4. Will Home Alone.

"Mom?" Will called as he came downstairs into the living-room, only to find that no one was there. He wore a sleeveless undershirt with straps, green camo-pajama pants, and white socks. "Mom?!" He called again, but got no answer. "You in the kitchen?" The 10-year old asked as he entered into the kitchen, only to see that no one was in there either. He then noticed a piece of paper on the kitchen-counter with something written on it. "What's this?" He asked as he picked up the paper. "Dear Will, gone to pick up your Dad from the airport. Stay home until i call, love Mom." He said, reading the words written on the paper. He then placed the paper back on the counter. "Looks like i'm fixin' my own breakfast."

The 10-year old went back into the living-room, went over to the sofa and picked up the cordless house-phone, which rested by a radio on the coffee-table in front of the sofa, and he sat down on the sofa, picked up the remote beside him, and turned on the big flat screen TV with it, which produced static. "Whoa. So much for satellite" Will said before turning off the TV with the remote, followed by placing it back on the sofa beside him, then he dialed the Star house-number and waited for someone to pick up on the other end.

"This is the Star residence. Please leave a message after the beep." #BEEP# Said the male voice of Roy Star on the answering machine/phone-charger on the coffee-table.

"Hi, it's Will. I was just wondering if Rory wanted to come over and play video games after school." Will then hung up the phone and placed it back on the charger. The boy then pressed the delete button, erasing the message, as well as erasing the number 2 off the machine's small screen. He then noticed that one message had been left on the machine when he saw the number 1 on the small screen of the message/charger device. "Hey, what's this?" He asked before pressing the message button on the machine.

"Will, call me on my cellphone when you get this message. I'm trying to get to the airport and get your Dad, but...there must've been an accident or something. We're all jammed up on the highway. Nothing's moving. Listen, we'll be home as soon as possible, okay? Bye." Said the voice of Will's Mom on the machine.

"As soon as possible? That was five hours ago." Will said. He got the phone back off the charger and dialed his Mom's cell-number and waited for her to pick up, but there was no answer. "So much for that idea." The boy then hung up the phone and placed it back on it's charger. "I wanna know what's goin' on here." He said before getting the remote and using it to turn the TV back on, revealing the L.A. News channel that showed an anchor-man sitting behind his desk.

"It is not clear what caused the disappearances at this time, but the mayor is expected to make an announcement at-"

Will changed the channel, cutting the anchor-man off, only for him to appear on the next channel. "Is this guy on every channel?" He asked before changing the channel again, getting the same anchor-man on it.

"the court-house any moment." The anchor-man said.

"Isn't there anything on besides News?" Will asked.

"Nobody has ever seen anything like this. Everyone seems to have-"

Will changed the channel, cutting the anchor-man off again, revealing people on a talk-show.

"Mysteriously vanish every year." One of the men said.

"Mysteriously vanish? You're referring to the fact that they just disappeared?" The male host of show questioned.

"Whoa." Will said.

"Yes. Exactly." The man said.

"Now, doctor, have you ever heard of a case like this where thousands of people all over an entire state mysteriously vanish at the same time?" The male host asked.

"No, never." The man said.

"Wait a second." Will said. "Okay, this is getting really freaky." He changed the channel, revealing another anchor-man talking about the disappearances. "What's goin' on here?" Had he heard correctly? Had thousands of people really disappeared all over the state of California? The 10-year old changed the channel, revealing another News channel with a News anchor-woman talking about the disappearances. He changed the channel once more, revealing yet another News anchor-man talking about the disappearances. "This can't be real." The boy said before using the remote to turn off the TV, followed by placing the remote back on the sofa beside him. "This is just a joke somebody's playin', it's not real, it can't be real, it's not real." He got the cordless phone off the charger and called his mother's cell-number again. "Come on, Mom, you're suppose to be home already." He said as he waited for his mother to pick up. Receiving no answer, he hung up. "Rory. I'll see if Rory's home." The boy called his 9-year old friend, Rory's cellphone number and waited for him to answer.

"Hi, it's Rory. Leave a message." Said the voice of Rory on the answering machine, which was his voice-mail.

"Where is everybody?" Will asked himself before hanging up. "The radio. Maybe somebody knows what's going on on the radio." He said before he turned on the radio on the coffee-table.

"So the confirmed crashes are plane number 7, that one originating in Seattle. Plane number 8, that one originating in San Diego. There's plane number 9, originating in San Francisco. And plane number 10, originating in Los Angeles." Said a man's voice on the radio.

Will's stomach dropped. "Flight number 10 from Los Angeles? That's Dad's plane."

"All four crashed planes were empty when authorities and firemen investigated them in search of survivors, but no one was on board any of the planes, except for the passengers' luggage and the child-passengers' clothes and shoes." The man said on the radio.

"Oh, my stars." Will said. All of the people on all four planes disappeared? What happened? What was going on? "Come on, Mom, where are you? Why haven't you come home yet?" He asked with worry. "I'll try her cellphone again." He said before calling his Mom's cell-number and waiting for her to answer.

"Hello?" Came a male voice on the phone.

"Hello?" Will asked.

"Who's this, please?" The male voice asked.

"Oh, sorry, i...i thought i was calling my Mom's cellphone." Will said.

"Is your mother Terry Union Xander?" The male voice asked.

"Yeah. Who's this?" Will asked.

"This is officer Filmore with the L.A.P.D. Who am i speaking with?" The male voice known as officer Filmore said.

"Uh, well, i'm Will. What are you doing with my Mom's phone?"

"Uh, i was just gonna-"

"What happened? Where is my Mom, did she get arrested?" Will asked, cutting Filmore off.

"No, son, nothing like that." Filmore said.

"Is she alright?" Will asked.

"I'm afraid not, Will. There's been an accident." Filmore said.

"What?" Will asked. An accident? What kind of accident? Was it a car-crash, a vehicle collision? What? "What happened?"

"It's too early to say exactly what happened. But it looks like there was a delivery truck that went out of control and rammed several vehicles. It looks like your mother was in one of the cars." Filmore explained.

"Well, where is she now?" Will asked, worried now more than ever.

"We're taking her car and the belongings inside as evidence." Filmore said.

"You didn't answer my question. Where is my Mom?" Will said.

"(Sighs) Listen, son...do you have any friends or relatives that can come and stay with you for a while?" Filmore asked.

"Why? What for?" Will asked.

"Look...i, uh, didn't wanna have to tell you this on the phone and all, but...Will...your Mom is gone. She vanished with all the rest of the missing people. There's been so many accidents around L.A. due to the disappearances that the hospitals are all full with injured parties. There's a homeless shelter in the area, so if you can get somebody to take you over there..."

Filmore's voice faded out of Will's earshot, as the boy could no longer hear the man talking. His body had gone into shock. Not only was his Dad gone...but he had now found out that his Mom was gone as well. He had lost both of his parents and he had no idea what happened to them, where they were...or if they were even alive.

"Are you still there, son?" Filmore asked.

Will dropped the phone on the carpet-floor.

"I'm sorry, i thought you should know. Is there someone's house you can go to? A friend or a relative? Son?" Filmore asked.

But there was no response from Will. He was too shocked and stunned to answer back. Too shocked and stunned to cry, even. And who could blame him? How was a kid his age suppose to handle a situation like this, much less react to it?

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