Our hero has awoken in his bed after a big party. He's hung-over and feeling like luke-warm crap. But that's the least of his problems when he discovers that his girlfriend and all the other party-goers are in some kind of coma.
As the day progresses things go from bad to disastrous, with some moments of weirdness in between, as he learns that it's not just his friends who are comatosed... It's the whole world!
Coma City
Chapter 3
Tinfoil Hat
Its dark outside and I still have that headache. You know those nagging little buggers where just one small area of your brain just doesn’t feel right? Well this one is just above my right eye.
I grab a couple of headache tablets from the kitchen drawer and swallow them down with some juice whilst I take a look out the window.
Streetlights are on but there are only a very small number of lights on inside houses and still no moving traffic. A dog wanders under a light on the other side of the road, sniffs the post, pees then trundles off into the shadows. There’s no noise, except a cat meowing to be let in somewhere.
The rest of the flat is just the same as it was. My friends are all lying about asleep.
I gather up some blankets and drape them over them. I huddle a few who lie on the lounge room floor close together and use a couple of big blankets to cover them.
In the kitchen Mikey still has his face resting on the table and Jules is still laid out on the floor. I decide to try to get them into bed so I pick up Jules first, because she’s the lightest, and carry her off to Mikey’s room, laying her gently down on the bed. Then go back to the kitchen and kind of carry/drag Mikey to his room and lay him on the bed. I remove their shoes and pull the covers over them.
I tidy the kitchen up and find myself placing the bottles quietly into a big green garbage bag. Realising this I decide that if I woke someone up it’d be a good thing so I start dropping the bottles in, letting them break and bounce off each other.
No one woke.
After an hour or so I get the kitchen into a reasonable state and take the garbage downstairs to the bins.
It's so eerily quiet out here it gives me the spooks so I drop the stuff in the bins and scurry back inside.
There’s still nothing on the TV or radio. So it’s back to the trusty Internet.
The traffic-cams of the world still show no flowing traffic. Other web cams yield similar results; some show people laid out on the ground. The weirdest scene is at a theme park where a roller coaster is zipping around its track with a cargo of sleeping passengers.
There’s still no clue as to what made everyone fall asleep, which gives me no clue as to why I’m not asleep.
I search on the words: “entire population asleep”, surprisingly I get quite a few responses but only one has a direct match.
I click on the link, a page entitled “The Aliens will assume control while you sleep” loads up. Scanning the index I find items with titles such as “How the aliens will make the entire population go to sleep”, “Make your own Delta Wave Interference Cap” and “I know the aliens secret”.
Obviously this is the web page of a complete nutter.
Nevertheless, out of sheer curiosity I click on the link titled “How the aliens will make the entire population go to sleep”.
Apparently the Aliens will use special radio frequencies that he calls D-Waves, which will force our bodies into a deep sleep by simulating the low frequency delta waves that are normally generated by our brains when we’re in the deepest stage of sleep. The delta waves slow our breathing and heart-rate.
“With the entire population asleep the aliens will simply just move right in with absolutely zero resistance” the author claims.
The author, who goes by the name I-Kno and is clearly insane, doesn’t say why the aliens would put everyone to sleep rather than exterminate us all. Maybe they’ll hook us all up and use the electricity in our bodies to power their new colony like in the The Matrix movies.
The “Make your own Delta Wave Interference Cap” is a hilarious read. I-Kno has invented the Delta Wave Interference Cap or DWIC for short, and explains in great detail how to wrap aluminium foil around your skull.
Yep. Plain old, everyday cooking foil. The Delta Wave Interference Cap is the classic Tin-foil hat and supposedly blocks the Aliens sleep waves that force the brain to sleep. I-Kno wears his 24 hours a day and strongly recommends you should as well.
He even has photos of himself wearing the tin-foil hat. And guess what. He looks like a complete nutter!
There’s a section where you can leave comments. I can’t resist so I write, “The aliens are here! You’re a genius; your Delta Wave Interference Cap has saved me. Thanks so much.” For added laughs I sign off as ET – being the squat little extra-terrestrial from the movie E.T.
“Loser” I chuckle as I click on the SEND button.
I continue searching for answers but there’s nothing but the brilliant Mr I-Kno’s explanation for the situation. A very scary thought indeed. Imagine if that loon is right?
Of course he can’t be. I don’t have a Delta Wave Interference Cap and I’m awake. I wonder if I-Kno is awake.
I end up reading through the various syndicates I subscribe to and come across an article from last Tuesday about a University professor in America who has developed an Artificial Intelligence program on a huge bank of Sony Playstation gaming consoles. This program has become so clever that it won’t allow its maker to shut it down. The professor finds it absolutely fascinating that the program has learnt how to protect itself.
“Good god man! Haven’t you seen The Terminator movies?” I yell at the screen.
This guy is almost as scary as I-Kno. Maybe they’re related.
I’ve seen enough so I close down the computer.
Feeling tired again so I go to bed.
Shelley hasn’t moved a millimetre.
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