Chapter 4 - The End of the Line

Renald awoke in a cold sweat, as if from a nightmare. He looked around and realized he was in his own bed in his own home.

"Odd," he muttered.

Renald slowly swung out of bed and looked around his room. Everything looked okay; nothing was out of place. Of course, there were no windows in Renald's room, so he couldn't be sure how things looked outside. The clock on his wall said 9:33, so at least he got up at a reasonable time, assuming it was morning.

Something strange occurred to Renald as he left his room: the rest of his apartment was dark, as though it were still night.

"Maybe it's 9:33 p.m," Renald mumbled. "If that's the case, why was I in bed?"

He walked over to the calendar on his wall and tried to figure out what day it was.

"I went to work yesterday on Thursday the 18th, so that would make today Friday the 19th, unless it's Thursday night. Then again, if I did go to work yesterday, and all of that crazy stuff happened..."

Thinking more and more about the situation only confused Renald and made him more fearful.

"Was there an earthquake yesterday? Did I walk though that empty tunnel, and what the hell was that creepy voice? Who was that old man? It couldn't have been real," Renald told himself.

Then, it occurred to him that he could resolve this issue by calling work. If someone picked up, it was probably morning and he was thus merely late for work. However, if no one picked up, that could either mean it was night, or the earthquake did happen and no one came back, both, or neither, and that would further confuse him.

Renald dialed the office number on his cell phone and waited for someone to pick up. However, his number entry only led to static. He then remembered when Abby tried using her phone and she discovered that the cell phone networks were down.

"Damn it" Renald sighed. "I guess I'll have to check the computer."

Renald's heart began to pound furiously as he opened his laptop; his fear came to fruition: there was no power coming through his AC adapter, and the wireless Internet signal would not switch on. He noticed the time and date on his computer, which seemed intact after the quake. It was indeed Friday the 19th, but the time read 9:37 a.m.

"This isn't good."

Renald's last resort was to open his front door and step out into the world. He could see nothing out of his kitchen and bathroom windows; it was like looking through the window of a submarine at the lowest depths of the Challenger Deep. Pitch black.

Renald threw on a shirt, his jeans, and a coat, for good measure. He grabbed a flashlight from his bedroom bookshelf and prepared to enter a brave new world.

"Well, I've had a good life, and I can't stay in this apartment forever, so I might as well bite the bullet and find out what's going on," Renald said with a quavering voice.

He anxiously turned the handle on his front door and opened it. Instead of seeing his apartment complex's sprawling parking lot before him, he saw nothing. Renald dared not go further lest he fall into a deep chasm or get hit by some unseen object.

"Hello!?" he shouted into the void.

There was no reply for a moment, and then, a great, deep moan ushered forth from the nothingness. Renald broke out into a cold sweat and felt like his heart was about to explode. He didn't know what to do, so he turned back into his apartment and locked the door.

"This is it. This is the end," he concluded to himself.

Out of nowhere, there was a sudden knock on his door.

"Who is it?" Renald asked with panic in his throat.

"Open the door, young man. There's something you must know," the voice replied. It sounded like the old man from City Hall the previous morning.

Renald figured he had nothing else to lose, so he turned the knob and opened the door. It was, as he suspected, the old man, who carried a small briefcase, which he set down upon the floor.

"Where is everything?" Renald couldn't help but ask.

"Gone," the old man replied.

"Why? What happened?"

"The hosts of the earth came to collect on the debt owed to them by our kind."

Renald had no idea what the old man meant by "hosts of earth" and "debt", but he was positively intrigued.

"Who are the hosts of earth? What is our debt?"

"They were here on this planet long before us, and they kept the earth intact for millions of years; through continent rifts and meteor collisions, seismic shifts and avalanches, they have served the world as its gatekeepers and landlords. When earth's tenants violated their agreement with the landlords, it came time for eviction, and that is precisely what has happened," the old man explained without affect.

"I followed you to the railroad and ended up in some tunnel. Your voice led me through it and brought me above the city. How was I able to do that?" Renald asked, more intrigued than ever.

Suddenly, there was another loud groan from outside the apartment, and a small white light began to grow and then dim slightly as Renald's eyes adjusted to it. Renald looked out his kitchen window and realized that his apartment was in some kind of moving tunnel, much like the one he walked through yesterday. He could only see through an elliptical opening up ahead where the light came in. The apartment appeared to be moving forward rather quickly.

"Where are we?" Renald asked the old man, who remained standing by the door.

"Do you really want to know?" the old man asked with a sly grin.

"Y...yes," Renald stammered.

"The end of the line."