BWAA BWAA BWAA BWAA The alarm sounds out it's obnoxious call to arms. You blearily open your eyes and stare at the ceiling. 'Another day, another dollar', you think to yourself pointlessly as you slap the snooze button and start to sit up, rubbing the idle sand from the corners of your eyes and looking outside. The sun is blazing happily, and already you can hear the world has begun moving as cars honk at the intersection below your window. There is an intensity to the sound of the traffic today though. There is always the occasional honk of horns or blair of cop cars, but this is different. It's more regular. You are fairly certain there is probably an accident nearby, and the rubberneckers are causing the commuters no end of grief. 'Lovely.' you groan to yourself. An accident on Main Street means that even your two block walk to work is going to be annoying. People don't pay attention when there is no problem out in town, so add in some sort of accident, and you might as well be invisible to them. You turn on the television in the hopes of seeing if there is some news about what is causing all of the ruckus, but only get a calming, but simple blue television screen. 'Odd' you think to yourself, as you are certain that you paid the bill this month. A quick flip through the channels reveals nothing but the same cerulean screen. The cable company has screwed up again, and it will have to be the first thing you fix when you get home. For now though, you slide on your khakis and button up your shirt to get ready for another exciting day in the world of human resources and personnel acquisition. That's your job. You find people who are doing a better job at other companies than your people are at your place of employment and see if you can get them cheaper. It's the sleaziest style of headhunting imaginable, and it is the type of job they wouldn't ever think to teach in an ethics class, but it's yours and you are good at it. Before the snooze alarm rings out it's 10 minute call, you have already turned it off, have grabbed your keys and cellphone and thrown them into your pocket, your wallet and paperwork is safely in your briefcase, and you open the door and have to shield your eyes from the morning glare. - Normally, when you live in a small city, you expect there to be a bit of hysteria out on the streets at any given point in time. Not everyday, mind you, but at least once a week you are greeted by a Jehova's Witness, or a band playing on a street corner, or a Girl Scout trying to sell cookies, or the occasional religious zealot screaming about how we are all damned. On other days, it's something much more obvious, and construction or an accident puts people into some sort of stir crazy stupor. You've come up with a theory that the longer someone is forced to sit in their car, not only do they get angrier and angrier, but more and more insane until they are frothing beasts ready to attack whatever lay in front of them. Today though, walking down the steps from your apartment complex reveals that you and all of these people are in an entirely different world than the one you fell asleep to the night before. The first thing that strikes you is the smell. Something, somewhere, is burning. This is validated immediately from the smoke rising from an unknown source in the distance. The next thing that becomes apparent is that the sky is somehow the wrong color. On a crisp clear day like today, the sky should be blue with little puffy clouds moving from one direction to the other. Today though, the blue sky has a yellow hue to it that you can only assume is due to the haze of whatever is smoking on the horizon. The honking and the police cars aren't at the intersection below your window. The police sirens, the honking, and all of the other cacophonies are coming from further down Main Street. There are cars in the intersection in front of you, but all of them are empty. 'What the hell has happened?!' you think to yourself. A helicoptor zooms overhead, moving towards the hospital a few miles away at a pace you've never seen. The honking of the cars stop and there is a sound of screaming. Movement has picked up further away, but with the glare of the sun and the distance between you and the people, there is no way you can even get a vague understanding of what is going on down there. Is it World War III? Martial Law? What did you sleep through?! Time to make a decision. GO BACK INSIDE AND FIND OUT WHAT'S GOING ON? -GO TO WORK. #3