source:Pixabay

The contest: https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@bananafish/finish-the-story-contest-week-24
The beginning:

The Town That Changed

Change blew in on the air that morning, whispering through a sleeping town. An eerie quiet rested along the main road, early commuters not yet disturbing the grey dawn. A wisp of waning moon, brushed pink with the gentle glow of the coming sun, hung low in the ombre sky.

A subtle shift rocked the heavy foliage of scattered trees, rippling between the houses. The cool silence of night still clung to the shadows. A lone ginger cat stalked between the sentinels of bins guarding the curbs. It paused, hair bristling along it’s back as it sensed a disturbance rushing past.

A lone mournful howl echoed in the streets, erupting into a sorrowful symphony as others took up the canine call.
Not a single harsh bark interrupted the lament that awoke the town that morning.

Back doors opened onto gardens, not quite the same. Concerned residents in an array of dressing gowns, coats and slippers, padded outside to find the same, inexplicable sight.

Theo hadn’t been home in months. He had told his mum he was getting clean. It was a lie. He hadn’t been clean in years.

The dark country road snaked before him, a twisting river of retreating night. She had insisted he came home for the wedding. Theo couldn’t stand her boyfriend, but his mum had half chewed his ear off over it, and he couldn’t deny, he owed her this.

He swore under his breath. The rising itch was dancing across his skin. The hard edge cutting inside him. He needed another hit. He had been driving since 1am, he loaded up before he set off, but the ragged scraping of the comedown was consuming.

He glanced at the road, he hadn’t passed another car in hours, and he knew these twisting roads.

One hand on the wheel, he fumbled through the bag on the passenger seat. He couldn’t face that c*nt sober, Aunt Hazel would help.

His skin flushed with the intense bliss coursing through his veins as he approached the sleeping streets.

Dawn was pushing towards the horizon, her soft pink glow catching the clipped moon.

Theo was speeding when he got to the town. He heard the hair-raising call of neighbourhood dogs, raising their cry as one.

Then he saw it. The change. He couldn’t look away. He didn’t see the tree.

My ending:

As always he woke up with a start and his heart beating a crescendo in his ears. It had been 4 months now since the change and he still relived the first instance every night. How he had stumbled from the crash with the fix in one hand was the last coherent memory he had. The next thing he remembered was waking up in the park on the grass behind the park bench with the huge tawny dog sleeping beside him.
He still did not know why he had been afraid of the sparkly cloud which was descending on the town. Now he knew what it did, but then it had been pure chance that he had reacted with horror instead of curiosity. The first hours after waking had been been hell, itching for a fix, hungry, tired and dirty. He had cried out in joy when he found his car as it is, with his stash of heroin still lying there.
The cops and people in yellow hazmat suits surrounding him asking questions and poking and taking blood and whatnot. The two days without his fix were horrendous. Dr. Sidry who had finally been given charge of Theo's debriefing.

"Theo, you awake?" Lin asked with a tap on his shoulder. Lin was his designated partner.
"Yeah. Just woke up, I don't know how long that scene is going to haunt me."
"Not for long, looking at your rotting body."
"Now Now. lets stay civil for a few minutes at least. you..."
"OK Enough. My bad. It is 12 hours since my last fix Theo. I'm still not used to rationing."
Theo got up just nodding his head and checked up on the mobile app they had installed -
Lin- H1- 18.30; Monday
"Right I will get your dosage."
The only humans who had survived the change unscathed were either seriously bi-polar or addicts or children less than a year old. Their addled brain responses were the only ones which the Mindwave had not scrambled. About how or who they still knew little and only form the TV, radio and Internet. The only thing known was that it was a targeted attack from an orbital satellite to hold Governments at ransom. What was the ransom? The top boys had clamped down on all news leaks so there were a million different rumors floating on the net like the blowing up of the Chinese dam and the huge food aid to Somalia by a consortium of nations or the worldwide free distribution of AIDS and Swine-flu vaccines.
The change had subverted most world nations in one night. It had caused the government to take over the heroin and opoid manufacturing and distribution. Addiction was becoming the new norm. What next?

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