I hadn't slept very much as I tossed and turned throughout the night. Finally I decided to just get up, so I rolled over to look at the clock. There weren't any red numbers staring back at me, so I rolled out of bed and headed for the living room. Stumbling over my tennis shoes, I made it to the light switch and nothing happened. Obviously the power was off, so I fumbled around my desk looking for a lighter. I lit a strawberry scented candle atop the desk and began a search for my phone, which could at least tell me what time it was. I remembered having the phone on the coffee table before I went to bed, but it wasn't there. Then I remembered plugging it back into the charger. It was 3:58 am. Not too bad I thought, I'm often up well before then, so I headed for the shower. I lit another candle in the bathroom; this one was a Jungle Mist scent, which tends to make my shower feel more like a waterfall. It kind of gives me a Tarzan-like approach to the rest of the day.

After dressing and finding a flashlight, I wandered out to the garage to find the release for my garage door opener. As I manually opened the garage door, I was greeted by a cold pelting rain in my face. Nice. After pulling out of the garage and getting soaked again while I manually closed the garage door, I lit out for the Picnic Basket to get a cup of coffee. Power must have been out everywhere in town, as there were no lights on at the store, nor could I see any lights from down town. The young lady working there said that the coffee was probably cold by now because the power had been off for several hours. She was a cute girl but must have been a new employee because I had never seen her before and I stop there at least four days a week. Her voice sounded kind of gruff and gravelly like a drunk after a bad night, it just didn't fit with her face. There were no other cars at the store, nor any other people around. The place seemed so eerily quiet and yet the rain was falling hard. I decided to go back home and have a root beer and wait until it was time to go to work. Since I had forgotten and left the dead bolt secured on the front door, I had to get out of the car and enter through the garage door. Now I was totally soaked and figured I might as well change clothes. I found one more pair of clean jeans and a shirt that wasn't totally wrinkled. I figured what the heck; I might as well try shaving by candlelight since I had the time. It seemed like it took forever to saw off just a few whiskers.

I tried reading by candlelight as I sipped on the root beer, but couldn't develop any interest at all, so I kicked back in the lazy-boy and waited. A couple of times I opened the front door and just looked out at the rain. There were no lights anywhere and all I could hear was the sound of the wind and rain upon the storm door. Once I thought I saw someone or something run by my Caddy, which is parked out in front, but it must have just been the wind and rain.

Finally I left for work and the rain continued to come down even harder. As I pulled out onto 231, I noticed that there was not any traffic at all and everything was pitch black. It was strange not to see the lights at the IGA and on down to the Pizza Hut. As far as I could see, it was nothing but a dark black void, as if there really weren't anything there. The only light was the reflection off of the road and rain from my headlights. I was playing some Grateful Dead on XMRadio and thought about switching to a local station for some news and weather, but I couldn't even remember how to do it. The road was so dark and devoid of any traffic and it was so eerie not to see houses along the road. I looked up towards Odell and Judy's new home, but couldn't even get a glimpse of it. I drove on in the dark all the way to Time Oil and the intersection just appeared vacant of any activity and light. I couldn't remember ever driving this far without seeing at least one car on the road. As I approached the gate at The Big Fenced in Place, I noticed that they were using some emergency lighting. I rolled down the window to offer my badge and the guard turned to me and leveled his rifle right at my face. He wasn't a guard at all, his face was contorted strangely and he looked like an ape, or maybe a gorilla. An ape with a rifle and he was pointing it at me. I slammed the Torrent into reverse and backed off as fast as I could, scraping the curbs along the way. I could see this ape and others joining him, chasing after me and firing their weapons. I wasn't going to make it, they were gaining on me and one reached into my window and grabbed at me. I swung back as hard as I could....and hit my hand on the wall above my bed and woke up. I was sweating and out of breath and all I could think about was...boy, what a weird dream. I was exhausted and I just felt like laying there and trying to get back to sleep. I rolled over to check the time, but there were no red numbers staring back at me.