CHAPTER 1
Silence.
At first it simply puzzled Nick Morganthau. Then it worried him. Finally, it scared him.
When he awoke, he frowned. Daylight was streaming into his room, and that was odd. His alarm should have gone off at six to get him up for school, and it would hardly be this bright at six…He rolled over and looked at his clock.
Three-thirty…
That didn't make sense. It wouldn't be this bright at three-thirty in the morning. And there was no way his parents would have let him sleep this long on a school day! He blinked, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and sat up. It was definitely later than six. His alarm must have stopped working But how come nobody had come to throw him out of bed?
Come to think of it, how come he couldn't hear his parents getting ready for work? Surely they'd be up and active even if they'd let him sleep for some reason? And what about his sister, Briony? That little brat was a bundle of energy and noise. She'd just love bouncing on his bed to get him up--if she wasn't running about the house making enough noise to wake the dead.
So why was it so quiet?
Nick reached over and shook the electric alarm clock. Then he listened to it. Damn! It had stopped! He was going to be in trouble for sure! He jumped out of bed, scratched his bare chest, and headed for the bathroom. There wasn't much chance he'd get to use it, since his folks and Briony had to be up by now, but he had to go pretty badly.
To his amazement, nobody had staked claim to it yet. He locked the door, fast, to make sure nobody would. Maybe the power had gone out in the night, and everybody's alarms had died. Was he, wonder of wonders, the first one up? If he was, he'd better wake the others, as soon as he was done in here.
He flushed the toilet, and winced at the odd sucking noise. He glanced down and saw that there was no water flowing in. That was odd. He listened, but as soon as the flushing had died, there was no sound of water running. That was malfunctioning, too. This wasn't the best of starts to the day.
Well, that was Dad's job; let him worry about it. Nick wandered to the sink and turned on the faucets.
Nothing.
He stared at the dry sink, confused. The water supply was out, too? How come? It didn't make any sense. What would stop the water flowing? A break in the mains somewhere, maybe? This was weird. Still, it meant he didn't have to take a shower this morning, at least. On the other hand, he wouldn't mind being able to clean his teeth. They felt rather gross.
But he'd better let his parents know there was a problem or two--and get them up so they could be on their way to work. He padded down the hallway to his parents' bedroom and rapped hard on the door. "Come on!" he yelled, enjoying the reversal of roles for once. "Can't sleep all day, you know! You've got to get up and get moving." He grinned, his ear to the door, as he waited for groans, yawns, and probably muffled curses. After a silent moment, though, he was forced to hammer on the door and howl: "WAKE UP!!!"
Nothing.
Nick was starting to get really worried now. It was a family rule that when a bedroom door was closed you didn't go in without an express invitation. But this seemed to be the time to break a rule like that. Why weren't his folks waking up? He had a sudden, dreadful image of them both in bed, dead--massacred by some silent gunman, or just dead of one of those things like heart attacks or strokes that affected older people. He really didn't want to see anything like that, but he had to know. Nervously he gripped the handle, steeled himself, and then pushed open the door.
He was half hoping his father would yell at him for breaking the rules.
Silence.
Nick stared into the room. Light spilled across the empty bed from the blinds. The bed was messed, and there were two sets of pajamas scattered on the floor. His folks had been there, but they certainly weren't in bed right now.
What was going on? This wasn't making any sense. If his parents had woken and got ready for work, they would certainly have never left him sleeping. And they weren't in bed…He went to the bed, feeling kind of foolish, and felt the depression where his mother usually slept. It was cold, so she hadn't been there for a while. So--what had happened?
Nick whirled around and went to Briony's room. "Hey, brat!" he yelled, hammering on the door. "Get moving!" He waited for a scream, curses, anything…but again, all he got was silence. He pushed open the door, once more seeing only an empty bed and nightclothes on the floor.
Briony was missing, too…
Nick was starting to get scared. Okay, Briony would happily go off to school and leave him sleeping, so he'd get into trouble. But Mom would never leave him. This felt really wrong. He ran to his room and threw on the first clothes he came across, lacing his sneakers fast. Then he hurried downstairs.
There was nobody there, either. The living room was empty, and the kitchen showed no signs of the usual postbreakfast disaster. No dishes, no food out, no brewed coffee. Of course, with the power out, there wouldn't be any coffee. No sign that Mom, Dad, or Briony had been here. Opening the door to the garage, Nick went inside, clicking on the light. Shoot, he remembered. No power.
Dad's Taurus and Mom's Silhouette were both there. So was Briony's bike.
Ice was forming around the base of Nick's spine now.
What on earth could have made his family get up, ignore him, breakfast, and the bathroom, and leave their cars and just…go? The knot of ice was crawling up his spine now.
He walked back into the kitchen as if in a trance. He was scared. This was getting to be too much. Nick couldn't make any sense out of it. His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten yet. He opened the fridge, without the usual waft of cold air or the light coming on. Grabbing the juice, he drank some straight from the carton. Then he grabbed an apple and bit into it. At least the juice and apple, even if not cold, tasted normal.
Munching on the apple, Nick went to the front door. He suddenly realized that he hadn't heard so much as a sound since he'd woken that he hadn't made. He hesitated, his hand on the doorknob, and listened. There was no sound of passing cars; no kids laughing and yelling; no radios blaring; not even any birds singing or dogs barking.
Nothing but the soft sound of wind through branches.
It was downright spooky.
Nick had to force himself to open the door and walk outside. He was overcome by an odd sensation: it felt like he was leaving his only protection. The door clicked closed behind him and he grabbed for the key in his pocket. Sighing with relief, he kidded himself. "Easy, Nick," he said. "This is no time to go wacko." He forced himself to focus on the task at hand.
Where was everybody? His family couldn't have just vanished overnight. Those sorts of things didn't happen. He needed to find somebody in authority, like a cop, and get some inquiries started. File a missing persons report or something.
Except there was a huge flaw in this plan.
Nick walked slowly toward the road, searching in both directions. Massapequa was normally a busy town, with Sunrise Highway only about half a mile south. It didn't matter what time of the day it was, there were always plenty of cars around--heading for school, work, play, or the mall, or just passing through on the way to points east or west. There were cars even in the dark hours of the early morning. There were always cars.
Except toSday.
There was nothing moving beyond a few tree boughs sighing in the wind. No cars, no bikes, no people even. Not a dog or a cat on the prowl. Not a bird or a butterfly on the wing.
Nothing--except Nick, He glanced into the sky. Not even a passing aircraft, and that was another thing that there always was.
The sky was clear, except for scuttling clouds like ducklings running for their mother. The road was clear, too, except for a few parked and empty cars. And the houses looked as silent and dead as so many tombs.
This was getting way beyond spooky and right up there into terrifying. Nick had never liked things too quiet, but he'd never known how quiet things could get before this moment. There was nothing around…but him.
Panicking slightly, he ran next door to the Howards. He hammered on the front door. No answer. "Crap!" muttered Nick. He ran around to the side door, which was hardly ever locked. It was open now. He went inside, and called out for someone--anyone--to answer. Nobody did. He checked the downstairs rooms, then rushed upstairs. The beds had been slept in. He found nightclothes discarded on the floor and over chairs. "Charlie!" shouted Nick. Charlie, the Howard's big Labrador, would normally have been all over Nick by now. "Charlie!"
Charlie was gone, too.
Slowly Nick retreated to the living room. "OK. OK. OK," he said out loud, calming himself. There had to be a logical explanation, right? It was impossible that his family had vanished. It was even more impossible that the neighbors had, too. For God's sake, where could they have all gone to? And without waking him? What possible disaster could have occurred to leave him stranded here like this?
And how had all of the people left? Their cars were still here. They couldn't all just have walked off, could they? He had a sudden image of hundreds of sleepwalkers, arms outstretched, marching off into…what? Then he discardedthe idea. After all, he'd seen the nightclothes on the floor. They could hardly have all marched off butt-naked. And he didn't think that a legion of zombies would take the time to get dressed first. They must have been conscious and aware of what they were doing when they left.
But why would they go? And more important, why would they leave him behind? If there had been some emergency--like a meltdown at a nuclear plant or something-not even Briony would be so cruel as to leave him sleeping while everyone fled.
Besides, how had they...
