It has started

A single wooden chair sits in the middle of an empty, windowless room. There are two doors one in front and one behind the chair.

Shana enters from the door behind the chair. With a sigh, she goes and sits upon the familiar chair in silence and closes her eyes. Slowly and deliberately she puts her hands on her lap, on hand on each leg. She waits.
---

Far away, there is a dead forest. Charlie runs a hand over one of the countless dead trees. Like the rest of them, this one was stripped of its bark long ago. Leaning his walking stick and then removing his backpack, he bends down and feels the hard, dry baron earth at the base of this tree.

He sits, and leans his back against the tree. Slowly, he too places his hands slowly upon his outstretched legs, closes his eyes, and becomes almost as deathly still as his surroundings.
---

Simultaneously, Shana and Charlie open their eyes and whisper the word "no."

Shana stands and walks to the wall to the right of the chair. She puts her right hand to the wall and stares as if looking through the wall.

Charlie stands, grabs his backpack and walking stick and heads back the way he came at a quick pace. His lips are tightly pursed together as he walks.
---
---
---
Elsewhere, Benjamin takes his gaze off the little clear plastic bobble which is the only item on the table where he sits. He gets up and walks over to a cluttered desk. He dials a number on the phone.

The person he called answers with a "Yes?"

"It has started." Benjamin says then hangs up the phone.