“She knew where it would all lead, what it always led to in human beings--a decision about what to do. What are we going to do? Where do we go from here? How do we move forward? What is our mission now? As if purpose could solve everything, could take the outlines of what was missing and by sheer will invoke it, make it appear, bring it back to life.” ―Jeff VanderMeer, Acceptance

You wake up, in your bed, in your home. And it is your home. But the glass by your bedside table is gone. The mail stacked by the door is different mail. The background on your phone is different. Perhaps, you think, not unreasonably, you have forgotten these things. Perhaps, more unreasonably, someone has come into your home and changed everything just so. Perhaps, even further out now, you have woken up in some similar place to your home but it is not your home at all.

It is the first day and you will come to realize that the past 365 days are simply missing from your memory. They do not exist. No scrap of emotion, no hint. One night you went to bed and when you woke up it was one year later.

So what do you do after this incomprehensible loss? You go to work of course.

But the doors of the CAM are locked shut, some sort of emergency protocol you’ve never heard of in place. At least though, you are not alone as others have joined you. Surely, someone will be able to open the door. To explain what has happened.

It is the first day.

What you know:

• You don’t remember anything from the past year.
• Most of the town is missing.
• From what you can something has happened to the town, there’s some damage as well as disrepair. It doesn’t seem as if the entire town has been abandoned for a year. But certainly some or several bad things have happened in town since you last went to bed.
• Checking the internal work server provides only the usual materials and notice, there are no messages from the past year.
• Those CAM Bucks(tm) you saved up for a drink in the cafeteria lounge are not going to get you anywhere today.