2. Bryce And The Vanishings.
4:27 AM
Bryce awoke in his seat on the plane that was heading to New York City and saw a female brown-eyed shoulder-length blond flight attendant run past him and make her way down the aisle. The lights were off, so it was dark, with the only source of light being the night sky through the windows. "Excuse...gorgeous." He said to the female flight attendant. She rushed up to the curtain entrance leading to the cock-pit and made her way through the curtains, followed by the sound of her banging on the cock-pit door with her fist. The sound of the door opening and closing was then heard and the voices of the female flight attendant and male pilot could be heard.
"I couldn't exactly hear what they were saying...but she was really flippin' out. The pilot stayed calm, so i figured it wasn't anything too major. I couldn't figure out what she was making such a big deal for. Nothing was wrong with the plane that i could tell. Except for her...it was quiet. Everyone was sleeping."
The male pilot and female flight attendant came out through the curtain entrance and began walking down the aisle.
"Captain! Captain, my husband is gone!" A female passenger said cryingly, with tears in her eyes.
"Now what?" Bryce asked himself.
"He was sitting right next to me." The female passenger said as the tears ran down her face.
"What is she talking about?" Bryce asked himself again. "What is going on here?"
"Do you want me to turn on the cabin-lights?" The female flight attendant asked the pilot as they kept walking down the aisle, seeing more and more empty seats where passengers once sat.
"No, no, no. The less people know right now, the better." The pilot said.
"Know what? What does that mean?" Bryce asked. What were they talking about? What was it that the pilot was hiding from the passengers? What didn't he want them to know?
"Excuse me." Said another female passenger to a man sitting across from her on the right.
"Yes, ma'am?" The man asked.
"It's my 9-year old son, he's...he's gone. He's disappeared." The other female passenger said.
"What is goin' on here? People don't just disappear on an air plane that's hundreds of feet in the air." Bryce said to himself. And right he was. This plane was hundreds of feet in the air. There was no way anyone could've gotten off it unless it had landed while he was sleeping, which he doubted. But if the missing people didn't get off the plane, then...where were they? Where did they go?
"Would you mind looking for me?" The other female passenger asked. "And take his clothes and shoes with you." She said as she held out her son's clothes and sneakers that had his socks in them. "I think he's gone off naked."
As the man got up from his seat, took the clothes and sneakers from the woman and walked down the aisle in search of the missing boy, Bryce heard other passengers calling for their missing love-ones.
"Man, this is crazy with all these people suddenly vanishing on an air plane." Said a young man in his 20s sitting behind Bryce.
"I know. You'd think it was the end of the world or something." Another young man added jokingly, also in his 20s, sitting beside the other young man behind Bryce.
"The end of the world? What in the-" Bryce cut himself off. "Nah. It couldn't be. Or could it? Nah."
...
Later, the cabin-lights were now on.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I'm sure that by now, you are all aware that...something has taken place. First i need to ask you to remain calm. That is important if we are going to sort out what has happened. Then i'm going to ask the flight attendants to pass out cards. If anyone in your party is missing, please fill out the card in his or her name and list everything you can think of." Said the voice of the pilot on the intercom, as he had returned to the cock-pit to make an announcement to all the remaining passengers.
"Excuse me, sir." Said the female blond-haired flight attendant to a grumpy middle-aged man sitting across from Bryce. She was holding a handful of cards to hand out to the passengers.
"What do you want?" The grumpy man asked.
"We'd like you to fill out this card." The female flight attendant said, offering a card to the man. "Is anyone in your party missing?"
"I'm the only one in my party." The grumpy man said.
"Right." The female flight attendant said. "Here's your card. Please fill this out."
"Gimme." The grumpy man said as he took the card. "I'll be glad when we join the state of New York so we don't have to clown around with all this junk."
"Sir, we're not going to New York City. That airport is closed." The female flight attendant said.
"Okay." The grumpy man said before he got a pen out of his right pants pocket and used it to fill out his name on the card before handing it back to the female flight attendant.
"Thank you, sir." The female flight attendant said before she went over to where Bryce was sitting as the grumpy man placed the pen back in his right pants pocket. "Young man?"
"What?!" Bryce asked, startled by the female flight attendant.
"Oh. I'm sorry, didn't mean to startle you." The female flight attendant apologized. "We'd like you to fill out one of these cards." She said, offering a card to Bryce.
"Uuuuuuh...i don't think i'm gonna be staying..." Bryce said before looking at the female flight attendant's name-tag that read HEATHER. "Heather. I'll probably grab the next flight back."
"I understand. We still need you to fill out the card. We're using them to get a head-count. Besides...i think we're gonna be heading back to Los Angeles." Said the female flight attendant now known as Heather.
"Oh, yes!" Bryce said excitedly.
"Anxious to get home?" Heather asked.
"Yeah, i am." Bryce said. Boy, how true that was. Before, he couldn't wait to get away home. Now he couldn't wait to get back.
"Well, just between you and me...i am really looking forward to getting back on the ground...making sure my family's okay." Heather said.
"Family." Bryce said, remembering his parents.
"Hm. You wanna make sure your's is okay too, right?" Heather said.
"Yeah, i do. I just haven't...thought about them." Bryce said. Unfortunately, that was very true. Up until now, he hadn't even considered his Mom and Dad and the current state of mind they could be in due to his absence. If they actually noticed or cared that he was gone, that is.
"Well...i better finish handing these cards out." Heather said before walking off to resume handing out cards to more passengers.
"(Sighs) My family. I can't believe i hadn't considered them at all. I wanted to get home, 'cause i thought i'd feel safe there. Little did i know how wrong i was."
...
A young man in his 20s walked up to Heather who was now standing by Bryce's seat. "Excuse me."
"Yes, sir?" Heather asked.
"Any idea when we'll land in L.A.?" The young man asked.
"No. Not yet. We'll be over the ocean by 6:00, but...there are only two runways open and the airport's taking planes from all over California." Heather said.
Bryce found that strange. Why would the L.A. airport be taking planes from all over California? It wasn't like it was the only airport in the entire state. There were plenty of airports in California. So why hadn't all those other planes gone to them?
"So there's no way to say?" The young man asked.
"You know, i don't even wanna guess. We may be holding for a long time." Heather said.
"Thanks." The young man said.
"What are you two yappin' about?" Asked the grumpy man. "We're not landing in Los Angeles, we're landing in New York City."
"No, sir, we're not landing in New York City." Heather corrected.
"Why not?" The grumpy man asked.
"I don't know how to tell you this, but you seem to have slept through the most cataclysmic event in the history of our planet." The young man said.
Bryce looked confused. The most cataclysmic event in the history of the planet? What did that mean?
"Could you give me that again in plain English?" The grumpy man asked.
"People have disappeared on this plane...on the ground...everywhere." Heather explained.
"All over California everywhere, to be exact." The young man added.
Bryce's eyes went wide with shock, and he felt his stomach drop like an elevator. He could barely breathe after hearing that. It felt like someone had punched him in the belly. People disappeared on this plane and on the ground all over California? What on Earth happened? He then thought about what Heather said about the L.A. airport accepting planes from other towns and cities in the state. It all made sense now. The state-wide disappearances had most likely 'caused everything to shut down. Including all of the other airports.
"What?!" The grumpy man gasped.
"Some of the passengers have been monitoring the California News on their cellphones and laptops. Right around 4:27 AM, thousands of people just...disappeared." The young man explained.
"People on this plane disappeared?" The grumpy man asked in disbelief.
"Yeah. Including..." Tears filled Heather's eyes. "(Crying) In...including all the children, except for Bryce here." She said as the tears ran down her face, followed by her wiping the tears away.
"It's even worse on the ground in California." The young man added. "According to online News i looked up on my laptop, all children that were sick, terminally ill, deformed, blind, deaf, amputees, autistic, abused, in the foster-care system, dysfunctional house-holds, domestic violence homes are all missing too. All the new-borns are gone as well."
"Oh, come on! How can that be?" The grumpy man. "Well, come on. Give me some answers, hot-shot." He said to the young man.
"I don't have answers! Actually, i have just as many questions as you have." The young man said.
"You're telling me people just disappeared?" The grumpy man asked.
"There are empty passenger-seats all over the plane where there us to be people." Heather said.
"And there are missing people on the ground all over California than on this plane." The young man added.
"Uh...i could use a drink." The grumpy man said, clearly stunned by what he just heard.
"Trust me, sir...you won't hide this one behind a bottle." The young man said.
...
"Ladies and gentlemen, as we start our approach to the L.A. airport, i want you to know that the situation on the ground is serious. You need to prepare yourself for the worst. We should be landing in just a few minutes, so please turn off all electronic devices." Said the pilot's voice on the intercom.
Bryce, meanwhile, was in the empty seat next to his, looking out the window at the city of Los Angeles, as the young man from earlier was now sitting in his former seat.
"Can you see anything yet, kid?" The young man asked, sitting by Bryce.
"Um...yeah." Bryce answered.
"What do you see?" The young man asked.
"Look for yourself." Bryce said.
The young man got up from his seat, went over to the window and looked out and saw that the city of L.A. was in chaos. "Whoa! It-it looks like a war zone!"
"Look at all those fires." Bryce said.
The L.A. airport then came into view and Bryce and the young saw that several planes had crash-landed on one of the runways.
"Hey, look at that airport." The young man said.
"Yeah. It looks like an air plane graveyard." Bryce said.
"I'll tell you what. This pilot better be pretty good or...or WE just might end up as part of that graveyard." The young man said.
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