Today

0130pm – I’d woken up late, as usual, stumbling down to the kitchen, my head splitting at the seams. Yesterday’s Monk, pizza, vodka and biscuit pudding sloshing around inside me. At first I thought they’d just gone out, my day went on. I shaved showered dancing to Sia, she sounded louder than usual. No one interrupted, no one shouted to turn it down, the minutes passed, tens, twenties of them.

0245pm – I realized this was the longest my music had ever gone on. ‘Calling Mom’, the screen flashed at me; “This phone is currently not reachable.”, she said. ‘Calling Dad’ the phone now said; “This phone is currently not reachable.”, she intoned. “Fuck it”, I say walking out into the afternoon sun locking the door behind me.

I took me less than an hour to find out that the world was gone. Not my world; not technically the world either, just the people. All the people were gone. I ran from house to house, shop to shop, lane to lane banging on doors, screaming, shouting, shattering pane after pane of glass. My lungs ached, my hands heaved stone after stone splintering the reflections of the now empty world.

‘Calling Kavya’; Hosur; “This phone is currently not reachable.”

‘Calling Rohit’, Delhi; “This phone is currently not reachable.”

‘Calling Meghana’, Dallas; “This phone is currently not reachable.”

Not reachable, not reachable, not reachable. New York, London, Munich, Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem, Chandigarh

Ndtv.com, this page is currently not reachable. Facebook, Twitter, Quora, please retry.

TV – A haze of black and white dots danced across the screen. Cshshshshshshsh.

0830pm – The cold wind whipped past my face as my car weaved between abandoned cars, scooters, cycles, trucks on MG Road. A traffic where nothing moved, a traffic where no one honked. No one cursed as I dislodged a mirror, scraped past a Skoda, rammed head on into a Benz for anything, some reaction, some scream of rage.

1130pm – I unlocked my front door, who had I locked it from. “Hello??”, I said hopefully. Silence. “This phone is currently not reachable.” She said for the 232^nd time. I barely felt the phone fly from my hand shattering the screen against the wall. “Where are you guys”, I screamed, my voice echoing through my house, my street, my town, my world.

0130am – The yellow light of the fridge starts its’ whirring, a cool breeze on my aching legs. I munched slowly, the chewing loud in my ears, me swallowing, my voice, me walking, my body rustling against my clothes, my very breaths, my existence was now a sound in my ears.

0200am – I pulled the sheets up to my neck my hands cold clammy beneath them. What would I wake up to? Would I wake up? Is this a dream? Am I dead? My head swam with questions, voices, faces, bodies, smells, tastes I would never again know.

0210am – I curled up turning away from the light. I hadn’t been able to get myself to turn it off. Ten minutes, just ten minutes had passed. It seemed like an age. I can’t sleep.

0225am – The clock ticked on second by second, painfully slow its monotonous rhythm, my eyes alert, my ears cocked. Nothing stirred, all was still, night was at peace. I couldn’t sleep.

3am, the shattered screen read, my palms are sweaty, my stomach is an empty pit in knots. I close my eyes; tomorrows swirl in my mind, tomorrows full of people, full of life, anything other than this world. This world of just me. I can’t sleep. My eyes open. I reach for my phone, ‘Calling…’. ‘Calling…’. ‘Calling……’

Calling my only contact, the only one that mattered anyways, the only one left. “This phone is not reachable….”, the now love of my life said.