(DOC) It Begins

"It's happening Kevin."

"What?"

"Singapore emailed me this morning. He lost Seattle and Boise. I mean gone, no trace."

"You can't be serious. Both of them?"

"Yeah, and that's not all. China says Dallas is fading, almost gone, and London isn't looking good either. Greece is getting paranoid; she says Tehran keeps getting flaky on her. I wrote back asking her for more details. Nothing yet. France is keeping close tabs on his watches, nothing new to report."

"Christ...I knew this would happen, but so soon?"

"Yeah, well, while you were out playing 'knight in shining armor' for mystery lady in there, everything in here is going to hell. Who is she, anyways?"

"I met her at the bar earlier; her life's already gone to hell. So now what?"

"I don't know. You're our 'fearless leader.' You figure it out."

"They can't do anything until the others fade. How long do we have if they keep going like they are now?"

"I dunno. Maybe two days if we're lucky. Very lucky. Boise flickered a little before we lost track; Seattle was there one minute and gone the next. They may all go any second now, they may all stick around for a month. The way it looks right now though, two days tops."

"Can we get everything ready by then?"

"There's nothing to get ready. We still don't know what they're capable of. We don't know where they're from. And we don't even know why they're here, just that it's not to play cards and throw back a couple of beers. There's something else I meant to tell you. While you were out picking up strays, we finally heard back from our 'friends' at the Department of Defense."

"Yeah, and?"

"They laughed, just like the NSA and CIA did. They're not going to waste the man power on what they called (and I quote) 'the schizophrenic fantasies of a few who have read too much Steven King.' They couldn't even spell his name right, can you believe that? And these are the people we trust with our lives..."

"Forget DOD for now Rick. We knew that was a dead end. We're going to have to do this ourselves. How long before we can get everyone together again?"

"Everyone's scattered around the country. Now that we've lost two contacts, they're not going to trust anyone, which means they're not getting on a plane or Amtrak or anything like that. With all of them driving, I'd say five, maybe six days. Doing some quick math -- lemme see, carry the one, drop the decimal -- if we're lucky that'll get everyone here about three days after it's too late. Good time for you to be making new friends"

"Back off Rick."

"Well I'm scared, dammit! What do you want from me, to serenade you two love birds while the world is ending? I'm in here scared to death, praying for an email that tells me they found Seattle again, and you're out playing Casanova."

"You think I'm not scared? The only reason I'm not crying like a little girl is because I have to figure out what we're doing next, and I'm sorry, but that's tough enough without losing my head. I went to the bar earlier to take a couple hours off and relax a bit, so maybe I could think straight if something like this happened. She came around, she ended up needing a helping hand, and I had one to offer. Excuse me for wanting to be a decent human being without asking your permission first."

"...Look, I'm sorry. You're right, we need to think, and getting upset about this isn't going to fix anything. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

"So, any ideas on what to do next?"

"Well, maybe we'll find them again. The last time we lost one, how long before they came back?"

"Ten minutes. Tops."

"And it's been..."

"Seven hours. They're gone Kevin. It's starting."

"Great..."

I forgot to add earlier that this is a scene from a short story I'm working on. I tried to make it as self-contained as possible, which wasn't too difficult--this is pretty much exactly as it is in the story, kinda alluding to threads that haven't been revealed yet. But if it doesn't make much sense, that's why

nice try, interesting premise too, however I think this dialogue needs a setting and more descriptive terms, and since you're working on this, I'm sure you're still developing the plot line. look forward to reading the short story. thanks for participating.