Glitching.

Wish the world would just, go away.

A Glitch in the Matrix.

Do we live in a simulated reality? Scientists can neither prove it nor disprove it. But what happens if a bug gets into the program?

Fictional stories based on real accounts...

Wish the world would just, go away.

STORY 2

Albert Vogel was an unassuming little man just passing through life day in day out same routine different day. This morning was no different than any other. Out of bed, make the bed, have a shower, have some breakfast, tidy up, and then off to catch his bus to work. The one thing that he did notice different as he donned the clothes that he had lain out for himself the night before, was that his wall clock had stopped ticking at 7:01.

“Must remember to put a fresh battery into that clock,” he mumbled to himself before heading downstairs to have breakfast.

“Damn there seems to be a power cut?” he said to himself, as neither his jug, toaster nor any lights that he tried came on. “ Never mind I'll grab a cup of coffee at work. Hopefully, the power will be back on by the time I get home tonight?”

Looking for something else for breakfast instead, it wasn't long before Albert locked his door and then headed off to catch his bus.

The sun was shining gloriously but there was an eerie quietness outside. There weren't normally too many people out and about that time of the morning anyway, but today the streets seemed devoid of both birds or the dogs that liked to bark at him as he passed their houses. He noticed that even the few cars that did pass carrying children to school or taking its occupants to work were also missing? Today the traffic was bare. Vehicles were parked in driveways outside garages and on the street so it seemed as though there was someone around. Albert sat at the usual bus stop waiting for not just the bus, but the other people who had normally caught this same bus with him from this stop every day? The two teenaged girls who caught this bus to town to catch the train to school? The little old lady who visited her sickly husband in the nursing home every day? Both were retired from the police force. Or the young cleaning lady who cleaned in some of the office blocks in town? Where was that smarmy middle-aged man who rode this bus as well? With his distinctive tartan patterned golf cap and newspaper under his arm? The one who Albert didn't trust by the way his shifty eyes leered at the two girls as he pretended to read the race section of his paper. The elderly old woman didn't seem to like him either. The two girls were usually too wrapped up in themselves to notice.

The other passengers had, had conversations among themselves whilst they waited for the bus, this was how Albert learned what he did know about them. But Albert himself preferred his own company. He would politely answer any of their questions but only gave them what they wanted to know and then kept his mouth closed. He had always been shy and awkward in social situations so kept to himself most times. Albert didn't like disruptions to his normal routine which included answering questions that he didn't really feel like sharing. Especially to strangers? It was times like that when Albert would wish that the world would just go away and let him get on with his life uninterrupted.

“It feels like a weekend today?” Albert thought to himself, “ Surely I didn't sleep through Friday and it is now Saturday?” he almost laughed. Albert pulled back his sleeve to check the day and time on his watch. Friday. The hands pointed at 7:01.

“ Damn. It seems as though my watch battery has run out as well?”

A touch of panic came over Albert as he considered that he may have even overslept? How could he know? He had no way of telling the correct time. His cell phone had been left at home on the charger, dead with no power to charge it for the day.

Albert thought that the best thing for him to do was to walk down to the next bus stop in the hope that the bus doesn't come in the meantime. He arrived at the deserted bus stop, still, no traffic had gone past during the whole walk there.

“ Maybe there's road works or an accident along this road somewhere why no cars have gone past?” Albert thought to himself.

The atmosphere was just as eerily quiet as the other bus stop. After waiting a bit Albert decided to try his luck at the next bus stop further along down the street. Still, there were vehicles parked outside houses as he walked along the sidewalk, but no people to be seen or heard? After waiting a bit at the third bus stop Albert plucked up the courage to knock on the door of a house to ask the time. Twice he knocked and both times received no answer although there was a big red SUV parked in its driveway. So Albert went back to the sidewalk and decided to try the house next door. No response to his knocking there either? After trying the house across the road this time with still no response Albert considered that the occupants may be refusing to open their doors thinking that he was some kind of salesman or something? Albert decided to make his way around the corner to the next bus stop and try his luck with the houses there. This was a different street and yet, there was still no traffic? Rather than wait until he got to the next bus stop he decided to try houses along the way. Every door that Albert knocked on whether there were vehicles parked outside or not he got no response to his door knocking. Albert was beginning to miss the security of his little office where he just closed the door and no one bothered him till he opened it to go home at the end of the day. Where he interacted with people on his terms, when he wanted to see them, and then only for as long as it took. After which, it was back to his peaceful solitude to get on with his work. Albert didn't need people but because of his job people needed him.

Now even the cheerful “Good Morning Mr. Vogel.” that the doorman of their office building always greeted him with, that he usually barely acknowledged was missed.

“One of Suzy's...is her name Suzy? Well anyway, the tea lady's lukewarm coffees would even be nice right now.” Albert thought, as his mouth was beginning to dry with the growing anxiety in his stomach.

Albert had consoled himself to walking the rest of the way to work. He'll explain his lateness to Mr. Sheppard his boss when he gets there. Thoughts started to cross Albert's mind as to why the people seemed to refuse to come out on the same street or day as him?

“Have I been blacklisted somehow?” he wondered, as he imagined them watching him from behind concealed cracks in their curtains and blinds.

“But, whatever could I have done so bad to have brought that about?”

After racking his thoughts some more, “I don't have a serious disease or anything? Unless they have?”

Then gazing around at the silent houses that now looked to him like walls that kept them on one side and him on the outside as if he didn't belong to this exclusive club, he felt a sudden pang of fear. “What if everyone has been evacuated and I didn't find out because of the power cut? What if there's an airborne disease or poison that has made everyone leave?”

He wondered why most of their vehicles would still be at home?

“Surely if they were evacuated by the military he would have heard it?”

Then he considered, “What if it was some kind of 'hush hush' operation? Or worse still an invasion of some sort? What if they are all lying dead inside their houses?”

Albert didn't know what to think as crazy thoughts entered his anxious mind trying to figure an answer. For the first time in a long time, Albert longed for someone, anyone, to talk to. Someone to help explain what was going on. Or at the very least, to share in his now very harrowing situation.

Loneliness was not an emotion that Albert had time for in the past. He liked being alone. No one to be this or that for, no pretense smiles and polite behaviors because etiquette demanded it. Today the feeling of loneliness was something that he could not escape. He missed being able to at least see someone else. Looking back towards the way in which he had come Albert noticed that the houses at the very far end of the street were now in darkness? The darkness was slowly coming down the street as if the night were closing in on him? Only those street lights were not coming on like they usually do?

Panic grabbed at Albert as he ran to the nearest doors hammering and calling, but got no response. His office block was just on the inside of the town center, he ran as fast as he could towards it to try and distance himself from the oncoming darkness. If he could just get inside he would be safe. But Albert's body started to let him down, he wasn't as fit as a man his age should be. He only went out to work and not many other places. Albert could feel the darkness closing in on him as his legs burnt and his lungs begged him to slow down. Albert felt like he was going to die...alone.

He could see his office building up ahead but the darkness was looming closer. Not a soul walked the streets of the township as he stopped to catch his breath.

“I hope this town hasn't been singled out for some Government experiment?” he said to himself before heading off again. Albert came to a sudden halt as he watched from a distance his office building also being engulfed in the darkness! Everywhere he looked the buildings were being engulfed in the same darkness till he realized that he was surrounded by it.

Albert dropped to his knees and put his head in his hands, to stall the tears that threatened to run from his tightly shut eyes as the inevitable closed in on him.

“Are you okay Sir?”

Albert looked up to see the concerned face of a woman looking down at him. Quickly getting to his feet and dusting himself off Albert replied, “ Ah, yes, thank you, I took a bit of a tumble.”

The woman gave him a quizzical look, “Where did you come from? One minute there was no one, the next you were there?”

Albert just walked on in a bit of a daze, “Not sure really?”

The woman gave him a look like she was a bit doubtful about his state of mind and then carried on her way.

The sound of traffic, people waiting at crossing lights, and walking the streets peering into shop windows were all signs of human activity that Albert didn't know how much he would appreciate until it was all taken away. He even noticed that birds came into town and sat on power lines? He never used to look up in the past, always looking down, trying to avoid making even eye contact with other people. In case this leads to some kind of interaction with them. Albert now looked around at everything as if it was the first time that he had ever seen them.

“Good morning Mr. Vogel. What brings you into work so early this morning? Why it's only just after seven?”

From sheer habit, Albert checked his watch again to see that the second hand was now ticking around its face. His time read 7:06.

“Got things to do today...ah, Marty.” Albert had to glance at the name tag of the doorman who had worked in his office building for the last three years.

Then with a big genuine smile on his face, Albert shook Marty's hand and thanked him for the warm welcomes that he had received from him every morning. Marty was chuffed, this was the most that he had ever gotten from Mr. Vogel other than maybe a grunt in reply.

“Would you like your coffee brought to your office now Mr. Vogel?”

“ Yes please Suzy. It is Suzy isn't it?”

“Yes, Mr. Vogel.”

“But, I think I'll take it in the staff room today. Since it's still early why don't you and Marty take a break and join me?”

“That would be our pleasure, Mr. Vogel.”

After a refreshing cup of Suzy's finest hot coffee, Albert tapped on Mr. Sheppard's door.

“Please, come in Albert. What can I do for you?”

“I need a new office.”

“Is your one getting a bit noisy for you Albert?”

“No Mr. Sheppard I would like larger windows.”

“Yes, your office has only those small side windows, doesn't it? But I thought you preferred it that way?”

“Not any more Mr. Sheppard I want windows looking inward as well so that the staff can see me and more importantly, I can see them.”

“I don't know what's come over you Albert, but it's the least I can do for one of my finest and most dedicated employees.”

The following Monday morning was another glorious sunlit day the birds were singing, dogs were barking and Albert enjoyed chatting to his fellow bus passengers waiting for the bus. Until he spotted the passenger wearing the tartan golf cap try to conceal a camera that he had trained on the two girls behind his newspaper. Albert snatched the newspaper away to reveal the hidden camera.

“I always knew that there was something sleazy about you!” he yelled at the surprised man.

Wham! The old lady swung and hit him in the face with her purse, “So did I, you old pervert.”

Lisa the cleaning lady slapped him hard across his face his hat now sat crookedly upon his head as he tried to raise himself up. The two girls who had learned that he had been spying on them all along, came and drove him away by swinging their laden school bags repeatedly onto his retreating back. Albert yelled from behind the hastily walking man.

“And I wouldn't try using this bus ever again if you know what's good for you!”

Albert Vogel a man who had never appreciated the worth of those around him until a glitch in the matrix caused the world to move on without him.

Trapped between one second and the next with no one around him, Albert soon learned to appreciate every second with them.

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Humble Beginnings. Story 3

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A Childhood to remember. Story 1