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Post by mnn2300 on Apr 28, 2012 18:46:47 GMT -6
Here is my new story, it's PAW fiction with a bit of a Science Fiction reason for what happened. I have the final edit on the first three chapters done and will post those now. I hope you enjoy it, as always comments are encouraged.
Vanished - Prologue
“Doctor Scott, will you be ready or not?” Bruce Walsh asked his chief scientist in charge of the beamed energy project.
“Mr. Walsh, the equipment is all ready and everything is in place, but after what happened during the tests at the Arkansas facility with the animal kills and now the fact that the sun is at heightened output of solar flares for the next month, I believe it would be prudent if we waited.” Doctor Scott told his boss.
“Doctor, do your calculations show an adequate safety factor?” Bruce Walsh asked forcefully.
“Well, yes……” Doctor Scott started.
“Then we proceed as planned.” Mr. Walsh told him.
“Sir, even though calculations show an adequate safety factor, you know what happened last time with the animal kills.” Doctor Scott said.
“What do you recommend?” Bruce asked.
“That we wait until the solar activity dies down in 3 or 4 weeks.” Dr Scott said.
“That is not an option Doctor, we have investors, and that facility is costing us a fortune every day, and as your own calculations prove there is an adequate safety factor, anything else Doctor?” Bruce said obviously annoyed.
“If you won’t postpone the test, I would recommend that we get all employees in the lower levels of this base; that should help protect them if anything unexpected should happen.” Doctor Scott told his boss.
“That is acceptable Doctor. There is one change in plans. I have overseas investors coming to the Executive Retreat in Wisconsin so I will be there rather than in Arizona with you at the testing facility. I will of course be monitoring the experiment closely, my assistant will call you tomorrow morning with the conferencing details, good day Doctor.” He said hanging up.
“Problems Bruce?” his assistant Brittany Wells asked.
“Scientists!” he said shaking his head. “They don’t understand deadlines and investors and money in general – other than to spend it.
“Sort of like your ex-wife.” She said.
“…and unlike you.” He added leading her over to the couch as he touched her intimately.
Interlude
From Wikipedia:
Vanished – Chapter 1 (Missouri)
“Wait a minute, turn it back, I want to hear that” Chrissy told her husband Jim.
Jim turned the radio back to the station it had been on which was reporting the news:
“This high level of Solar activity will produce massive displays of the Aurora Borealis. The Northern Lights will be out in full force the next couple of nights, Scientist are reporting that these display will be seen far south of the Mason-Dixon line, which rarely happens. On a related note, there have been reports of temporary communication problems with the intense solar activity. Cell phone outages and radio and TV disruptions have been common for the last few days. The National Science Foundation says that the solar activity should peak tomorrow and start going down from there – so don’t worry folks, you’ll be able to hear me just fine after the weekend. The weather will be great for this 4th of July weekend, Clear skies, Daytime temps in the upper 80’s and nighttime lows in the mid 60’s and now with sports…..”
Chrissy turned the radio down. “How Romantic, on vacation, caving with the gang on Saturday, and the Northern lights at night from the Bed and Breakfast on the lake.”
Her husband Jim smiled at her, pressing the scan button on the car radio until he found some decent music.
Jim was a geologist with a petroleum company and Chrissy was an accountant, they lived in the northern suburbs of Dallas, nothing fancy, just a nice 3 bedroom in the ‘burbs. Jim and Chrissy had met while in college. Jim had been an avid caver since high school, their college had a cavers club and on their fourth date Jim had talked her into going caving with him, she caught the caving bug also, after graduation they still kept in contact with 4 other couples that liked to cave and even though they had all moved away from their college town they would meet once or twice a year for a caving expedition. This was not just a walk through guided tour inside a cave, this was deep cave exploration, a few times they had even worked on a mapping project for the National Speleological Society, this weekend’s expedition was a new system of caves that had just been opened to the public and although there would be a guide this weekend, it was a cave system none of them had been to before and they would be going much further and deeper than the general public would ever get to see.
They were all staying in a small Bed and Breakfast Inn on Long Lake. Jim and Chrissy had made the arrangements for the inn and the caving; all the rest had to do was to get there and pay for their share of course. Unfortunately one of the couples from their group, Hal and Karen Thomas, couldn’t make it this weekend.
* * *
“I’m not getting any signal here” John said.
“Good then your service can’t reach you and we can actually have a weekend off” Stacy, his wife said.
“You knew what you were getting into when you married a doctor” Jim replied.
“There are 3 other doctors in your office; you can take a weekend off.” Stacy answered.
“Let me call them on the landline and let them know I'm going to be out of cell phone range.” John replied.
After a few minutes on the Inn’s landline John said “OK, I’m all yours for the duration”
“mmmm, I can handle that, but can you?” Stacy said in her sexiest voice.
* * *
“The turn was back there” Jessica said.
“I know” Russ replied “But I offered to bring the drinks, so we need to stop into town first and find the liquor store.”
“You know it is possible to have a good time without booze?” Jessica said.
“Blasphemy!” Russ replied.
Jessica sighed.
“Oh don’t be that way, I just like to unwind and relax a bit after I work hard all week, it’s not like I have a problem or anything.” Russ said.
“Let’s just have a nice weekend and not fight, ok” Jessica said.
“Who’s fighting?” Russ said pulling into a liquor store.
* * *
“Welcome, welcome” Mrs. Johnston, the innkeeper said when Russ and Jessica walked in to register and pick up their keys. “The rest of your group is here already, here’s your key, its Room 4 facing the lake” she said, pointing the way. “Breakfast is served from 7 – 9 on weekends and holidays. There’s a fire pit and chairs down near the lake edge if you want to enjoy the scenery and have a bonfire later.”
“Thank you” Jessica said taking the key’s, passing a large Black Lab who was sitting outside wagging his tail and waiting to be petted and Jessica obliged.
“That’s Bob, he thinks he owns the place, if he bothers you just tell him to go home and he’ll come back up here” Mrs. Johnston said. “If there is anything you need, just let me know”
* * *
They decided a bonfire by the lake would make a perfect first night, so about an hour before dusk, they all met out at the fire pit. Bob, the Black lab went from person to person waiting to be petted and most of them obliged; he ended up sprawled between Jessica and Pam who were talking quietly, catching up on what had been happening since they had last gotten together. The two women had been roommates in college and had been best friends since then, even though they lived half a country apart. The only bad part of the evening was the mosquitoes which were out in force, but once Chrissy handed out the bug spray they stopped being so much of a problem.
“So what do you think?” Pam asked as they were sitting around the camp fire Mark had build in the fire pit.
“Of what?” Jessica asked “The Bed and Breakfast?, the Northern lights? Or” lowering her voice so only Pam could hear her, ”of your husband’s cute butt?”
“Hey now, you’re not supposed to be noticing that” Pam laughed.
“Noticing what?” Mark asked.
“Nothing” the 2 women answered at once laughing.
Mark was the odd man out, the other’s had gone to college together, but not Mark, he had not gone to college but went into construction full time straight out of High School.
Marks father worked for a small construction company that built homes and commercial buildings in the upper Midwest.
Starting when Mark was young he would occasionally came along to job sites to watch and was sometimes used as a gopher to bring tools, nails, pipes, etc for the workers during the summer – it was a small company and nobody said anything about a kid carrying some things for his father and maybe a few other workers.
Later in high school he started working full time during the summers for the same company and when he was out of school he went full time for them during construction season. Mark and Pam lived in an earth-sheltered home in central Wisconsin on farm land that his grandparents owned before they died. Mark had built it himself with some help from a few of his friends after first reading about and then touring a number of earth sheltered homes.
Marks grandparents old 2 story home was still standing, his grandmother having just passed away the previous winter. Marks grandfather had starting renting out the majority of his land to a local farmer a number of years ago when he started slowing down due to cancer and Mark continued the arrangement after his grandparents passed away, they still had enough land for the existing small orchard and a decent sized garden along with both houses and the barn.
Moving from Austin Texas to Lake City Wisconsin 2 years ago where she had been hired to head the library in rural Lake County had been a bit of a cultural shock for Pam, but not as great of a shock as her first northern winter had been. Mark was a voracious reader and was into the library every few weeks, even during construction season. When he first saw Pam, it was love at first sight for him, Mark asked her out that day, she accepted, and 6 months later they were married. Mark thought her hobby of caving was peculiar but once he went with her and the rest of the small group it turned out he enjoyed it too. The only sour note was Russ whom he felt looked down on him just because he hadn’t spent 4 years to get a piece of paper that allowed him to get a job that he hated like Russ had. The rest of the group Mark got along with just fine and they accepted him completely in their group.
The group was mainly in their late 20’s except for John, the doctor who had just turned 30 last month, and finally after long years of schooling and residency joined a private practice last year, his wife Stacy had been an elementary school teacher, but since they were now looking to start a family she would just be substituting this following school year.
Jim at 27 was a geologist with a Petroleum company, his wife Chrissy was an accountant. Russ was a Stockbroker and Jessica was a purchasing agent for a retail clothing chain. Jessica and Russ lived in New York City and were probably paying more for their 1 bedroom 600 sq foot apartment than John and Stacy were paying for the McMansion they just bought near his practice in the suburbs of Minneapolis.
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Post by mnn2300 on Apr 28, 2012 18:48:18 GMT -6
Vanished – Chapter 2 Saturday July 2nd (Missouri)
They all met in the Dining room of the Inn at 8am Saturday morning. Russ was moving a bit slow having drank a bit much the night before, but with the aspirin he had taken and the food and coffee, he was moving normally by the time they left. Bob, the black lab was lying on the front porch and sat up when they left the dining room, wagging his tail some more, allowing the humans to pet him before they left.
They arrived a few minutes before 10AM which was the time their expedition was set up for. Craig Johnston, grandson of the Bed and Breakfast owner and his wife Cynthia ran the Caves which were on land owned by Craig’s parents, and were their caving guides. Craig and Cynthia had gotten married the previous year and had a small house not far from the cave entrance; the house and yard with a decent sized garden were fenced off so that guests to the cave wouldn’t wander into their private area. There were other cars in the lot and a couple of local kids home from college on summer break gave the 40 minute general public tours that anyone could go on without getting dirty or crawling through caves. The tour the group was going on took 7 - 8 hours and was for experienced cavers only.
“I love your garden” Pam told Cynthia while they were waiting for Craig to finish up with a public group.
“Thanks, do you garden?” Cynthia asked
“Yes, we have a large garden at our home up in Wisconsin; it’s so hard to keep up with though, even with 2 of us caring for it.” Pam replied.
“I know, but it’s so worth it, there’s nothing better tasting than your own homegrown vegetables – store bought just doesn’t even compare.” Cynthia said.
“Ok, folks, sorry for the delay, as my gorgeous wife Cynthia has probably already told you, I’m Craig and together we’ll be your hosts for this tour, let’s take a moment and have you all tell us a bit about yourselves and your Caving experience.”
When they were finished Craig said “It sounds like everyone is a very experienced caver, nevertheless, as I am sure you already know, I am required to go over the rules and safety guidelines……..”
A few minutes later he was explaining the cave system and where they would be going “The public area of the cave is actually in the middle of the system, we will view the public area first which takes about 45 minutes and then we'll go out into areas a bit harder to get to that the general public doesn't see, we'll go about 60 minutes east, and back and we’ll come back to the middle public area, we’ll take a 15-20 minute break at that point and then we’ll go into the western caverns that the general public also does not get to, these are a bit over 2 hours each way. I mention the break in the middle cause that is where the restrooms and vending machines are, and speaking of restrooms, now would be a good time, let’s meet back here in ten minutes and get started”.
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Post by mnn2300 on Apr 28, 2012 18:50:29 GMT -6
Vanished Chapter 3 Saturday July 2nd
This made no sense to Laura at all; she wondered what she had done to be assigned to babysit the babysitter. She was a Security guard at the Walsh New Horizons corporate retreat at Orion Lake in Wisconsin. Since it was the long 4th of July holiday weekend the retreat was packed with big shots from Corporate. The weather was beautiful yet here she was, 100 feet below ground in an old mining tunnel that had been turned into some kind of fallout shelter or something, babysitting the Walsh nanny and the 3 Walsh children. Oh well, far be it from a lowly security guard to question the Chairman of the Board’s reasons, but she was a bit claustrophobic to begin with, thankfully it was not just a concrete bunker, this actually looked like a high end hotel with high ceilings which helped her claustrophobia a lot, unfortunately she still knew it was 100 feet below ground. Oh well, it beat walking a patrol with the corporate bigwigs, many of whom when they got to the retreat and out of their suits and ties into a social setting thought they were God’s gift to women.
“Did Mr. Walsh tell you how long we’d have to stay down here?” Victoria, the nanny asked Laura.
“No, just that he’d be down a bit later. Hopefully it’s not too late, I’m supposed to be off at 8PM and I’m working the 8AM shift in the morning. Laura said looking at her watch, it was just before 3PM
“Bruce, stop playing with the elevator buttons.” Victoria said to young Bruce Walsh the fourth, who was only 5 years old, the elevator was old and slow and they heard it make its long descent from ground level in response to Bruce’s playing with the button.
----
“Damn it, we’re late and the elevator is not here.” Bruce said to his assistant Brittany Wells.
“It’ll be here Bruce.” Brittany said.
“We were already supposed to be in the shelter, the test starts in less than 2 minutes, those damn investors and their constant questioning.” Bruce said.
“Relax Bruce.” Brittany said moving against him, “I’ll have to find some way to relieve all that tension.” She teased running her hands down his chest. Just then the elevator door opened, he moved them both in the elevator and pressed the down button and then pressed her up against the wall, kissing her deeply.
As Laura heard the elevator start to descend again suddenly an extreme wave of nausea swept over her and her vision went cloudy. A few seconds later Laura saw the elevator door open and close again but there had been no one inside of it to get out. Laura could hear the children crying and saw Victoria, the nanny, rubbing her eye’s and forehead, and the Walsh children complaining about not feeling well holding their bellies or their heads.
Laura, unable to hold her nausea back any longer, ran into the restroom.
* * *
They had just finished the 2nd leg of their expedition when they had a bit of a problem, there was a point where they had to shimmy down a ledge and Russ slipped and fell, at the same time Jessica and Cynthia both got nauseous and threw up, Jim said he was having trouble with his vision and the rest reported getting dizzy and not feeling well. “Let’s get out of here quick’ Jim told Craig, “There may be a buildup of some kind of gases causing us problems.”
They quickly moved up the path and within 5 minutes all were feeling better except Russ who was limping, Jim checked out Russ’s leg and declared it not broken, but they would have to wrap it when they got back and Russ would need to take it easy for a few days.
They made better time on the way back even with Russ’s leg. Craig said he and his crew would go back the next day with breathing gear and test kits and try to see what happened. They all looked around the little gift shop every tourist place has, except for Russ who sat down on a bench and rubbed his leg. A few minutes later after saying goodbye and thanking Craig and Cynthia, they got into their vehicles to head back to the inn and a bar-b-que they had planned for that evening. When they walked out there was still one car in the parking lot, Craig recognized it as one of their guides and said to his wife “Jeff must have gotten a ride home with Alex”
* * *
“Dang, this area dies after 5, I haven’t seen a car yet” Jim said.
“Well, it’s a holiday weekend in a rural area so that’s not too surprising, but the radio is on the fritz too, probably the solar activity they were talking about, nothing but static.” Chrissy added.
The brake lights of John and Stacy’s car ahead of them went on and the car pulled quickly over to the side. Jim then saw what must have stopped John, there was a car down through the ditch and then went head on into a tree, the front end was smashed in about 3 feet shorter than it should have been. Three of them ran to the vehicle while Stacy tried to call 911 on her cell phone.
“There’s nobody in it” Chrissy said, looking around.
“Hard to believe anybody walked away from that” John said having spent a lot of time working the ER room in his Residency period.
“Maybe it’s an old wreck” Chrissy said.
“No the radiator is still leaking and the engine is still warm, this didn’t happen too long ago” Jim said.
“That’s really strange” Chrissy said, looking inside the car.
“What?” Jim said.
“The seat belt is fastened” Chrissy said.
“Maybe he’s the type not to wear a seat belt and fastens it to stop the seat belt alarm from going off and then sits on top of it.” Jim replied.
“If he or she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, they didn’t walk away from this one, and the windshield is intact so no one's head hit it.” John said.
“I can’t get a signal out here.” Stacy said holding up her phone.
“That’s ok, whoever it was is already gone” Chrissy said.
“Dead?” Stacy asked.
“No, there’s no one in the car, they must have been picked up already.” John replied.
By then the other car holding the remaining 4 members of their group pulled up and after filling them in on what happened they all got back in their cars and continued back to the Bed and Breakfast. John picked up the Inn’s phone and called the county sheriff’s office about the car wreck they saw, didn’t reach anyone but was able to leave a message, he just shook his head at how small town police departments work. Hopefully whoever had the accident was OK.
* * *
For the first time since they first arrived at the Inn, Bob the black lab, was not sitting on the porch waiting for anyone to pass his way. They had bought some burgers and hot dogs, chips and beer to have a BBQ and Mrs. Johnston had put them in the kitchen for them, they got the grill going and walked into the kitchen to get the food and beverages.
“Mrs. Johnston! Are you here?” Jessica yelled, waiting a few seconds she hollered again but there was still no answer.
“She probably went out, let’s just grab the stuff” Pam said walking over to the fridge.
* * *
There were still a couple of beer’s in the coolers, however the; burgers, hot dogs and chips were gone. Unlike last night, the mosquito’s had not bothered them at all tonight. Bob, the dog, was not around so was not bugging them for attention, the northern lights were still putting on an amazing show, a great ending to a great day, well great except for that one spot in the cave and Russ complaining about his leg. The couples eventually retired back to their own rooms.
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Post by kaijafon on Apr 29, 2012 14:25:20 GMT -6
good start. what's up with the question marks in the diamonds though? lol! I hate it when c/p doesn't work.
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Post by admin on Apr 29, 2012 15:33:27 GMT -6
good start. what's up with the question marks in the diamonds though? lol! I hate it when c/p doesn't work. Question Marks in diamonds? I don't see those and I looked in 3 different browsers; IE8, Google Chrome, and Firefox. Where are you seeing that and what browser are you using? Is anyone else seeing anything strange either on this thread or any other thread? |
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Post by admin on May 2, 2012 7:31:22 GMT -6
I take it no one else is seeing any 'question marks in diamonds' or anything else strange in this (or any other) thread?
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Post by mnn2300 on May 2, 2012 8:51:51 GMT -6
Vanished Chapter 4 Saturday July 2nd (Wisconsin)
Laura, after losing her lunch, helped Victoria with the children who recovered quickly. They settled in the lounge area which was complete with TV and videos appropriate for the kids. Someone kept this shelter up to date as there were current magazines and a small library with one set of shelves with current best sellers. Laura looked at her watch, 5:30 and still Mr. Walsh hadn’t shown up, the kids finished their first video and were hungry; Victoria looked around the shelter and found a kitchen and what had to be a year’s worth of canned and pouch food. Luckily someone had thought of kids and stocked some items children would eat; she opened a big can of SpaghettiO’s® and got them fed. Then took them into the lounge and put in a video for the kids to watch.
Eight PM came and went and Laura was getting irritated, finally at 8:30 she told Victoria “I think they forgot about us, I really need to get going, I have my report to put in for the day and then I have to be back to work at 8AM.”
“Yeah, I think you are right, let’s go up, it’s past the kid’s bedtime.” Victoria replied.
Laura, having worked in the office building today rather than the security office, had parked her jeep in the office parking lot rather than the regular employee parking lot. After filling out her report and sending it via email to her boss, she exited the back gate and drove the 3 miles to the far outskirts of Lake City where she lived in one of the small town’s apartment complexes. She shared her apartment until 2 weeks ago with her boyfriend Brent, she had switched hours at work two weeks previously and while she had told Brent apparently he had not listened, she came home at her new time, which was two hours earlier than she had been getting home, and found Brent in bed with a woman from down the hall. Brent she kicked out immediately and the neighbor was staying out of her way.
Laura arriving home and was about to turn into the parking lot of the apartment but was waiting for a van to finish their turn out of the lot, it was just sitting there with its blinker on, she waited and waited, and finally got out of her jeep and walked over to the van about to tear into the driver when she saw there was no driver, in fact no one was in the van, she opened the driver’s side door and saw the keys were in the van – she hit the horn a couple times, which only made her head pound more, but no one came to move it. Since the keys were in it she decided to move it herself. It was an almost new Chrysler Town and Country van -- fully loaded, what kind of idiot would walk away and leave the keys in it she thought to herself. She pulled it back into the lot and parked it in a vacant stall, she debated locking the keys inside but decided just to throw them into the center console, which she did, going back to her jeep and pulling it into her parking spot.
"Serves them right if someone steals it." She said to herself.
Entering her apartment she was still not feeling well from whatever it was that happened earlier, her stomach was still upset and she had a slight headache, she grabbed a serving of yogurt out of the fridge and called it dinner and then went to bed.
Victoria got the children back to their rooms, she didn't see Mr Walsh, or anyone else for that matter, 'That's unusual' she thought to herself, but then remembered there was supposed to be a big dinner and some kind of entertainment for the big wigs. She got the children in bed, and then, feeling wiped out from whatever happened earlier, decided bed was a good idea.
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Post by kaijafon on May 3, 2012 15:09:56 GMT -6
I take it no one else is seeing any 'question marks in diamonds' or anything else strange in this (or any other) thread? I'm using Mozilla Firefox and they are everywhere that a quote or apostrophe is.  it's ok, I can deal with it.... yes they appear to me in the latest post also. lol! maybe I'm just special! |
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Post by kaijafon on May 3, 2012 15:10:52 GMT -6
testing to see if they show up ....
�Doctor Scott, will you be ready or not?�
so does anyone see them? here on this reply?
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Post by mnn2300 on May 3, 2012 16:49:45 GMT -6
I see the example you posted in your post, but I don't see it in any of my posts with any browser I have.
Is anyone else seeing them?
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Post by kaijafon on May 3, 2012 21:19:18 GMT -6
I see the example you posted in your post, but I don't see it in any of my posts with any browser I have. Is anyone else seeing them? they are all gone!!! yay!! most likely it was some fluke on my end. they didn't stop me from reading the great story though! |
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Post by mnn2300 on May 10, 2012 10:27:42 GMT -6
Vanished – Chapter 5 Sunday July 3rd
“Mrs. Johnston! Mrs. Johnston! Are you here?” Chrissy called out.
“Maybe she’s sick, or worse” her husband Jim said “I say we go in.”
“Yeah you’re right, there could be something very wrong” Chrissy said, turning the handle on the door to the old woman’s room.
As she opened the door she was almost bowled over by Bob, the black Lab, rushing to get outside.
“Well that’s one mystery solved” Jim said.
“Hey I thought there was a breakfast component to this Bed and Breakfast Inn!” they heard Russ say.
“We’re trying to find Mrs. Johnston, she’s not in her room and her bed is made, either she wasn’t here last night or she was up early and gone.”
“Well, you can keep looking, I’m going to make some coffee and see what there is to eat.” Russ said, barely limping anymore unless he knew someone was looking at him.
Jim and Chrissy decided to knock on the doors to the other rooms, just in case Mrs. Johnston was cleaning them or something.
Bob having finished his business scratched to get back inside and made a beeline for Mrs. Johnston’s door.
“She’s not there boy, we already looked.” Chrissy said.
Bob still scratched at the closed door.
“Open the door for him, let’s see what he does” Jim said.
Bob ran into the room and sat down in front of an easy chair that just had knitting needles with some yarn attached to them laying on the seat, it appeared she had just started a project and had dropped it there, Bob started whining.
“It’s like he’s trying to tell us something” Chrissy said.
“Yeah, that he’s a nutty dumb dog” Russ said from the doorway as he sipped a cup of coffee.
“No, something happened here; why wouldn’t she at least leave a note or something if she wasn’t going to be here?” Jessica who had been standing off on the side said.
“Maybe we should call up to the caves and ask Craig if he knows, he is her grandson after all” Chrissy said.
“There’s a brochure with the number at the sign in desk.” Jim said. “I’ll try it”
There was a phone on the desk so he picked it up and dialed the number. “It just plays a message about their hours and location, can’t even leave a message, but they don’t open until 1 PM on Sundays and its only 9:30.
“Jim, lets drive up there, there’s something wrong” Chrissy said. “Do y’all want to come too?” Chrissy asked Russ and Jessica.
“No, we’all don’t want to come too,” Russ replied. “I’m going to sit right here and enjoy my coffee and maybe have some breakfast.”
Jessica who was standing behind him rolled her eyes at her husband’s rudeness.
“You know, I really like Jessica, but Russ is turning into more of a jerk every time we see him” Chrissy said a few minutes later as they were driving to the Caves.
“Yeah and that coffee he was drinking was Irish coffee, did you smell the booze in it” Jim said.
“I missed that,” she replied “but Jessica says he’s under a lot of pressure at work and drinking more and more. Apparently there have been 2 layoffs at his company and they keep raising the sales quota.”
“That no reason to turn into a drunk and a jerk,” Jim replied. “he needs to find a different job if there’s too much pressure.”
“Apparently jobs in his field are all high pressure in New York and – WATCH OUT!” Chrissy yelled.
Wandering into the road was a deer, it had a dazed look on its face and then suddenly realized it shouldn’t be where it was and ran off into the woods on the side of the road.
“Did you see how strange it acted at first” Chrissy asked.
“Now you know where they get the term “like a deer in the headlight’s” from.” Jim said.
They were just about to the turnoff for the Caverns and Jim pointed out how strange it was they hadn’t seen a single car the entire way here.
“Well its Sunday, maybe they’re all at Church” Chrissy said.
“Everyone?” Jim asked shaking his head.
“You’re right it is weird.” Chrissy admitted, feeling the hair on the back of her neck start to tingle.
* * *
“They’re not answering the door” Jim said.
“There’s no car in their driveway, but there’s a car in the parking lot that I think was there yesterday” Chrissy said.
“Maybe they went somewhere.” Jim said. “I’ll leave them a note and we’ll head back.”
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Post by mnn2300 on May 10, 2012 10:35:28 GMT -6
Vanished Chapter 6 (Wisconsin)
Laura’s alarm went off for what was her 7th work day in a row, she got up turned on the TV to the local morning show that she usually had playing in the background while she got ready for work, but got nothing but static – must still be the solar activity causing problems she thought to herself. She finished her shower, made a bowl of instant oatmeal for herself, and was on her way by 7:40 for her 8AM shift. She was on regular duty today inside the compound.
“Better not let any of them hear you call it that.” She told herself. “It’s the Executive Retreat or even just The Retreat, never The Compound.” That had been drilled into them from day 1, no matter what the locals called it. Pulling up to the employee entrance gate she pulled her badge out ready to flash it to the guard at the gate.
She slowly pulled up but there was no one in the little guardhouse, looking around, she reached over and unhooked the release on her holster so she could easily get at her service revolver sitting on the seat next to her.
“Somebody’s in big trouble.” She said aloud driving through the gate and into the employee parking lot. She quickly exited her Jeep, belted on the holster and jogged to the Security Office. There was no one inside, she looked at the whiteboard that held the days assignments and saw it still had Saturdays assignments listed.
“Must be an emergency somewhere.” Laura said to herself, looking at the indictor panel there was nothing flashing, nor was there anything in the log book, in fact the log book was still open to yesterdays date and nothing had been entered after 3PM. She exited the security office and got into one of the golf carts that the security guards used to quickly get around the grounds.
She first headed towards the lake, passing the playground she saw the Walsh’s nanny out with the children and waved. She passed the rest of the hotel area without seeing anyone else. Driving down by the lake, there was no one around. “I guess the corporate bigwigs get to sleep in on Sundays.” She said to herself, she drove over to the golf course by the tennis courts, got out of the cart and went into the Pro Shop.
“Hello.” She hollered, after not seeing anyone at the counter.
“Hello.” She hollered again, going though the back, to where the caddies usually waited and the golfers could pick up carts. “Anyone here?”
She went back inside and looked in the ladies locker room – no one there either. She knocked on the men’s locker room door announcing herself before walking in. “Security! Anyone in here!?” Looking around she saw no one. She jumped back in her cart and drove to the reception desk where someone had to be on duty – no one there either.
Feeling a shiver run down her spine Laura walked to the dining hall and back into the kitchen, there should have been 4 or 5 people in there, preparing breakfast for the guests, instead she found no one, but she did smell the ribs in the smokers that was supposed to have been served the previous night, looking around the kitchen she saw that someone had been prepping lettuce for salad but had left it on the counter to wilt and start turning brown. “What the heck is going on?” she said to herself.
She drove the cart back to the playground.
“Victoria?”
“Hi Laura.” Victoria replied.
“Have you seen anyone today?” Laura asked.
“Now that you mention it, no, but then it’s early and we just came out a few minutes ago, why?” Victoria asked.
“I don’t want to alarm you but I’ve been all over the Retreat and can’t find anyone but you and the children” Laura answered.
“Do you know why Mr. Walsh wanted his family in the shelter?” Laura inquired.
“Not really, I overheard he and Ms Wells talking about an experiment and him wanting his family in the shelter just in case. I didn’t hear the rest because of the twins, they were tired and cranky.” Victoria suggested.
“I think I’m going to make a few phone calls and try to see what’s going on.” Laura said. “Will you be out here long?”
“Probably, the kids usually play for an hour or so in the morning.” Victoria answered.
“I’ll be back in a bit.” Laura said. She went back into the security office and started making phone calls, she called the emergency numbers for the head of security at the Retreat and went right down the list of emergency numbers, 8 calls later she was down to her name on the emergency call list, having gotten voicemail or no answers at all at any of the 8 numbers. She then called the main office security department in St Paul that was manned 24/7/365 and it just rang and rang.
She tried a few of her friend’s phone numbers and even her parents and got no answer other than voicemail. Her heart was racing as she sat at the desk trying to figure out what was happening.
Going back out to Victoria and the kids she told Victoria “I’ll be back in a bit, I’m going to drive into town and try to see what’s going on, but just in case here is my cell phone number.”
Victoria gave Laura her cell number also.
Laura drove around town and didn’t see anyone, she did see a number of vehicles in wrecks, both with other vehicles and against the curb or a building or in a ditch, stopping at the first few they were all similar, it appeared they drove until they ran into something which was weird enough but the eerie thing was the driver’s side seat belt was fastened in every case and sometimes the passenger side also, like the people just vanished. She went into a few buildings and it was the same, lights were on but no one was there, just like everyone had left, dropping whatever they were doing at the time.
Driving back at the Retreat, Victoria and the kids were not at the playground, Laura’s imagination started going wild on her and she ran to the door into the Walsh’s room and knocked; Victoria opened it and invited her in. She said “Well?”
Laura told her what happened.
“What do we do now?” Victoria asked.
“I don’t know, I drove around Lake City and from what I saw there was no one there, it was like everyone had vanished. It makes no sense; did you hear anything else about what was going to happen?” Laura asked.
“I didn’t but maybe....... Bruce, would you come here please.” Victoria asked.
“Bruce, remember yesterday when your Dad was saying that we all had to go down into the shelter.”
Bruce nodded his head.
“Why did he say we had to go to the shelter?” Victoria prodded
“Cause of the sperriment” Bruce answered
“The experiment?” Victoria asked him.
He nodded his head again.
“Do you know what kind of experiment?” Laura asked.
Bruce shrugged his shoulders.
“OK, Thank you Bruce” Laura said.
“You’re welcome.” He said going back to play.
“So something went wrong with some experiment and now the 5 of us in the shelter yesterday are the only people around?” Victoria asked, goose bumps rising on her arms.
“That’s kind of what it sounds like.” Laura said.
“Whatever it is, it’s just local right? I mean there has to be other people around.” Victoria asked.
“Yeah, I sure hope so.” Laura said, not at all sure of herself.
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Post by mnn2300 on May 10, 2012 10:55:30 GMT -6
they are all gone!!! yay!! most likely it was some fluke on my end. they didn't stop me from reading the great story though! So they......Vanished? |
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Post by kaijafon on May 10, 2012 11:16:34 GMT -6
lol! yes, they did 'vanish' but they are back now. lol! I don't know why those little � appear and disappear no matter, I'll still read the story cause it's good!! |
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Post by mnn2300 on May 11, 2012 16:40:40 GMT -6
Vanished – Chapter 7 Sun July 3rd (Missouri)
Hearing the truck pull in Bob started barking and ran up to it.
Craig and Cynthia jumped out, Craig yelling “Grandma, are you here? Grandma?”
“She’s not here” John said, opening the door into the lobby of the Bed and Breakfast.
“Where is she?” Craig asked, you could hear the tension in his voice.
“I don’t know, we didn’t see her last night and we’ve searched all over this morning and couldn’t find her.” John replied. Cynthia was crying and Craig was almost to that point himself.
“What’s going on?” Pam asked, having a sinking feeling in her gut that it wasn’t just a missing old lady when she asked.
“We went to Church this morning and there was no one there, not a car in the lot and the doors were locked, we went into town and there was no one – everyone has just vanished.” Craig said haltingly as if trying to piece it all together.
“I want some of whatever you’ve been drinking” Russ interjected.
“I haven’t been drinking” Craig said “I know it sounds strange, but we went into a bunch of businesses in town and there’s no one there, businesses that normally aren’t open Sunday mornings were open, doors unlocked, lights on, like the people just stepped out for a minute. There’s nobody out walking around, no cars on the road, but a couple of wrecks in town, like people were driving and just vanished and the cars kept rolling til they ran into something.”
“People don’t just vanish” Russ said. “There’s got to be a rational explanation.”
“Like what?” Pam inquired.
“Like a….a…….. an evacuation, that’s it, something happened and the people were all evacuated.” Russ said.
“Why wouldn’t the Army or FEMA or something be here then?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t know, maybe…..maybe it’s widespread.” Russ said.
“Try calling someplace in another city” Mark said.
“Do you have any numbers?” John asked.
“Look up the number for a chain store in a city – like Sears or Best Buy or something like that; every major city has at least one of those.” Mark said.
Just then Jim and Chrissy pulled in and got filled in on what had happened while John was looking up phone numbers on his Smart Phone, after he dialed the 3rd number with no answer his face started losing color, as they watched him keep dialing number after number the faces in the group got more and more concerned.
“I tried calling 6 Marriott Hotels in 6 different cities and 3 Best Buys in 3 different cities, no answer at any of them” John said.
“What Cities?” Jim asked.
“San Francisco, St. Louis, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, and Seattle for the Marriott’s, and Kansas City, Minneapolis and Dallas for the Best Buy’s, something is dreadfully wrong.”
“Are you trying to say that everyone on the planet disappeared except for us, come on.” Russ said.
“Here, you dial some numbers if you want to.”
“Can you try other countries?” Jessica asked.
“I’ll try” John replied.
30 minutes later he had tried hotels in: London, Vancouver, Montreal, Paris and Tokyo and just shook his head.
“Oh my God” Cynthia kept repeating over and over and started hyperventilating.
The doctor in John took over and stood right in front her talking slowly but firmly telling her to slow down, her breathing came back into control in a couple minutes.
“Look people, I know things don’t look good right now, but I find it hard to believe that out of 7 billion people on the planet, we’re the only ones left, it doesn’t make any sense. Why would humans disappear and not animals. If some kind of cosmic event happened to get rid of all the humans, wouldn’t it also get rid of all the animals too? Bob is still here.” John said.
“We saw a deer too and some birds” Chrissy added.
“There’s livestock on the farms too and I smelled a skunk this morning” Craig said.
“Great; us, a crazy dog, pigs and cows and a skunk.” Russ said.
“Why don’t you go have a drink or 10 and let the rest of us try to figure this out” Pam yelled.
“Yeah, I think I will.” Russ said walking towards the door. “When you get this all figured out and wrapped up nice in ribbon and bow, you let me know.” Russ yelled back as he slammed the door.
“What a jerk!” Pam said, “I’m sorry Jessica, but your husband has changed for the worse, big time.”
Jessica with tears running down her face said “I know, I know.”
Pam put her arms around Jessica and they both had a good cry.
* * *
“So what do we do?” Mark asked.
“It’s about 2 hours to St Louis and about 3 hours to Kansas City from here, ” Craig said. “I suggest we head to one or both and check things out.”
Jessica said “My parents are in Topeka, a bit past Kansas City, I want to go with whoever is going to be heading that way.”
“Depending on the roads it may take a lot longer if there have been wrecks like Craig and Cynthia saw in town” John replied.
“Yes, but it’s just after 10 now, we have 9 or 10 hours til dark” Mark replied.
“How about if Jessica and Russ and Pam and I go that way/” Mark asked.
“Yeah, that would be great” Jessica said. “Russ rented a little 2 seater, what are you driving? “We drove Pam’s Camry, it’s an oldie but it’s comfortable.” Mark said.
“What about you guys?” Pam asked John and the others.
“I don’t think we should go out in parties of less than four, just in case, and if four more of us left at the same time, that would only leave two here. I don’t think that would be a good idea, but we can drive around the area for a few hours while you’re gone.” John replied.
“Let’s plan on your being back here a certain day and time, you can drive straight to Jessica’s parents house and then on the way back explore, today is Sunday, Let’s say you’re back by dusk on Monday or maybe noon on Tuesday at the latest. Don’t drive at night though, you won’t be able to see things in the road until you’re right on top of them, and be careful going over hills and around corners, don’t overdrive your braking ability.” John said.
“I’ll go get Russ” Jessica said turning and going outside.
“Look, If we’re it, I don’t know how long the internet is going to be up or the electricity for that matter, but I want to look up some sources of stuff that we’ll need before we leave, give me 20 minutes or so on the inn’s computer.
“What kinds of things do you think we’ll need if this really is the end of the world?” Jim asked Mark quietly. “I can look up stuff after you get what you need for this trip off the internet.”
“Whole house generators, fuel for them; LP Gas probably. PriG and PriD to keep gas and diesel good, wind mills and solar panels, actually the whole solar set up: panels, batteries, inverters. Seeds, open pollinated seeds, there’s a Heritage seed place somewhere in Kentucky– it’s ummm….Lexington Seed, get directions to that for sure. Hybrid seeds like Home Depot or Lowes sells don’t always breed true. Find out the location of any other open pollinated or heirloom seed places. Print out maps to every place you find…… What else, oh Mason Jars, find out where they make them or distribute them from at least and pressure cookers, find out where we can get a few of the big All-Americans canners from, Dehydrated and Freeze dried foods, gosh, there’s hundreds of things I’m probably not going to think of that we’ll need. Find some survivalist stores”
Twenty minutes later Mark had what he wanted off the internet for this trip and Jim had a list to work on after they left.
Jessica was waiting at the Camry obviously had been crying some more.
“Let me guess, he doesn’t want to come along.” Pam asked,
Jessica just shook her head no.
“You want me to talk to him or maybe just grab him and throw him in the back of the car?” Mark asked.
“No, he’s made his choice of what’s important.” Jessica said her voice breaking as she did so.
“I’ll be right back” Pam said.
“Don’t try to…” Jessica started saying.
“I’m not going to.” Pam said walking into the Inn. She came out a couple minutes later with 3 bottles of water and a box of Kleenex from a room. She got in the back seat with Jessica and put an arm around her, handing her the box of Kleenex.
“Thanks.” Jessica said.
Mark pulled out of the parking lot.
* * *
“Can you believe him?” Stacy said. “Not going with his wife to find her parents.”
“That’s what happens when someone jumps into a bottle with both feet.” John replied.
“What can we do?” Stacy asked.
“Nothing really, I’ll try talking to him when he is sober, but I don’t know how long this has been going on and to what degree. He’s really the only one that can help himself.” John replied.
“Do you really think we’re the only ones left?” Stacy asked her husband.
“I don’t see how that is possible.” John replied. “It just makes no sense that humans would disappear and other animals are left.”
“I know we don’t go to Church or anything, but do you think maybe they were right and this is judgment day or the rapture or something?” She asked him.
“From what I remember from Sunday School in my youth, this is not how that was supposed to happen either.” He replied.
“We’re going to drive around, see if we can find anyone.” Craig announced. “Does anyone want to come with us?”
John looked over at Jim
“Not me right now, maybe later, I’m still downloading stuff for Mark. Why don’t you and Stacy go this time and we’ll go next time” Jim replied.
“Sure, let’s go.” Stacy said.
“Your car or ours?” Craig asked.
“We’ve got a year old Expedition” Stacy said.
“Yours it is.” Craig replied looking out at his 9 year old Chevy pickup.
* * *
“I am so mad at that jerk” Jessica said after they had gotten on the road.
“How long has he been drinking like this?” Pam asked.
“About 8 or 9 months ago, his company laid off about a third of their salespeople and raised the quotas on everyone else, then about 6 months ago they were bought out by a larger company who brought in a bunch of their own people and laid off some more of his coworkers. He’s always enjoyed a cocktail, heck, so have I but when the company was bought out he started drinking more and more. Instead of just having a cocktail after dinner, he had one when he got home ‘to relax’ and then a beer or a glass of wine with dinner, then a nightcap or 2. Whenever I wanted to talk about it, he didn’t, or he would say he’s under so much pressure, he just wanted it to relax. Then of course the next day it would start all over again. Some days are better than others, he’s working 10 and 12 hour days and the only reason he took this vacation is that the company forced him to take the time off – use it or lose it they told him. He thinks they are using the week to bring someone in to look over his accounts, he’s figuring he may not have a job when he gets back.” Jessica said.
“Why hasn’t he quit or at least tried to find a new job?” Pam asked.
“The competition is fierce in his field right now and New York City is an expensive place to live, we couldn’t last on just my salary more than a couple of months.” Pam replied. “Plus if word gets out you’re looking for a new job, you’re gone.”
“Well, if what appears to have happened actually did happen, all that pressure is gone.” Mark said.
“Yeah, but there’s a whole new set of pressure, not to mention questions and fear, I haven’t let myself believe it yet, I mean what Russ said makes sense, doesn’t it? People have probably been evacuated somewhere, we’ll probably run into the Army or National Guard or something any minute now, right?” Jessica said.
“I don’t know Jess, possibly, I just don’t know.” Pam answered, feeling a shiver run down her spine even as she said it.
* * *
“How could this happen Doc?” Craig asked John.
“I’m not sure it has Mr. Johnston” John replied.
“Please call me Craig, and even though all we saw was the town, there’s something definitely happening” Craig said.
“It’s just not possible that 7 billion humans disappeared and nothing else.” Stacy said with a question in her voice.
“I’m going to have to have a bit more proof before I believe everyone except us has vanished, I’ll admit something very strange is going on, but what that is….I just don’t know yet.” John replied, pulling into the parking lot of the grocery store.
“Well, there are lights on and cars in the lot” Stacy said. “Let’s go in and see.”
All 4 got out of the vehicle and walked towards the doors of the store.
* * *
Mark pulled over near where 3 cars had crashed in the median strip of the highway and he and Pam got out to check it out, one of the cars, a van actually. had rolled over but the other 2 cars were upright, they all had 2 things in common, no one was in them and the driver’s side seatbelt was fastened, Mark got down on his knees to check the van that had rolled, same thing, except that both drivers and passenger side seat belts were fastened along with a baby seat in the back seat. Pam grabbed her husband’s hand and squeezed, he hugged her tightly, Jessica watching them from the back seat started crying again.
“There’s no one there is there?” Jessica said when they came back to the car.
“Nope, no one there.” Mark said.
“What else?” Jessica asked.
“The seatbelts were fastened just like that car yesterday” Pam said, tears running down her face.
“How is this possible? What do we do now?” Jessica cried out.
Mark was silent for a minute behind the wheel of the car, then turned the key and said simply “We go on.”
They passed a number of wrecks just like the previous one and after closely checking 2 more sets they started just slowing down and going around them rather than stopping for the rest, already knowing what they would find. In most cases the cars had run off the road, down into the ditch or into the median strip of the highway and mostly did not block the highway, occasionally they had to skirt the edges of a multiple car pileup, but the road had never been completely blocked. That did not hold true when they were about 40 miles outside of Kansas City. Apparently a cattle truck had been passing or was being passed by another semi, it was hard to tell, the cattle truck was sideways across all lanes of traffic with its back end partially in the ditch, the other semi had about cut it in half, and while there were certain to be dead cows in the cattle trailer there were also a dozen cows that had escaped the wreckage calmly grazing on the grass in the ditch, oblivious to whatever had happened. Jessica started laughing first and then Pam started, then Mark joined in, it was a healing laughter. Eventually Mark got out and checked the semi trailer to make sure there were no live cows trapped and also to see how he could get around it, Mark disappeared into the trailer for a couple minutes and then came back and opened the trunk of the Camry took out a gun and walked back to the trailer, a few seconds later the girls heard one shot and then a second. Mark came back and said “There was one cow still in there with 2 broken legs, I couldn’t let it suffer. We can go back about a 100 yards to a turn around and then cross over into the other side of the highway and get around the accident”.
As they left the grazing cattle behind Pam said,” I guess the translators got it wrong, it’s wasn’t the ‘meek’ shall inherit the earth, it must have been the ‘meat’ shall inherit the earth”, which wasn’t really that funny but started them all laughing again.
The closer they got to Kansas City the worse the wrecks got, they finally had to get the map book out and find a course that went around the city, they pulled off the highway and stopped at a gas station, the power was still on so Mark filled up, they all used the facilities and grabbed, literally, whatever they wanted in the way of snacks.
“This is really weird” Mark said.
“What part?” Pam asked him.
“Walking out without paying” Mark replied.
“The world just ended, 7 billion or so people disappeared, there’s cows grazing on the highway and not paying for gas and food is what weird’s you out?” Pam joked.
“What can I say? I was raised never to take anything that wasn’t mine.” Mark replied, then quickly added “Actually I paid for the gas, I had to put the credit card in to get the pump going.”
which started them all laughing again.
They got back on the road again and about 15 minutes later Mark spotted an Auto Parts store, he pulled in.
“Going to steal us a new set of tires?” Pam asked.
“Not a bad idea, but no, eventually the power is going to go out. I am seeing if they have a siphon hose that I can use for gas when that happens.” Mark replied.
He found one and was heading back out when he saw some gas cans, he wanted to grab some but he didn’t really want gas cans in the trunk of the Camry on a warm July weekend, he had seen a car catch fire a number of years back from the gas can it was carrying and while the driver got out safe it did leave an impression on him. As he walked out of the store he saw the Ford dealership across the road and stopped dead in his tracks, Pam and Jessica both saw him standing not moving for a minute, then two, and Pam jumped out followed quickly by Jessica both wanting to know what was wrong.
“Why are we driving a 9 year old Camry?” Mark said.
“Cause it’s my car and it’s what we drove down here.” Pam answered.
“Yeah, but wouldn’t you like something newer?”
“We can’t afford………..oh…….oh!” Pam said as the light dawned on her.
“Boy, you were weirded out by not paying for some candy and chips and now you’re just going to steal a new car….wow some people get corrupted fast.” Jessica said laughing.
They walked across the street to the Ford dealership and Mark spotted it right away, Pam saw what he was looking at and said “Well you always wanted one, let’s get it, I understand they’re giving really good deals on trade-ins today.” And both of them headed toward the brand new F250 Crew cab pickup that was sitting near the Service entrance with Jessica right behind. There was a clipboard on the front seat with a work order for dual gas tanks and a bed liner and the keys were also on the clipboard held down by the clip, Mark checked and there were in fact dual gas tanks on the new F250 along with a bed liner, he started it up and saw there was only 4 miles on the odometer and the sticker showing the price and options that was usually on the window was folded up in the glove box, apparently someone had just bought the truck and they were getting it ready for delivery when whatever happened, happened.. They drove the new truck over to the Parts store and transferred everything from the Camry to the truck, and then drove off toward the gas station he spotted a couple blocks down the road.
“You’re really giving that credit card a workout today.” Pam said.
“Yeah, good thing we have a high limit” Mark said filling up the new truck.
* * *
John, Stacy, Craig, and Cynthia walked into the grocery store, the automatic door opened, the lights were on, background music was playing, there were carts in the checkout lanes and some groceries on the checkout counter, what there wasn’t was people; no customers, no checkers, no people bagging groceries or stocking shelves. Cynthia reached down and turned off one of the belts that was trying to push the food further down to the bagging area, apparently it had been trying to push the food further down the stand for 24 hours now.
After walking around the store and back into the storerooms and cooler they left and walked the half block down to Main Street. All the businesses doors were unlocked but it was the same story, no people anywhere they went. In front of one business there was a pickup with its driver side window rolled down, John reached in and laid on the horn for a full minute before letting go, looking up and down the street to see if anyone would come out to see what all the noise was about – no one did.
“Where’s the closest larger sized city? John asked Craig.
“Jefferson City’s about 40 miles from here, it has a population a bit over 40,000.” Craig replied.
“Let’s go.” John said.
In a number of spots they had to weave around wrecks, John stopped for the first few and seeing the same thing in each, didn’t bother stopping for any more, they passed through a couple more small towns and he stopped in each and laid on his horn for a full minute, got a few dogs barking but no people came out to see what was happening. They got into Jefferson City and it was the same story, they went into a few businesses, lights on, some carts with merchandise in them, but no people, they drove around and it was the same story everywhere in town. Even John was coming to the conclusion that they might just very well be the last people on earth. Cynthia had been pretty much silent for the entire trip was now sobbing; her husband Craig put his arm around her trying to comfort her.
Stacy, tears in her eyes, said “Now what?”
“We go back and wait for Mark and Pam and Jessica, see what they found, then we sit down and try and decide what to do and where to do it.” John said starting to drive again.
A couple minutes later Stacy yelled “Stop!”
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Post by kaijafon on May 11, 2012 18:05:19 GMT -6
no no don't STOP!!!!!!
writing that is....
lol!
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Post by mnn2300 on May 14, 2012 13:44:56 GMT -6
Vanished – Chapter 8 Sunday July 3rd Continues (Missouri and Kansas)
Stacy yelled “Stop!”
“What?” John said, looking around. “Did you see someone?”
“Pull in there.” Stacy said pointing to a small shopping center.
John saw what she was pointing to and shook his head. He pulled up in front of a PetCo store hoping there were not too many animals inside. They had never been inside this particular PetCo but other Petco’s they had been in always had a small area devoted to the local humane society with cats and dogs waiting to be adopted. They also carried various other small animals; birds, hamsters, mice, and lizards. Inside the store were 2 cats in small cages, both adults. There was a container of Cat food next to the cages. She filled up their bowls petting each cat as she did so.
“We can’t rescue all the animals in the world.” John said.
“But we can’t leave the ones we find to die.” Stacy replied.
“I suppose we could let them go.” John said.
Cynthia looked at Craig who nodded his head. “Actually if we could put the cats in a cage and bring them back home, we would take them” Craig said to John.
Craig and John went to the back of the store to find a cage to bring the cats home in and also to grab a number of bags of cat food, cat litter, litter boxes, all the things you needed when you brought cats into your home.
“Could have been worse,” John said to Craig as they loaded the items into a shopping cart, “All the cages could have been full.”
Stacy and Cynthia took the cages of; birds, mice, hamsters, etc outside and let them go in a grassy area a ways down from the shop.
As Craig and John were placing everything in the back of the SUV John saw the two ladies, putting fish food in each tank and just shook his head.”Women!” he thought to himself.
The cats were not amused at the car trip, but eventually stopped their protests and quieted down.
* * *
Jim had brought his laptop down from the room and while Chrissy was printing things on the Inns computer and printer, he was downloading a number of articles to his laptop, figuring that they could always charge the battery with a generator if necessary.
Jim had no idea there was so much information about survival on the internet, articles about surviving in all sorts of situations along with how to articles, even entire forums devoted to prepping, survival and homesteading. It seemed like each website referenced a few other websites. He was starting to get quite a few “page not found” errors and wondered if the grid was going down or if they were just old, broken links.
“Are you getting hungry?” Chrissy asked Jim.
“Yeah, a bit” Jim replied.
“I’ll make us a couple of sandwiches” she said and left for the kitchen. A few minutes later she came back in with two plates with sandwiches and chips and then brought in a couple cans of soda.
“You think they found anyone?” Chrissy asked.
“I hope so, but who knows?” Jim replied.
“What do you think happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know – something probably while we were in the cave, no doubt about the time we all got sick. There’s a lot of solar activity right now, perhaps the cave protected us from whatever it was.” Jim answered.
“But, if something was caused by the solar activity, wouldn’t it have affected the animals too?” Chrissy asked.
“You’d think so.” Jim said.
“What do we do now?” Chrissy asked.
“Well from everything we’ve been downloading and printing, we can survive, create a homestead, raise food and animals, and salvage a bunch of stuff to live on. Put up some green houses, do solar and wind power. 10 people aren’t a very diverse group to restart the human race, but it’s better than just Adam and Eve.” Jim replied.
Chrissy didn’t say anything; she just let Jims last statement sink in for a while.
* * *
“They’re not going to be there, are they?” Jessica asked as they got off the highway going into Topeka where her parents lived.
“Probably not” Mark said.
“We shouldn’t even bother, not after Kansas City” Jessica stated.
“We came this far, and it’s going to get dark in a few hours, so we might as well see.” Pam replied. “Besides, even if they aren’t there, won’t there be some things you want to take, pictures or something?”
“Yeah, I guess so” Jessica said.
A few minutes later they pulled into the driveway, got out of the truck and tried the door and found it unlocked.
“Mom….Dad!” Jessica hollered as she opened the door. She ran from room to room but there was no one there. She sat down on her parent’s bed and cried some more, Pam came in and held her hand until she was done. Mark walked out on the back patio and was greeted by a barking dog next door in a dog run, he saw there was a doggie door from the run into a sun room in the house..
“Hey boy, you happy to see someone? I bet you’re hungry.” Mark said. He tried the neighbor’s door, found it unlocked and went in to find some food for the dog. It took him a couple of minutes to locate the food but he filled the food bowl and the water bowl he found in the kitchen and slowly opened the patio door leading into the sunroom. “You’re not going to eat me are you boy?, no, you’d get one big meal out of me and then you wouldn’t get any more food or water if you ate me.” He said trying to calm the dog down, the dog pranced around and Mark set the food and water on the floor, the dog was wagging its tail as it ate. Mark didn’t crowd it but kept talking to it. He noticed he was calling it by the wrong sex, it wasn’t a boy, it was a girl. Looked like a large sized mixed breed to him, Looked like there was a lab and some shepherd and maybe a couple other things.
“Find yourself a friend?” Pam asked walking into the sunroom of the house.
“Looks like it” Mark said.
“Hi Bella” Jessica said from the doorway.
“I take it you know her?” Mark said.
“Well, she was just a puppy the last time I saw her – that was almost a year ago though” Jessica said.
Bella was dancing around, obviously happy to see people and get some food and she was, after all, the current center of attention.
“I wonder how trained she is?” Pam asked.
“Knowing Mr. Biglow, she’s probably trained very well.” Jessica answered.
“Strict guy?” Mark asked.
“Not really but his old dog could do lots of tricks so I figure he was probably good at training” Jessica replied.
“Let’s see” Mark said, throwing out some commands which Bella followed; sit, down, and speak all worked good, but when he told her to roll over she just looked at him. ‘Stay’ was ok, but when he told her to come she bounded over and almost knocked him over. Seeing an old tennis ball in the corner Mark grabbed it, opened the door and went outside telling Bella to come, he threw the ball about 20 feet away and told her to fetch, which she did, bringing the ball back again and again, finally tiring of it, she went and got a drink and laid down.
“I guess we’re done” Mark said.
“So are we going to spend the night here? Or go to a hotel?” Mark asked.
“I vote for here, you two can stay in the guest room and they really haven’t touched my old bedroom in the basement, after all this time.” Jessica said. “Besides, I really don’t want to be in a strange hotel room all by myself.” She added.
“Sounds good to me.” Pam said looking at her husband.
“I’m easy.” Mark said.
“I know” Pam said smiling at him.
“Next question, what’s for dinner?” Mark asked.
“I looked, not much in the house that isn’t frozen, my parents were big believers in ‘why cook when you could go out to eat’ so they didn’t keep a lot on hand” Jessica said, “We could go to the grocery though, maybe pick up some steaks or chicken or something?”
“Sounds good, where’s the nearest store?” Pam asked.
“Dillon’s grocery store is just a couple miles from here, lets lock Bella in the sun room here and we can get her out later” Jessica said.
Bella protested but Mark told her they’d be back and as they walked to the truck she was laying by the closed door waiting.
Before they left, Mark tried calling the others and reached Jim and filled him in on what they had found, or rather had not found – people that is. They confirmed that they would try to be back the next night but had a couple of stops in Kansas City he wanted to make to pick up a few items he had looked up on the internet.
Once they reached the store they picked out a few steaks and the fixings to go with them and also some bacon and eggs for the next morning along with some sandwich makings for the road and a couple big bags of dog food and some bottled water. Jessica wandered off to the pharmacy area for a minute and then rejoined Mark and Pam.
Back at the house the girls started a salad and some garlic bread while Mark grilled the steaks on the gas grill in the backyard. After dinner it was already getting dark outside, the street lights came on just like they had for years, the only difference was how quiet it was. Mark took Bella for a walk and then brought her back and into Jessica’s parent’s house.
“You mind if she spends the night here? I want her to get used to us.” Mark asked.
“No, that’s fine, she can sleep in the basement with me, unless you want her in with you?” Jessica said.
“Makes no difference, I just want her to get used to the idea that she’s with us now before we leave, probably make it easier on the road, speaking of which, unless you’re ok with her riding in the back seat of the Truck with you, perhaps we should switch to a big SUV.” Mark said to Jessica.
“The good one’s do fall hard when they start stealing cars” Pam said laughing.
“She can ride in the backseat with me, assuming she will that is.” Jessica said.
“Mark, you’ve said a couple times that the power will go out soon, why?” Jessica asked.
“Well much of the power in this country is generated by coal which is loaded into…well basically big boilers which then power big generators which supply the electricity, when the coal in them runs out, there is no one left to refill them. Areas with Nuclear power or Dams providing the power will last a lot longer. Hydroelectric Dams could generate power for years or even decades, but eventually some parts will fail with no one to replace them or a storm will blow the lines down. Nuclear will have its own problems, they’ll work until a part fails, however the spent rods are kept in a water bath to keep them cool, when the water evaporates – well just put it this way, we’re not going to want to be anywhere around it – it’ll be like Chernobyl except without anyone to enclose it in concrete.”
“How do you know all this?” Jessica asked.
“He reads a lot.” Pam answered.
“Well, I do read a lot but I saw this on an episode of Life after People on the History Channel.” Mark said.
“Life after People?” Jessica asked.
“Yup, it was a series that showed what would happen a month, a year, ten years, a hundred years after people vanished --- which seems to kind of have turned into real life.” He replied.
“We may have to stop off somewhere and see if they made a DVD of that.” Pam said.
“Do your parents have a computer?” Mark asked. “We should try to find out where all the nuclear power plants are so we can avoid them before the internet goes down completely.”
“Yeah, there’s an office setup in the basement.” Jessica replied.
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Post by kaijafon on May 14, 2012 21:41:37 GMT -6
yay! thanks! I'm really enjoying the story
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Post by mnn2300 on May 17, 2012 9:37:52 GMT -6
In case you wanted to know..
Characters so far in this story:
Jim and Chrissy - geologist, accountant, originally living in Dallas
Mark and Pam - Carpenter, Librarian, originally living in rural Wisconsin
John and Stacy, Doctor – Elementary school teacher originally living in suburban Minneapolis
Russ and Jessica- Stockbroker, Purchasing agent for large retail clothing chain, originally living in NYC
Mrs. Johnston - the innkeeper and grandmother to Craig
Craig and Cynthia- Cave guides, originally living in Missouri
Bob – Black Lab, dog of Mrs. Johnston
Bella – Lab Sheppard mix from Pam’s parents neighbor’s house
Bruce Walsh IV Wealthy CEO of Walsh New Horizons Corporation
Brittany Wells – his admin ass’t and mistress
Bruce V his 5 year old son
The Twins: Madison and Alexis his 3 year old daughters
I should have another chapter or 2 up today.
On a side note I am having Cataract surgery on my left eye on this coming Monday (May 21) and then on my right eye 3 weeks later. Everyone says its a piece of cake but I really hate the thought of needles and knives in my eyeballs, but it will make the blurriness I have been looking through for the last few months go away.
Anyway, not sure what my vision will be like for a few days after each operation so I am hurrying to get a few more chapters up before then.
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Post by mnn2300 on May 17, 2012 9:46:56 GMT -6
Vanished Chapter 9 Sunday July 3rd continues - Missouri
“Here’s our home phone number – assuming the phones keep working.” Craig said to John handing him a piece of paper with the number on it.
“Sure you don’t want to stay here? After all it’s your Grandma’s place.” Chrissy said.
“No, I think we’ll sleep easier in our own bed, besides we have to get these two cats into their new home.” Craig replied talking about the two cats they had acquired in Jefferson City.
On the way back they had stopped off at the grocery store and brought back a lot of groceries since the Bed and Breakfast didn’t stock too much food other than breakfast items. Craig and Cynthia loaded the two cats and their supplies and the groceries they had picked up and left for home.
“They seem like a nice couple” Stacy said.
“Yeah, they do, they’re awfully young though” John replied
“They’re only about 6 years younger than us, I think the difference is more city verses country, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against country folk, but they just don’t have to go through all the stuff people raised in the city do, I'm envious in a way because I think they get to grow up slower in some ways. City kids have to grow up so fast these days --- or did.” Stacy added.
Jim and Chrissy were anxious to hear about what John and Stacy had seen and done that day and also to share some of what they had learned and downloaded from the internet. They talked well into the night.
* * *
Cynthia was quiet in the truck on the way home, Craig held her hand. The cats started their ruckus all over again, but quickly quieted down. They arrived home and got the cats unloaded and into the house, still in their cages while they brought the rest of the stuff in the house and got the litter boxes set up and food and water bowls and put away the few groceries they brought. They opened the cage doors and both cats immediately headed behind the couch.
“It’ll take them a while to get used to the place, we’ll leave the small light over the stove on, that way they’ll be able to see the litter box and food and water in the kitchen. They’ll get used to the place in a couple of days or so.” Craig said.
“What’s going on?” Cynthia asked.
“You mean the people?” Craig asked.
Cynthia nodded her head.
“I don’t know, but I bet I know when it happened, remember when we all got sick or dizzy in the caves? I bet it was caused by whatever happened.” Craig said
“But what would cause all the people to disappear and everything else be left?” Cynthia asked.
“I don’t know, but God probably had a hand in it to keep some people alive.” Craig answered.
“Maybe we should pray.” Cynthia said.
“I haven’t stopped praying in my heart since this morning, but you’re right, let’s have a family prayer.” Craig replied as they both knelt down.
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Post by mnn2300 on May 17, 2012 10:07:04 GMT -6
Vanished – Chapter 10 Sunday July 3rd continues (Wisconsin & Minnesota)
"Victoria, we can't just sit here, we have to try to find someone." Laura said.
“Yeah, this is getting creepy, we need to try to find others.” Victoria replied.
“You’re probably going to need stuff for yourself and the kids, right?” Laura asked.
“We have some stuff here, we were planning on going back Tuesday though.” Vickie answered.
“Do the Walsh’s live around here?” Laura asked.
“Yeah, they have an estate in Eagan, a suburb of St Paul.” Victoria replied.
“I kind of want to drive around the cities so let’s head there and pick up your things and then we can make a big circle of the cities and try to find someone.” Laura said.
"Yeah there has to be people somewhere, right?” Victoria asked
“Somewhere, I hope” Laura replied.
“Next problem though, your jeep isn't really set up for 2 adults and 3 kids, is it?" Victoria said.
"No," Laura answered, thinking back to the van she had to move last night, "but I think I have a solution to that problem, I'll have to make a run into town, I know where a van is that I can get the keys to, I'll need to pick up a couple of car seats for the kids, does Bruce still use one?" Laura asked.
"He's right at the edge, usually he does sit in one of the larger ones, but he can fit into a regular seatbelt if necessary also." Victoria replied.
"I'll get the van and stop off at the store to find some car seats – I should be back in an hour or so, ok?" Laura asked.
"Ok." Victoria answered.
* * *
Laura drove back to the apartment, noting that the farm animals were still around, birds also. Pulling out of the retreat she passed a herd of cattle grazing in the pasture, just like they had since she transferred out here. She picked up the van from the parking lot of the apartment complex where she had moved it to earlier, glad that she hadn’t locked the keys inside, she then went to the local Pamida and found car seats she thought would work, she also picked up a small cooler and some juice boxes for the kids, stopped off and filled the van with gas and picked up some ice for the cooler, and was back to the Retreat in about an hour. Victoria helped get the car seats in place, noted that the rear seats had DVD players so she went inside and got a couple DVD’s to keep the kids occupied. She looked at her watch - hard to believe it was only a bit after 11 AM with everything that had happened. They left the retreat headed for the Walsh's home in Eagan, a south suburb of St. Paul.
When they got to Hudson, right on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border, they had to thread through a traffic jam. Being on the St Croix River, Hudson was a busy town on a holiday weekend. Reaching the Minnesota border the traffic wrecks cleared a bit and Laura was able to increase the speed a little bit, it was still going to take much longer than normal. They saw no humans at all, but like at the retreat there were plenty of birds and other animals. A few minutes later as they neared the turn off for 694/494 they saw the wreckage of a plane still smoldering, Laura slowed down. No emergency vehicles were in sight, no one was trying to put out the still smoldering grass, or the obviously burnt out housing development it landed on.
“If anyone were around wouldn’t they be trying to put out the fire?” Victoria queried.
“You’d think so.” Laura replied.
“So what do we do now?” Victoria asked.
"We'll keep looking for people, there has to be some somewhere." Laura said.
"But what if there is not, what if we're the last people on earth?" Victoria asked, tears in her eyes.
"I don't see how that's possible but if we are, then the Retreat is the perfect spot, it's getting its power directly from the dam. According to what I have heard they reworked the turbines and generators two years ago and they are getting their power directly from the dam, that along with the hotel there’s plenty of room and there is plenty of storage, so that's probably the best place to be. We'll salvage what we need from the cities and we'll start a garden, there are farms all around the area, and we have the kids to take care of.” Laura answered.
At the Walsh's house Victoria grabbed some suitcases and started filling them with clothes, and toys, a couple of family photos for the kids. She then filled a couple of boxes with her own stuff, Laura loaded it in the van while Victoria made lunch for everyone. The children, used to Victoria, did not understand that anything was out of the ordinary. The adults talked as they all ate.
"So are we going back to the retreat right away?" Victoria asked.
"I'd like to take a different route, perhaps go up Interstate 35W into Minneapolis and take Interstate 94 east, we'll go through both Minneapolis and St Paul that way and see if we can spot anyone. It'll add a bit of time to our trip but it'll be worth it I think. I also want to stop off at a store I know and pick up a shortwave radio and we'll see if we can pick up any broadcasts. The trip did take longer but they spotted no people anywhere along the way.
Laura, Victoria and the children reached the Retreat after 6 PM, the kids hungry again wanted dinner. They walked down the corridor from the Walsh's rooms to the dining area. Laura, remembering the meat in the smokers wondered if it was dried out or still good, She found the meat was still good, and took some meat off some of the rib bones and make some bbq sandwiches for everyone, she cooked up a basket of fries to go with it found some coleslaw in the cooler and there was watermelon for desert. Bruce ate the sandwich but the twins wouldn’t, so they ended up finding some hotdogs for them. After dinner they let the children play in the dining room while Laura and Victoria went about moving the smoked meats from the smokers and put it in the coolers
Laura went around turning off the cooking equipment, they figured out how to work the commercial dishwasher and ran the dishes and pans through. Laura took notice of both the walk-in cooler and walk-in freezer both of which were quite full and also of the storeroom.
While Victoria put the kids to bed, Laura got out the shortwave she had picked up from a store in St. Paul and put up an antenna outside, it wasn't pretty but it would hold for now, she could sturdy up the antenna later. Going through the dials they got nothing but static "Probably because of the solar activity." Laura said wondering if that was really the case or if there really was no one else. Later after the kids were sound asleep Laura said, "We have a lot of food but not much variety. I think perhaps tomorrow I should start hitting grocery stores and bringing food and other items in, I don't know how long the power will stay on in the cities, but one or two grocery stores should see us well into next year. I could get a truck and load it while you stay here with the kids."
"I don't want to be alone." Victoria said "It may be silly but we're too small of a group to split up. I was worried the whole time you were gone picking up the van. What if something happened to you, what if you didn't come back? I can't raise these kids alone." For the first time since all of this happened Victoria started crying. Laura sat down on the couch with Victoria and put her arm around her, Victoria turned and buried her head on Laura's shoulder and Laura held her until she was all cried out.
"I'm sorry, I've had to hold it all in for the children, but I'm scared Laura, really scared." Victoria said.
"I know, I am too." Laura said.
"Don't leave me, I can't raise the children on my own. There’s plenty of room here for you to stay rather than going back to your apartment at night" Victoria pleaded, crying again.
"I'm not going anywhere, we'll figure out a way to get everything we need without splitting up." Laura answered.
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Post by kaijafon on May 17, 2012 18:34:46 GMT -6
Thank YOU!!!! I appreciate the list of characters and the two chapters!!! the eye surgery is very quick and easy, one of the easiest I've heard of. So you should be able to see MUCH better afterwards. Sending good thoughts!!!! |
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Post by mnn2300 on May 18, 2012 16:06:10 GMT -6
So 300+ views and only kaijafon is commenting?
Anyone else liking it? hating it? think its good/bad/so-so/not sure yet/too soon to tell?
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Post by kaijafon on May 19, 2012 15:23:30 GMT -6
hmmmm, maybe all those views were from me checking for MOAR STORY!!!
(did you hear me growl when I wrote that??? lol)
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it's ok, I can deal with it....