Epilogue

Hello to everyone who's reading this.

Obviously, the rapture didn't happen yesterday, and this "liveblog of the rapture" is a work of fiction. I started this project with two ideas in mind: one, to have fun exploring the idea of what the Rapture would look like, and two, to help promote my wife's art sale. (See above.) I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

That said, there is a very real tragedy that happened last weekend. No, the world didn't end...but for thousands of people who believed that the world would end yesterday, the fact that they are still here has to come as a profound shock. A lot of these people had no "plan B," and planned their lives so that they would meet their end penniless and homeless. Why shouldn't they have? After all, there's no need for money or shelter on the Last Day On Earth. The papers are saying that these folks will need social services, including counseling, in order to overcome what for them is a personal disaster. One might ask why they weren't in counseling to begin with, but that's not germane to this discussion. I don't bear any of these persons ill will. In fact, I pity them, which is unfortunately, as far as I am concerned, the worst thing I can feel for anyone; but I still hope that they can get on with their lives despite the damage they've done to themselves.

My intention with this was not to mock Christians in general. I am not a Christian and haven't been since before I was a teenager; but my intention was to write The Author as a true believer who is doing what for him is the most logical thing, that is, to continue to warn others and bring them into the fold by the best means he had available. Simply put, to make him a believable character, despite the ridiculous situation he was in.

I am not a Christian; but I do believe in The Apocalypse. Apocalypse is a Greek word, which means, literally, revealing; to bring out from hiding. It is that which happens when we open our eyes and discover that the world is not as we were led to believe, as with happens with any true initiation. It is an experience as shocking and horrifying as the rapture was purported to be for those left behind. It can make you grow or it can destroy you. If there is any reason to feel sorry for the people who deluded themselves and others into believing this fantasy, then consider that what most, and probably all, of them have just gone through, is nothing less than a single-serving Apocalypse.

As for the rest of us, maybe this episode can be an object lesson in the importance of critical thinking.

This is maxomai, signing off.

GMT-12

the earh is shakin so hrd i can barely type. here comes th water

Almost GMT-12

The quakes are so strong and frequent that I can no longer stand. I am in a seated position for the duration. There are creatures flying around the island, like two wheels connected together to form a sphere, each wheel covered in eyes. I think they're watching me.

Almost GMT-12

Jillian just flew up into the air, body, clothes, and all. She had the most beautiful look on her face, one of pure bliss.

All that's left here is myself and the plane.

The earthquakes are getting stronger. I have to drop to the ground when they hit, otherwise they will knock me off my feet. They've been getting more intense each time.

Almost GMT-12

If anyone is still reading this, we're just starting to feel tremors here on Baker Island. It feels like a small earthquake, but the evidence is that it will be a huge, traumatic quake soon. The water has withdrawn from the shore, the first sign of the coming tsunami.

Jillian just cried out to me. "Howard! Howard! Do you hear it? It's angels, Howard! I can hear the angels sing!"

GMT-11

The last island in New Zealand with survivors on it, Niue, was just hit. Before it was hit I was able to get reports that the rest of the islands had also turned into gigantic Kiwi fruit. God has a sense of humor, I guess. More reports of Thrones hovering around both the western and eastern sides of New Zealand. From what I'm hearing, they're hunting for survivors.

I've had plenty of chances to talk to Jillian, the pilot who took us here and very likely the last Christian on Earth to be taken up; but the truth is, we haven't said much to each other. I did try asking her, on our way down to Baker Island, what led her to believe in the Rapture in the first place. Was it a sense of alienation from the rest of the world? A need for something special in her life? An intense dislike of nonbelievers? Maybe some form of mental illness or mass hypnosis? She never replied. Now all that she is doing is standing on the runway, feeling the wind blow past her, and jumping for joy. She's a grown woman, in her late fifties or early sixties I think, but she's acting like a giddy kid.

I would be dishonest if I didn't tell you that I was afraid.

GMT-10: Hawaii devastated, most of Samoa taken up

Was able to hail several people in Hawai'i. Total devastation. Those who weren't taken up or drowned are likely to be buried in volcanic ash soon. Even so, the Hawaiians have a sense of humor about this...many of them went surfing on the tsunami waves, and in fact, the seas are cluttered with the abandoned surfboards of the raptured and the dead. It must have been a heck of a way to go.

There is one person in Samoa that I was able to hail. She is also a scientist out of University of California, a specialist in amphibians. She reports that almost everyone in Samoa was taken up. Almost the entire population is Christian with a few Baha'i; no idea what happened to the Baha'i. The cities on both islands are apparently destroyed and there's lots of volcanic activity, but the islands themselves are okay. Maybe some humans will survive this ordeal.

GMT-9, Aleutians data

DoomQuake has just hit the Aleutians. Most of them were swept over by water in the hours before the DoomQuake hit them directly, but a few seismic stations are left to record data. DoomQuake activity, originally estimated in the 9-10 Richter range, tops 10. This is enough to change the geography of the area hit; I wouldn't be surprised if the islands themselves moved 100 yards or more.

Not able to hail anyone on the islands anymore. Whoever wasn't brought up is likely expired.

GMT-8 - Alaska and Northwest Territories

DoomQuake just hit Alaska and the Canadian Northwest Territories. Reports that the remaining polar ice has completely shattered. The only radio contacts I can still hail are both Inuvit, one in his home town in Canada, the other an oil worker in Alaska. The first reports that the only people left after the DoomQuake are other aboriginal Canadians and a handful of Muslims who moved there a few years ago. He sounded quite happy about this. The second reports that most of the white Alaskans and a good deal of the Native Alaskans (who were believers, apparently) are gone, but that most of the Palins are left behind. Neither the Palins nor the other Alaskans sound happy about this.

GMT-7, Howard Reporting

Hi everyone, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Howard Jameson, aka Howard the Unbeliever. I is, or I suppose was, a graduate student in mathematics at University of Wsahington, and The Author was my advisor. I agreed to assist The Author, whose real name was Professor James Arthur Crank, to document The Rapture. Frankly, I never thought I'd have to make good on that promise, but a promise is a promise. I've lost radio contact with Arthur, so now as per our agreement I will do my part. I do not expect to survive the DoomQuake, and if I do then I will almost certainly starve to death here on Baker Island, a remote spot of land at GMT-12 with little more than an airstrip. I now suspect that this is a fate better than most of the people left will meet. I am glad to have this fate, however, because with it comes a very important role: to record for the future, if there is one, the last few hours of the DoomQuake.

A part of our arrangement, Dr. Crank arranged for me to fly from Seattle to Hawaii via a major airline, and from there to Baker Island by a chartered flight if and when this event started. Perhaps "chartered" isn't the right word. The pilot for our trip to Baker Island is Jillian, an older woman with few relatives; she and all of her friends have long been believers in the rapture and made peace with it long ago. She agreed to fly with me to Baker Island as a final act, there to be the last human on Earth to be brought up by God.

Here is what I can tell you based on what we've already seen. The DoomQuake is a force caused by a shift underneath the Earth. We are not able to ascertain the nature of this shift, but it almost certainly isn't geological, as my understanding is that tectonic plates don't store enough energy to sustain an earthquake for this long, and that the resulting quake wouldn't move around the world in this fashion. Whatever is happening is some other phenomenon, similar to underground atomic tests, but on a much larger and more coordinated scale. The forces being unleashed are on the order of 9 or 10 on the Richter scale.

In addition, some force is causing human beings to fly into the air and disappear. There are other phenomena that have been observed, of gods and genies and angels and other mystical beings making appearances, but I haven't observed this myself, personally. There are, as you may have surmised, many things about this rapture that I do not understand and to which I have not attached meaning. I am at peace with that. It is not, as I see it, my place to try to make sense of all these things. It is my place to observe as diligently as I can and let others make sense of it later, if there is a later.

So, there we are. I am stationed at Baker Island right now, and it is about 1PM local time. I expect to monitor radio traffic and record my observations as best as I can. If the Internet holds up, I might even be able to blog it for those remaining people who can read this.