Chapter 25 - Neighborhood Zero
The underground neighborhood looked abandoned.
At first.
The grass appeared perfectly trimmed.
Children's bicycles rested beside sidewalks.
Cars remained parked in driveways.
Newspapers lay on front porches.
Everything suggested ordinary life.
Except there wasn't a single person anywhere.
Rick walked slowly down the center of the empty street.
His ears constantly shifted.
He wasn't listening ahead.
He was listening inside the houses.
The street signs carried unusual names.
Observer Lane.
Monitor Avenue.
Witness Court.
The realtor examined one mailbox.
Instead of family names, every house displayed numbers.
House 001.
House 002.
House 003.
Farther down the street...
House 147.
The elderly woman suddenly froze.
She pointed toward House 032.
"I know that one."
"You've been here?"
"I grew up there."
We all stared at her.
"You said you lived in Room B-17."
"I did."
"They moved us here afterward."
"Who?"
"They called it graduation."
Rick began scratching at the front door of House 032.
It swung open by itself.
Inside, every room was fully furnished.
Breakfast still sat on the kitchen table.
A television continued playing silent static.
Family photographs covered the walls.
Only...
Every photograph showed different people.
Yet the furniture never changed.
The same couch.
The same curtains.
The same paintings.
Different families had apparently lived identical lives inside identical houses.
I climbed the stairs.
Every bedroom contained hidden cameras disguised as smoke detectors.
Air vents.
Wall clocks.
Picture frames.
Hundreds of lenses.
The master bedroom closet held another surprise.
Behind the hanging clothes...
Another hidden door.
Inside rested shelves filled with videotapes.
Thousands of them.
Each labeled with a date.
Some stretched back nearly eighty years.
Rick barked from downstairs.
I hurried down.
He stood staring into the living room window.
Outside...
People were walking down the street.
They hadn't been there seconds earlier.
Men.
Women.
Children.
All smiling.
All wearing perfectly normal clothes.
May you like
None of them cast shadows.
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