![]() Quite quickly this led to the male-saturated areas taking control of nearby depleted regions, especially in India. These were mostly Christian women, so this loss pushed their existing crisis of gender imbalance to emergency levels. This effect was most pronounced in China and India, where gender-selecting abortion had already thinned the ranks of young women in recent decades.Ĭhina especially had suffered the lowest Leaving Night loss rate, well under five percent. It also led to fierce competition for the women who did remain. More men remained than women, a result that provoked often violent disputes. Mere church membership or attendance had not sufficed. No simple explanation could be formulated for why so many avowed Agnostics had also vanished. Several factions sought to justify the plain flat facts of who, apparently, had actually believed as they professed. This soon became the prevailing explanation. Many felt that God had taken those who truly believed, independent of sect. These events caused endless embarrassment, discussion, and sarcastic editorial cartoons. Scientology suffered the opposite fate-only a handful vanished. So few Mormons remained that the religion collapsed. The toll included also many Jains, Hindus, some Buddhists, Shinto practitioners, Inuit, and Catholics. This seemed odd, since Muslims had no equivalent to the Christian Rapture their great coming moment was a return of Mohammed or some other charismatic leader, who would establish a Caliph. So too vanished a majority of Muslims, leaving a swath of nations from Morocco to Indonesia half vacant. Some, though by no means all, fundamentalist Christians were missing, as seemed to befit their ideas of a coming Rapture. Many who had devoted their lives to medical, literacy, and child welfare causes had vanished. Another Leaving Night never happened.Īs the days wore on, the aftermath echoed less and people showed resilience few knew they had. Some hoped for another Leaving Night to take the remaining people away, but the next night was completely ordinary. Depression, bursts of manic elation, somber reflection, plenty of gazing at the stars-people reacted in myriad ways. Of course there was also a lot of searing sex, heavy drinking, drug use and suicides. This happened out of brute necessity-amid, of course, great grief at the loss of loved ones. Still, despite being the largest disaster-and by far the most mysterious-of all human history, the basic functions of society carried on. Yet the more hardened and cynical of these groups, especially the police, did not vanish. Apparently those who worked in constant close contact with the vagrant forces of the real world needed a belief that got them through their days-and that led to their disappearance. Those who had seen combat and people who had lived through life-threatening illnesses also had few remaining. Firefighters and police, soldiers in most countries, those who faced risk every day-gone. Family farms stood empty cows mooed to be milked. A few occupations were badly affected, especially agriculture. ![]() The final toll was approximately a third of humanity, gone in a single rotation of the earth. Gray dawns greeted empty streets in Arabia, but full teeming avenues in Europe, for the vanishings varied greatly as the Earth turned. The wave of disappearances swept around the world as it rotated, through what came to be termed “Leaving Night.” Most losses occurred in the early hours past midnight. Recorded in-flight messages said that pilots had disappeared and as the airplanes fell, many passengers had vanished, too. Airplanes fell from the sky, but the victim count was much below the passenger manifest number. Cars had run out of control into deserted buildings. In a few regions, whole towns stood empty. Wailing mothers searched for their children, husbands frantically sought families. Seldom did the event even wake mates asleep beside them.Ĭonsternation grew as wives woke beside empty pajamas, still warm. They were simply gone, leaving clothes behind. The few available videos of sleeping people revealed that the air around them shimmered for a few seconds amid a soft humming sound. Later research showed that they vanished while in their deepest sleep. ![]() Very quietly, in the dark of night, people began disappearing. Series: The Tales of Gorlen Vizenfirthe.Series: From the Lost Travelers’ Tour Guide.People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!.
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