To put it simple, please do not try to copy this story in any form. If not I will be able to sue you and I do not wish to see you in court =)

Hello! Please read this chapter and send me your comments to kayhwa85@yahoo.com.sg or kayhwa@singapore.com or p0234470@sp.edu.sg ! I will be glad to hear from you, and will surely give every mail a reply! Thanks a lot! =)

THE FUTURE

Prologue

I tried counting the stars in the sky. I always fail. They are all always trying to avoid me. The truth is: Do they exist now? No, they don’t… They are just there for shows, to make viewers happy.

     People tend to look at beautiful things, even if they don’t exist now. I opened up my wallet and saw a picture of a pretty young lady looking at me. Her smile was fantastic, but where is she? Does she exist now? Or was she just for shows?

     I closed my wallet. I don’t know. Just like the stars in the sky. Maybe they exist. We never know until we get to see them. The problem is, we never get a chance.

     Where are you?

     I kept on asking myself. Some questions never had an answer: They never intent to have an answer. Because I already knew the answer, yet I did not want to face it. Hence the question had become answerless for so long.

     In front of me was a graveyard. Since this graveyard was here, I had never dared to read the name there. I will always just turn my head off when I see the stone. There were just too many memories stored in the name.

     Her name was Linda. My story started with her name. Without her name, without knowing her, I will not be counting stars up here. She changed my world, changed her world and changed the world. I took out my hand phone and dialed her number again. It rang, but no one picked up the phone. Once again, I had failed in trying to reach her. When will I ever succeed?

     When will I ever succeed counting how many stars in the sky?

     I already know the answer long ago.

     Never.

We always start our day brushing our teeth and have our breakfast. But that day was different. That was the day that changed me forever.

     I woke up and found out my alarm clock was not working. That was normal as it always breaks down once a week. I knew I was going to be late for school so I got changed instantly and dashed out of my house immediately, not noticing the abnormal scene inside my very house.

     As I went into the streets, I knew something was wrong. Gone were all the people on the streets. It was empty. There was not a single car moving along the road that used to be so packed. There was not even a single soul in sight. Silence had totally dominated the noise.

     I stole a glance at my watch and found out it was 10:30am in the morning. It used to be the busiest time of the day. What happened?

     I felt strange, but I know that feeling was closer to fear. I had no idea what to do. Who could have encountered such a situation before? No one had except me. I had to do something.

     I had to wake up. But this was not a dream, I knew that. Usually, in dreams, we would not feel strange even in the strangest situation. But I was feeling strange. The world had suddenly died on me in just a night’s sleep.

     I tried taking deep breaths, but still I was still in that world. I imagined myself waking up and thinking back on how silly this could be, but that imagination might never come. I was just trying to run away from reality.

     I took out my hand phone and tried calling my friend. They would pick up the phone, and nothing would have changed. I picked one of my classmates, wanting to ask him if the lecturer had taken attendance already or not.

     I managed to get through, but no one picked up the phone. Must be in lecture now, I consoled myself. I chose my next target, a friend who should not be in school now. I got the same respond.

     Finally I called home. No one picked up as well. I was sure something wrong was going on now. I did not know how to reverse this situation, and all I could do was to pray that this nightmare would vanish anytime.

     I was silly enough to wait for a bus at the bus stop. No vehicles were moving at the road, nor I expected any bus. But I still sat below the bus stop, finally became very scared. I was dumbfounded. I really had no idea what to do now. I was alone in this world.

     The sun was still shining brightly as normal. I wanted so much to shout my stress out into this empty world, but who would hear me? Will I even hear it myself? I was so stressed. I tried to think of ways to get rid of this reality, but there was no way.

     My dreams had shattered. I am a Singapore Polytechnic Student, currently only studying Year Two I had take up the course Business Admin so that when I grow up, I can be a great businessman. I will sell hand phones, and opened up chains of shops. I will get married to a beautiful girl and had many children. But now, it had shattered right in front of me. I never consider the fact that I might be dead now. I just wish someone will come and fetch me away.

     I did not know how long had it been. I just waited, and waited until I heard a sound pricing into the silence. It was the sound of a motorcar moving. A first sign of hope. I never expected it to be the first sign of my turning point as well.

     I stood up almost instantly and tried to look out at the source of the sound. Truly, a car was moving into my direction. I was crazy enough to stand right in front of the car, and waved my arms to attract its attention. It braked in front of me and what I wanted to hear most now was a human voice.

     The engines went dead and she came out. It was a young pretty lady with frameless glasses over her eyes. Her long hair went flying to the back as the wind blew into her face.

     Her eyes were red and she was looking at me as if I was some sort of a superstar. I was totally absorbed in her beauty when she suddenly ran towards me and hugged me, which surprised me.

     I was totally frozen by her action. I just opened up my arms to let her continue to hug me, but it was a great feeling. It was the first time such a beautiful lady hugged me. However, I could feel it was not out of love that she hugged me. It was out of fear.

     She was shivering. I could feel every movement of her heart, and it was telling me to give her an answer. I forgot how long it had been; finally she released her grip, and I was able to look at her more.

     I could tell from her clothes and looks that she came from a rich family. All her clothes were branded and she had those “Classy” look. Not knowing whether it was love at first sight; I was just glad that she was here.

     Her eyes had become very red and a drop of tear was down her cheek. She was afraid. At least, she spoke, the first human voice I had heard since I woke up today. “What’s happening?”

     Her voice was sweet, but the shivering caused it to vibrate. “I don’t know… since I wake up today, everyone in the world seems to has vanished into thin air…” I said whatever I knew to her.

     “Yeah, yeah!” she exclaimed excitedly, sharing my thinking. “Where’re they?” she asked me again.

     I had no answer. If I had I would not be standing here. “I don’t know…”

     “Are they all dead?” a question that left me thinking.

     I did not dare to say that it might be the opposite: We might be dead.

     She was a beautiful young lady. I had always like girls who wore glasses: And I knew she was one of them. However, I knew it was not time for that. I promised myself that if I really get out of this mess, I would try to woo her. “What’s your name?” I asked her, no motives intent. It was for a better communication later on.

     “Linda.” She replied. “What’s yours?”

     “Steven. You can call me Zinc, coz’ my full name is Steven Tan Meng Zinc.” Usually when I introduced myself, I would add in some humor. However, humor had already disappeared in the world I am standing now. I could only pray that I would have another chance to introduce myself to another person.

     “What do we do now?” Linda was as confused as I was: Where could we head now? Goals had vanished. Destinations were destroyed. What could we do?

     I remained silent and gave Linda a look as if I was thinking hard. I did not know where we could go now. We could not wait for everyone to come back. We needed to do something. To go back to our world. “What will happen if we sleep again?” I pondered. “I mean, we go back to sleep. When we wake up will it all be over?”

     Linda had no hesitation. She turned back to her car and signaled me to her car. “Good idea. Hey, come on!”

     For a minute I did not know whether or not to follow her. Then she explained, “We’ll got to different rooms in a hotel. I bet it’s empty there as well. My father owned a hotel and I had free access to the hotel. Please, I don’t wanna be alone again if I wake up…”

     I understood what she wanted instantly. Just in case this world still continued, when she wakes up, she would still be able to see me. I was not thinking of anything else now: the fact was, I am afraid of loneness as well. I went to her car and she drove off to our destination.

     “You looks… young to be able to drive a car like this.” I started a conversation while she was driving, hoping she could still concentrate on her driving.

     “I just finished learning driving this year and just got his car recently.”

     It would be wasted if she were older than me. My age was 19, and the minimum age to learn driving is 18. “How old are you?” after asking, I wished she would answer either 18 or 19.

     “18. You?” She answered calming. Amazingly, the traffic lights were still working perfectly, and she took a halt in front of a red light.

     “19.” I grinned. I was a year older than her, which meant I had a chance. I kept reminding myself this was not the time for all these, but I could not control myself. I was never a flirt, but upon seeing her, I felt like one. After all, I was still a teenager then.

     “Oh.” With that, she drove pass the red light and continued. “I don’t give a damn about those traffic lights now. There’re not even a single cars in sight!”

     “Yeah…”

     “Hey…” all of a sudden, her voice went down and she whispered, “Actually I saw something this morning.”

     “What…?”

     “A shadow…” Linda voiced out. “A shadow moving in the kitchen… I thought it was one of my maids… and I only discover the strangeness when I got out of my house…”

     I understood what she was trying to hint at. “You mean there could be someone in your house?”

     “No… I tried calling the house many times. No one pick up the phone. I’ve left a voice mail in the house, and so far they have not replied… so I guess it’s empty now.”

     “You sure?” I confirmed. “Maybe she went out to buy something?”

     “My family engaged a maid purely to pick up the phone. She’s like a… telemarketer.”

     I was shocked at his family’s history. It seemed she really came from a rich family: A very rich family indeed. Her father owned a hotel: my father is a factory operator. She had maids: I had to do my housework myself. She had a maid just to pick up the phone: I had to dash out of my toilet when the phone rings.

     “I see…” I said after I sorted out my thinking.

     “Here is it. Wu Hotel.” Linda stopped the car, off the engines and got off the car. I opened the door and saw the large hotel standing in front of me.

     “Wow…” I looked high up at the hotel, not able to see the top of it. “It’s… big.”

     “It’s the smallest my father had built.” Linda boasted, and she actually pulled my hand. “Come on, let’s go!”

     We went into the empty hotel as expected and had a room next to each other. We promised to have a good sleep at our room, and wake up at 7pm. I wanted so much to talk more to her, but she had went into her room and shut off from me.

     I entered my room as well and was surprised to see that it was three times larger than my current room. The bed was in excellent condition. That must be the reason why Linda wanted to come here: Once you lay on the bed, you would fall asleep almost immediately due to its softness.

     I was still tired. I wanted to see many people when I woke up, but I wished I would still be with Linda when I woke up. I still had so many things to talk to her. I lied on my bed, thinking of what an amazing morning I had, and before I could think of more things, I heard the alarm clock shouting and it was already 7pm.

     When I woke up my tiredness was vaporized, and I heard the doorbell rang. I remembered everything then, and knew it could be either Linda or a bellboy.

     Making sure that my hair was in place, I went forward to open the door and see Linda. I was not sure whether this could mean good news or bad news, but her frightened expression could only mean one thing.

     “Steven,” She coughed, and that was the first time she said my name. “Look outside the window.”

     I did as I was instructed, and my mouth went open for over a minute before I could regain my full conscious.

     There were hundreds of soldiers holding rifles patrolling the roads. A few soldiers wearing another uniform were dead with blood scattering all over the place. It seemed crossfire had just occurred, and lifes had been lost.

     As I was about to pull off from my window, a soldier glanced up and saw me. My heart skipped a beat when he shouted aloud, “Who’s there?”

     Before I could do anything, he had already aimed his rifle at me. My first respond was to retreat away from the window, and as I did that, a loud “bang!” was heard and it deafened Linda and me for a spilt second before we stared at such other and knew something bad was surely going to happen next.

End Of Prologue

Chapter 1 will be out on 24/3/2003 (Monday)

Copyright 2003 by Low Kay Hwa