January 5, 2025

~64 Days until the The Synchronization~

Once he reconnected to reality, Wyatt stumbled. Then he ran.

His feet, no longer glued to the floor, flew across the street. He sprinted, faster than he's ever run before. The beast he couldn’t see was chasing him, it bit at his heels as he ran. Wyatt’s breathing quickened as pure terror coursed through his veins, motivating him to push forward.

Run. Just Run.

He couldn’t think anything other than that. His mind was filled with the motive to run, he literally couldn’t think anything else.

He didn’t know where he was running, he just did. He put on foot in front of the other, pushed, and repeated. He stumbled every now and then as a lone rock slightly tripped him, or he ran into a wall and had to turn. Wyatt simply continued.

It was when he reached a dead end that he turned around, back to the wall, and slumped down to the floor. His lungs were void of air, and he hurriedly tried to fill them with as much air as he could.

Once he calmed down enough to examine his surroundings, he found himself alone in another dark alleyway.

Finally…

Wyatt managed to slowly regain his mind. What was that? Why was he so scared? He hadn’t even done anything, just looked at the crack in the sky… Speaking of, why was there a crack in the fucking sky? The FUCKING SKY!

How does that work? What the actual hell is going on… where are all the people? Am I alone? Oh my God… oh God oh God oh God.

As he regained his bearings, panic and shock set in. Everything was weird and happening too fast. He couldn’t fully process everything that was happening around him. Everyone seemed to have left LA, fleeing in the thousands. That was when the real questions started to bloom.

What do I do now? I am lost, and it's like the end of the world. All that's missing is a bunch of people with superpowers and capes, wait wait no don’t jinx anything. I swear to god there's no way I am going to look up at the sky again, that's a promise.

I could go back home I guess, my apartment. Problem is, I have no idea where I am.

Wyatt literally had no idea how long he had been running or how far he had come. He already had a pretty bad sense of direction, but adding the many alleyways and dead ends LA hosted was like putting a rat in a labyrinth. Only the rat was dumb as a brick.

After going through a few situations in his head, Wyatt came to the final conclusion to walk around. Maybe if he looked at the street signs, if they were still there, he could assume his current position and find his way back home.

Why home you might ask? Well, he still had to collect what little he owned. Maybe pack a few snacks, water and such, and take an extra set of clothing. Ya know, the basics.

He got up once again, this time he walked with purpose in his step. He was still cautious of his surroundings, LA wasn’t known as a peaceful city. Rapes, robbery, and even murder was fairly common. Okay maybe murder wasn’t as common as the other two crimes but still, it wasn’t a safe city.

What Wyatt did find odd was how few homeless people he saw on his walk. Usually, they were overflowing the back alleys and abandoned buildings of LA. Seriously, it was a huge problem. Their tents and belongings still stayed in place, but no people. Wack…

Besides that, Wyatt finally found the street name. Blueberry road.

Okay, that wasn’t too far from his apartment. He knew the general area because this street, and the nearby streets, hosted a nice array of food stalls and food markets with low prices. Just the thing a broke construction worker needed. The people were generally nice, save for the street rats and pickpockets.

After an hour or two of wandering around and trying to find his complex, Wyatt managed to arrive in front of his home building. It was deserted, the place looked trashed and completely looted. People were gone, the streets as desolate as a ghost town. It was kind of spooky, and Wyatt got a disturbing vibe from the shack the fat man had gone in back when everyone was running around and panicking. No matter, he was here for his apartment and his few possessions.

Slowly, and cautiously, he stepped into the alleyway that was also kind of his backyard. It was pretty much the same as he left it, save for a few spots of vomit and more trash. Ah yes, lovely back alleys of LA. The city of dreams my ass.

It was so quiet that Wyatt’s legs began to shake from fear. Not the same primal fear the cracks put in him, but the kind of superficial fear people have when they look into the dark. Their minds fill the empty space with tricks, illusions of the mind, in an effort to fill the missing pieces. Human brains thought in patterns and trends afterall.

Wyatt also decided to boycott the sky for now. He wouldn’t look at it and, hopefully, it wouldn’t look at him. Stare into the abyss and the abyss stares back at you kind of thing.

He did note, however, that the fires from before seemed to have come to a stop. The smoke was still flowing and the distant sounds of sirens made him think that the fire wasn’t out yet, possibly just contained. So, at least there was some good news.

Forcefully, Wyatt calmed his shaky legs. He tried to put some fake confidence into his body, but he just couldn’t bring himself to stop feeling scared. Whatever…

Finally, he arrived at his apartment. The all too familiar broken wall and destroyed couch. His dropping ceiling and the man wandering in his kitchen. Ahhh… yes this was home.

Wait… a man in my kitchen?

Wyatt just stood there and watched the stranger walk around his kitchen, their hands running through all his stuff.

What the fuck… why is there a man in my kitchen?