad one finally woke me up. I sat up. My alarm definitely should have gone off by now. Probably forgot to even set it, damnit! I could see through the broken part of my blinds that it was still pitch black outside though, so I dismissed my own concern and went back to sleep. I did indeed forget to set an alarm to get up for work. I woke up again some time later, feeling even more suspicious of how much time had passed. It was still just as dark outside. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and rolled over to check the time.
It was 11:29 A.M. Almost noon.
What the hell? Great, I probably set my clock wrong. I had no recollection of changing the time on my clock. I turned on my phone to see the real time.
On my lock screen, the time read 11:30 A.M. Saturday, October 8th. 2022. Normally, notifications would flood my phone after I turned it on, but I noticed I had no service, and no WiFi. I yanked my blinds completely open. My confusion mixed with pure terror.
I could not see anything outside. Nothing. The streetlights were out. The other windows in my complex were dark too, none of the usual glowing yellow squares of light dotting the side of the building.
I ran out into the hallway, hitting my shoulder on the doorframe on my way out, as I couldn’t see a thing. I realized the lights in the hallways were out, too. I doubled back and grabbed my phone to use as a flashlight. I heard someone in a nearby apartment yelling, crying. I passed it and knocked on the door of 303, the only other tenant I talked to - Amelia. She must’ve still been in bed; it took a minute of pounding for her to open the door. She blinked, her equally confused and apprehensive expression illuminated by my iPhone flashlight.
“Amelia. What time is it?”
“Mack…what…why are you asking me? It’s…” She pulled her phone out of the pocket of her sweatpants.
“It’ s almost noon, isn’t it?” I said, showing her the time on my own phone. “But it’s completely pitch black outside. No electricity. No service”. Her hand covers her mouth in shock, and I saw the same terror as my own strike her then. “What, that can’t be, there’s no way- it’s-it can’t be possible-’’ she rambled in a panic. She pulled me into her apartment, and we went to her TV, somehow hoping that against all logic, it would turn on, and we could look at the news. No dice, of course. The black screen just stared back defiantly.
We ran out into the hall. The elevators weren’t working, even the backup power must’ve been out. We took the stairwell down and outside, where the streets were filled with people like ourselves wandering around in a zombified state of terror. It was silent except for people murmuring amongst themselves, and the occasional piercing screams of hysteria. Little flashlights dotted the scene, like the only stars on a dark night. I looked up, and the stars seemed to be missing. We couldn’t see any clouds either. There was not a car in sight either; something must have happened to disable them.
The two of us took in the scene for a minute, before getting overwhelmed and heading back up to Amelia’s place.
We sat on her couch, numbly. The body can only sustain a state of panic for so long, and now I was just scared out of my mind and confused. I could tell she was too. Nothing like this had ever happened, either to me, or Amelia, or in the history of the world. I forgot that I was supposed to start my shift at Target about four hours ago. It seemed so faraway and unimportant now, even though I always cared about being punctual.
It is now 4:00 PM now - almost twenty four hours since I have seen the sun. I wonder how much longer it will be, if ever. I am still sitting here with Amelia - she’s good company. You tend to realize that sort of thing when there’s nothing to do but share a horrifying burden and talk, even if we’re both paralyzed with fear. My phone is now only 19% charged. Using it as a flashlight really does drain the battery. Typing this has helped me make the tiniest bit of sense of things, though I know it will probably never actually post due to my lack of service.
Amelia and I are planning on walking a couple miles to the nearest store now - a Walmart, I think. We want to go get nonperishable food and supplies before the rest of the like-minded locals raid it clean.
Tomorrow, we plan on walking even farther, to the edge of town. Amelia says she thinks this may just be a localized event/blackout/whatever the hell you call this sort of thing. I hope she’s right.
Reddit, if you can read this, if it somehow posts at some point, please, please let me know. I’m turning my phone off soon to conserve the rest of my battery. I’ll check back in in a week.