All Except One

The day started off just like any other day for Walter Smith, just another businessman carrying a briefcase on his way to the office. He started in his apartment on the third floor, got dressed, grabbed breakfast, and headed out the door. Walter almost never took the stairs. He hated those stairs although he wasn't sure why, but hated them nonetheless. He would walk from his apartment on Third Avenue down to his office building on Eighth Street, enter the building, turn right and walk towards the elevator, ride it to the fifth floor, once again avoiding the stairs, and walk to his cubicle. Little did he know that today would be like no other day before it. What was about to unfold was more than he or anyone else for that matter would have ever expected.

Today was the day after payday, and Walter's pockets were feeling heavier than usual due to his hefty raise he received last month for the start of the new quarter. He had passed the rows and rows and blocks and blocks of homeless people every day en route to his building, and never even stopped a second to care, but today was different. Today, there was an old man sitting there among the other homeless people, and he looked homeless too, but he was not begging, he just sat there with a bag for money that appeared to be empty. He looked at the ground apparently ashamed to even be there. Walter was curious; he asked the man why he did not beg if he was in such poor condition. At this the man replied: "I do not beg, for it is not money I seek." At this Walter was somewhat perplexed, for the man fit in with the rest of the beggars along the block.

"Aren't you homeless?" he asked, his mind still swirling

"I am," replied the man "but I wasn't always this way. I am a scientist, or was I should say. In this bag is my life's work. I spent every last penny I had for this. Now I am looking to sell it, are you interested?"

"I don't want any part of anything illegal."

"Illegal? Ha, my friend, with this baby, you wont need to worry about the law anymore."

"How so?" queried Walter, still dumbfounded

"Well, anyone you want gone, well lets just say that they have ways of not coming around anymore."

Walter had hit some rough times lately, and the device definitely intrigued him. Vanishing whomever you wanted, whenever you wanted didn't sound so bad, so he took the device and continued on his way.

Walter had a meeting today. He hated meetings. He despised everything about them. Plus one of his co-workers brought his son along because the babysitter was on maternity leave. His son was the most annoying being that Walter had ever come across. Walter was wishing that there was some way to get the boy to go away, when he suddenly remembered the run in with the homeless man that morning. When nobody was looking, he slipped the vanishing ray out of his pocket, and zapped the boy. Poof! No more little brat. It was that simple. Everyone had been ignoring the child by that point, and if they had been paying attention, they would have figured that he wandered off somewhere. So it began. Walter had no idea that this insignificant event would trigger the event that would follow. Walter had played with his new toy throughout the day, vanishing such things as pencils and paper clips, but he was becoming hooked.

On his way home he walked back past the homeless scientist, and thanked him for the wondrous tool he had sold him. When he returned home, he found his landlord waiting at his door.

"Walter, the rent's due." She informed him

"I'm sorry, but I just don't have the money." Walter replied

"What do you mean you don't have the money? You make more than I do!"

"I had the money this morning, but then I spent it."

"On what?"

"A vanishing ray."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"No, really, it works!" At that Walter quickly vanishes a stool from under his bar. "See I told you it works"

"Oh, oh, oh my- I cant-" The landlord fumbled for words then gave up on language altogether. She reached into her pocket for her phone.

"What are you doing?" Walter asked, panic in his voice.

"I'm calling the police Walter. I cant allow that sort of thing. It's not safe!"

"Oh no you wont!" Walter zapped his landlord. Gone. Now Walter was in a predicament. The landlord's husband would soon come looking for her, and he knew Walter's apartment was her last stop for rent money. Walter tore off towards the office. When he got there, he found the landlords husband in the swivel chair behind the desk.

"Hey Walter, how's it g-" the landlord's husband began, but as soon as the words came out of his mouth Walter got him too. It was at that moment that Walter realized that he was not alone. There were other tenants in the lobby. He tried to zap them as well, but could not do so before one got in a 911 call. Once they were taken care of, Walter ran. He had never been in trouble like this in his life. He was sure "vanishing" would be considered the same as murder in court. He ran down the street in a panicked frenzy. People shot him weird glances as he passed, and in his delirious state, he zapped them too. When the first police car drove up, he zapped the entire car. Walter was vanishing people left and right. He was so out of his mind that he thought everyone was a witness, that everyone had seen what he did. He vanished the entire city, then the entire county, then the state, the country, continent, and finally the entire world. Walter, in his deranged rampage had vaporized the Earth's entire population in a matter of days. The whole world, except for one. Walter had saved the scientist for last. After all, it was he who did this to him, turned him into a monster, ruined his life.. He found the scientist sitting in his same spot on that same block, wearing the same clothes, with that same dejected look on his face.

"You!", Walter cried "You did this to me! You talked me into buying your invention by saying that it vanishes people. You left out one little part. You forgot to say that it would vaporize every my last shred of happiness or hope."

"Now you see", replied the scientist "Now you see why I was so eager to get rid of it. It was my greatest work, yet it was my greatest mistake."

"Well what do I do now? Everyone is gone."

"All you have to do to return them is wish them back"

"You're lying to me, there's no way the solution could be that easy. That's it I've had enough of you" Walter pointed the vanishing ray at the scientist and punched the button. Walter was alone.

Walter sat in bed that night thinking about what he had done. He was desperate he needed someone, something. He was so frustrated he punched trough a wall. His hand was bleeding but he was too depressed to care. He seemed to search everywhere for the solution. Almost everywhere. He had forgotten the one solution that made the most sense. His troubles started with the scientist, and now he would try and end the same way. He began to wish for everyone to return, with all his heart, with all his mind, and with all his soul. Suddenly, he began to hear noise outside. The noise of people, the noise of conversation. He wished harder and harder until he could wish no more. Everyone was back. He had done it. His world was the same again, or so it seemed.

Walter quikly rushed outside to apologize, but was chased back into his room by seemingly millions of angry people. They pounded at his door for days. They yelled death threats while Walter sat in the corned petrified with fear and sadness. Finally he realized the only solution. Walter picked up the remote, pointed it towards himself, and pushed the button.

That's not where this story ends however, for Walter was not dead. It turns out that "vanished" was not a black hole in the middle of deep space, but rather it was wherever the remote was not. Walter found himself a place where nobody would ever find him. There he wrote his autobiography including his sincerest apologies and sent it to the publisher with no return address. How do I know all of this? Well from this point I can no longer narrate this story, because this is that autobiography and I am Walter Smith.