The Disappearance

It was over a year ago when a quarter of the earth's population disappeared in a blink of an eye. No one knew what was happened that day but it was the worst day of everyone's life.

I remember the day like it was yesterday. One moment I was driving down the road and the next I smashed into the car in front of me that no longer had a driver in it. And it wasn’t just me. Looking out on that scene I could see dozens of accidents taking place.

I remember the screams of mothers begging people to help them find their babies that disappeared out of cars. Then you could see planes falling out the sky because pilots vanished too.

I remember running to the nearest place to see what was going on. The news had to have some update, but there was nothing. No one knew what was going on besides people were vanishing.

Fast forward to today, there’s still no distinctive explanation as to why so many people vanished out of nowhere. Most say it was an alien invasion, others say it was something called the rapture. I don’t know what to believe. I do know I’m living in a world where I no longer want to be alive. It’s a mess.

Soon after people vanished, the world elected a ruler that united all the nations. Imagine world peace at a time like this. Well, he’s no hero. He’s changed everything. We live in a world where everything is controlled.

The rich are the only people who benefit from the new world system. The rest of us are left with the scraps that are portioned at local food markets. To us food is gold now. You would think after losing so much of the world's population there would be more food to go around.

On this day I’ve had enough of being government controlled and pretending like everything is okay. Everything is not okay. People are walking zombies. Having lost family members and friends with no explanation. I’m no different, I feel dead inside. I need answers.

My name is Emily Smith and this is the day I disappeared. It’s not an easy task to get out of the sight of the authorities because we are constantly being watched these days. It’s their way to avoid rule breaking and keep the peace, or so they say.

I came to my decision about leaving where I live and finding shelter elsewhere. I had conversations with people who heard about a secret underground alliance. These conversations happened discreetly because people have been killed for speaking against the new world government.

According to all the information I’ve collected there’s an island off the shore of Alaska that the government has no eyes on. It’s my goal to get there and get some sort of answers. Anything is better than staying here. This isn’t living, this is surviving.

I’ve been preparing for the journey for weeks. I live in Washington; from Washington I have to make my way up through the edge of Canada and make it to Alaska. I’ve worked hard on creating a look that can't be spotted by cameras. I’m also going to do my best to avoid cameras.

In Alaska, I’m supposed to meet up with a guy named Sam. He’s supposed to guide me the rest of the way because once we get through Alaska, It’s a boat ride to the island.

I have to make everything seem like normal for my job, so I’m going to call out sick and recover from home as my front story. I can’t raise any suspicions. I got a burner phone to communicate with Sam without being tracked.

I trained myself to read maps for the trip. No one raises any suspicions picking up maps at travel centers. That was my plan, pack a bag and fill up my tank to get to Alaska.

My plan was to use national parks as the destinations for me to follow and Sam agreed on the idea. I had to make it to Edziza Park in Canada to meet up with him. Where we would together go straight out east towards the Island.

Everything was ready for this 3-day trip. I quickly got into a car and headed out. The car I was taking wasn’t mine because I wanted people to think I was home. There are were so many cars laying around because of the vanishing, it was easy to get a random car with no problems.

I couldn’t help but feel mind numbing fear hitting the open road. If I get caught, I will be killed. This was quite literally and life and death decision I made to abandon my home.

Getting up North, there are not many shortcuts to take. There is really only one road to get to the park I needed to meet Sam at. I had to be careful to not bring any attention to my car.

The first two days went by smoothly. I was always into backpack traveling, so I had stocked up a few things to be out on the road. I had my outdoor shower, which was basically a gallon jug with a pump. I also had my car bed, that inflated in the back. Although, I didn’t really sleep. All I could focus on was driving.

Day three, and I was on the road that was going to lead me to the park. Out of nowhere I see red and blue lights in my rear-view mirror. My heart stopped. What is a cop doing all the way out here I wondered? I couldn’t be caught now. I would be turned in and killed.

I watched the cop to see when he would be looking down at his computer. Once he looked up the car details, he would see it was a missing persons car. That’s my moment to run.

My backpack was already on my side ready to go. I waited for him to be looking down to slip into the passenger seat and slowly open the door to slip out. The moment I knew he was concentrated on the car report I dashed into the woods. I didn’t want to go the opposite direction of my destination. Once I knew I was into the thick of the woods enough, I changed my running northward.

The plan was to leave to car near the forest but I wasn’t as close it as I wanted to be yet. That cop ruined that part of the plans. On top of that I now had the authority's attention. No matter, he didn’t know who I was and I put way too much distance between us for him to ever catch up. I was safe again, but that was a close call.

I’m actually relieved to be on foot and off the road. The worst that could happen happened and I made it out. I had to get that all out my mind. Now I had a few hours to walk and get to the meeting place. I texted Sam to update him on the situation.

It was hard walking through thick woods. There are no paths besides the ones made by deer. Eventually, I made it to Edziza Park. I was tired and it was pretty dark.

Meeting Sam was interesting. He didn’t really talk much, so all I did was follow him mostly. Once we walked west enough, we would find the spot where he stored a boat that would get us to the island. I wanted to ask him about the island and what’s there but he kept giving me one-word answers and said all the answers I’m looking for are on the island.

After what seemed was walking forever, we finally got to the shore where Sam had tied up the boat. We decided to take rest in the boat for the night and head out right before dawn.

The next morning, we untied the boat and started our boat ride. Apparently, the island was not that far off the shore. There are actually a lot of islands off the shores of Alaska. Which makes it the perfect place to hide out. It is uninhabitable for the unprepared. You could easily die out here due to the harsh environment.

After a few hours coasting off the shore, we arrived. We pulled the boat in and covered it with camouflage tarp. The hideout was located in the center of the island underground.

There was a metal cover that had to be unscrewed near a tree in the center of the island. We unscrewed the lid and made our way down the ladder. It was about 15 feet to the bottom. At the bottom I was welcomed by a woman named Sue. She gave me a tour of the facility and led me where I would be staying.

After a little freshening up, I headed straight to the common area. Everyone was sitting and what looked like one of the leaders was standing up smiling at me. His name was Kevin. Kevin began his story, which was focused at me because I was the new person there who needed answers.

“Good evening everyone. Let us all give a warm welcome to our newest member Emily. She made the hard decision to risk her life and come here in search of the truth. I hope what I have to say doesn’t disappoint you. This is the truth I have and the truth we believe. What happened over a year ago, we refer to as the rapture. I grew up in church and never believed in any of it the older I grew but after the events that took place, I suddenly remembered everything the preacher said about the rapture. It was the day that Jesus came back for his people the way he said he would in the bible. I know this is hard to believe. You were probably expecting a cause involving unnatural events or even aliens but this is the truth. We are here because no one is allowed to talk about Jesus anymore in the outside world. The people who were left behind are the nonbelievers. We were all nonbelievers, that’s why we’re still here but we made a decision to get away from the persecution and try to spread the real truth. Jesus is going to come back again a third time. According to scripture study that should be in less that 6 years. We’re holding up here to spread the word without getting caught until he comes back again.”

After Kevin had finished, I took a deep breath and accepted what he had to say. At the end of the day, it was the only thing that made sense. This is why all the churches were destroyed and religion was banned soon after the world leader came into play. Also, Kevin had a sort of sincerity about him. I understood how vulnerable and honest he was being with me. Why else would these people go through such lengths to lie to me?

Everyone was so happy and supportive when I said I believed. They were helpful and understanding of all my questions because at one point they were all in my shoes. A person lost in need of answers.

When the meeting was over Sue came to me and handed me a little box. Inside the box was a heart-shaped locket, in the locket was a cross. She told we wear these to conceal the cross if we ever go into the public again. With them we remember what's really important and where our truth lies.

I put the necklace on and held the heart locket tight in my hand. I prayed for the first time in a long time. My hope in God was restored and I had a new hope.