Slowly, Troy leaned back in his seat and looked around. At first he thought he might have rearended someone, but there wasn’t another car in front or behind him.

            All around the parking lot, people were getting out of their vehicles. They acted as if they’d also been blindsided by the same thing that had hit him. They appeared to be just as confused and disoriented.

            Troy stared at the streaks of red smeared on the sides of their faces. No, around their ears. He felt a tickling sensation around his own ears and swiped at it. Withdrawing his hand, he gazed, uncomprehending, at the red splotches on his fingers. Automatically, he wiped his other ear with his other hand. It came away just as bloodied.

            Bloody.

            “I’m bleeding.”

            Troy froze. He knew he’d said the words, but he didn’t hear them.

            “What…”

            This time there was no mistaking it.

            “I can’t hear a fucking thing,” he remarked, but his ears didn’t register the sound.

            Slowly, he climbed out of his Jeep. Several people were milling about, and by the looks of things, were unable to hear themselves as well. As an experiment of sorts, Troy yelled at them.

            “Hey! Hey!”

            Not a single person turned to look at him.

            This time he waved his arms over his head, and got one man’s attention. The guy tried to respond, and realized he couldn’t hear himself. The shock on the man’s face mirrored what Troy’s own expression must have looked like a minute ago. But it also confirmed one thing.

            Everyone was deaf. It wasn’t just him.

            Troy pointed to his mouth, then his ear, and shook his head, hoping the guy understood. Instead, the man tried to say something again, and his inability to hear himself made him angrier. He pounded the hood of his car with his fist. The act caught the attention of several others. Troy watched as the ugly realization began to spread among them that they all had lost their hearing. Totally and maybe irreparably, although he prayed it wasn’t the case.

            He wiped his ear again. “Why am I bleeding?” Despite not being able to hear himself, he felt his mouth move. Felt his tongue move. Felt the vibrations in his throat that confirmed he spoke aloud.

            He sniffed his fingers. It was definitely blood. His sense of smell seemed to still be intact. Same for vision and touch. “It’s only my hearing.” In a way, he was relieved. “It could’ve been worse,” he told himself.

            His thoughts went to Melanie. Had she been affected? Or had she been spared?

            “I have to get in touch with her. I have to go to her.”

            Dropping back into the driver’s seat, he tried to start the vehicle but nothing happened. Pressing the palm of his hand to the dash, he tried again to see if he could feel the engine turning over. There was no vibration, nothing. The dash remained dark.

            He checked his phone. It was dead.

            “Okay. Guess it’s time to hoof it back to the apartment.”

            Grabbing his briefcase, Troy wondered if he should lock the car, then remembered the locks were electronically controlled.

            “Well, shit. At least it’s not like mine will be the only one open for vandalism.”

            One last look around the parking lot, and he left the campus and began walking.

            Normally, it would take him about fifteen minutes to drive from the apartment he shared with Marcus to the university. Twenty-one if he hit all the lights wrong. He discovered walking at a normal pace took him closer to forty, and that was with no lights at all.

            Although there were vehicles on the road, none of them were moving. Not a big surprise. Like the cars in the parking lot, they had been stopped dead in their tracks. The full extent of the destruction caused by that last pulse was less than a block away. Cars crashed into each other. Cars rammed into houses, trees, fences, and poles. Many of the people sitting inside their vehicles weren’t moving.

            He also noticed something odd. Everywhere he looked, as people were discovering the awful truth, several were going berserk, screaming at someone or anything, only to find they couldn’t be heard. But that wasn’t what he found most disconcerting. A couple of dogs were on the ground, rubbing their ears. Although he kept his distance, traces of blood were clearly evident on their fur and paws. Another dog cowered underneath a car. Troy stopped to stare at the animals.

            “The dogs were affected.” He checked around him. “Dogs, people. Mammals?” Not spotting another animal, he glanced upward at the trees. “Does that include the birds?” It was impossible to tell.

Even if he wanted to, he knew there was nothing he could do for these people. Gritting his teeth, he kept going.