The Vanishing Read Online Free PDF Page A

limousine.” She glanced back. The tunnel was empty. Okay. This is getting really spooky.
    When she looked at the man, he patted
her on the shoulder and smiled. “It’s been a tough
month.”
    She waited until he walked
up the steps above the tunnel before she hurried to her car.
Despite the spring air, she shivered. She slipped into her car,
turned the ignition and blasted the heat. Something strange is going on. This isn’t right. Something
doesn’t add up. She glanced at the clear
blue sky. Not a single spaceship was in sight. She saw some footage
of the pyramid-shaped spacecrafts that had emerged over the
capitols of every nation in the world, but those had been the only
ones to descend to Earth. Then they left after ‘representative’
aliens came to speak with the leaders. The government had
dispatched the military to take care of the riots, but other than
that, things were calm. And maybe that wasn’t a good thing. Maybe
it was too calm. Too normal. What if it was the calm before the
storm?

    ***

    Autumn spent the next three days trying
to get the image of the limousine and its occupants out of her
mind. What were they doing at the capitol building...and on a
Sunday...and entering a portion of the building that had been
closed off to everybody since the 9/11 terrorist attack? She
struggled to make sense of it. All the pieces were there—right in
front of her. The vanishing. The aliens. Men taking aliens to
secret meetings on Sunday afternoons.
    If the aliens really did
come to open up dialogue, then what was with the secrecy? But then,
was that really a surprise? Should she expect aliens to be honest
when the governments hid their agendas? Their agendas. The thought made her
shiver. What if they weren’t there to help?
    Autumn glanced up from putting the
sales prices into the computer. Alicia was helping a customer.
Though the aliens hadn’t made an appearance before the entire world
since the televised appearance with President Jordan at the United
Nations, people seemed more at peace about the vanishing.
Obviously, there were some who weren’t, but the general population
accepted it.
    Yesterday, the aliens kept the sunlight
going for a full twenty-four hours to give them an example of their
control over the solar system. She glanced down the aisle and saw
the sun had finally shifted to its normal 3pm position. Time had
resumed back to normal. They promised other signs in the days to
come to prove that they were the gods of old, the gods of myths and
legends. Gods who were really aliens.
    She returned to the cash register and
entered in the next sales price. It was too much to take in. She
didn’t want to think about it. What she wanted was for her sister
to come back.
    Alicia walked up to the counter. “Pink
is your color,” she told the customer before looking at Autumn.
“Don’t you think pink and black look sharp together?”
    Forcing a smile, Autumn nodded. “I
always thought red and black together was too bold. Pink is more
subtle.”
    “ Plus, it’s on sale, right
Autumn?”
    “ 25% off.”
    The customer took out her debit card.
“In that case, I must have it. I have a job interview, and I want
to look my best.”
    “ Good luck.” Alicia swiped
the tag under the scanner. “In this economy, I feel fortunate just
to work in retail.”
    “ Oh, the alien told me I’d
get the job.”
    “ Really? When?” Autumn
asked.
    “ When he gave that speech
at the UN. Well, I guess it could be a ‘she’. It didn’t seem to be
a specific gender. Did you think it was a man or a
woman?”
    “ Probably neither,” Autumn
replied.
    “ Then how does it
reproduce?”
    Autumn shrugged. What did she
care?
    Alicia giggled as she put the pantsuit
into the store bag. “Obviously, if it put us here and watched our
evolution, it figured out its own ways for that. Maybe they clone
each other or live forever. You know, I heard that people can
prolong their lives by hundreds of years if they can keep