Ghost Town

The boy blinked quickly, bringing his surroundings into focus. He sat up to find that he had been sleeping on the floor of a shop. It appeared to be empty but he couldn’t be sure. He stood and began to make his way around the shop, looking for...something. After he had made a lap around, he decided to exit the small store. Once outside, he felt a shiver crawl up his spine. He was in the middle of a town, and a nice one at that.

He began to explore, looking for signs of life. No one was at the barbershop, no child stood outside the toy shop, and he couldn’t find a single player by the baseball field.

He was beginning to think he might’ve wandered into a ghost town. But, that wouldn’t explain the fact that he had no idea who he was.

He sighed and took a seat on a park bench. He had given up all hope of finding someone to help him. Now, he just wanted answers.

Who was he?

Why was he here?

And how did he get here?

His questions remained unanswered, however.

He decided to look for some way out of town. He managed to find an old car, the keys still inside. He started the engine and began to back out of the parking space he was in, but then he heard a pop and a sizzle. The car had run over a beer bottle, puncturing the tire. He looked for a replacement, but even if he found one he wouldn’t be able to change the tire.

Now, how did he know he wouldn’t be able to do that? Maybe a memory of his past? But no, there was no new memory, just a gut feeling.

He heaved a heavy sigh and sat down in the car again, wondering if maybe there was another car with keys still inside. He began to search for one.

He looked inside the car garage, traveled down every street, but he always came to the end of the town without so much as the keys.

Then, he found the mayor’s residence. The first place he looked was the garage, which held a very nice vehicle. He had found one! But no keys were left inside.

Maybe the keys are inside the house, he thought to himself, making his way back inside. As soon as he stepped inside, he found that the mayor had used most of the town’s money on himself. He found golden curtains, a silk couch, and enough food to last him all year. He looked in the master bedroom; no keys were to be found. The living room still held nothing of much importance. And the kitchen was stocked full of food. He looked and looked but couldn’t find any keys.

Then he heard a strange noise coming from above him. He looked around for stairs of any kind and found them in a closet, behind all the fancy coats. He opened the door behind them to reveal wooden stairs leading up to the attic. What he found there would change his life.

As soon as he reached the top, he flipped on the lights to find the car keys sitting on a small table. When he reached for them, a strange smog appeared. It was purple and seemed to cover everything. It hid the key from him and then it disappeared, leaving behind the key that was so important. The boy would’ve questioned the strange appearance if he hadn’t been so focused on getting the keys. When he turned to go back down the stairs, he found there was no longer a door leading to the stairwell.

“What-?” He starts to say before hearing a noise from behind. He spins around to find four other teenagers, around his age, in place of the table and worn-out couch from earlier.

“Hey,” a younger girl tries to say warmly, but it comes out raspy and harsh.

“What did you come up here for?” a boy asks him, as though they weren’t trapped in the attic.

“Some, uh, car keys,” he informs the boy.

“I came here for an inhaler,” says the girl.

“I came for a football,” the boy says. Then he looks back at the other two kids. He asks them to tell the new boy what their names were.

“Octavia,” says a rude-sounding girl.

“Max,” a boy wearing all black growls.

“I’m Amanda,” says the raspy girl.

“And I’m Joseph,” the football boy says.

“What’s your name, newbie?” Max asks.

“I, uh, don’t know.” They stare at him in shock. None of them had ever met someone who had forgotten their own name before.

“How about we give you a name?” Amanda suggests. The other kids speak their agreements.

“Yeah, okay,” he tells them. They cheer and then start spitting out names.

“Thomas!” Joseph blurts out.

“What about Dick?” Max asks, though it doesn’t seem like a real question.

“I like that one,” Octavia tells him, glaring at the new kid.

“Guys, be nice!” Amanda tells them, coughing shortly after. Her breath is short and raspy. The other kids go quiet very quickly.

“What’s wrong?” The newbie asks.

“Nothing!” Amanda responds hastily, confirming the boy’s suspicions.

“It’s not nothing!” Max looks back at the boy to tell him, “She needs her inhaler.” He points to the table where the keys were found a second ago.

The boy reaches over, grabs the inhaler, and tosses it to Max, who then gives it to Amanda. She takes a couple of puffs and her breathing becomes normal.

“Uh, thanks,” she says. She leans against Max and his cheeks grow red.

“Ha, ha! You look like a tomato!” Max glares at Joseph, his cheeks still hot pink. This only makes him laugh even more.

The boy smiles to himself then says, “I think my name is Alexander.” The other kids go silent at the sound of his voice.

“Alex, huh?” Octavia muses, “It’s not Dick, but hey, it’ll work.” Max rolls his eyes and Alex can sense some tension between them.

“How long have you guys been here?” Alexander asks the group.

They stare at him a moment, then begin to answer in an orderly fashion.

“Four months, I think,” Joseph answers.

“About a year,” Amanda says.

“Like, two years,” Octavia snarls.

Max answers next, his response startling everyone. “Two years, eleven months, seven days, thirteen hours, four minutes, fifty-eight seconds and counting.”

“What?!” Amanda exclaims. She wraps her arms around Max and whispers, “We’ll get out of here, I promise.”

That didn’t make any sense. “Where do you guys think you are?” Alex asks cautiously.

“We’re in New York, idiot!” Octavia’s claim proves what Alex had suspected.

“What? No way, we’re in Alabama,” Joseph argues.

“What are you guys talking about? This is California!” Amanda butts in.

Max looks over at Alex and asks, “What does this mean?”

All attention falls on Alex and he begins to panic. He didn’t do well under pressure. How did he know that? Who cares, they were staring at him. He needed to do something, say something, anything!

“It, uh, means that, uhm, the purple stuff is, uh-” His sentence is cut off by Octavia.

“Hold on, I’m sorry, ‘purple stuff’? What kind of a joke do you think this is?”

“Well, I mean-” Yet again, he doesn’t get to finish.

“What kind of purple stuff are we talking about here?”

“Octavia-" Joseph tries to cut her off but she keeps talking.

“Is it gooey? Is it lightweight? What exactly-”

“Octavia!” Joseph’s shout stops Octavia in her tracks. “Let the guy think,” he says slowly.

Alex lets out a breath and says his thanks. “Anyway, it m-means that the purple smog has something to do with all of us being brought here. A-And we all come from all over the U.S, so that might be a factor as to w-why we’re all here. I’m, uh, not very good at this kind of thing, but I think we sh-should try to figure out where exactly we are." The room is silent for a moment. Alex tries to break the tension and asks, "Also, are you two dating?”

He looks directly at Max when he says this, watching Max’s face grow red as he realizes what Alex meant.

“I, uh-” Max stammers, but Amanda responds for him.

“Yes, actually,” she says.

Just as Alex was about to continue his detective work, the purple smog appeared again. This time, though, it enveloped everything in sight. The children begin to yelp and call out for each other. Purple is the only thing Alex could see as the coughing coming from his own throat drowns out all the other noises of the children surrounding him. Everyone’s coughing begins to echo-

And then it all stops.

Author Notes: hope you enjoyed

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