9/20/11 - 9/20/11

A/N: I had to write this for my Sci-Fi/Fantasy class today. It was a Free-Writing Exercise. We had to look at an illustration & then write a story for it. The pic was of buildings with a semi-truck, pipes with smoke coming out of them & a cheetah chasing a gazelle.

If you peer between buildings down upon a rather unsuspecting location you'd find it quite unique. That is, if you catch it at the right time.

Through thick, white billowing clouds of smoke you can see animals. Most unusual animals for this neighborhood. There is no sound to go along with this though - no throaty growl of cry of anxiety. No murmur of shocked on-lookers as they watch from their windows.

There is not even the sound of cheetah's paws or antelope's hooves pounding on the pavement. Yet there they run, circling the same path everyday.

Trucks sitting idly by do not rumble or shudder and the driver does not look very interested in driving away.

Everyone in this town sits quietly.

If a person were to sit in this neighborhood, on any street corner and wait for a person to come by they'd wait forever. The animal pair would move along, not even noticing the passer-by.

If a person chose to closer inspect the town they'd find a "click, click, click" sound coming from the inside of the cheetah and a whirring from underneath. A deeper look and they find both animals are nothing but taxidermy on a metal track, wound up to run a course through town.

Thoroughly confused, said person would run from door to door banging without receiving even one answer. They'd happen to glance up and see a face but it'd not seem normal.

It be would pale, white, smooth and featureless. They'd see other faces and all would look the same.

In the grocery stores, daycare centers and even in the police station stood these quiet, porcelain creatures.

Nothing but mannequins. The town was nothing but mannequins displayed as real people in a false town with an out-of-place cat and mouse-type of game in the street.

The person would be so confused and so distraught they wouldn't be able to think straight. They'd think they're the last, solitary human in the town.

Until they realize they're one of them.

If someone were to casually chat you up about this strange neighborhood you'd politely tell them all you know about it - which isn't much.

It's a town, somewhere. In the US? Possibly. Somewhere else in the world? More probably. I'd say it's in the Twilight Zone but I don't want to get sued or anything.

The point is you can't recall the location or what it looks like or who lives there. You can't even remember the name. You start to doubt there even was a name. Soon all memories of this mystery town are gone and you've absolutely no idea of its existence.

No idea of the mannequins' existence.

No idea of our existence.

Which is all right.

That's how we like it.