Andy woke to the sound of screaming. He was used to the experience. His neighbours were a younger couple that often screeched at each other deep into the night. He wasn’t sure if it was because of their innate toxicity with one another, or the fact that they were both addicts, or some combination of the two, but frankly, he didn’t care.

Normally, he would roll over and clamp the pillow over his head, but there was something different about that scream. Something serious. It wasn’t the scream of anger, but of fear. Unbridled fear.

"Shit," he muttered to himself. He got up out of bed and flipped his light switch. No go. Was the power out? He haphazardly managed to find some clothes to put on and stepped outside. The screaming was still ongoing.

The lights were out all over the trailer park. Great, he thought to himself. When the power went out at Kamper’s Korner, it was usually a prolonged affair. He grabbed a flashlight from the counter next to the door to his trailer and flipped it on, shining it outside.

"Andy!" someone yelled from nearby. Andy recognized the voice immediately. Billy Jessup, his neighbour from the next pad, approached him. He was one of the few people in park that he'd actually gotten along with. He'd known Billy for well over twenty years. "Andy, there's something wrong!"

“What’s going on?” he asked.

"Barry and Julia," Billy exclaimed. “The trailer’s collapsed.” He pointed in the direction of the screaming.

Andy stepped away from his trailer and shone the flashlight in the direction of the screaming. Sure enough, the back half appeared to have collapsed, and the screaming was clearly coming from inside.

Even more strange, however, was the fact that the back part of the trailer seemed to be buried under a wall of dirt. He shone the flashlight along the wall. Hell, half the park seemed to be buried under a thirty foot sheer wall of dirt, and the wall itself seemed to be collapsing under its own weight, burying Barry and Julia’s trailer even more.

“Christ, we have to get them out of there!” Andy exclaimed. He ran as fast as his ageing bones would move toward the trailer. “What the hell happened?”

“Didn’t you feel the earthquake?” Billy asked.

“Earthquake?” Had he slept through another shaker?

About a quarter of Barry and Harriet's trailer was jutting out of the dirt wall. Andy ran over to the door and wrenched it open, shining the flashlight inside. “Julia? Barry?” he called. Julia was certainly inside, but she still wouldn’t stop screaming. He eventually located her, sitting in the foetal position near the front of the trailer, with something on the floor near her.

Andy’s stomach turned when he realised it was a leg. A human leg.

Barry’s leg.

“Julia,” Andy said. “Come on you have to get out.”

“Barry!” Julia exclaimed between screams. “He just… he was fine but then he was gone.” She pointed at the leg.

There was blood everywhere, all over the floor, but the interior of the trailer was filling with more dirt by the moment. He could hear clumps pelting the roof. They both needed to get out before it was too late. Andy reached down and grabbed Julia by the upper arm, wrenching her up from the floor. “We have to go now!”

He pulled her outside, roughly. She would bruise no doubt, but it was better than being buried alive. Thankfully, she seemed to come to her senses, and once he’d released her, she began to scramble away from the trailer, just as the remainder of the trailer got buried under the dirt. A tree that had once been part of the dirt wall also fell over, just barely missing the two of them.

Andy got Julia back toward his trailer, then he himself fell to the ground, breathing heavily.

“Can someone tell me just what the hell is going on?”

“I swear to God, Andy, I thought the damned world was ending,” Billy responded. “I woke up to the earthquake, but there was this god awful light all through my trailer. It wasn’t normal. It didn’t make sense, it was like the air itself was glowing.”

“Earthquakes don’t cause that,” Andy said, gesturing to the collapsing dirt wall.

“Where the hell is the rest of the park?” Amos Bradley, one of the more elderly residents of the park, asked as he approached the two men. "What the hell is this?"

“Welcome to the party, Amos,” Andy said. “You got me.”

“Yeah, well, phones are down,” he said. “She hurt?”

Andy looked over toward Julia. She had stopped screaming, at least. But she was rocking back and forth on the ground. She was in shock.

“Where’s Barry?” Billy asked.

Andy gave him a look and shook his head.

Billy got the meaning immediately. “Christ.”

“Landline is down,” Amos said, chewing on toothless gums. “Someone better make a call.”

Andy got back up and grabbed his phone from inside the trailer. He unlocked it and began to dial, but suddenly stopped. “I got no signal. Billy?”

Billy looked at his phone and shook his head.

“Well then someone better drive up and get some help,” Amos said.

“Shit!” Andy was in no mood for this. He thought for a moment and looked over at his Jeep. “Fine,” he said. “Billy, you come with. Amos, keep an eye on Julia. We’ll be right back.”

----------------------------------------

Boomer stared up at the strange orb in the sky as he sat on the curb outside the Gas 'n Dash. He had noticed the small ultraviolet light when it first appeared in the sky. Boomer hadn't known what to make of it at the time, but he knew it wasn't normal. The first thought that entered his mind was that it had been a UFO, but he generally wasn’t the sort of guy to believe in such things without prior evidence.

He had been outside when the light expanded and the earthquake had started. Boomer wasn't given to panic easily. He’d been in emergencies before, but he generally had the gift of keeping a cool head about it.

But when the light enveloped him, the gas station, and the town entirely, he had to admit he was panicking. It was probably the smart thing to do. After all, he was standing on several thousand litres of gasoline, and the ground was shaking like it was the big one. Nonetheless, when the ground stopped shaking and the light dimmed, he regained his composure quickly, and made his way to the road, just in case. He wasn’t going to risk getting blown up, he still had a year left in his degree, and wasn’t about to die prematurely.

The lights were dead at the gas station, save for the emergency lights which were on an auxiliary battery.

Oddly, when he noticed the planet emerging from behind the clouds, he didn’t panic. Rather, he questioned his sanity. He rubbed his eyes to make sure it wasn’t some mote of dust, then looked at it again. He was pretty sure he was still sane and he confirmed there was nothing in his eyes. That meant that whatever was in the sky was actually there. Or at least, appeared as though it were there.

For ten minutes he looked up at the planet, studying it, and going through every possible option regarding its existence. By the time his next-door neighbor and local RCMP Constable Shelly Littleton showed up in her Crown Victoria, he’d come to the obvious conclusion that it was most definitely a hologram, mostly because the alternative was too close to magic to be an option.

“You okay, Boomer? Everything good?” Shelly asked from her police cruiser.

Boomer merely pointed at the thing in the sky. “You tell me,” he said.

“Yeah,” she began. “That. We’re still working on that. No gas leaks?”

“Not that I can tell. Any reality leaks?”

“Reality leaks?”

Boomer laughed, then once again pointed at the planet. “I bet that’s not the only weird shit going on right now,” he commented.

“You’d be right,” she replied. “We lost all communication outside of the town. Apparently the highway’s gone north of the airport.”

“Gone?” Boomer asked. “You mean washed-out, right? Landslide?”

She shook her head. “Report was that it was like it was somewhere else entirely,” she replied. “Thetis Island is also gone.”

Boomer looked out over the water. On any normal day, he’d have been able to see Thetis Island, even that late at night, and especially with the light being offered by their new celestial friend. As she said, it was gone.

He narrowed his eyes. The familiar mountainous skyline of the mainland was also gone. That didn’t bode well.

“This is insane,” Boomer said. “Things like this don't just happen.”

“You know, I’m not the superstitious type. I never believed in magic, but now…? I can’t say it’s not on the table.”

Boomer furrowed his brow. “Any sufficiently advanced technology…” He trailed off.

“What?”

He looked over to her. “Arthur C. Clarke,” he explained. “He’s the guy that wrote 2001, you know that classic science fiction film from the 60’s? He said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Just because we don’t understand it doesn’t mean it can’t be explained.”

“So, any thoughts?”

Boomer shook his head. “Not one.” He put his hands on his hips and cocked his head up in thought. "Do you feel any different?"

"Do goosebumps count?"

“No.”

"What about temporary insanity?"

"Mass hysteria is a possibility, but it’s usually preceded by something with… well, a little less detail than that.”

"Why do you ask?” Shelly asked.

"Well, I mean weight-wise." He jumped around a little, testing his balance. "I feel like I weigh the same, but I could be wrong."

Littleton shook her head. "No, I feel the same. Why should that make any difference?"

"Well, look at it this way. That thing's huge. I mean-- massive. If it's not at least half as big as the earth, I'll eat my hat. Something that size can’t be there without having a profound effect on gravity, tides. There should be a massive tsunami incoming but the water levels look fine from here. Crazy weather and wind, but the air’s pretty calm.” He pointed to the water in the harbour for effect. “That means one of two things, either we’re all having the same hallucination, or other factors are keeping everything normal.”

“Like what factors?”

He shrugged. “I’m majoring in psychology, not geoscience,” he said. “But if I were to guess, I’d say that the planet we’re on would have to be much bigger than earth, increasing the gravity, which would be regulated by that thing up there. But then, we’d likely get heavier when it’s not right above us. But I can’t say for certain. There might be other factors at play.”

"Really?"

Boomer shook his head. “No, not really. I'm not sure of anything right now. But if what you say is true, then I sincerely doubt we’re in Kansas anymore.” He looked back to her. “Do we know anything else?

Shelly shook her head. “I know about as much as you do right now.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“I should check with the worker at the 7-11,” she said. “You should lock up, get over to City Hall. Do you need to get in touch with your boss first?”

Boomer laughed. “Owner is up in Parksville,” he said. “Unfortunately, so is my paycheck, and I get the impression that’s not going to be as useful as it could be in the near future. It’s already locked up. You do what you need to, I’ll wander over to City Hall in a few minutes.”

----------------------------------------

Gerald Boone knocked on the Mayor’s door like he meant it.

“Come on, dammit,” he swore to himself and stepped back to peer through the windows. He shone his flashlight through each one, hoping to wake someone up. His wife, his kids. Hell, he’d settle for waking up their Yorkie. Regardless of his attempts, there was no answer.

He stepped back, considering whether he’d be forgiven for knocking the door in. Were they deep sleepers, or worse– were they not even home?

“Problem, Gerry?” a voice called from a yard over. He looked to see Don "Goose" Payne leaning out of his kitchen window, blinded temporarily by his flashlight as he pointed it directly at the man’s face . “Jesus, man. Watch where you point that thing!”

He pointed the flashlight to the ground. "Sorry, Goose," he replied. "I need to wake Aaron up. We're... having a bit of an issue."

"Well, good luck on that one," Goose replied. "But you're knocking on the wrong door. Aaron’s over in Vancouver with his wife for that Truth and Reconciliation thing this weekend."

Boone swore. “That's just all I fucking need.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and ran his hand over his bald head. He then looked back to Goose. Goose was the Mayor's neighbour, best friend, and town alderman all at once. On top of that, he was the chairperson for the Emergency Committee, which was exactly what he needed.

“You need to come with me.”

“What? Why?” He paused. “What's going on?”

“You didn't see it?” Boone asked. “You didn't feel the earthquake?”

“Earthquake?” he asked. “Well, that would explain why my books are all over the floor. I only woke up a couple of minutes ago to some idiot pounding on my neighbour's door at four in the morning.”

Boone ignored the jab. “Look, about ten—fifteen minutes ago, something happened,” he said. “The road to Nanaimo's gone.” He paused for effect.

“Gone?” Goose raised an eyebrow. “Where’d it go?”

“What do you mean you don’t know? Roads don’t just get up and walk away, Gerry. We’re not Libertarians.”

“It’s just not there,” Boone said. He was getting impatient. “We lost contact with dispatch some twenty minutes ago, the same time we lost phones and power. I tried raising Duncan and Chemainus, but I'm getting nothing. Not even terrestrial radio stations. The airwaves are completely silent, Goose.” He sighed. “And there's more.”

“More?”

“There was a light-- well... Not a normal light, it just kind of... happened. Everywhere. I had two cops on the road, they both saw it. I saw it, and I'm pretty damn sure everyone who was awake saw it.”

“I never saw it,” Goose stated.

“You were sleeping up until I got here.”

“So what happened?”

“Damned if I know! We started getting reports of weird lights, then everyone saw a weird light, then pow!” He slammed the butt of the flashlight into his hand for effect. “We got nothing.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I don't get it,” Goose stated.

Boone nearly threw a tantrum. “I don't get it either! And if Rob's in Vancouver, then I need you to come downtown with me.”

“Why me?”

“You're on the Emergency Committee!”

“So are you,” Goose reminded him.

“I’m the Watch Commander,” Boone said. “I've got to wake up every cop we've got and get them on the streets to inspect the damage and deal with things. You, however, have got to get downtown and keep people from panicking. They're going to start wondering what's up. Especially once they start noticing that!” He pointed excitedly into the sky above Goose's house.

Goose craned his neck to look uncomfortably over the top of his house. “See what?” He quite obviously couldn't see it.

“I'm not describing it,” Boone said. “It defies description. Get outside and take a look at the fucking thing yourself.”

Goose shot a wounded look back at Boone. “Fine,” he said. A few moments passed while Goose got his housecoat and boots on, but he eventually arrived outside. “Now what the hell are you-- Holy shit," he said. He let a few moments of silence pass. “Well, isn't that a hell of a thing?” He looked up at it with the same level of energy he might have had if he was looking at a car in the shape of a hot dog..

“A hell of a thing?” Boone asked. “A hell of a thing? That's a damned planet, Goose.”

“I see that,” Goose said. “But what's it doing there?”

Boone looked at Goose with a touch of contempt. “Oh, I don't know. Stopping by for a cup of tea?”

The effect of the sarcasm was lost on Goose. Instead, he quickly ran through his front door and called his wife. “Helen, you should get up and come see this! It's the craziest thing!”

Boone threw his arms up in frustration. “Look, it's all well and good that you're amused by this,” he said. “But people are going to start panicking without proper leadership. Hell I’m panicking. So I need someone down at City Hall to start addressing this shit so I can do my fucking job.” He glowered at Goose.

Goose had always been a man of humorous intentions. He found humour in every situation, and he often convinced other people to find the humour. When old Bill Knight had 'bit the bullet', Goose had the entire funeral procession rolling around the tombstones in laughter. The story had become something of a legend in town. It was just the way Goose was, and that pissed Boone off to no end.

He was about to start another tirade when he heard something from down the street-- a frantic scream. He could see several people standing in their yards, pointing to the sky. People were starting to wake up and notice. In a few minutes, the whole damn town would be down at City Hall, red-eyed, terrified, and pissed off.

“All right, I see your point,” Goose said. He sighed. “I'll head down to City Hall, just let me get ready.”

Boone felt the weight lift from his shoulders. “Thank you,” he said.

----------------------------------------

Boomer pulled his car up across the street from City Hall. It had been no more than twenty minutes since the strange light had engulfed the town, but already a small crowd had started to gather on the grassy front lawn of the small municipal building. They appeared to be every bit as confused as everyone else, throwing their arms up in exasperation and staring at the planet that was starting to make its way towards the south-eastern horizon. Boomer recognized a few of the people, but it was Justin Alverra, one of his co-workers at the Gas 'n Dash that noticed him first.

“Hey,” Justin exclaimed as he ran up to Boomer. He was puffing on a cigarette vigorously. “What gives?” he asked. “Shouldn't you be at the store?”

Boomer shrugged. “There's not a whole lot I can do with the power out,” he said. “I locked the place up and turned off the pumps.”

“Don't you think Val will be pissed?” he asked, referring to their boss, the owner of the Gas 'n Dash.

Boomer shook his head. “Oh I get a feeling we won’t have to worry about her,” he said. “We got bigger problems than Val.”

“So what do you figure?” Justin asked, pointing at the planet.

“Couldn't say,” Boomer replied. “You heard about the road to Nanaimo?”

Justin nodded. “Yeah, that chick that works at the vegan place on First has been telling everyone that’ll listen. Said she heard it on her boyfriend’s police scanner. I don’t know how true it is though.”

“Kayla Winder?” Boomer asked. He rolled his eyes. Kayla had a reputation within the town for being opinionated. Whether it was about veganism, her particular brand of feminist ideology or some other way she could lord moral superiority over people, she’d do it. Most would placate her just to shut her up, but she was the sort of loud and obnoxious person who was always right, even when she was dead wrong, and she never hesitated to remind people of that fact.

Justin looked as though he had just rolled out of bed. His sandy-blond hair was matted up in the back, and his clothes looked as though they had just been thrown on. “I woke up during the quake,” he said. “When the light came in and the power died, I figured this was the place to be.” He jabbed a thumb back towards the grassy lawn. “Looks like I was right.”

Boomer nodded. He was about to say something else when he caught the headlights of a truck out of the corner of his eye as it rounded the corner at the top of the hill behind City Hall. He looked up and recognized it instantly.

“That's Ryan,” Justin said.

Boomer had known Ryan for a few years. He used to wander into the Gas 'n Dash in the middle of the night, usually blasted from alcohol consumption. They hadn't been friends then, in fact, Boomer used to find him annoying and loud. But when Ryan cleaned his act up and stopped drinking, he'd found that the two had more in common than previously thought. Ryan was a talented guitarist, and had made the decision recently to go back to school at Vancouver Island University for a business degree.

Justin knew Ryan because the two played together in their band, Dreamland Conspiracy. They had also gone to high school together. Neither took the band very seriously, but Boomer often liked to sit in while they jammed.

Boomer watched as Ryan pulled his truck over and parked it behind his car. Ryan was the first out of the truck, but he was quickly followed by Terra Murphy and Lily Rasmussen.

“Hey guys,” Ryan said. “Can you believe this?”

Boomer shook his head. “Insane, man,” he said.

“Hi guys,” Terra greeted. She hopped up and sat on the hood of his car as the five of them mulled about. “Have you heard anything yet?”

“Besides the road being out? No.”

“Road?” Lily asked. “What road?”

“North,” Justin said, pointing up the highway. “Apparently the road to Nanaimo's just gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” Lily asked.

“Just that,” Justin replied. “Gone. Poof. Vanished. There’s nothing left.”

“That doesn't make any sense,” Ryan said. He looked up to the planet again.

Boomer shook his head. "Yeah I expect we’ll learn ten more things that don’t make any sense before the sun comes up,” he said.

"I don't get it." Lily replied. “How could the road just be gone?”

"I'm pretty sure if you did get it, you'd be the smartest person in town," Boomer stated. Lily smacked him in the chest.

The group watched as another car came down over the lip of the hill. It was one of the Crown Victoria RCMP cruisers. They watched as it parked, and Sergeant Boone stepped out. A moment later, a small green Jeep began to descend down the hill behind him.

“Isn't that Goose Payne?” Boomer asked. “Hey, Goose! What gives?”

Goose looked over to Boomer and waved as he was getting out of his Jeep, but didn’t respond.

“So, no idea what's happening?” Ryan asked Sergeant Boone as he approached the crowd.

Boone sighed. “Kid, if I knew, I wouldn't be here right now.”

“So what do we do, then?” Lily asked. “I mean, there's got to be something. If Nanaimo's gone, what about Duncan? Chemainus? Cedar? My aunt lives in Cobble Hill.”

Boone shook his head. “Haven't been able to reach any of them. Even terrestrial radio is down.”

Ryan nodded. “Yeah, we tried to get a signal on the way down. We're not picking up any at all,” he said.

As Goose started to walk toward the front doors of City Hall, keys-in-hand, people began to close in on him. Obviously, they were expecting answers, and Goose was the only man available to give them.

----------------------------------------

Goose couldn't believe the crowd that had already amassed at City Hall. There were at least a couple of dozen people. Goose could see a wide assortment of characters. Some of the local homeless population, a couple of off-duty cops, even the kid who worked the graveyard shift at the Gas 'n Dash was there, uniform and all.

Goose actually felt nervous. The looks on their faces were severe. He looked out the window at the waiting forms outside and took a deep breath. He turned the ignition off, took a deep breath, then opened the door and stepped out. He made his way toward the entrance as people started to crowd in around him.

One-one thousand.

He made his way to the front steps.

Two-One thou--

The crowd erupted in a cacophony of cries, questions and blame. They all hurt Goose's tender eardrums and he couldn’t make sense of any of the actual questions. Figures. He expected they'd have given him until at least three-one thousand. Goose suddenly pulled the airhorn from his pocket, and blasted it out.

The sound shook the questioners up, and they remained in quiet shock for a moment.

“Give a guy a second, would ya?” he chided them. “I just got here! Listen, the Mayor's out of town and the rest of the committee will get here when they get here, so I'll be taking it for now. Questions one at a time, please, but first, I have a question.”

The crowd remained silent.

“Does anyone know what the hell is going on?”

The question earned a great deal of shouting. Some people were outraged, others earnestly tried to answer his question, but everyone was speaking all at once. It wasn’t working.

Goose blew the air horn again. “Okay, all right. That's not working. You, Boss,” Goose said, pointing at Boomer. “What have you got figured out?”

Boomer shrugged “I dunno exactly. About twenty minutes ago I saw this weird light in the sky,” he replied. He started to continue, but Goose interrupted him.

“Weird light in the sky. Check,” Goose said, interrupting. “Anyone else see the weird light?”

There was a show of hands. Most of the crowd, actually.

“Okay, your story checks out so far. What next?”

Boomer almost seemed like he was going to laugh, but he kept it together. “It.. I dunno, expanded. There was this crazy earthquake, but the light... it was like a blacklight, except it went everywhere. It went through walls and everything, which doesn't make sense.”

Goose was nodding. “Anyone else buy that?”

Another show of hands.

“Motion passed. See, now we're developing the plot a little. See what happens when we speak in turn? Now, can anyone explain that?” he jabbed a finger at the planet above. “Anyone?”

“It appeared after the light,” Ansel Stephens, one of the local fishermen, explained. His voice was rough and scratchy as a result of his many years of smoking. “It was behind the clouds for a few minutes, but when it came out everyone could see it.”

“Cool. And the highway?”

“It’s completely gone at the airport,” said a uniformed officer nearby. Goose had seen him around before, but didn’t know his name. He was a pretty young officer, though.

“Define gone, Constable.”

The officer sighed. “It’s like a completely different world out there. No road. No signs of human civilization. It’s just… forest, like it had always been there.”

There was a moment of silence. “Different world,” Goose repeated without the bullhorn.

There was a loud interruption as a truck coming from the south end of town came to a screeching halt at the turn-off into town. The driver stopped not far from the crowd and screamed out the window, waving his arms maniacally.

“Hey! Hey! We need help!”

“Shit,” Goose muttered. “When it rains it pours.” He put the bullhorn to his mouth and said, “What's going on?”

“Down at Kamper's Korner, it's like God came down and cut the earth down the middle with a razor blade, and he happened to catch Barry Pattison in the middle. All we found was his leg, but more people might be hurt.”

“Okay, Sergeant,” Goose said toward Boone. “Get in touch with the ambulance station, we should still have that. Get someone down to Kamper's Korner. We also need to ascertain exactly what's going on. As of this moment, I’m looking for volunteers. We need to get to the south end of town and check the highway. I want people familiar with the logging roads to start heading up there. Check with Sergeant Boone for a radio. I want people to lay eyes on this cut and make damn sure we’re actually cut off from the outside world before we start to freak out.” He looked around. “Everyone else, we need to start going door to door and maje sure nobody is in need of medical attention from the earthquake. We need to wake up the rest of the emergency committee.” Goose pointed at a person in the crowd. It was Justin Alverra. “You, you’re Nick Alverra’s kid, aren’t you?” he asked.

Justin looked like a deer in headlights, but then nodded.

“Good, you’re in charge of the wake-up committee. It's almost dawn, and if people aren't already awake, they'll be up soon. It'd be best to avoid a panic. Anyone with skills they think could help, please come talk to me. With that being said, get moving!”

Goose Payne could really get a crowd moving.

----------------------------------------

Goose sat at the Mayor's desk and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. In the forty minutes or so since he'd arrived and gotten inside City Hall, the number of people outside were beginning to overwhelm. He'd had Boone set up a talent triage to take in the increasing number of volunteers offering assistance in one form or another and sort out the crowd. Thankfully, most of the townspeople were just as concerned and curious as Goose himself and were more than willing to help get to the bottom of things. What they needed was information.

Boone slipped quietly into the office while Goose had his head down. He perked up immediately. Goose was the sort of person to use humour to cut through the bullshit of any situation, but this one was presenting a unique challenge even for him, and the last thing he wanted was to let the mask slip when people needed him.

“There's a lot of people out there,” Boone commented.

“Why thank you, Gerry,” Goose said. “That's a very acute observation, I must commend you.” He almost clapped.

“Brad Renfrew and Carla Meriweather just arrived,” he said. “That’s three of the Emergency Committee.”

Goose nodded. Brad was one of the town’s most effective engineers. He was the one that oversaw the decommission of the old coal power plant when they moved over to hydro. Problem was, the closest hydro dam was on the south end of the island, and if they were cut off from the rest of the world, that meant they were cut off from electricity. But if anyone could get that plant up and running again, it was Brad. Carla was the standing director of the Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce. She was the closest thing the town had to a true socialite. Independently wealthy but passionate about politics and public service. Both were great assets to have on the committee.

“Get Brad down to the old plant,” Goose said. “I don’t know if there’s much he can do, but I think one of our first priorities is to get power up and running again.”

“He had the same thought,” Boone explained. “He said there’s a good chance he can have a temporary solution in a few hours, but it won’t last more than a few days unless we can find a surplus of coal. The good news is he said the phones should start working again once the power’s up, but with the phone services centralized on the mainland we’ll have to rely on manual switchboard operations.”

“And the borders?”

Boone looked grim. “Ansel Stephens just radioed in. He took his boat and followed the coastline south. He said it ends just before Saltair, then the coast looks like something else entirely. He wanted to follow it but I told him to shift his attention to Yellow Point and check out the north end.” He sighed. “He also said he can’t see any of the gulf islands, period. But there is what appears to be a large landmass in the distance. Littleton reported in from Kamper’s Korner. There’s one casualty. At least, we’re pretty sure he’s gone. Shelly found a leg, but nothing else. She figures the victim was sleeping right on the border, and all we got was his leg. If he’s still alive back… back home, he’s probably dealing with a lot right now.”

“And the logging roads? The mountains?”

Boone shook his head. “Those roads wind all over the place, and we’re still not sure how much land we took with us when… when it all happened. Got three teams working on that, including Constable Shephard, that Stills kid and his girlfriend with the funny hair, and Tyler Grand. They’ve all got radios. No word yet.”

“How about some good news?” Goose asked.

Boone thought for a moment. “Littleton and Shephard both reported the trees on the other side of the cut as fir and cedar. So for what it’s worth, they don’t appear to be alien.”

“Then what happened to the rest of the world?” Goose asked. “Maybe time travel?”

“Time travel wouldn’t explain the planet in the sky,” Boone said.

“But the planet in the sky could explain time travel,” Goose replied. “Maybe we’re like a million years in the past? Or the future?” He paused. “When did the dinosaurs die out?”

“Sixty-five million years ago? That’s what all the movies say.”

“Well let’s hope we don’t have to deal with them.”

“Grass wasn’t a thing back then,” Boone said. “Not sure about fir and cedar trees, but there’s grass out there.” He walked over to the window and pulled open the blinds. “The sun's just about up,” he said. “The morning sky looks pretty normal, if you ignore the planet.”

“Christ on a cracker,” Goose cursed. “This stinks, Gerry. Seriously. This wasn’t in the scope of the original Emergency Committee. We planned for earthquakes, tsunamis, extreme weather conditions. Hell, even terrorist attacks.” He ran his fingers through his graying hair. “But not this.”

“We’ll get through it,” Boone said.

Goose laughed. Only an hour ago Boone was the one panicking, and Goose was cool as a cucumber. But that was before the mantle of responsibility had been passed on.

“Gerry, if we’re cut off completely from civilization, we’re also cut off from food deliveries. Maggie May’s garden isn’t going to feed eight people, let alone eight thousand. How many farms do we have? How much livestock? How much food is available to ration in the grocery stores? A couple of weeks? Maybe a month if we’re super lucky?” He shook his head. “And if Brad can’t get the power going, we’ll have less as the food starts to spoil. What about medication? How many residents rely on heart pills? How many diabetics rely on insulin?”

“Then we focus on a way to get ourselves back home,” he replied.

“For all we know this is permanent,” Goose replied. He sighed. “That’s a fine goal, Gerry, but it’s not a good thing to focus on. We need to start making decisions now.”

“How many more Committee members do we need before we can start doing that?”

“Right now it’s just you, me and Carla?”

“Brad, too. He’s busy but I made sure he went with a radio. We can get his vote if we need it.”

“We’ll give it another half hour,” Goose said. “After that we need to start making some tough decisions.”

Boone nodded. “I’ve got to run up to the detachment,” he said. “I’ll be back then.”

Goose nodded, and Boone started to leave the office.

“Gerry?”

“Yeah?”

“Everyone is scared right now,” he said. “And scared people do scary things. Our first priority right now is making sure everyone is safe. If we let things get too out of hand, we put this entire town at risk. You understand what I mean, don’t you?”

Boone only looked back at him sternly, then gave him a nod. He left without another word.

Goose looked down at the picture of the Mayor and his wife. “You chose a fine day to leave town, Aaron,” he said.