I awoke in a cold sweat, worried that they were still chasing me. My past lovers, my loan officers, my professors. Even my mother and Batman were there, all coming after me with the single-minded determination of a group bent on destroying me. As I blinked my eyes at the morning sun, I thought briefly on how strange it was that Batman would come after me, before realizing that he was a fictional character. Relieved that it had been a dream and I was alone, I stretched under the covers. Well, not quite alone. I thought as I tried to find my dog at the foot of the bed. She wasn't there.
Huh. Cali must be getting a drink of water.
As I hit snooze I yawned and called out for my dog. Waking up was always a chore without her devoted dog smile staring at me, urging me to get up and start my day. Okay, mostly trying to get me to let her outside. Silence seemed to fill the house.
I tried to get back to sleep and found that I couldn't. I called out for Cali again and heard no clicking of claws on the kitchen floor, no springy sound of her leaping from the futon. Suddenly worried, I got out of bed and started searching through the house, wondering where she could be hiding.
Only two doors in the house were open. The door to my room, which she obviously wasn't hiding in, and the door to my study, which was empty. She wasn't in the living room, or the kitchen. Panicked, I threw on some clothes and ran outside.
Though this was a quiet street, it felt even quieter than usual. The dogs across the street were oddly silent. There was no sound of cars on any roads around anywhere. Even the birds were apparently content to stay quiet.
I went back into my house, feeling anxious and confused. After retrieving my phone from the nightstand I went into my study and sat down at my computer, logging on to Facebook. Status update after status update, all echoing the same thought: Where is everybody? I swallowed my fear and got dressed, shaving and making sure my hair would be suitable for other people. The drive to the office was more enjoyable than normal; with no other people, why go the speed limit? As I merge onto I-680 I felt my car start to slip, tires protesting the treatment. I saw the ramp from a totally different perspective than I normally did and barely managed to register a thought of panic before I blacked out.
"He's barely holding on. Do we have enough blood?"
"Yes doctor, we've got enough down there. He'll live."
He'll live? Good news." The thought was barely through my brain before my eyes opened with excitement. *People! I sat up quickly, probably too quickly. As my blood rushed to join the proper areas of my body, I started to make out the tubs and wires connected to my body. On the opposite wall was a camera, pointed square at my face. Looking around I couldn't see anybody else.
With the panic returning I looked in the camera and asked the question.
"Where is everybody?"
I hoped they could not sense the fear in my voice. A screen was projected onto the wall behind the camera. On it were people I had seen before. One had been a regular customer at the restaurant. She had always come in knowing what she wanted and tipped fairly. The other had gone to my high school. He had dabbled in a bit of everything but had been remarkably unexceptional.
"You're awake! Good, good. Now we can begin the debriefing." The man spoke with even, measured tones.
"Where is everybody? Who are you?"
"You have reached the age of maturity, and now we need you to join our real society. Now I know this may be hard to accept, but your life was a... fabrication."
I slammed my hand down upon the bed, and was delighted to see a slightly concerned face come over the woman. I thought my life, my friends, my family.
"How is this possible?" I asked the question before it even registered in my brain. It couldn't all have been a lie. The woman took this one.
"Listen to me. You are aboard the USS Old Faithful, traveling towards Tau Ceti F. Long ago we realized that it would be impossible to raise children aboard such a cramped ship. Thus, Project Maturity was created. The idea is to raise you with the life back on Earth that was taken from the memories of our original crew. Once we have need of another able-bodied crewmate, we wake you and you begin your real life."
I shook my head, eyes closed as I felt everything I had ever known being taken away. "What can I possibly do for you?!" I screamed at the camera. "I'm a computer support technician! What skills do I have for space?!"
The two looked at each other, trying to think of a response. Finally the man cleared his throat and looked at me.
"Microsoft is ending interstellar support for Windows 7. We need help migrating to 10."