Silence doesn't always mean peace, sometimes it means everyone who could scream… and then it's already gone.
"Move him."
The order came too fast, Jasper barely had the time to reach before two guards stepped in not aggressively but firmly with a controlled force.
"Where are you taking me?" He asked.
There was no answer for that question, he glanced back and searched for Stacy and found her across the intake lines held in place by formation, their eyes locked for a second as everything seemed to be moving slowly and then he turned forward again. Completely separated now, Jasper was moved away from intake and everything that made sense and toward something that doesn't. The sound changed first and then the hum of machines faded, including the movements of people all disappeared. Even the wind felt…muted and unnaturally quiet.
Jasper realized at that moment that even that silence was not natural, like somewhat controlled or worse or even abandoned. As the path narrowed, the markings were still present but faded and less maintained, it was less used.
"Restricted zone," one guard muttered under his breath barely audible.
But Jasper took note immediately, restricted at one thing that people aren't meant to be there and so why bring him there?.
The first building appeared small and simple as the door opened slightly with no guards or activity and that was very wrong. They passed it without stopping but Jasper looked inside for a second and what he saw made his chest tighten, it was a table set for a meal, plates were still there with food longer dried out and utensils where they were left with no struggle or signs of panic like people vanished mid-moment. The second building was worse, a child was drawing on the wall with bright colors of stick figures holding hands. A sun was drawn in the corner but the floor told a different story. A small single shoe was left behind and not taken. Jasper's mind started connecting pieces, about the order outside with structure and control and then this empty space inside that order.
"What happened here? Jasper asked.
He expected silence but at that time, he got something else
"Compliance failure." The guard said.
The answer was abrupt, and emotionless.
"What dose that mean?" Jasper continued with his eyes narrowed.
There was no response because the answer wasn't meant to be explained. As they walked further, the town expanded ahead with more buildings, emptiness and more silence pressing in from every side. It wasn't one house but an entire section which was cleared and left behind. Everything was intact, organized and preserved like a memory frozen in time. Jasper felt the creeping realization of a cold understanding forming in his chest. It was not abandoned by accident but was deliberately emptied which meant that someone decided who stayed and who didn't.
The guards finally stopped in the center of the silent town at a larger structure more reinforced and secured. The door slided open automatically and Inside was dim with minimal lighting.
"Inside ," one guard said
Jasper didn't move immediately because everything within him was screaming
"Why me?" He asked again
After some moment of silence the guard finally looked at him properly as someone…different and then he finally said.
"Because you're not new to this system."
The word hit him directly as Jasper's mind locked instantly. It was impossible or it should be impossible he thought.
"I'be never been here," Jasper said
"Not physically," the guard replied.
And that was worse, as he stepped inside slowly he needed answers more than he feared the unknown. The door closed behind him, sealing with a heavy, final sound.
Lights flickered on inside the room revealing something unexpected with multiple screens lined across the wall displaying footage of his own surveillance of different moments and times and places. Jasper froze because what he saw should not exist. He saw himself walking before the collapse and also him with Anthony and Stacy, Even…Fragments of his Journey, pieces no one should have recorded. A voice was activated in the room.
"Subject Identified."
"Avenger Protocol candidate…confirmed."
Jasper breathed slowly from the realization that everything had changed suddenly.
As the screens continue playing moments of his life he never shared…one impossible truth locks into place;Jasper didn't just survive the end of the world…
He was part of something that saw it coming.