I thought I had already shut that blaring alarm clock off, but without my glasses I suppose I could have, in theory, missed the off button. I fumbled around in the darkness for the pull of the lamp as the last visages of sleep left me. And as they did I realized. My alarm clock wasn’t a steady blare like that, it was just a series of beeps.

I felt the string and pulled, hard. Light burned my retinas now but I was finally able to place the sound. I leapt out of bed as I was and raced for the bed room door. I ran past the flashing red lights, I flew through the kitchen, I panted out of breathe in to the hallway already empty of people. I took the stairs two, three at a time, just narrowly avoiding a crash at the turn of said stairs. Bursting through the front door I found myself in front of a crowd of my neighbors in rainbows hues of bathrooms and slippers. Here and there I saw the half buttoned state of suits. And suddenly I was aware of my plain white underwear, their fruit of the loom tag silently standing proud like the flag of shame it was.