I looked up and saw that nothing and no one moved. Seeing stilled taxis, delivery trucks and buses was unsettling, but the sight of people as perilously balanced statues was mind-numbing; for a moment, I was as unmoving as the world around me. After what felt like an eternity and not knowing what happened or what to do, I slowly started to walk toward the closest subway station, carefully avoiding touching anything and growing more anxious by the second. While the static scene was bad enough, the absence of any other sound was… deafening. Complete silence made any noise I made seem extraordinarily loud.

On my way I saw a few flying rats caught mid-flight, as if frozen in invisible amber. Distracted, I bumped into a motionless pedestrian.