Fear (part two)...

They stood there watching as the handful of woke people outside moved about confusedly.

"Your family's not waking up too?" A familiar voice said approaching them from behind. He squinted before he could recognize Harry in the dark.

"Harry?"

"Charles" Harry replied.

He did the same for Yvonne and called her as well to confirm.

"What the hell's happening?" He asked disoriented.

"Wait. Your mom's a nurse right?" He suddenly recalled but Harry remained quiet.

"She can help with this right?"

"His mom's not waking up too, Charles" Yvonne said. She then inhaled tiredly.

"I'm going home now" she said, turning about and continuing on her way home dejectedly. Now she could understand that this was probably not natural. This was something she took rather calmly. Perhaps she was too tired to really think about what it signified.

"What are you gonna do at home" Harry asked.

"I don't know" she said quietly. "Wait, maybe"

Just as Yvonne walked back, Jane surfaced from Shaun's place and was heading back to her place with Shaun.

"Jane? Jane! Please help me. My family's not getting up"

Harry could hear someone beckon on her.

And meanwhile, for Jane who had previously thought it had just been Shaun, Harry and Yvonne; being greeted by this much was that sort of shock.

From what she had observed on Shaun's family, they didn't seem to be in any sort of mortal danger. They simply seemed to be in some sort of mild coma. And that quelled her fears to some extent.

But here, she stared puzzled at the man who was trying to drag her to his home for the same reason. Then she looked around. There were several other people who were moving about in the dark.

"Calm down Mr Duncan" she said to the man who she could recognize from his voice.

"If they're breathing, they're alright, okay" she completed, trying to calm him down.

"But..."

"Jane!" Harry called out as he walked up to her.

"Just come see them first, nurse. I'm sure you can do something about it" he kept persuading her. But right now, being able to tell that everyone outside here had the same problem unlike herself who lived alone, she realized that this wasn't common. This was definitely beyond her medical scope in which, through out her years of practice, she had never heard of this kind of phenomena.

And the clock in Shaun's place was also the same with her's. It compounded her too but she couldn't think much about it.

"Please Jane!" The man pleaded without letting her go.

"Mr Duncan, there's really nothing I can do right now. I really don't understand the situation as well, so..." she tried to explain to the desperate man while also trying to break free of his grip.

"Please Jane, just once..."

That was when Harry interrupted.

"Jane, you can see this as well right? What do you think?" He asked.

"I..." She tried to reply but the man kept dragging her.

"Nurse! Nurse!"

"Nurse Jane, are you there?"

Several other calls and bangings came from her front door. There were but a few people here, but the chaos was well pronounced.

"Yoo, let go of her, old sac!"

She could hear Harry yell at the man but it quickly faded in her head.

What was happening? She questioned. There was no sign of sunrise at although the time was already past seven and almost eight. She had looked up again at the swirling clouds which she could see in the dim ambient skylight as they moved randomly. The lights were also out. And then, a lot of people were, all of a sudden, not waking up.

"Aliens" she whispered to herself.

Harry heard her. As imaginary as it seemed, it wouldn't be a farfetched explanation. People had longed talked on conspiracy theories surrounding UFO's here too. Harry never really believed in such things. But they could fit the cause right now, wouldn't they? All they had to do was just pop out anytime now.

"Do you believe in them too Harry" she asked him.

"No"

Jane couldn't see his face but she could imagine his reaction since she also knew him well to an extent. Right now, he'd just put up an expressionless attitude especially when pressed by something he couldn't violently handle. That was probably what he tried to do now. But she also knew those times were also moments he put more effort into thinking than acting impulsively.

She smiled. Even now, it was indeed best to remain calm.

"George, I think we have to go to the police now" a female person around them said to someone else.

"But they're not responding"

"Yeah, so let's go there!" she persuaded the person she spoke to. "Why's no one even talking about it? The police are the only ones who can help us, right?"

To them, it wasn't a rough idea. But then, Harry wondered if it was just here. He could already tell it wasn't just their street anymore. He could see people move around at the junction up street that led to their neighbourhood.

"Well, I'll just have to call in the city now" Jane said slipping out her phone from her sweater pocket.

"You think it's not the same there?" Harry asked and she scoffed.

What were the chances? The hospital always had night shifts and responders. There were definitely people there who never slept in the first place, like the night responder she was expecting to pick up the phone now.

But, nevertheless, if it was the same in Almond, then it might as well be the whole world, she thought.

Jane went on to call one of the professional hospitals in the city. It rang for sometime, before going silent again, just as it was with the police they had called earlier.

She tried to hide her disbelief and dialed again. There was still no response.

"Wait. What about..." she said, interrupting herself halfway, staring directly at her phone in concern. She dialed another number now. There was no answer as well.

"Maybe she's still asleep" she muttered to herself.

"Your mom?" Harry asked.

"Yeah" she answered, calming the tension she had began to feel.

"There's no way right?" Jane said. "My mom lives in East Thresse. That's like a five countries away if you go west"

"Nahhh. I doubt it too" Harry concurred as well.

But Jane's mother never picked the call.

"I call her at midnight sometimes. And she always answers the phone. Even our timezones are different" she said.

Thinking about it, Harry would assume it was just here; one particular area on earth, and that the rest of the world just went as normal as ever. He could see a thick blanket of clouds above them and wanted to assume it was just capable of totally blocking the sun, since there was no sign of sunrise. But there was no way this blanket of cloud would cover the whole world, was there?

"Maybe we should try others too" Jane suggested, brushing aside her thoughts for the moment.

"You mean...?"

"Yeah. Just call them. You have other family members right?" she said, dialing another number as she walked away.

He would've called others if he knew them so well. But he barely knew any of his extended family members. He didn't even have their contact numbers.

And of course, he had tried, but his mother's phone was locked and he didn't know her password this time since she occasionally changed it, so he didn't bother attempting to use it.

And that was the same with Yvonne. She had reached home and tried to get her sisters phone unlocked to call their aunt but then, Claire treated her phone as a very private belonging.

She herself didn't have a phone. So did Hugo.

Yvonne had stayed there, futilely calling out her siblings who remained motionless. And soon enough, she got tired of it. She stood up from where Claire lay and remained standing there with her face in her hands. She had already cried, not understanding what was happening and not knowing what else to do.

But just like Harry had said earlier, she had to do something. Anything but sitting at home doing nothing at all. So she got herself back together.

And just as she made to leave the room, she heard a loud and sudden scream. It sounded feminine, coming from one of the nearby houses. Perhaps, someone had woken up to motionless family members and was screaming out of fear. That's what she could tell.

And there came another scream from a different place. Where people beginning a mass panic? Now?

Just as she made to move again, from a different place came yet another scream. And that was the last humane scream she remembered hearing that moment.

After the third scream, there came another scream again, and another, and then another, except that this time, these bursts of screams; one could tell they weren't coming from people anymore. The shrill outcry resounded far and wide, accompanied by the mutual, dreadful feeling everyone there could suddenly feel.

There was something awful already lurking around, already nearby...