“I know you’re uncomfortable doing this Ariadna, but it’s good for you. Am I really going to make you do anything too awful?”

“No Auntie Martina, you wouldn’t. But all these people… And them, look they’re jaywalking.”

“Don’t worry about what they’re doing. Focus on you.”

Ariadna was in New York City visiting her aunt, Martina, like she did on the third weekend of every month. Aunt Martina was the only family Ariadna had in the United States, with the rest living in Puerto Rico.

On this particular trip, Aunt Martina was taking Ariadna to the Metropolitan Art Museum to see an exhibition on late 1800s photography, something Martina was interested in. Ariadna, not so much.

It was a gloriously warm day with just the hint of a breeze ticking down Museum Mile. The sky was clear with not a cloud in it. But it was busy. As you would expect.

“But the noise…”

“Ariadna, you can’t avoid noise. Harness it. You’ve got to twenty four years of age being able to. You can do it. Now come on, it should be fine when we get in.” Martina took her hand, gave it three squeezes and held on as they climbed the stairs of The Met.

The noise was a busy hubbub, a constant, continuous buzz, but nothing too unbearable.

“This way Ariadna. You know, I’ve been really looking forward to seeing the exhibition. This era in time is just so fascinating. They were really on the cusp of something revolutionary!” Martina enthused, returning with the tickets and a big grin on her face.

Ariadna had learnt to smile along when talking with someone about things they were interested in but she wasn’t. Martina smiled back. It was her who had taught her to do it.

The exhibition itself was an average size. Photographs on the walls, artefacts to look at. Ariadna was bored. She robotically followed her aunt around, wishing something interesting would happen. Although, had she have known what was to come next, she would have taken her wish back.

It happened instantly, and gave nobody the chance to react or fight back. Ariadna sensed something was happening, noticing that her mind became fuzzy and her chest tightening. She grabbed out at Martina and a few seconds later, the same feeling took over her.

Every single person within the exhibition room looked like they had frozen. Rooted to the spot where they were, chins rested on their chests and arms limp at the side. Not a sound rung out.

This scene was echoed across the whole of the Metropolitan Museum- tourists, visitors, guides and security personnel, everyone was stood in one place.

Except for one man. A middle aged man with a big gut on him, wearing a black suit that looked like it was a dodgy rental with a gold waist coat underneath with black stars all over. On his head he wore a top hat. And it was over his face that he wore a gas mask. Attached to his arm was a small puppet that was dressed like him with a waistcoat that was black with gold stars.

For where he was in the museum, he definitely looked odd and out of place.

He hobbled through the lobby area to the main doors and onto the main steps overlooking the street and people sat upon them.

“Ladies, gentlemen and all those in between!” announced the puppet on the end of the tired and sad looking children’s entertainer cosplayer. “I am sad to inform you the that the museum is closed! But if you hang around, you’ll see something just as historical as the crud in there!”

And with that, the entire population of The Met spilled out through the main doors and down the steps. Those who were sat on the steps had to get up and out of their way as they mechanically moved without any awareness of their surroundings.

As a herd of about a thousand people they moved, led by The Puppet Master and his puppet down Museum Mile. Traffic ground to a standstill as the herd moved. Silent. Dazed. Under control.

Among the pack, somewhere in the second third, was Ariadna and her Aunt Martina, completely unaware of what had taken over them.

Having made steady progress, the horde moved into Central Park towards the Central Park Zoo. Members of the public unaffected stared on in bewilderment. Was it a well organised flash mob trying to become popular and viral again? Was Extinction Rebellion making a comeback? There were no placards or chanting or blaring horns though. Just a steady flow of staff and visitors of The Met.

Outside of the zoo, The Puppet Master stopped, and with him, so did the crowd. He turned to address the loitering public, some of whom had their phones out. Sirens in the distance grew louder.

“I wouldn’t stand there if I were you,” the puppet projected calmly. “In about ten minutes, the animals of the zoo will be running free all over the place!” The puppet laughed manically, it’s little jaw moving up and down rapidly. The Master, so far expressionless.

The crowd of consciously alert people begun to mumble as they assessed the reality of what the weird bloke with the impressive ventriloquist talent told them.

Then the shouting started.

And the running.

The horde of people from The Met then proceeded through the gates of the zoo, causing yet more chaos inside.

***

“Take your pick. Art from The Met being stolen or a crowd of maniacs and escaped animals from the zoo.”

“Right Chief. A choice I never thought I’d be given... Loss of life is greater in the park I suppose. I’ll go there.”

“Thanks Proten, we appreciate it. On the day of the Mayoral vote, this is the last thing we need.” Brad hung up the phone to the NYPD Chief of Police, whose resources were stretched a bit thin due to what was happening across the city.

Although he couldn’t see Central Park from his apartment, he was only a few blocks away and really, within reaching distance. It wouldn’t take him long to get there in his Eagle-One jet, flying over the gridlock on the streets below.

“What the hell?” Proten muttered under his breath upon seeing the chaos below.

Opting to not land Eagle-One and leaving it suspended at a safe height, he jumped down, decked out in his trademark green jump suit.

“This way!” he yelled at a small crowd of people running out from the zoo entrance, chased by snow monkeys. There was nothing he could do about the monkeys, but he could get the people to safety.

The ten minutes that followed his landing was much of the same. Chaotic mess. Trying to save fleeing civilians, dodging loose animals and trying to ascertain what was the cause of all this. The poor staff at the zoo were doing their best to wrangle and capture the animals but the police were working to a different agenda and were putting some of the more at risk creatures down on sight. It was a difficult balancing act.

Some people were running from the zoo but it was the mass of people, scattered in smaller groups that were walking into the zoo that caused Proten to hone his interest in the direction of. What are they playing at?

Proten’s legs extended, sending him up higher than the trees in the park. He paced into the zoo itself and surveyed the scene below him. The strange horde of walking zombie robot people were letting the animals out of their enclosures! Some were being mauled by the very animals they released. He couldn’t save them all.

He lowered himself back to normal height within the zoo and ran towards some screaming nearby. Some mothers were running past, cradling their children.

“They’ve gone crazy, Proten!” one of the frightened parents called out, before she continued running off, having abandoned the empty buggy in the middle of the path.

Proten sighed and looked around. This was bigger than him. What could he do effectively? It was just fighting fires. He spotted a crowd stood beyond the grizzly bear enclosure. There were roughly sixty people just stood still. Not doing anything or reacting. Proten ran over. Perhaps what he needed to do was get to the root cause of this whilst the city’s first responders did the running around.

Approaching the group, he slowed down.

“Oi! Hello! Can you hear me?” he called out.

Nothing. No turning around, no flinching. No movement. Circling the horde, he could see they weren’t looking at anything or anyone in particular, just in front of them, dead ahead with a vacant emptiness which Proten thought appeared like they had all taken a powerful drug.

He walked through the pack to see what would happen, and there was little resistance as they absent mindedly just moved aside for him. He swore under his breath. Mind control? Paralysis? Intoxication? He gave one of the men in the group a hard shove and the man just toppled, falling to the ground and staying there.

“What have you got here?” a police officer shouted as he came to assist Proten.

“I have no idea. They seem to have had their batteries taken out. They’re giving me nothing.”

“It’s the same over there and in the park. We’ve managed to evacuate all the compos mentis people and er, put down any animals at risk, but we now seem to be left with hundreds of unanimated people stood around,” the officer explained, looking just as confused.

“Any ideas on what’s causing it?” Proten asked hopefully.

“No, no one has anything.”

Proten shrugged and walked towards the officer, leaving the human pillars to it. “I’ll call-” But he paused as he noticed the officer’s face change and begin to stare with wide eyed bewilderment at something behind him. Proten turned and made the same eye widening look that the officer had, like it had been infectiously passed on.

“Well now I’m starting to think that that has something to do with all of this,” stated the NYPD officer.

“I think you may be onto something,” agreed Proten.

For above them, appearing in view from behind the skyscrapers, loomed a huge black and gold striped blimp. From the gondola structure hung a giant TV screen that glitched to a holding image of an old guy and a weird ventriloquist dummy.

“What the-?” muttered the officer.

“Who the-?” whispered Proten.

“Why the-?”

“Okay, yeah I get it,” Proten interrupted. “We both don’t know what’s happening. I’m going to get nearer to it,” he decided.

The blimp was about half a mile away but due to its size, it’s relatively low height and slow, predatory speed, it didn’t look too far away. He left the officer and leapt out of the zoo with long, striding legs.

There was a new chaos that met Proten in the park. Crowds were gathering to look up at the blimp, against the will of the authorities who were doing their best to try and evacuate the park. The brain-wiped zombie types that earlier had descended on the zoo had begun to slowly creep out to join the watching crowds, still in their coma state. What made them like this? he wondered, watching them finally stopping. He stopped himself and looked around to focus on someone in the crowd of zomboloids. I know her! he realised.

He begun moving through the crowd of the cognitively aware people to get closer. To make sure.

“Ladies, gentlemen and all those in between!” boomed a voice from the sky. The screen now showed live pictures of the same man and dummy puppet. Proten turned back to watch the screen, deciding that it was hopefully going to give him the answers he needed.