When Silence Fell

A YA Dystopian Survival Adventure

Ash coated the windows and sidewalks, but the grocery store still played music.

People still lined up for milk. Still believed someone was coming.

But it didn’t take long for everything to stop.

Now Mara walks the empty landscape, one of the last still thinking for herself. Alone, always searching. Hoping her family is still out there—still themselves.

The HOLLOW signal has spread across what’s left of the world, slipping into people’s minds. It makes them quiet. Then it takes whatever’s left. You find them out there—still walking, or already fallen. Still facing the sound.

When Mara meets Silas, a strange boy carrying a device that reacts to the signal, she sees a chance to finally find her brother and sister.

The device maps out underground relay points built before the fall—places stocked with food, medicine, and shelter. But something else is waking up down there.

As more people vanish into the signal, Mara begins to understand: it’s not reaching for Silas. It’s reaching through him.

And that will be when silence falls—for everyone.

A YA dystopian survival story about control, resistance, and one girl’s fight to hold onto herself when the world is falling away.

©2025 Christopher Francis (P)2025 Christopher Francis