There it was, hanging in the sky, like a single domino, that thing that he refused to believe in. That black monolith. Astonishing it was, as it hovered there.

“You’re kidding with me right. Hey, if this a hidden camera gig, then it’s not funny. C’mon guys, you can all come out now, very funny. Haha, you had me. Now c’mon, out you come.”

Roon refused to believe what he saw, and thus approached at the conclusion he found most plausible, but even as he kept shouting stuff that was supposed to end this gig, he only managed to earn weird looks from the surrounding people.

“Hey, did I hit your head too hard, did you lose a screw or two back there? The hell are you shouting?”

The rich guy commented from behind, who was, for some reason, accompanied by that woman from before. But as it would be too much of a burden on his fragile brain to converse with fools, Roon did what he did best. He ignored them splendidly, and approached the driver.

“Hey, you’ve had your fun, and I’m sure you got some really good shots of my reaction, but can you just end it now. I’m on a schedule and this isn’t funny anymore.”

“The fuck are you talking about. Get outta my face. O Lord, has the heavens wrath descended upon us. May Lord forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

‘The prayers not even complete. Fuck, The Hell? No bloopers or Just for Gags? Is this actually real?’

With that thought in his mind, Roon decided to call for a cab. But his phone wasn’t working. There was no signal.

So instead of being all panicked and irrational about it, Roon decide upon a pragmatic approach.

Maybe, it was not a hoax, not a blooper, no Just for Laugh Gags.

Everything that’s happening, is true. As all the people, around didn’t appear to be deceiving him, they were genuinely, equally surprised about the situation. Also, he had a strange feeling in his gut, that all of this was true.

‘I mean, c’mon, vehicles throughout the city have stopped working, no one can do that for just a Blooper, and then, there’s also that.’

He looked at the monolith. He was sure that no one, at their current level of technology, could use that just for entertainment purposes. So, despite his rationale suggesting something else, he decided to go with his gut for once and believed in what was written in the article. He became very wary of his situation and started analyzing his surroundings.

He saw that people around him were trying to take pictures of that colossal domino, but none of them were very successful, because the camera was showing empty sky in the position where the monolith was supposed to be.

After some time passed, everybody felt a tremor. But this wasn’t a movement of the earth, it was something else, it was “air?”. The air around them was vibrating. It wasn’t something like a storm or some sort for fast moving wind, it was literally the vibration of the air around them, which in turn made them feel as if they were encapsulated by a massage chair.

Roon, found the air ‘massage’, quite comfortable. But that was only for him, maybe because he was high on adrenaline at moment, because the others were not taking it very well. Many of them were on ground, writhing and squirming, as they felt sharp piercing pain through their bodies, as if it was a million needles stabbing them. Luckily, their predicament, didn’t last long as the Monolith started glowing, and released a mixture of resonating black, green and blue light wave, then without a sound, and any sort of physical distortion, disappeared. The air stopped trembling and the pain went away after it’s disappearance. Gradually the people started getting up and contemplating what had happened. They were feeling different, their surroundings felt different. The air felt denser, viscous even. Some were still having difficulty breath, and some were on a high. Many felt better than they were feeling before, they felt as if they had gained clarity, as if high amounts of dopamine were delivered very quickly. But this feeling gradually died down, and many of them wanted to post about all of this on the social network, being the social butterflies they were. But to their disappointment, their phones had gone dud.

Nearly 5000 people, and their phones got bricked at the same time. This had Roons brain circuit in haywire. His mind went into overdrive as he tried to make sense of the situation. The last few words from the article were constantly echoing in his head, “Be very careful”, “There’s not much we can do”, “The world may end”. So, when everyone was marveling at what’d happened, and what they’d felt just now, Roon observed. He observed everything very, very carefully. It was good that he was on the 2nd level skyway of the city, it gave him a very good vantage point.

Ahmeda, despite being a metropolis and occupying the huge swath of land that it did, the 3000 sqKm still fell short for all the industries and activities it housed. It was a hub for many transportation, and export businesses being close to the ocean, and thus faced huge amounts of traffic, which was difficult to accommodate. So, the authorities decided to implement the sky way infrastructure which was developed a decade ago. It had three levels, ground, 1st and 2nd. On the ground level were mostly pedestrians, and the unemployed populace, which had access to medical and general facilities for most of their basic needs. Entertainment industries were near absent on the ground level, except for a few historical monuments, such as the Museum, Library, or the St. Peter’s Stadium. The rest of the ground level mostly consisted of docks and the storage facilities for the manufacturers on the 1st level, or the goods for export. Level 1 mostly consisted of factories and some laboratories for the government. It also hosed the Bio Park that Ahmeda was proud of, consisting of animals from all sorts of environments, in a common environment that could sustain them all, without caging them, also this was the only area that was accessible to the people of the ground floor. The 2nd level was where most of the human industries were. It consisted of the entertainment, information, educational and administrative sectors. Of course, the medicinal facilities on the 2nd level of Ahmeda were things to boast about. The only building that connected all 3 levels were, government shelters and buildings, and a few bus depots.

So, as Roon observed from a high point, which was a flyover on the 2nd level, he could see most of the city, and what he saw, brought a single thought to his mind.

‘That’s a lot of people.’

He could see that a lot of people, including the ones on the 1st and 2nd level, had come out to witness the strange stellar object. The ground level was always full of people, so he didn’t mind that, but the people of the 2nd level coming out in this scalding

heat was something to be surprised about.

‘Huh, heat? Yeah, it isn’t hot anymore.’

With this thought, Roon looked up, and what he saw, left him speechless yet again. Clouds had appeared in the sky. Dark grey, ominous clouds, and they had appeared without a sound. Whenever such a huge and dense cluster of clouds gathered, they were bound to make some thunder. But these ones were creepily silent.

Seeing, this soundless force of nature, a sense of foreboding welled in him, which he couldn’t quite explain, and on an impulse, he decided to go back in the bus, followed by many other passengers, few chose to stay behind, still gawking at the incredible phenomenon they were witnessing.

As Roon got inside, he saw that his previous seat was occupied by the rich guy who he had so gloriously beat up, and next to her was the ostentatious bitch. They seemed to be getting awfully close, but he would not waste his mental faculties on trivial matters, so he did what he does best, ignore them. He found a quiet seat in a corner and started organizing his messed-up thoughts.

‘Fuck. This is so messed up. *Phew*, need to breathe, need to breathe deep, need to calm down and KILL ALL THE MOTHERFUCKERS I SEE AROUND MYSELF. *Phew*, that was a very violent thought, and helped me calm down. So, the facts. What do I know? I know, that a conspiracy theorist thinks that Aliens are invading and black monoliths are raising hell around the globe. The Motherfucking fucking cursed, cool looking monolith actually appeared, which was witnessed by at least thousands of people including myself. It can’t be a gag, no one hires 5000 people for a gag. As all of this is real, so I guess every fucking thing that runs on electricity has stopped working, the bus and the phone included. Nothing I can do bout that. Then some shit happened and monolith disappeared, and the air is now heavy. What do I do? Stop breathing? It feels like shit. Yup, calming down made me no better than a minute ago. Fuck it.’

He was brought out of his trance like monologue by a disturbance at the bus gate. It opened and four people 3 people entered, all men. They were dressed like your usual corporate worker, and they were the ones who’d stayed out when everybody was returning to sit in the bus. And the noticeable thing was, they were all soaked. Literally, wet from head to toe.

A little girl approached them,

“Did you go swimming uncle?”

The man in is twenties replied in a gentle tone,

“No sweetie. It rained, can you believe that, it actually rained in the middle of summer.”

The little girl quickly shook her head, refusing to believe him. That’s when her mom called her,

“Christie, get back here, stop troubling the uncle.”

The man replied with a smile,

“No its alright. Hi, I’m Jacob.”

“Hi, Natalie.”

As Roon observed this movie like slice of life scene, he didn’t smile like he usually would, because right now, he was busy observing every tiny detail he could, about every person in this bus. He observed that there were, 26 people on this bus excluding him, with 18 of them dressed as office workers, 13 men and 5 women, a black kid that looked about his age, an old couple, a mother and daughter, that rich guy, the bitch and a scholarly man in his 40s who looked like George Clooney acting as a professor.

These were all the people in the bus at the moment. Who should he be wary of? What could possibly endanger him? Because the alarm like echoes in his mind were still ringing, and the pit like feeling in is stomach was making him more uncomfortable by each passing moment. So, he focused on the only thing that stood out. The three who had just entered were wet. Why were they wet in the middle of summer? Yes, it was raining, but it was more like a flash rain. It rained heavy and sudden, but it was already coming to a stop. Also, the air conditioning of the bus should’ve been enough to dry them by now.

‘Wait, why is the air conditioner working? Also, the lights, the lights of the bus are still on. The fuck, so electronics are still working?’

He immediately tried his phone, but it was still a dud. So, with nothing new, he decided that the worries were tricks of his minds and put in the back of his head.

It was 5 pm soon. The sun was still as bright, a gift of summer. A few people suddenly fainted. It could have been attributed to a heat stroke this time of the year, but the ones who’d fainted were the ones who were out in the rain, and they were frothing at the mouth. The strange thing was their eyes were wide open as if they were awake. They weren’t even blinking. As everyone, started crowding around them, the scholarly man, who looked like George Clooney, shooed them away, and started examining the unconscious ones like a medical professional.

‘So he was a doctor.’

The doctor, asked some people to help him lay them on a seat and they did. After laying them on the seats, the doctor started examining them.

“What is it doctor, will they be alright?”

Natalie, the woman with a kid, pestered him. To which the doctor replied with a calm voice.

“Don’t worry. It’s just a normal case of black out. These three probably work in a very stressful environment and today’s events may have pushed them to the edge.”

The doctor’s diagnosis was very ambiguous, but no one paid attention to it, except for Roon. He approached the doctor, and talked to him in a low voice, for the purpose that no one else hear their conversation, but of course that was his thought only, how could any normal human not hear something so close. But for most part, they didn’t care about it.

“Um, Dr….?

“Who. It’s Dr.Who “

‘For real. The fuck.’

Due to the bizarreness of the events today, Roon almost believed him. But off course, the other party was joking.

“Hah. I’m kidding. It’s Dr. Patrick August, and before you arrive at conclusions, I am not a doctor of medicine. I am a physicist, and the reason I’m qualified to examine them is because I am versed in many fields, biology being one of them, and I certainly am the smartest guy in this room.”

This statement from August seemed to have earned weird looks from many of the passengers, but no one seemed to be in to mood for a debate.

‘So, Sheldon Cooper it is.’

Was what Roon thought but of course he won’t say it to the doctor’s face.

“So Dr. August, you said that it was a simple blackout, but why are they frothing at the mouth.”

“Well, the frothing at the mouth may be caused due to trauma or epilepsy. Probably trauma. But why do you ask?”

“There are reasons. Are there any other symptoms that strike you as strange?”

“There is the receding heart rate, which is dropping at alarming levels, which should have resulted I their death by now, but seeing as they haven’t died yet, this is an extraordinary case, which I didn’t want the fragile minded, panicking passengers of this bus to know about but now they do. So may I ask again why are you so interested and why are we whispering?”

Seeing that the low volume hadn’t served its purpose at all, Roon spoke in a normal tone.

“Because I think that we should throw them out. I can’t exactly explain but I am getting a bad feeling from them being here.”

Hearing Roon’s opinion all the passengers gave him different looks, most of them were disgust, with the rich guy looking with contempt, the doctor contemplating and the woman, Natalie, looking like she would eat him alive.

“Why don’t you throw yourself outside, you shallow pervert.”

And as if a dam had burst, everyone started cursing at him, only the doctor maintaining his calm.

“Wait. Everyone quite for a moment please.”

His voice held a certain calm and authority that seemed to work every time he spoke.

“I think I can understand what you’re thinking. Are you hypothesizing that it is some sort of communicable bacteria?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Bullshit.”

The rich guy burst into action. With him as the cue people resumed their cursing.

Seeing him wake up, the little girl Christie, started giggling happily and announced,

“Mama, uncle is awake. Mama.”

But after she was ignored by her mother who was busy cursing Roon, she went to Jacob who still had the blank look on his face. She went there and started pushing Jacob.

“Uncle, see it’s me. Boo, hihhihi. Uncle?”

As she got no response from Jacob she was a bit perplexed. But her perplexity was soon replaced by fear, as Jacob started grunting, and as he slowly acknowledged her presence, he bit her, and started chewing.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH”

This time her shrill cry was enough to grab everybody’s attention. As the passengers looked at her and Jacob, they had a variety of reactions. Seeing the healthy young man of 25 chewing at a girl of 5 in ecstasy, and her flesh and blood in his mouth, the people added their own screams to accompany her. Most of the passengers backed away from that spot, which was quite easy considering that Jacob and others were laid near the end of the bus, close to the exit. And for some time, no one moved. Even Natalie was only capable of shouting and pleading for help. Seeing as no one was going to help her child, Natalie decided to move on her own, her maternal instincts taking over, she bashed into the now beastly Jacob, who in turn refused to let her go. She managed to wrench her daughter out of the monster’s grip, but that in turn made him focus on her. He let go of Christie and took a nice big bite out of Natalie.

As everyone watched on in terror, Roon’s body moved of its own accord, and despite his sane mind saying otherwise he, ran and flung his backpack full of books, that weighed at least 4 kgs, at the Zombie. Yes, he’d decided to call it a zombie. That’s what his instincts were pointing at before, and that’s the conclusion he’d arrived at now. His attack caused the zombie to stagger and that gave the mother daughter pair enough time to run to the other end of the bus. But the zombie seemed to be unaffected as it changed its target to Roon, which in turn made him shriek like a 3-year-old, and run back to the end of the bus, all the way to the driver seat.

It was then that the rich, and doctor got into action. With the rich guy running and punching the zombie in the stomach, which was as ineffective as Roons actions, and he repeated the same course by running back. It was then that August who was calmly walking towards the zombie, picked up the old couple’s luggage and tossed it at the zombie’s feet, which made it fall. Then he, picked up another of the couple’s luggage and place it precisely between the zombie’s shoulder blade, and then, sat on it. This to the surprise of everyone had rendered the zombie immobile. He’d displayed an astonishing use of human anatomy.

“Someone, kill it. Now.”

Again with his authority filled voice he commanded, but this time no one moved. The rich guy tried to deal with it, by stomping and kicking on its head, but stopped his efforts when the zombie nearly bit him.

It was then that something struck Roon, like lightning.

‘There are two more. Shit, we have to make it quick.’

Then despite his unwillingness to risk his life, his mind went into overdrive, and he quickly looked around the driver’s seat. There he found a toolkit, out of which he took a wrench, and then rushed to the zombie and August. He built his momentum as he ran and struck at the zombie’s head.

But, he missed. He nearly hit August, and nearly let go of his weapon when the rebound from hitting the floor came. He tried again and again like mad, but most of the attempts futile.

“From the side. Change your position.”

Following Augusts order he changed his position and unleashed hell upon the monster’s head.

He kept hitting, and hitting, till nothing but red filled his vision. His hands didn’t stop, and he felt as if he’d been hitting forever, until a calm voice entered his ears,

“It’s alright lad. The deed is done.”

Roon saw that the body was no longer moving, but he didn’t wait to analyze the situation, as he had another thing going on in his head. He ran and quickly opened the door, the summer’s hot wind greeted him, but he ignored that, and dragged the, fortunately, unconscious men and dropped them out of the bus. There he also caught a glimpse of the bus driver who’d stayed out to assess the situation of the bus, standing there in stupor. But when he saw Roon, as if a beast that’d encountered pray started approaching him, but he soon tripped himself and fell. His motor senses seemed to have been damaged.

Roon quickly closed the door, and again analyzed his surroundings, this becoming a habit of his now. He saw that many people were looking at him with fear, but most of them weren’t paying their full attention to him, they were looking at Natalie, and Christie, and August who was standing with them.

Then Roon, saw the piece of art he’d made out of the head, which was now nothing more than pulp and more pulp. After Roon ensured that there was nothing endangering him at the moment, he collapsed, his vision turning black.