Chapter One: Carl:

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Diary Entry: Carl

Day One

My life has been turned upside down. When I woke up, everything was gone. My house was crushed by the sand. The internet dropped while I was playing on my Dreamcast last night. I have no way to contact my friends either.

I don’t know how this happened. Last week was my birthday. I had just turned twenty-one. I finally could drink. My friends and I lived it up that weekend. That was the first time I had drank so much. I ended up puking on the sidewalk outside of the last bar of the night and passing out in my vomit. I’m sure my friends took a lot pictures. I half-jokingly swore revenge on those bastards.

Now, I don’t know what happened to my friends. I did manage to get what I could from the ruin. My parents went on vacation for New Year’s Eve. Are they okay? The last time I heard from them was from dad yesterday morning. Everything sounded fine. But now…

When I woke up, I thought I was in a strange dream. The phone lines were dead and the power was out. It looked like I wasn’t the only one. Most of my neighbors were gone and the road was covered in sand. Where did this sand even come from? I live in the suburbs, in Georgia. Did my neighborhood just get picked up and dropped in the desert or something? I am not sure since I saw dead trees standing in the sand. Trees in the sand. I heard about all that Y2K stuff, but I doubt that sand would be involved.

When I walked out of my house, it felt so creepy. There were no cars or people in sight. I couldn’t even hear any birds in the sky. Even the said sky looked so empty—no sun or clouds in sight. The strangest thing was that it felt so cold outside. I pulled my hood over my head and looked around. The houses on my street just disappeared like mine.

As I walked down the street, it looked like the apocalypse came and went. Just last night, my neighbors were wishing each other a happy new year. I began to remember little thing about that night. I ordered pizza—extra cheese, mushroom, and sausage. My it was good. Too bad, it might not be there anymore. Probably wouldn’t be any good with sand on it. I looked up and the sky thinking, what now?

I can’t call anyone and I don’t know if anybody I know is still alive. Suddenly, I heard like this dog barking. I turned around and saw my dog, Toby running towards me.

“Toby!” I shouted. I gave that old boy a pat on the head. He patted as I scratched him behind the ear. I didn’t know how he survived, but I was happy to see him.

“Where have you been, man?” I asked. “Hm?” Toby lay on his back, wanting me to scratch his belly.

“Come on,” I said. “We don’t have time for that, pal. We have to figure out what’s going on here.” Toby whimpered at me as he lifted his head. I sighed and dropped my shoulders.

“Alright,” I said. I scratched that spoiled dog on the stomach for a good three minutes. When he finally rose to his feet, I got my mind back on track on the problem at head. I didn’t know why I did this, to be honest with you. But I began yelling out for anybody.

“Hello?” I shouted as loud as I could. “Is anybody here? Hello?”

“I’m here!” someone yelled back. I jumped back when I heard that.

“Where are you?” I asked. “Throw something if you can see me!” A hard plastic square hit my feet. I picked it up and discovered it was a black compact mirror.

“Good!” I shouted. “Come out and show yourself.” A small girl with blonde hair poked her head out from behind a tree. I squinted and tilted my head. My eyes grew big as I covered my mouth and gasped.

“Ashley?” I asked. “When did you get back from New York?”