7. Kyle's Story.

Kyle groggily awoke in his bed at the sound of the house-phone ringing. He wore a sleeveless undershirt, pale blue knee-length shorts, and he was barefoot. "Isn't somebody gonna get that?" He asked. The phone continued to ring. "No, really, it's okay. I'll get it." He said before pushing the covers back, getting out of bed, putting on his black flip-flops, and then heading out of his room. He went over to his brother, Michael's bedroom door and opened it to see him lying sound asleep in bed.

Michael was a 14-year old boy, he had wavy brown-reddish and he was shirtless.

"Michael? Are you awake?" Kyle asked.

Michael didn't respond.

"Guess not." Kyle said as the phone continued ringing. He ran downstairs and when he got to the bottom, he looked out the front door window and saw that his Mom's car and her boyfriend, Donny's car were still parked in the driveway. "Mom's car is still here. Why isn't she getting it?" He rushed down the hall and into the living-room and made his way over to the ringing house-phone that rested on a small table by the sofa and he answered it. "Linx's."

"Hi, uh, Kyle, right?" Said a female voice on the phone.

"Yeah, who is this?" Kyle asked.

"This is Bayley at the News Station. Is your Mom home?" The woman on the phone now known as Bayley said.

"Uh...yeah. I think so. She's not up yet." Kyle said. His Mom worked as a News anchor at the L.A. New Station.

"Not up? That's a first. She's usually the first one here." Bayley said.

Kyle looked at the electric clock on the table and saw that it was blinking with the number 12:00. "Well, what time is it? The clock here is blinkin'. There must've been some power-failure or something."

"Oh. That would explain it. It's about 10:00 o'clock in the morning." Bayley said.

"10:00 O'clock? That's weird. It's not like my Mom to sleep in. You want me to wake her up?" Kyle said.

"No. On a big news day like this though, i figured she'd wanna be at the station." Bayley said.

"I'll let her know you called." Kyle said.

"Please. And have your Mom call me." Bayley said.

"Right." Kyle said before hanging up the phone. "Where is everyone? It's not like today is a holiday or anything." He rushed out of the living-room, down the hall, and back up the stairs and ran over to the door of the master bedroom, which was his Mom's bedroom door. "Mom! Your job called!" He said. But no one answered. "Mom? Donny?" He said before opening the door to the master bedroom and then entering inside, only to find that there was no one in bed. "Mom? Donny?" He called. No reply. "Mom, you in here?" He called again. No answer. "Oh, Mom, where are you at?" He said. Again, no response.

Kyle then thought about what Bayley said to him on the phone: "On a big news day like this though, i figured she'd wanna be at the station". What was so special about today? It wasn't any kind of holiday, at least not one he could think of, and Thanksgiving wasn't until the 25th of this month. As far as he knew, it was just another normal day. But if that were the case...why didn't it feel like just another normal day? A lot of things weren't adding up. Like where was his mother and her boyfriend? Why was Bayley saying all that weird stuff? And why did today feel so...off? He then noticed the radio resting on the night-stand on the right side of the bed where his mother slept. As an anchor-woman, she always kept the radio by her bed to keep up with the News. The 11-year old turned on the radio to find out what was going on.

"The reports keep coming in from all over the state confirming it as true." Said a man on the radio. "To say that the region of California is in a state of shock this morning would be to understate the situation. The event seems to have taken place all over the state of California just about five hours ago. Suddenly, and without warning, literally thousands, perhaps millions of people just disappeared."

Kyle's stomach dropped. Thousands or millions of people had disappeared all over California? What on Earth? Could that be the reason why his Mom wasn't here at home? Was that why her boyfriend was gone? Were they among those who had disappeared? The very thought of that frightened him to his core.

"A few eye-witness accounts of these disappearances have not been clear, but one thing is certainly sure: Thousands of people who were living in this region last night are not here this morning." The man on the radio said. "Speculation is running high that some foreign terrorist organization has declared war on our country. And some feel it to be a sign of the apocalypse. The government of California is in a special emergency session, as are the police of all communities in the region. And reports coming in say that there are some officers and members of the government in California that are missing. Of course even if it is something like the apocalypse, we need not panic. The very fact that we are here and able to discuss it is sign enough that it is not all life-threatening."

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