05 "Frozen in Time"

    Do you ever feel like you're being watched? I would hope not, for you own safety.
    See, there was a point when everything was normal. People could walk into restaurants or drive down the road or talk to each other. Normal things. That was until last week. The day started out like any other. The sun hanging high in the sky, beating down on those who walked beneath it with a vengeance. Everybody found their own way of cooling off. For some it meant diving into an ice cold pool. For others, it meant sitting inside with the AC blasting.
    But as the heat continued to swell, I sat alone in my apartment. I stood in front of the mirror, running a comb through my hair to touch it up a bit after my shower. After setting the comb down, I admired myself for a few moments, making sure I looked ready to take on the day. I sure felt like I was.
    I left the bathroom, threw on some clothes, and stepped outside. The sudden heat felt good against my skin. It was similar to having a blanket wrapped around you that was still warm from being removed from the dryer. It felt comfortable.
    I climbed into my car and pulled onto the road. Traffic was about average. There were some stop lights where I had to sit behind some people as they impatiently waited for the light to turn green. Some people were even honking their horns as if it was going to make the light change any faster. I rolled my eyes and kept driving onward.
    Before too long, I had arrived at work. I stood from my car, walked inside and clocked on. Another day in paradise, I thought to myself.
    The grocery store I worked at wasn't much different from any other. And there were plenty of people lined up to get checked out. to my confusion, nobody was there to check them out. I wasn't in uniform yet, so no attention was drawn to me. I made my way to the back of the store and to my boss' office. From what I could tell by looking through the door's window, I was sitting at his desk, staring down the screen that looked to be a bunch of different camera footage.
    I walked up to the door, expecting to tell him that there were no workers up front, but as I pushed the door open, I saw the other 2 workers of the day leaning against the walls on either side of the desk. None of them turned to look at me as I walked in. Their attention was deeply locked into the screen. I too turned my attention to it, scanning the screen up and down but saw nothing significant.
    "What are you guys watching?" I asked. But none of them moved. "Hello??" I called out, but none of them so much as flinched. They were all unmoving. All staring down the screen. Locked in place.
    I sighed and left the room. I threw on my uniform and stepped out to where the customers were. Someone had to do their job, it might as well be me.
    I stood behind one of the registers, ready for the first customer in line. Why weren't they moving?
    I looked to the person behind them. Perfectly still. The long line of people behind them. Still. Every last one of them.
    "This isn't funny!" I called out, stepping out from behind the register.
    I put my hand on my forehead and looked around, panic stricken. "What the hell is going on?" I walked along the aisles, hoping to find a single soul still moving, still alive. Well, I mean they all had to be alive, right? Maybe they were all just stuck. Maybe there was a leak and no everyone is frozen? It was a dumb idea but it was all I could rationalize.
    Then, I heard a noise at the front of the store. Finally, someone was here.
    I raced to the front of the store and found a dark figure. It was like a shadow walking toward me. Human shaped but not quite. Something felt off about it. I was about to turn and run but then there was an outstretched hand emerging from the shadow. It pointed at me. I walked toward it. Or at least I tried. I couldn't move. I struggled against myself to even nudge forward but my body had become perfectly still. My eyes weren't blinking, which started to burn. My chest wasn't heaving, making it hard to breath. I was frozen. Just like everybody else. And then the shadow disappeared.