by Cliff Ball
The next reporter had thick black smoke and flames happening behind her, with over a dozen fire truck sirens almost drowning her out, “Thanks, Ellen. I’m near the scene of a crashed American Airlines jet, which has taken out a whole neighborhood and the fire from the crash is threatening more homes in the area. According to TexDOT, the passenger jet was headed from Austin to Oklahoma City when there were reports that the pilot and co-pilot disappeared into thin air. We have no way of confirming that and I’m not sure the investigators will be able to confirm that with this crash. I was also told that the crash was not caused by terrorism, so that was ruled out immediately as the cause of the crash. There were no survivors amongst the two hundred on board the aircraft. That’s all we have for now, back to you at the studio.”
Wayne turned off the television and decided to read instead. He knew the Dallas Fire Department would get the fire out before it burned down any more homes and businesses, he had complete faith in them. He looked outside shortly before sunset and saw that the smoke from the crash site had almost completely disappeared. Satisfied the fire was under control and not headed his direction, he went back to what he was doing, giving the crash not another thought.
Later the next day, he turned on the news and discovered the announcement about the new world leader. While he hadn’t given much thought to the disappearances after the two women vanished in front of him, the idea that aliens took them because they stopped peace, unity, and harmony from occurring on Earth made sense to him.
Watching Karimi explain the new way of things in the world, Wayne approved of the idea of a global government, with Karimi at the head of the global government. Wayne also approved of the plans to remake the economy so it could be fair for everyone. Patriarch Karimi announced the creation of ten regions that would be administrated by ten men and he would announce who would be governing these regions in the next few days, making Wayne wonder if he could somehow get in on that. He’d made many political allies as Mayor of Dallas, so he thought he could use that to get a good position in the Union of United Earth. If it weren’t for the fact that the new Republic of Texas’ government was politically opposite of him, he would’ve attempted to be re-elected again as Dallas’ mayor, but he had no desire to be pushed around by those political hacks in Austin. The Patriarch was also going to announce a new religious leader for a one-world religion, causing Wayne to wonder who was going to head up this religion, even though he wasn’t certain he even cared.
Turning off the television, Wayne went to his computer to look up the prices of airplane tickets to Babylon, Iraq, which was supposed to be the new capitol of the world. Discovering that he could afford the trip, he bought a one-way ticket, and he would leave the next day. Wayne packed his clothes into one suitcase and figured he would buy more if this trip to get a position in the new government was successful for him.
At DFW Airport, the place wasn’t as busy as it usually was and there was a noticeable lack of screaming, misbehaving, unaccompanied children. I think I could get used to that, Wayne thought, since he wasn’t a big fan of children, especially when parents let them run loose and didn’t keep an eye on them. If the Centurions really did take the children so the teens and adults of Earth could learn to live in peace, harmony, and unity, I hope that when the children are returned, they’re civilized and behaved and not the little monsters that were here.
While waiting for his flight, Wayne noticed something else that never happened before the disappearances – people making out in public and not just the minor public displays of affection, but also doing things that should’ve taken place in the bedroom. Before the Rapture, he would’ve been uncomfortable with such displays, but now, he was surprised he didn’t care. If that’s what they want to do, then who am I to stop them? He thought with a shrug of his shoulders, and then he picked up a magazine to read while he waited. An hour later, he boarded his flight and left Dallas.
After spending over seventeen hours on the airplane, Wayne went to his hotel to rest from the long flight, and he would visit the Union of United Earth headquarters once he had enough sleep. While preparing to go to bed, he turned on the television to find out what he missed while on the flight to Iraq. The channel he turned to turned out to be the official station of the Union of United Earth, named the United Earth Television Network. I wonder how long they’ve been up and running? Well, no matter, I’ll just turn up the volume to hear what the anchor has to say.
“Less than an hour ago, the names of the ten administrators over the ten regions of the Union of United Earth was announced to the world. Currently, Patriarch Karimi is meeting with his choice for High Priest of the Union, and we’ll know, almost instantly, who it is when the Patriarch makes it known to us first who will be leading the world religion. Now, let’s find out who will be administrating the ten regions.
“First, the man who is now over the new North American Union, or old, depending on your point of view, is Steve Powell. Mr. Powell is the former Governor of New York and a loyal ally to the late Michael J. Evans. He was picked because he was an effective leader over the state of New York as governor and worked closely with the former United Nations when it was clear the United States government was no longer capable of leading. As with the others, we will bring you an interview with him when he’s available. The next administrator is over South America, Jorge Fuentes....”
Wayne turned off the television, since he had no interest in learning the names of the other administrators. He knew of Steve Powell’s reputation, but didn’t actually know the man personally. Even though no one else was in the room with him, Wayne said aloud, “I wonder if I can convince Patriarch Karimi to let me work with Powell, maybe as his second-in-command? The only way to know is to go to the U.E.’s headquarters tomorrow and find out.” Wayne yawned, went over to his bed, laid down, and fell asleep within seconds of laying his head on the pillow.
Six hours later, Wayne woke up, feeling rested. He got dressed, and after he ate, he found a cab, and made his way to the Union of United Earth’s headquarters. As he was being driven, the cab driver asked him, “So, where are you from?”
“I’m from Dallas, Texas, looking to get a job with the new world government,”
“Dallas? You must be devastated by the news coming from your home country,”
“What news?”
“You mean, you haven’t heard?”
“Heard what? I’ve been asleep in my hotel room since I arrived eight hours ago from the United States.” Wayne was getting annoyed, he really didn’t want to have a conversation with his cab driver.
“I’m sorry to say that the volcano under Yellowstone Park blew up, along with many other volcanoes in North America, and has pretty much wiped that continent out, along with many earthquakes,”
Wayne was stunned by the news, not that he cared all that much about what happened to his formerly fellow Americans, but it saddened him to hear he may no longer have a home. Realizing he should say something, he replied, “Yeah, I’m sorry too.”
The rest of the ride was spent in silence. At the headquarters, Wayne paid the driver and went inside, not knowing what his future held as he made his way to Patriarch Karimi’s office.
Chapter 4
At Yellowstone, a few hours earlier, Shelley Abbott and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Katy, were touring the park with Katy’s fellow high school cheerleaders from her high school in Aledo, Texas. The cheerleaders had won a tournament featuring other high school cheerleaders in Texas, so the prize had been a trip to Yellowstone, which was still up and running despite the United States having fallen apart. Volunteers were running the park, including former park rangers, even though they were no longer being paid. Shelley was picked as one of the chaperones, so she and her daughter toured the park, and enjoyed themselves since neither had ever been to Yellowstone.
The day was clear of clouds and the temperature was in the 70’s, according to the weather forecast. Unknown to the tourists, the temperature in th
e closed-off parts of the park were in the hundreds, with closed-off roads melting from the heat coming from beneath the surface. Geologists tried to deny for years that the volcano underneath Yellowstone was something to worry about, that the volcano probably wouldn’t blow for thousands of years. Some of the bison, deer, moose, and other animals in the park were dead because of the heat or the sulfur in the water. Others had left the park months earlier looking for cooler spots, fresh water, and vegetation that was edible.
Meanwhile, the cheerleaders’ first stop for the second day of their trip was Old Faithful. The girls and their chaperones sat down on the benches to wait for the geyser’s almost regularly scheduled spray of water. Some of the girls took out their cell phones so they could take selfies with the geyser shooting off in the background. The moment finally came, so Katy got up, like the rest of her friends, and began taking a picture. She snapped the picture just as lava began shooting out of the geyser. Without really noticing the panic around her, Katy sent off the picture to her dad, who was back in Texas hunting for wild boar, and probably had his cell turned off while he was hunting, so she figured he’d see it later.
“Katy! Come on, we need to get out of here!” shouted Shelley, running over to her daughter, and grabbing her by the arm to get her to move.
That was when Katy noticed the chaos around her as people ran for their lives. She looked back to see the Old Faithful geyser was flowing with lava, her eyes widened with surprise and fright, and she asked Shelley, while being pulled away, “What’s happening? Why is Old Faithful doing that?”
“I.... I don’t know, Sweetie, but.... but we gotta get away from here. There!” Shelley pointed at the tour bus their group was using, “Go for the bus, like the rest of your friends. Come on!”
They ran towards the bus, while the crowd of tourists did their best to run away from the lava and the rocks being shot into the sky by new holes opening up in the ground. People were trampled as they tripped and there was no sense of safety as everyone stampeded towards the buses or the surrounding buildings. One of the buildings, with thousands of people inside or trying to get inside, was flattened in an instant when a huge boulder that had been shot out of the volcano hit it.
Shelley and Katy scrambled onto the bus, seeing all the frightened faces of the cheerleaders and the other chaperones looking back at them, all crying and obviously frightened. As the two sat down, Shelley frantically looked for her cell phone, but couldn’t find it. Katy still had hers, since she was gripping it tightly, so Shelley asked, “Can I use your cell phone?”
“Uh, what?” Katy realizing she still gripped her phone, handed it to her mother. “Who are you going to call?”
“I’m going to try to call your Dad, tell him how much we love him before we die from being trapped here,” Shelley replied, with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Shelley nervously looked through the phone for the number, found it, and pressed the contact button. She knew her husband had turned off his cell phone so he wouldn’t be disturbed while he was hunting, but it didn’t matter. She needed to let him know that she and Katy loved him, but she wasn’t emotionally prepared to talk to her husband voice to voice while her death was imminent.
“This is Dave Abbott. I can’t come to the phone right now, please leave a message, and I’ll get back to you when I can.” replied the voicemail message.
At the beep, Shelley left her message, attempting not to cry or splutter while doing so, “Dave, this is Shelley. We’re at Yellowstone, where the volcano seems to have finally gone off. Katy and I wanted to tell you how much we love you before we die. Thank you for our twenty years of marriage, we had some good times. I love you, never forget that. Goodbye, my love.” Less than a minute after she ended the call, a flaming boulder flattened her bus, killing everyone on board instantly.
Back in Texas, Dave Abbott was hunting wild boar in south central Texas, close to College Station. Even though he could’ve hunted for the animals around the wooded areas of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, he wanted to go somewhere different this time. His wife and daughter had never had the desire to go hunting with him, even though they enjoyed the meals from the fresh meat, so he was happy they had something else to occupy their time while he was gone. Dave had visited Yellowstone twice when he was a kid and was glad that his daughter was able to have the same opportunity.
Some hunters preferred sitting in blinds, waiting for their prey to come to them, and then shooting the animal with hardly any trouble at all. Dave was not that kind of hunter. He preferred searching for the animal and thought hiding and relaxing while waiting for some animal to show up wasn’t very sporting. Lately, he noticed there were very few hunters out, and he wondered if it had something to do with the alien abduction, since many of those people hunted. Shrugging, he thought, Who cares? With almost no competition, I get to hunt as much as I want. Okay, boar, come out, come out wherever you are.
While quietly walking through the brush, the ground suddenly began shaking beneath Dave’s feet. He fell to the ground, and that’s when he noticed the sky had darkened. He could tell those dark clouds weren’t thunderstorms waiting to let loose a torrent of rain. I wonder what’s going on and since when do we have huge earthquakes in Texas? Something devastating must’ve happened and I need to get back to my truck so I can find out what it was.
The ground stopped shaking a few minutes later, so Dave got up, and started back towards his truck and his camping site. Three hours later, he found his campsite, saw that his tent was flat on the ground, and the pots and pans that were drying on a line he setup were now on the ground. If it weren’t for the fact that an earthquake happened earlier, he’d swear a bear had torn through the campsite. Dave checked his truck and found a flat tire - it would take him over an hour to replace the flat with the spare. Before he went to work replacing the tire, Dave opened the passenger side door, opened the glove box, and pulled out his cell phone.
Turning it on, he was relieved to see he had three bars, indicating he still had a signal. Those cell phone towers must be sturdy. Dave also noticed he had a couple of messages, but he wanted to check out whatever news there was about the earthquake and the dark, ominous sky first. He opened his browser to his favorite television station’s website, but the site was down, so he searched for a national news website. Of the five mainstream national news sites, only one was still up, and it said that the volcano underneath Yellowstone had blown its top, which set off every other volcano and every fault line had been affected, so massive earthquakes occurred. There was even some video from the disasters, but Dave wasn’t sure he was up to viewing them.
Dave was shocked by the news, as he sank to the ground, trying to take it all in. Oh no! My wife and daughter are in Yellowstone, I hope they got out in time. Wait! Maybe they’re the ones who left a message on my cell and they’re all right.
Navigating back to his messages, Dave found the picture his daughter sent. It shocked and saddened him to see Katy smiling and goofing off in front of Old Faithful as it shot off lava, looking like she had no idea it was even happening. I wonder what Shelley was doing when Katy did that? Maybe she left me a message. Okay, dialing my voicemail....
Dave listened to the message, devastated and heartbroken to hear his wife tell him how much she loved him, hinting that she knew that she and Katy were going to die very soon. Dave put his face in his hands and cried for a while, until he could cry no more. Since he had never really thought about God before, Dave wasn’t sure what to do, so he prayed for the first time ever, “God, if you’re up there and can hear me, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now without my family. If you can, please help me to figure out how to live from now on. Thank you.”
All right, now what? Dave wondered, as he looked around his campsite, not knowing how he would know if God answered his prayer. Then he realized he should replace his flat tire, clean up his campsite, and then head for a church. He briefly wondered why he should find a church, but decided to go
with the idea, so he could see where it took him. As he began to drive off after fixing his tire and cleaning up his campsite, flakes of ash began floating to the ground, looking a lot like snow, and making Dave hope that the ash wouldn’t start building up and impeding travel.
Dave found himself on the main road an hour later, and drove for another thirty minutes before he saw a medium-sized church. He made a beeline for it and parked in the mostly empty parking lot. Getting out, he saw no signs of life, even though there were about a dozen cars parked. He was only certain that it was a Christian church, because of the cross on the steeple, he didn’t see a sign indicating the name of the church, and Dave figured that the signage had probably fallen to the ground with the earthquake. He tested the handle on the door to the entrance, finding that it wasn’t locked, so he went inside.
The sanctuary was a few feet in front of him, so he went inside, not sure what to expect. He saw half a dozen people sitting on the pews, so Dave went over to the nearest one, and asked, “Where is everyone?”
The woman, who Dave guessed was probably in her sixties, looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes, and said, “They’re gone, they disappeared,”
“You mean the ones who were abducted by the aliens?”
Her demeanor changed, in an almost angry sort of way, and she replied, “They weren’t abducted by aliens, despite what that new world leader says. We were left behind when Christ came back for his church, at least that’s what I learned with all the information this church has stored in its library, including some eye-opening videos. It makes me angry that I didn’t know sooner and now we’re stuck with someone as our leader who will destroy this planet before everything gets better,”
