Allan Yardleman and his wife Joy had been reading the news with much excitement just like everyone else but that had not, however, stopped Allan from being a dutiful employee of the Mogman Corporation. Allan, an electrician, worked at the local factory and the thought had never occurred to him that he should take the day off, even if it was the end of the world because who knows it might not end and you might get docked a day's pay regardless. Today however even the company had closed its doors and he had been forced to go back home to his lovely wife Joy who had promptly put him to work getting ready for the night's events lest he start some new project and leave a mess sprawled mess somewhere inside the house.

“Do you think we’ll need flashlights dear,” Joy asked as she tossed a lifeless one into the garbage. I don’t think so love. The sky is supposed to be all lit up, and besides I have junior here! Allan was clipping about, happy as a bee. He reached into a drawer underneath the fish tank and produced a foot long 5000 lumen fighting baton, or at least it might as well have been, and immediately turned it on blinding his perturbed wife.

“Do that again”, she said and I’ll put stool loosener in the next pie I bake.”

“You wouldn’t dare, Allan said, quickly fiddling with the light switch trying to find a way to turn it off. It kept cycling between different versions of high, low, medium, and flashing beams but never turned actually off. “What's wrong with this thing,’ he muttered.

Joy pulled the flashlight out of his hands and tossed it back into the drawer. “You know what? she said, with a smile. “What?” Allan said, taken aback.

“Let's just take a candle and if we need one we can light it when we do.”

“Oh ok.”

Joy settled thing like that with a cute, tight smile on her face. It kept Allan from toiling needlessly like he sometimes did. In some ways, it left him off the hook so he did not have to further annoy his patient wife and also it let Joy off the hook from watching him fumble about. Allan was a good man but honestly, he could sit and stare at a problem all day long if you let him. Joy wanted him to be present right now since they were about to witness the event of a lifetime and she wanted him to do that with her, not some ridiculous flashlight.

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By the time they had unfolded the lawn chairs out in the backyard, the sun had already begun to set. They looked up into the sky together and held hands.

“I don’t think we’ve held hands like this for a long time, Joy said as she nestled in close.

Allan smiled and kissed Joy on the side of the cheek and looked back up into the sky. Suddenly a thin line like a white ribbon began to dance and write across the sky.

“Would you look at that,” he said. The line weaved and bobbed, went wide then thin. It contracted into a single point and then shot out into six perfect lines that formed a spoked wheel pattern. Circles, triangles and fractal-like patterns raced across the sky until it was completely covered.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Joy asked.

“I don’t know.” Allan pulled Joy in closer.

The symbols were composed of precise white lines and seemed to form some sort of star chart or circuit diagram. Allan tried to comprehend it, but there was no time. Colors started to run through each section of symbols and lines. It all began to flash quickly and intensely, and Allan had to close his eyes. Sounds and vibrations shook the earth violently and tore both of them apart.

“If this is the rapture, I’m not ready for it. Allan!” Joy yelled but Allan could not hear her now and she could not even hear herself.

The grounds shook and rumbled until everything in the world around them blacked out and went silent.