“Go! Go! Stop them!” Wayne, Yong and Xin barked at each other as they rushed back into their SUV. Yong jumped into the driver’s seat, Wayne sat in the passenger’s seat, just like the way they came.

“Drive! Step on it!” Xin growled from the second row behind the driver.

Yong floored the gas pedal. Their vehicle almost shot out of their parked position. Their target was a plain looking, modified van. None of them had a clear idea on who the people in the van were, but it did not matter. Their regular duty was to apprehend those who dared enter that critical site, and their new order was that they need to find a few high priority wanted individuals. If they were not mistaken, one of the men in the van before them was definitely the detective they were tasked to go after.

Though, it was strange that with such an urgent and bountiful task, they had not received much update on the target’s whereabouts or any other leads. Last time they were on a task like this, they were constantly updated regarding the target’s suspected location, his contacts and locations of his families. This time, they just received a brief on where the suspects might be hiding, the names of their contacts, and a command for them to wait for further updates, which never came.

The people in the control center never got back to them, even when they tried to reach back. Maybe it had something to do with the sudden explosion that happened across the lake. With the experience of working under the city’s security council, they understood they should just stay their nose out of it, unless they were on the need-to-know list.

They were gaining on the van, for a short while. But they were soon at risk of losing the speed advantage when the van went into a main expressway and made its slippery way through a cluster of vehicles along the road.

“Motherfucker, FUCK! What kind of traffic is this?” Having to swerve through at least four cars on their way, Young cursed: “What time is it?”

“It’s almost seven.” Waye checked his phone, then his mechanical watch: “It’s - strange, looks like my phone is - it’s not working properly. The time is always at zero o’clock.”

“Oh yeah?” Xin asked and checked his phone - all of their phones were standard issued, specifically programmed and of very high levels of quality and security, hence there was no reason that multiple phones would face the same issue at the same time. And yet here it was, his phone was also stuck at zero o’clock. Aside from that, his screen was flashing as well, as if it was under the influence of electromagnetic interference. “This is - this is not right, my phone also says it’s zero o’clock. And it’s blinking in and out of the screensaver.”

“Fuck.” Wayne shook his head: “Yong, where’s your phone?”

“Right pocket.” Yong raised his right thigh.

“Fuck, put it in the holder next time!” Waye complained and reached into Yong’s pocket and took out his phone - it was also flashing, with the clock frozen at o’clock. “It’s the same thing. Did someone hack the server? Or did the server go down?”

“Woah, woah woah.” Yong frowned. A patch of shadow covered their vehicle, reducing the visibility of their surroundings to an abysmal degree. Even with their headlights turned on, they could barely see the vehicles right in front of them. As for those on their sides, all they saw was shadows.

“What the - what happened?” Xin looked around. He pulled out his standard issue flashlight and shone it around. Everything inside the SUV looked alright, just that the beam of light could not reach too far when it projected outside of the window.

“What the fuck - is it the cloud?” Wayne tried to look at the sky, but the darkness was just too thick and he could not get a good look. He tried to roll down the window in order to get a better look - but the window was not working. “What the - did they mess with our car?”

“I don’t think so. I hope not.” Yong tried to merge to the side lanes in order to pass the car in front of them, but the vehicle on both sides just kept blocking them. He slammed the horn several times, the noise would have made most drivers intimidated or at least annoyed enough to back off. But it seemed none of the vehicles in front and on their sides were affected at all.

Wayne sat straight in his seat and pointed his flashlight around, trying his best to make out their surrounding area. And just when he turned his flashlight backward, he let out a scream and almost dropped the light.

“What!? What!” Yong almost drove off his lane. Xin immediately pulled his handgun and looked back. The final row of seats behind them was empty, and there were no lights behind their SUV, only pitch black.

“I’m sorry - I - ” Wayne’s voice was trembling: “I thought I saw something.”

“What did you see?” Xin asked with a serious tone. They were not civilians, not in any strict sense. They knew very well how sometimes, in fact, a lot of times, someone who “thought they saw something” actually saw what they later brushed off as illusion, hallucination or pure imagination.

“Well, I saw - ” Wayne shivered, swallowed then proceeded to get the words out, fighting through the numbing cold crawling up his spine and spreading all over his back: “I saw a woman - sitting right next to you.”

Xin almost jumped from his seat, he scanned the space on his right using his flashlight, and found nothing of note. With trembling fingers, he felt the seat next to him for a brief moment before pulling his arm back: “No - nothing. No warmth or cold spot.”

“We must get off the road.” Wayne turned to Yong: “Find an exit.”

“I’m trying. But I can’t see clearly. And I can’t get these fucking cars out of my way!” Yong let out a long exhale, his voice was trembling: “Quick, point your lights at them! There must be an exit to our right!”

Xin and Wayne moved right and pointed their flashlights at the windows, trying to distract the drivers of the vehicles blocking their merge attempts, But the beams of flickering light did not make it very far - they were blocked by pale gray grinning faces on the other side of the glass.