I sat in my homeroom of class the next day, jotting down everything I had learned into my notebook. Why do I even bother, you wonder? If our entire town was wiped out, hopefully someone would find this journal and be able to figure out what happened to us. Sure, that sounds a bit extreme. I couldn't put it past the universe or even the government to pull one over on us. If our town were to vanish off the map overnight, the rest of the world wouldn't even notice. We weren't exactly the type of town people stopped by or even drove through onto somewhere greater.

"What's that?" Phil asked from next to me. "Did I miss an essay or something?"

"No." I reassured him, "I'm keeping a record of all the weird things happening in town."

"Oh, so that's you bird diary?" He scoffed.

"What? No." I brought it across our shared desk for him to read. "About the birds and the power surges. Also, Martin."

"Who are you even writing all this for?" He looked it over.

"For myself. And possibly future generations to find out what happened to us."

"That's dumb."

"One of my favorite things about you is how supportive you are," Each of my words were dipping with sarcasm.

"Nah," He shook his head. "Not what I meant. I mean, why don't you post it on your social media? You'd get it out faster to a wider audience."

I froze. In all truth, I felt like an idiot to not have thought of this myself earlier. And then for Phil of all people to be the one to think of it. To be fair, I wasn't very active on social media. I think I had about seventeen followers on my TellAll account. And that was mostly students here that followed me in order to gain a follow from me. The only ones that actually chatted to me on there were Phil and my parents. Pretty pathetic compared to the ones who had thousands of followers. But the more I thought about it, the more I figured this was a much smarter idea.

"Yeah." I finally said. "You're right. I'll start posting updates with what is going on in town. The site will save it, and it will keep track of the dates and times these things happen."

That day, the school population was summoned into the auditorium yet again. At first, it was the usual. Nothing new. Things we had been told a hundred times already. They only left us with a few new pieces of information. Along with a very forceful reminder not to touch the birds, they "reassured" us that the power surges were completely normal and not at all a thing we should concern ourselves with. And to top it all off, we were told not to drink tap water. To limit our exposure to water when we wash our hands or shower.

The school hung signs up throughout the building reminding us to limit contact with water. To only drink bottled water. You can imagine they shut our water fountains down rather quickly with caution tape. Now I was wondering what was in the water. I'd have to test that out under the microscope. Since that was so helpful last time.

In computer class, it was the usual. I finished up with my work and then signed into my TellAll account. It was a bit dead. I only ever posted holiday greetings or pictures of sunsets. But now, I had something of real interest to post.

I started from the beginning. Explaining about the presentation, the men in black, the birds. Explaining how we couldn't go near them even though they looked perfectly normal. Then I explained about the out of the ordinary power surges. Along with this new water update.

I was relieved after I hit the post button. Not many people would see it, but at least I had started it. Hopefully, people would see it and start to ask questions. My hope was that this could at least open a discussion. Maybe someone would have answers.

When it came to study hall, I already had my plans. There was a sink in the room. I was able to easily take some of the water and get it under the microscope. This time Phil was with me the whole time.

"What do you see?" He was trying to look over my shoulder as if that would show him anything.

"You take a look." I moved over.

He peered into the scope and was quiet for a minute. Only mummering "Hmmm."

"What do you see?" I was the one asking him now.

"I see... water." He leaned back and shrugged.

"Yeah," I rubbed my chin in thought, "That's all I saw, too."

"Maybe just a bad sample?" He suggested.

I tried again a few times with different droplets of sink water. All were the same. Insignificant and normal looking.

"You know..." I paused some in my pondering, "What if... what if it's actually nothing?" I looked him over to gauge his reaction to my thoughts, "What if this whole time it is just to test us? Like some kind of social experiment. To see how we react to change like this?"

"Like we are being pranked?"

"Something like that. Maybe they just want to see if people will ask questions or act out against orders."

"People like Martin?" Phil reminded me.

"Yes." The memory was still fresh in my mind. The look on Martin's face as they walked him out. Then being left to wonder where he and his family had gone. Wondering why they wouldn't be returning.

That night at home, I used our family computer to check my TellAll. There was actually some engagement. I was surprised.

Ricky Delps: Why are you so obsessed with birds?

Martha Herlop: Who drinks tap water anyway? Who cares?

Patrick Planner: The birds should be leaving for winter soon.

David Kutis: The men in black don't know how to park. xD

Cynthia Loyd: The power surges are kind of annoying.

It was only a handful of people. But it was people. More importantly, it was people talking about the issues at hand. Well, all except for Ricky. He was in my gym class and he could go suck an egg as far as I was concerned.

One of the comments stood out to me. Patrick's. He was in my homeroom class as well as my chemistry class. The kid was smart. Smarter than me, to be sure. He was right about that. Winter was getting closer. It was colder each day. The birds would be flying south soon. In fact, shouldn't they have already done that? It was already freezing out. I decided to make a post about it.

Winter is practically here. Shouldn't all the birds be leaving by now? Why haven't they flown south yet?

I hit post and left it to it. That should bring at least something to everyone's attention, right? I went ahead and pulled my notebook from my backpack to add to my own personal notes as well as to handle my homework and my ever-present questionnaire. Except now, the paper was sure to tell us the power surges were normal and to not drink the water.

I was taken off guard to hear the notification sound from the computer. Someone had left a comment on my post.

Mark Hills: They seem to leave later and later each year.

Then another notification.

Ricky Delps: Why do you care so much about birds, bro.

I decided to respond to them now while they were still active.

Mark Hills: They seem to leave later and later each year.
          --Devin Camp: But they are here later than they have ever been.

Ricky Delps: Why do you care so much about birds, bro.
          --Devin Camp: Respectfully, Ricky... Go suck an egg.

That wasn't very mature of me, I know. But hey, I am young and have a whole lifetime to learn and grow. I'll be mature later. Besides, I was sick of people saying I was the issue here.

Patrick Planner: Doesn't anyone want to know what happened to Martin?

Good ol' Patrick. Here I was worried that I was the only one in this entire town that had any questions or concerns. Starting this TellAll post was probably the best thing I could have done to find like-minded people.

Patrick Planner: Doesn't anyone want to know what happened to Martin?
          --Cynthia Loyd: I heard him, and his family moved.
          --Devin Camp: After he touched a bird?
          --David Kutis: He told me he touched a bird.
          --Devin Camp: Did he notice anything about the bird?
          --Patrick Planner: It's likely these birds have an infection that can spread to humans.
          --Devin Camp: But I can't find any information about it online.
          --Phil Rutter: That's because the men in black keep it hush hush.
          --Cynthia Loyd: Who are these guys anyway?

Martha Herlop: Tell me you're a conspiracy theorist without telling me you're a conspiracy theorist.
          --Phil Rutter: Don't you think the world is flat?
          --Martha Herlop: It is. Based on science.
          --Devin Camp: Guys. The birds. Please.
          --Ricky Delps: Take a shot every time Devin says birds.

Before I could respond, my father came up next to me. He looked over my shoulder to see the chat. Then he shook his head in what I assumed was disappointment.

"Really?" He asked. "Our whole family can see your TellAll account."

"Good." I told him, "Maybe Aunt Jean can spread the word of what happened to us after all this goes upside-down."

"You aren't some journalist or detective." He pat my shoulder, "So why don't you just focus on your homework for now."

I was about to answer him when another power surge hit.

"Dad." I said in the pitch dark, "You really don't see anything wrong with this?"

"I don't see anything, son. Can't see in the dark."

"Something is going on in this town."

"And you and your Scooby gang are going to figure out what it is?" He chuckled now, "Devin, it's just a power surge."

"It's not just that." I reminded him, "Now the water."

The power finally buzzed back to life and everything started kicking on. He seemed so very unbothered. That was another thing I had forgotten to mention in my posts. How this whole town needed to wake up and realize that something was happening here.

I knew my parents weren't going to be any help. But I at least had people talking online. One person in particular. Patrick. I would need to talk to him in homeroom tomorrow. He was someone who had a curious bone in his body. Someone who wouldn't just tell me I was obsessed with birds.

No, I didn't think I was some detective. But I did think something strange was going on here. Enough to cause a level of discomfort. After my whole feather experiment and happily realizing it did not actually touch my skin, I felt a sense of purpose. One that drove me forward to find answers.

My next best plan was to try to talk to a man in black.  At the very least, it was worth a shot. I didn't think it would give me any new answers, but it was somewhere to start. I would likely do that on the way to school tomorrow. It should have been easy considering they were all over town. I would just ask one that I passed along the way.

Which is exactly what I did.