Event of the Unknown Consequence

My name is Kelsie Anders and I had just turned 15 the day before it happened. The day they disappeared. My friends and I went to the local pizza parlor to hang out. I rode there on my new mountain bike my parents gave me for my birthday. It was just an ordinary day like any other and nothing stood out in my mind as being different. We were laughing and joking around, and it seemed to be taking a long time to get that greasy, cheesy pizza I loved. I look back and remember the pizza that never came, and the loud growl of my hungry stomach brings me reeling forth into the reality of the hovel of a motel I had been camping in for the last few days. I snuggled closer to the makeshift metal fire barrel in the corner of the room, a window cracked open to let the smoke out that only had embers left burning. It was getting cold now in the autumn air. As I rubbed my belly trying to make the hunger stop, my mind went back to that day. We had just started eating when a scream from the kitchen took over our conversation of planning our summer fun. A waitress came running out, her skin was pale and her blue eyes wide with fear. She had a phone in her hand and was screaming, “They’re gone”! She quickly showed us her phone where an emergency alarm was sounding from the screen for a few seconds before a bewildered and obviously shook reporter began to announce that people from all over the world seemed to have simply vanished. One second someone was talking and the next they were gone. There was so much confusion running through my brain that the only thing I could think of was to get home. I immediately tried to call my parents, but everyone must have been thinking the same thing because the lines were overloaded, and I could not get through. Without a word, I ran out the door, got on my bike and headed home.

It was a blur on the three-mile bike ride home, but I will never forget the fear of pulling onto my street. It was very quiet, too quiet. Mom’s white SUV looked normal sitting in the driveway, and my heart began to pound. Questions, so many questions filled my mind. Are they here? Do they even know what is happening? Why is Dad’s truck not here? Is he looking for me? I dumped my bike in the grass and walked to the door. With my hand shaking, I turned the knob and entered. My voice croaked, “Mom”? “Dad”? “Luke”? “Hello”? I made my way to the kitchen and sank to my knees. The meal was half eaten, and moms wine glass was shattered on the floor and red wine pooled the floor. I tried to stay positive and convinced myself that, they had gone out looking for me, so I cleaned up the mess and put the food away, and I sat on the couch and waited.

After two days of waiting, I knew they too were gone. In a matter of minutes on that less than happiest of birthday’s my world of boys, makeup, best friends, music, sleepovers, pizza, texting, homework and not having a care in the world; my family was taken away in an instant and my world was replaced with hunger, sleeplessness, death, fear, confusion, hiding, and survival. In the days after, some scientists on TV called it the ‘Event of the Unknown Consequence’, because no one saw it coming, no one knew what caused it, and no one knew what the actions would be for it. All that most knew was that there were more people missing, than those that were left. Why were they gone and why were we left? Time stood still for a matter of months. The confusion and hysteria were at an all time high. Human decency was put to the test for every person; it was every man for himself. Stores became neighborhood war zones, and whoever won the showdown was the proud owner of the dwindling supplies that were left. Slowly, over time the people left in this new world began to try and bring normalcy to it the best way that they could, anyway they could.

In the beginning, I checked in with any remaining friends, my best friend still had her family around but left New Hampshire right away and headed for their underground bunker in Texas. I spent a lot of time at the library trying to find ways to survive, thankfully, my dad was a wannabe prepper, so I knew some basic skills of surviving in an emergency, and we had a food and emergency stockpile hidden in the garage. However, I was not mentally prepared to have to be doing it alone, my family was supposed to go through this together if something had ever happened. I was ok for a few months living in my house but then the agitators and looters came to my neighborhood, and it was getting colder outside and I needed to leave. Backpack full of the last remaining food items, and my bike, I headed for the mountains and found a group of people who had formed a small community of traders and a place to get the news and food and supplies, most were leaving the city for safety and heading for the mountains. There I found some good people who took me in and became like a family. We lived on a farm and began to grow our own food and survive. Rumor has it there are small communities like this all over the country, those trying to avoid the big city thieves and agitators. It’s because of this farm; I am on the journey I am now. A few months ago, I was helping remove an old stone fireplace in the second story bedroom. Hidden behind the stones was a little opening and in it, I found a satchel. It contained a beautiful heart shaped red locket, and a letter was wrapped around it; written with a quill pen, and hidden from the elements it was in phenomenal condition. It read:

‘To whomever finds this locket, know that it is not by mistake. Only, you were meant to have it. This locket has been highly protected for generations by its guardians, with the intention that at the right moment of time, it will come to the one who will change everything. If you are reading this, then this is you. Leave the place you found this locket when the tulips are starting to bloom, head west until you meet with the ocean. When you are there, on the first day, you see the leaves change color, and on the noon hour, wear the locket around your neck and enter the water until it covers your head. Once you enter, you can’t go back.’

At first, I did not think it was anything but a cool antique from times past, but then the dreams began, and I could not stop dreaming about anything other than making it to the ocean. I started to think that maybe this locket was for me, and I was the one. It was as though it was calling me. The people I lived with thought I was crazy for wanting to leave and begged me to stay and not to go on this fantasy trek, but finally they hugged me good-bye and told me I would always have a home with them.

I left on my journey in the middle of May. The tulips were blooming in the wild of the nearby valley. My birthday bike was being put to good use. I calculated it would take me four or five months and I made my way across the states, hopefully, without much detection that I was even there. A map was given to me of some of the other farm groups like ours that I included in my destination. I avoided the well-travelled roads, and rode the less beaten path. There were a few new friends I made and stories to tell later about this journey from east to west. Some would encourage me to stay with them, but I was driven by the lure of the locket to the ocean shores. I rubbed it between my fingers and put all my hope and energy in it and the letter, which I believed was for me, how or why I did not know, but the call of the locket was strong and clear.

I finally reached Oregon by the end of September, and found this little seaside motel. The trees were starting to change to orange and red and I knew it was time. Fear rose in my throat as I approached the ocean shore and heard the rhythmic waves of the surf foaming on the shore. What if nothing happens? What if I traveled all this way for no reason? I wondered for the millionth time if I would ever see my family again. I paused before the great lonely ocean before me and walked in the cold fierce water with my heart was pounding. I kept walking until the water was up to my neck and until I was completely submerged. The locket began to produce a blinding light and a humming sensation. I tightly closed my eyes and turned my head. “Kelsie, what are you doing”? I opened my eyes, dumbfounded by the noise; I was surrounded by my friends outside the pizza parlor, my friend Taylor was snapping her fingers, “lets go I’m hungry” as the girls were about to enter the pizza place. I wondered if I was dead! But I recognized this day; it was the Day of the Event. I ran for my bike yelling, “get home right away”!

I rode my bike quickly over the three-mile ride home. People were outside mowing lawns and playing ball and life was normal again. I whispered a prayer; please let me make it in time. I could see my mom’s SUV in the driveway, just like before. I ran into the house. “Mom, Dad? Are you here? I heard her voice say we’re in the kitchen honey, we’re about to eat, and I thought you were going with the girls”? I just looked at her for a moment, in awe and wonder, she was standing by the stove and my dad and brother at the table. I ran to my mom and fell into her arms; my dad looked puzzled and concerned and came and hugged us both. I was crying my eyes out. “What is wrong honey”? My mom tried to soothe me. With tears streaming down my face, I told them I loved them and told them everything of what had happened over the past 3 years since the event and how now I was back, and it hadn’t happened, yet. Somehow, I have gone back in time to this moment. I saw my parents glancing back and forth at one another with concern written on their faces. ‘They think I am crazy’. My mom took a deep breath, “well I think I need a glass of wine for this one sweetie,” and she gently kissed my forehead. I would not let go of my mother’s side; I watched her pour a glass of wine and bring it to her lips, just as a flash of light flashed before us. Through a veiled, wavy blur, I could see our kitchen floor with a shattered wine glass spilled but none of us were there.

I shut my eyes but flung them open when I heard my mom say with a loud voice “where are we? What just happened”? …