There was no time for anyone to prepare.

In fact, it seemed like all of it happened all at once.

In a split second, one third of the world’s population was gone.

How could 2.6 billion people die at the same time with no obvious cause? Why and how they died was the question all the doctors left tried to answer, but they could never figure it out. As far as I’m concerned, there never has and never will be an answer. Especially now. See, doctors and scientists all needed sleep, and just like that, our medical professionals were gone within the first few days.

Only those that could hold out–like me–are able to survive in this wasteland.

Obviously, a population crisis happening in an instant completely fractured the world’s economy. Thousands of companies filed for bankruptcy, or would have if there were still bankruptcy courts. The major corporations like Amazon and Walmart lasted the longest, burning through their thousands of employees as the deaths kept coming. Even billionaires with technologies meant to keep them awake for the rest of their lives fell during the first few nights. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, even the president are no more. The American government fell within the first few weeks, China’s in the first few days.

So a world without governments. No one to uphold the law. What does humanity do? Come together in our time of crisis, form a unified government, and work to ensure the world might survive?

Anyone that thinks that clearly never been online before.

People love to argue–to fight. Sure, a few tried to keep the world running. My parents, for one. My father was one of the top scientists working on a cure. My mother was a politician who tried running for high office in the new world government. Both of them failed.

Just before I saw them die in their sleep–screaming at the top of their lungs as their eyes closed forever–my father gave me a cookie. Why? I have absolutely no idea. But after eating that cookie, I haven’t even come close to falling sleep.

That was two years ago, and now, I’m the toughest teen you’ll meet on the deserted streets of what’s left of America. I’m known as Blazer Strikefist.

”Josh, would you stop doing that?”

Well, second toughest.

Angie rolls her eyes at me. “I swear, you’re going to alert some house of bums to our position! Or worse, one of The Extremists.”

My friend Angie might come out of a scrape better than I would. With sleep becoming equivalent to death in this world, the ability to knock someone out with your fist might as well be a superpower. Luckily, I’m on her side–it’s me and Angie against the world.

“Oh please,” I say, knowing full well that I cannot win an argument against Angie. “You know as well as I do that Extremists only come out at night.” I pity those nutsos. They believe humanity’s time is over, and that we should all simply die and let nature take over again.

“Still, it doesn’t hurt to be careful in a town like this,” she says, and I can’t disagree with that. The small neighborhood we’ve been trudging through looks like it’s been abandoned for years. The fog is thick and sits below our ankles. Each house, small and square, has been overtaken by plant life, poking through the cracked windows and broken door hinges from the days of the raids. In those days, those who died quickly were considered the lucky ones.

We wouldn’t even be in this wasteland if it wasn’t for Gray. I met her online back in the before times when I didn’t have any real friends. Gray’s personality suits her name perfectly: she’s generally cold and calculating, has white hair, pale skin, and a fashion sense from the late 1800s. She’s an intimidating person, for sure, which is why we think she’s lasted this long. Besides, the usual bags under her eyes tell me that she’s had plenty of sleepless nights.

Angie and I were on our way to the Central Tower (the place where the rest of civilized humanity is working on a cure) when we got a signal and got Gray’s cordinates. I won’t stop until I get to the tower since I’m the perfect cure, but all of that can wait. Friends come first.

”How much longer do we have before we get to Gray?” I ask.

Angie checks the GPS book that she found abandoned in a library. “About five hours,” she responds, her face obscured by her long brown hair before she pulls it back into a ponytail matching mine. There’s not a lot of hair salons at the world’s end.

Angie and I met on a dating site, which was ironic since we’ve never had any romantic interest in each other. Angie is aroace (so her dating anyone would require a serious factory reset) but her parents just wouldn’t listen. They set a profile to find her a future husband, and I was simply too attractive for them to pass up. We had just started communicating when the apocalypse began, and after both of our parents and everyone else was gone, we set out to find each other.

I hear a low moan and catch Angie yawning. She still hasn’t told me how she’s managed to avoid sleep, and I’ve wanted to ask, but asking personal questions is still awkward in the apocolypse. Then again, it doesn’t really matter how she’s alive as long as she stays alive.

The sky is pitch-black by the time we reach Gray’s meeting spot. Though I can’t see through the boarded-up windows, the large cinderblock warehouse is the Grayest thing I’ve ever seen.

“So… how do we get in?” Angie asks. “We can’t just call her–her communication’s been down since she told us where this place is.”

I look around, trying to find a weak spot in the building’s defenses. “If I were Gray, where would I put an entrance…” I mutter to myself.

I look up at the sky, which has been swarming with stars since light pollution became a thing of the past. “Gray always loved astrology…” I think aloud.

Suddenly, Angie points into the sky. “Orion’s Belt! That’s it!”

I turned to Angie. “You think she put the entrance on the roof? That place would be easy pickings for the Extremists!” I say.

But it’s too late. Angie is already halfway up, thanks to her time in gymnastics. “Come on, slowpoke!” she calls down.

“Ugh, fine.”

After pulling myself onto the roof, panting and sweating, I look around. I don’t see this Orion guy or his belt.

“Josh, look at this!”

Angie pulls me over to a small latch on the roof painted with a bunch of glowing dots. “If you connect the dots in the right way…” Angie says, taking out a red marker and connecting the dots one by one, “It becomes Orion’s Belt!”

The second Angie’s marker hit the last dot, the door swings open. The small tunnel leading down is full of cobwebs and creepy crawlies that would surely feast on our dead bodies if we fell.

“Ladies first,” I offer before two hands reach out from the black abyss and pull us down the cramped shaft.

When we land, a light sears into my eyes. “Hello?”

A hooded figure steps out of the shadows. “It’s about time.”

The hood flies up, revealing the pale face of Gray as she wraps us both in a tight hug. “I’m so happy to see you both!” The hug is freezing, but then again, so am I.

“Gray!”

“Geez, you guys took forever! I’ve been fighting off Extremists like, every day!” Gray says, pulling out a futuristic—looking spear. “Lucky I have this–I made this right after the world went to crap.” She lifts the spear over her shoulder like a bazooka and a bright light shoots out of the tip. The light sends a wooden target spinning toward a brick wall, turning the thing to dust.

“Oh… kay,” Angie says quietly, taking a few small steps back.

“Anyway, shall we get going? I’ve been dying to get out of this place.”

I look up. “Is there any possible way that we could, I don’t know, go out the front door?” I ask.

Gray laughs. “Well sure, if you want to blow up.” Like flipping a switch, Gray’s face turns stony. “Explosives keep the sky demons away.”

“Sky demons?” Angie asks, her face shriveling up as though she had just tasted something sour in her mouth.

“It’s easier if I show you,” Gray responds, leading us to a door with a large red X marked on it. Gray shoves open the door, and we step inside.

Within the small room, a large figure is tied to a metal chair, which is in turn bolted to the ground. Gray slowly steps up, and takes the hood off of the thing. As it looks up, I recoil. It’s face is hideous, like all the worst attributes of every animal rolled into one. Its arms are long and spindly, but its legs are short and extremely muscular. The torso is much too thick, and as we step closer, I notice large, leathery wings attached to what I think is its back.

“You’ve never seen these?” Gray asks. “I’ve been dealing with them forever. Don’t know where they’re from, only that they’re hideous and they’re quite good at swooping down and snatching you from the ground. I… learned that the hard way.” Gray runs her hand through her hair. “It was quiet. I thought it would be safe if we went out, got to look at the stars.” Her blue eyes start welling with tears. “They came out of nowhere. Hundreds of them, scuttling across the ground and diving down from the sky. We got rid of hundreds of them together, but she never got to see me finish off the last one.”

I didn’t remember Gray having any other friends, but I also didn’t want to pry, so I leave it there.

“But!” Gray says, wiping her tears and putting her arms up in the air. “You guys are here now! So we can just go and hop over to Central Tower!”

“What do you mean?” Angie asks. “Central Tower is at least a week’s walk from here!”

“Not with this!” Gray walks over to a circular object covered with a blanket. “When… that incident happened, I noticed the sky demons left this behind. When I brought it back here and turned it on, it opened a portal straight to Central Tower!”

“Why would the sky demons have a portal to the Central tower?” I ask.

“Dunno,” Gray answers. “But once we’re there, I’m sure they’ll have an explanation.”

“Are you sure that this thing is safe?” I ask.

“I guess we’ll find out!” Angie shouts, turning the portal on.

A blinding blue light flashes in front of us, and suddenl,y I’m looking up at the lit-up Central Tower. I bolt up to the entrance, not knowing or caring why the doors are unlocked. I sprint up to the top part of the tower where the lead scientists are. I slam the door open to find–

No one. Not a single soul is in the room sold to every person in the world as the last stand of the battle against sleep.

“Where is everyone?” I ask, stunned.

“Gone.”

I turn around to find a shadowy figure standing directly behind me, looking down on me with a body blacker than anything I’ve ever seen. Except for the yellow eyes. The eyes that I can feel staring into my soul.

“They’ve all succumbed to me, all except for you. You are the last one that evades me.”

“What are you talking about? My friends are just downstairs!” I say, stumbling backward.

The creature laughs with a rough, gravely voice. “You sad child. You really have no idea, do you?” The thing leans in toward my face as my back hits a wall. “Your friends do not exist anymore. In fact, they haven’t existed since I took over this puny world. I’m confident hallucinations are a side effect of whatever pancea is keeping you awake.”

“What? No! My friends? I heard them? Felt them! They hugged me!”

“A mind without the ability to sleep still finds a way to dream.”

I curl up into a ball on the floor. The coldness of Gray’s hug, the reason Angie hadn’t seemed to care about safety as she turned on the portal… it all made sense now. A fabricated reality, fabricated friends, fabricated everything. It hurt, knowing that every experience I’d had was fake. It was my mind inventing interaction to stay sane, something I couldn’t find in a desolate wasteland.

”Once you are eliminated, I can finally take physical form,” the thing proclaims as it raises its arms to the heavens. “All I have to do now is to kill you. A small thing. Easy.”

The thing steps forward, and I stand silently, not moving a muscle.

“No more jokes, boy? No more confidence?” the thing asks in a mock sympathetic tone. “How sad. I would have quite enjoyed it if you had tried to fight. Oh well.”

Its yawning maw opens wide, and the last thing I see is cold blackness as it swallows me whole. I am engulfed by darkness. I see no one, hear nothing, and feel nothing.

“Hello?” I yell into the void. No answer. In fact, I can’t even hear myself!

Heh. I think to myself coldly. I have a mouth, but cannot scream. I have a body, but cannot feel. I have a heart, but it cannot beat.

I start sobbing. I cry until I have no tears left. In the cold, the sadness, the dark, I am alone.

Maybe it would be better if I fell asleep. Dying at least isn’t fake.

I sit in the dark for what seems like eternity. I close my eyes and try to sleep, but my blessed wakefulness is now a curse. I’m all alone with no spirit left.

All of a sudden, the world has light again. I’m standing in a room across from small winged creature staring up at me. Its eyes are as black as the void, and yet the rest of its body is brightly colored.

“Um, hello… bird?” I say, cocking my head to the side.

“What am I doing here?” the bird asks in a small, tinny voice.

I gasp in amazemnet. “Bird! You talk?”

“Excuse you Mmy name is not ‘bird.’ And for your information, your brain might as well be the size of one.”

“Well, Not-bird, can you tell me where I am?” I ask.

“You are nowhere,” the small thing responds.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You are not currently anywhere, which means you are nowhere.”

“If I’m nowhere, then why are there physical surroundings?” I ask.

“Good observation,” says the Not-bird. “You are, for as good of an explanation as I can provide, in a pocket universe. In this place, time does not pass and space does not exist outside this room. But if this troubles you, you can leave. Would you like to exit?”

The Not-bird pulls out a small computer with only two buttons on it. One is black and has “yes” written on it in red lettering; the other is green and has “no” written on it in white lettering.

“Choose carefully,” says the small thing.

I think for a while before I tentatively click “no.”

Suddenly, I’m back atop the Central Tower. No time seems to have passed between the beast eating me and me waking up. Just as the beast closes its mouth, I duck out of the way. I notice the Not-bird is still beside mean. All of a sudden, the little creature is no longer little. The Not-bird has grown much bigger now. It has the head and feathers of a crow but the wings of a dove. It shines with light.

“What are you?” I ask in wonder.

“Well, I’m not a bird,” it says. “I am Ulysses.”

The black creature turns around. “Ah, Ulysses. It’s been a while since we last saw each other,” it says, clearly annoyed. “Tell me, if I toss you some bread crumbs, will you stop defending my prey?”

“Still not a bird,” Ulysses growls. “If I were you, I’d take the bread crumbs! They will be the last you ever have.”

“This makes no sense.” I whisper to myself.

I stand back and watch as the two creatures battle. One pure light, one pure darkness. So far, they match each other blow for blow. Somehow, a bright light appears in Ulysses’s hand and the shadow creature explode into thousands of tiny pieces of… candy?

Ulysses turns around. “You’re welcome,” he says, striking a battle pose.

“No!” I say. “None of this makes any sense.”

A booming voice explodes from the sky above me.

“Looks like we lost the plot. All right, Susan. Bring him out.”

“Wait, what?” I yell as a bright light sucks me inside.

I see a pair of blue eyes staring down at me.

“Josh!”

Gray pulls me into a hug. She’s warm.

“Who… what?” I ask, stunned.

“It’s me, you idiot!” she says.

“Give him a minute. He’s been through a lot,” a voice from behind me says.

“Angie?” I say, double-stunned. “What’s going on? Where am I? Why–”

Another, deeper voice cuts me off. “Hello, Josh. Do not be afraid. My name is Alastor, and this is my wife Susan. We’ve been observing your narrative from the start, and you are definitely the most interesting one we’ve seen so far. The story you created was one of the most creative, interesting stories we’ve recorded.”

“What are you talking about? Story?” I ask.

“My wife and I are the top entertainment scientists at ALtech, the first company to create a completely immersive VR experience!”

“So all of this was a game?” I ask.

“Not quite,” Alastor says. “To make games immersive, we require testing, so we thought to ourselves: what would be the ultimate test of full immersion? Sight? Sound? Taste?”

“No,” says Susan. “Everything would need to be simulated.”

I scratch my head. “So you put me in this machine and I get to live out whatever story I want?”

“Exactly!” Alastor says. “Obviously, a complete fabricated experience would have severe impacts on the human mind, and while yours was the darkest and most psychologically abusive by far, your immersion by far lasted the longest before degredation.”

“So the experiment is over now?”

“Yes! The storyline and illusion broke down, so yes, the experiment is over.”

I smile. “So I can just walk out of here and go home?”

Everyone in the room starts to laugh.

“What’s–what’s so funny?”

Gray runs her fingers through my hair. “Oh Josh, how can you walk out of here when you’re just a brain in a jar.”

My blood goes cold. “A what?”

“A disembodied brain,” Angie says. “We pulled you out of some dead guy, prodded every inch of your with wires and microchips, and made you think you were an actual person.”

I shake my head. “No, no. That can’t be true. I’m shaking my head, and I’m speaking. Gray, I feel it when you touch me.”

“Nope!” Angie says. “You want to move to move or talk or feel and our electrodes convince you that you’re actually doing it.”

“With our 360 camera array, you can even react to external stimuli,” Gray says, kissing me on the cheek. I feel the warmth and wetness of her lips on my skin, I have skin, I am real, I am here, I–

“Woah, there,” Alastor says. “Settle down. You don’t have much time left. Best to conserve your energy and don’t let your mind race.”

“What do you mean I don’t have much time?” I ask.

“Our technology is powerful, but a brain is still meat,” Susan says. “Even with our latest perservative, it still breaks down. That’s why your experiment ended. Some of your synapses are burning out, so we can no longer maintain full immersion.”

“So what?” I yell. “Are you telling me I’m dying?”

“No,” Angie says. “You’re already dead.”

“But we learned a lot from you,” Gray says. “We prodded your mind to create the worst scenarios imaginable, but even in the worst situations, you never gave up. You proved that humans are creatures of hope and have the capacity to never give up. You are an inspiration.”

“I, um,” I stutter. “Thank you. So how long before–”

There was no time for me to prepare.

In fact, it seemed like it happened all at once.

In a split second, I was gone.

But I came back once before. Maybe I can do it again.