Chapter 1

In an apartment somewhere in the city a group of friends is emerging from an intense period of role-playing. Over the last couple of weeks they have hardly set foot outside their apartment, and when they did it was late in the evening and only to resupply their fridge with coke.

Even though they had been awake the whole night they had not noticed that it was snowing. But as they woke up in the afternoon and peeked out of the blinds their eyes were stabbed by the bright sunlight, reflected in the white snow that covered the world. Suddenly they remembered the joys of fresh air and snowball fighting.

“Let’s go outside!” Said Mac

“Yes!” “Awesome idea!” Yelled Ridley and Asher (Luckily for them Mac was standing on a safe distance) and instantly started putting on their shoes.

“Wait! Aren’t you gonna have breakfast?” Asked Sasha

“No, that can wait.” Said Ridley as they ran out the door.

The snow was that perfect state between wet and powdery that made it easy to form snowballs without them getting too heavy. The three of them ran out on the field and started a fierce war. Mac and Ridley teamed up against the towering Asher in order to wrestle him to the ground. After a while Sasha came out, noting with a bit of annoyance that only Mac had been sensible enough to put on a jacket…

“You’re gonna get a cold.” She said.

Ridley looked at her with an enlightened expression. “Oh! I didn’t think of that.” “I’ll go and fetch one right away” He said and started running towards the house.

“Shouldn’t you get one to?” Mac asked Asher

Pulling himself off the ground he said “Uhm, yeah. I guess.”

“Well hurry up then!” Mac exclaimed impatiently.

As they waited for the boys to get back Mac and Sasha looked around the neighborhood, and immediately got the feeling that something was wrong. It was a Sunday afternoon and beautiful weather, but they could not see a single person.

“Right, jacket’s on. And I brought gloves and a hat to. What do we do now?” Ridley asked as he and Asher came back.

“What’s the matter?” He asked as he saw Sasha’s concerned face.

“I don’t know. Something is off.” She replied.

“Hey, is it just me, or are we alone out here?” Asher asked.

“That’s what we just noticed.” Mac said.

Ridley looked around himself. “It looks like no one but we has walked here since it stopped snowing.”

“Shush!” Sasha hushed them with an intense look.

They stood quietly; trying to figure out was she was listening at. And suddenly they all realized that it was way too quiet. They were in the middle of a city but could not hear a single sound except for birds twittering. They ran to the bus stop and looked up and down the long road. There was not a single car in sight. All was quiet.

“What the hell is going on?”