"Mr. President! Mr. President! What do you have to say about the millions of disappearances occurring randomly across the globe?"
In the most important state-owned building of The Western Federation,
an emergency conference was in full swing as a sharp-minded reporter voiced the question on everyone's mind.
Less than an hours ago, a disaster of unprecedented scale had struck humanity like a bolt out of the blue.
First, 37 million people vanished without a trace from Yokyo, the most populated city on Earth.
Then, the same fate befell Delhi and Shanghai, turning them into ghost cities in an instant.
That wasn't the end of it.
Across the world, city after city experienced sudden, massive loss in their population.
Some lost hundreds, others thousands.
Consequently, billions of people were terrified out of their minds and they wanted answers.
Was the end upon them?
Would they be the next to dissapear, or was there still a sliver of hope left?
They wanted answers to such questions.
In the same place, a stage stood before the area where the journalists and reporters were seated.
On it, a tall, middle-aged man with blonde hair and blue eyes stood at the podium, his countenance grim. He was Alex Remington, the 50th President of the Western Federation.
Upon hearing the reporter's question, he took a deep breath before speaking,
"I could lie to you, feed you false hope to ease your fears. But I'm not the kind of scum who does that.
The truth is, we don't know what's happening. We don't know why more than a hundred million people have vanished in less than sixty minutes. We don't know where they've gone, or if they're even alive.
It's like we're facing an enemy we can't see, fight, or even begin to understand. We are entirely at its mercy. Any one of us could disappear at any second. Even I, the proud president of the Western Federation, the most powerful organization in the world, am not safe. For all we know, I might vanish right after or even during this press conference.
Needless to say, we're fucked.
The best thing we can do in the face of this unprecedented and unpredictable disaster is to make the most of whatever time we have left.
I am a simple and honest man. I like to practice what I preach. So, I'd like to take this moment to step down from my position and announce my retirement from politics. I intend to spend whatever time I have left on this godforsaken planet surrounded by my loved ones.
And don't bother arguing with me. Nothing can change my mind, not even the cries for leadership in a time of crisis. I don't want to waste another second sitting in an office, giving speeches, or pretending I have answers for a crisis with no precedent when I have none. That's all I have to say. Goodbye and Godbless."
Alex Remington let go of the podium, loosened his tie, and swaggered off the stage like a man who had finally laid down all his burdens as cameras flashed around him.
The second he stepped off the stairs, he vanished under the gaze of countless onlookers.
A pin-drop silence followed as countless jaws dropped.
Then there was chaos.
The silence that had taken over the grand hall shattered like glass as people scrambled for obvious reasons, their rationality overtaken by raw panic and primal fear.
No one wanted to be the next one to dissapear.
The fear was so intense they didn't even want to be in a place where a vanishing had occurred.
The Vanishing.
It was the term coined to describe the sudden and unexplained disappearance of humans from Earth.
Everyone desired to resist "it" to some extent.
However, they knew they were unimaginably helpless against "it."
After all, how could a mortal defy a power beyond their imagination?