Chapter 1 The pause First it was my aunt, she just randomly stopped moving while mowing the lawn. It's impossible to move her. She can't move and doesn't move, she is now an object, a backdrop to life as such. The paused don't age. Some have become inadvertent traffic cones, crossing the street when they paused. People will occasionally dress them up in colorful scarves or paint them to make them more visible. It doesn't really matter, because a car could run into them at 150mph and more damage will have been done to the car than the paused person. According to scientists, it's impossible to move them, the only moving they do is when the earth orbits and moves. I mean I guess it's a good thing you wouldn't want your loved ones to be in the middle of the darkness of space. Some of the paused have become statues to the families, frozen in or near the familys house, there for them to always remember them. Some were paused while flying in an airplane 30,000 feet in the air, this caused the plane to crash as they couldn't move. They are floating to not be seen. The floating people have caused planes to move as it's hard to see them. My sister was paused while trying to hang up Christmas lights she fell and 4 feet from the ground paused. We have a mattress just in case. I mean pause means to start again right? So one day everything will just start back up again, right? I mean that's what we think, that's what everyone hopes. Can't sell the place, not that my mother would ever consider it. Her daughter isn't dead, see, or missing. She can see her every day, even if she doesn't talk back, and it is a little bit disturbing when I leave for school in the morning. She'll be back, one day, my mother says. I mean it's been 3 years since the first paused happened. It stunned the world. 97% of the world is paused, most families are gone and I'm still here. The pause seems to target the people trying to figure everything out. Like my friend, they were trying to figure it out, the next day, the paused got him, i'll never forget him. Everyday at least 100 people become paused. Everyone is scared it's going to be them next. No one knows if the paused know they are paused or everything about them is paused including their memory. Are they dead, Alive, or just frozen in time? I have to go dust off my sister and aunt. I hope they don't mind the leaf blower. Chapter 2 Names There are rumors going around that the internet will stop soon. I mean I believe it, no one is there to keep track of it. Today is Monday, I have school. I don't get why we still have school, I mean it's all going to end soon. What is there to teach to the next generation? At this rate there will be no next generation. Walking to school feels surreal. You walk down a road and you see 10 different people paused. I know these people at this point. I see them everyday and I recognize them. I have given them names just to help me keep slightly sane. Going to school you see hundreds of people paused, frozen in time waiting it seems. Only 50 people are left at my school. You walk down a hall it looks like if you were in one of those movies where the main character pauses time and breaks into song. Except the people don't move again and you don't sing. People are grabbing things from their locker, going into a class or just walking. It feels fake, not real. I mean some pandemics start with bats or an unknown tree sap, but this, no one knows it just happened. Everyone is scared to figure out how it started fearing they’ll be next. I mean what will happen when everyone is gone. I mean it is going to happen soon at this rate. The pausing is random. At any time it could be you. Watching someone freeze for the first time was scary. It's not a daily thing. Just watching people freeze. Thousands freeze every day. You are going to see at least 10 people pause. Illnesses cant be cured, people are dying because health care isn't a thing any more. A common cold is deadly. We all stay inside after school. The only job still alive is by choice. A teacher. People tend to give the paused names, unless they know them. I'm not good with names. The best names I got are Bob and Tom. Sometimes I see cool names, like buzz or chandler. I named this one person. They were walking on the sidewalk, looking like he was on his way to work. I named him Evan. I might be going insane like the rest of everyone. Making stories for these people as well. The classroom is full of people just sitting there. People raising their hand or just sleeping. There are only 10 of us here; there used to be 30 of us in one class. The class is silent; we see at least 5 people pause every day. It's scary and worrying. I mean I guess it’s nice to have so few people. I mean everyone understands everything. I see no point in education; there will be no next generation, nothing to teach. Recess is boring no one is out there it seems like, but everyone is out there. Why do we even still have it we are old enough to not have it.I mean i guess it might be because it's the only break ever. The one problem is that you see so many paused. People swinging, sliding down a slide, sometimes a group of people playing a game and everyone paused. Life is now silent, nothing fun, just fear. The fear of being next. We went to lunch. We don't have to pay for it anymore. It's not like money will be useful in 2 years. Looking around us we see people in the process of eating food. Sitting there, frozen. The food is molding in their hand as it cant be removed. We watch and remember when life was fine, normal. All of my friends are gone. I'm alone in my thoughts. I'm just sitting there. Alone, thinking about my friends. The friends I had 3 years ago. It feels like slow motion in the movies. When time would stop and the main character would move around while everyone else was frozen. The only difference is that this is real. It's cold and windy, it's dark, the clouds are covering the moon and the sky is a dark blue. I'm taking a walk, seeing everyone paused. Most people still don't want this to be real. This is reality, this is happening and we can't help it. The thing I stand for is once we can all start believing it we can start fixing it. The fixing is the difficult part. We get paused if we try to fix it. Chapter 3 Home Looking around everywhere I notice that things have changed over the past 3 years. No one is keeping care of their gardens. Moss and vines are everywhere. This place I used to call home isn't home anymore.The people are everywhere unable to move, walking, running, jumping, there is everything. I see old people, young people and everything above. My sister would always call me Ela, it's short for Eleanor. People tell me my name is pretty, I find it average. I mean, I've met so many people with the same name as me. My sister’s name was June. I’ve always loved her name. I always found it so pretty. It doesn't make sense though, she was born in october. My mom would call her junebug. She’s now floating like a junebug. My aunt’s name was Aspen. It’s beautiful. It feels like a cloud for a name, a flower shaped cloud. People’s clothes rot if they don't get changed or washed. Some people have volunteered to clean the clothes and change them. They normally dress them up seasonally. For spring we dressed my sister as a junebug. The city seems to be rotting, the internet went out. If we find any electricity still working it's like finding diamonds. Something rare and barely found, worth lots. Money is starting to be worth nothing now. We use power and working stuff to trade or bottle caps. No alcohol is being made anymore and the factories don't work. It's rare and unseen. People have started to find things from the 1960’s and before. People need something to entertain them. Otherwise most go insane. Some have died due to going insane. I mean I would rather die than get paused. The names of everyone I see are different for the most part. I see so many. Yet I don't know many of their names. I tend to like learning about the person who has paused. I go to the library that people have made for the paused. People who knew someone who paused would write a small book about them. Telling their life who they were and what they liked to do. I like going to that library and search for the people who are around me. It's almost guaranteed to find them as people need something to do. Me and my mom would visit often just to see everyone. It’s a sad place but an interesting one as well. We even made books for my aunt and sister. For June Vantrez and Aspen Vantrez. They read as followed “ June Vantrez, was 15 when she paused she loved to help around the house and help with putting up decorations. Sadly that's how she paused. She loved to paint. Her favorite food was this homemade pasta my mom made. She never knew the name of it and just called it “THE pasta” She was kind and will forever be remembered” “ Aspen Vantrez, she was 36 when she paused. She paused doing a daunting task she put off for ages. Mowing the lawn. She would love to write and play games. Her favorite food was a rich steak. I never learned what kind she would homemake her favorite steak.” We couldn’t really write much on them at the time as we were still in shock. My mom said she might go back and edit them to make them better and more informative. Chapter 4 Radio Listening to the radio is one of the last things we got. It's how we get our information. Listening to it is how people first heard of the pause, of course the one who announced it got paused as well. Watching someone pause in real time is horrifying. They’ll be talking or doing something then suddenly pause. They stop right there and then, becoming a prop to life just like the rest. My mom turned on the radio the first time of the pausing, my family stood around it as my aunt was doing a yard job when she became the first victim. When hearing the news my family was shocked and scared, we didn’t know what was next, I guess we still don’t. The pause is an unknown force as we know of now. It’s like it can hear everything we say even at a small whisper. Turning on the radio I heard; “ In Riverdale, California a woman was spotted not moving, people walked, tried to move her or talk to her, nothing. She’s frozen. Is this a new disease? So far she is the only one like this as we know of as of now. (A phone calling sound appears) Hello? Why’d you call me? I’m in the middle of doing the radio, you know this! Wait what? Where? When? I’ll let the people know I guess. It isn’t just one, apparently there are many all across the country. People are not moving. Apparently it's also spreading to other parts of the world. A report has come in for one in ontario canada. They are calling it the paused-” They cut off right there. Everyone assumed it got to them. We believe it's because he was talking about it. That’s why we don't speak of it much. We are scared. Is the pause a force? A person? Nature? Or unworldly? Figuring it out is what we need yet we can’t get it. “ELA DINNER!” my mom calls from downstairs. Eating dinner with the little bit of family I have left is all I need. I'm happy to know I still have someone. Even if it's anyone. We have limited food as supermarkets and stores have shut down. We have started making our own food. Growing it. We have every crop we need in the back yard for every season. The food is shockingly good for being grown in the back yard with no gardening experience. I wonder what everyone else does. The wealthy buy it off other people. The wealthy meaning having a lot of the currency we use now. And the poor grow it. What does everyone else in between do? What do the homeless do? The radio has started playing again thankfully. It’s always music from the 1960’s to the music made 3 years ago. I like music. It keeps me sane. It helps me as well with my mom. When our favorite song comes on it's always fun. We sing along to the songs and dance. It may seem like we’re crazy. We’re just trying to stay sane and not get overly bored. The clouds overhead are dark and scary. The Light brushes in them as the thunder cracks. It's storming. We don't have anything to help us during the storm anymore, we just pray we make it to the end alive. Chapter 5 Numbers and Letters The number of people pausing is increasing. People are stopping in the streets. Only about 240,000,000 people left. They are slowly disappearing. I'm noticing the people are disappearing.They aren't there anymore, they seem to be gone. I don't see Evan anymore. Where it was replaced with a random string of numbers and letters capturing the outline of their feet on the ground. His paused statue isn't there anymore. It disappeared. People are suspecting the numbers and letters mean something we don't know anything about yet. People are scared to look into it in fear of getting paused. My worst fear is if my sister or aunt disappear. All that will be left of them is numbers and letters. I hear an alarm in the air and I can't figure out where it is. It’s blaring loudly and noticeably. The ground is shaking and rumbling. I woke up. The numbers and letters were just a dream, thank god. Everyone is still there that was frozen, still, as always. Walking downstairs I am thinking about the dream and what it meant. I worry about what it means, if it means anything at all. “Come take your medication!” My mom yells. I take anxiety and depression pills, we are running out and we need to get more before the store closes. We might need to stack up on them, the store might close forever. “Have some breakfast, what would you like?” “Can I have some eggs?” “They don't sell those anymore, you know that.” “Just make me whatever.” Having eggs was something I loved eating no matter what 3 years ago. I'd have them as much as possible, glad I enjoyed them while I could, no farmers are selling eggs any more or are paused. The only way to get eggs is to have your own chicken, ours died a year ago. My mom makes me pancakes, I can smell them, they smell like cardboard with sugar, the scent fills the air, it's the only comforting smell anymore. The house is dark still because the sun hasn't risen yet, the dark makes the house odd looking. Every time it's dark in the house it looks warped, tilting, different but only barely. Walking off the school the dream cant get off my mind, i have to pay attention though since it is dark. I run my hand on the walls to stay close to not be in the street. I ran into some paused people. I just walk around them once I feel them. I know my way to school by heart at this point. The sun is starting to rise and it gets easier to find my way. Suddenly, numbers are on the ground.