Monday, 11:00 A.M. (Global Time)
The hour passed faster than anyone expected.
Everywhere—cities, deserts, oceans—the new countdowns glowed like branded suns. Some people prayed. Some cursed. Others reached for the first orb, desperate to understand, to do something.
And when the final seconds came, the world forgot to breathe.
00:00:03… 00:00:02… 00:00:01—
Then silence.
No flash, no sound. Just... emptiness.
---
🇹🇿 The Malangalila Family — Tanzania
Aaron watched his orb dissolve into light the instant the timer hit zero. The warmth spread through his fingers, climbed his arm, then flooded his chest. He tried to speak—but the words never left his mouth.
Lorenzo's scream froze midair as his body disintegrated into shimmering dust, fading into the white void that replaced him.
Marcus vanished mid-laugh, his last words half-formed.
And where they had stood—three white circles burned into the earth, each one faintly glowing with cracks like broken glass.
The air above them shimmered, distorting like heat waves. Inside those circles, faint silhouettes flickered, trying to move… but trapped between here and somewhere else.
Felicia fell to her knees.
Her hands hovered over the circles that still radiated warmth, as if her sons' souls lingered just beyond reach.
She screamed their names until her voice broke—until even the wind seemed to mourn with her.
---
🇩🇪 Victor Grant — Munich
Victor hadn't touched his first orb. He'd just stared at it—half bored, half afraid.
When the timer hit zero, the sound outside his window made his heart seize.
Car horns stopped. Birds fell mid-flight. Then—white light. For a moment, he saw silhouettes rising from the street, vanishing into a blinding flare.
When it faded, hundreds of white circles dotted the pavement below—each one faintly pulsing.
Inside one near his gate, the shape of his best friend's face was carved into the light, eyes closed, peaceful. But cracks spread across it, like porcelain ready to shatter.
The second orb beside him flickered awake.
> Package Two: 01:59:59
It began counting down.
---
🇧🇷 Rafa Moreira — Rio
The beach erupted into screams.
The moment the countdown ended, half the crowd vanished, leaving behind ghostly white circles in the sand—perfect outlines where bodies once stood.
The sea itself seemed to recoil, waves bending away from the shore as if afraid.
Rafa's orb dissolved in his hand. His friend's didn't.
He turned—and she was gone.
He stared at the circle she left behind. The faint reflection of her face lingered inside it, smiling in sleep, surrounded by glowing cracks.
> "What the hell is happening?" he whispered, voice trembling.
The second orb appeared above the sand and began ticking down.
---
🇯🇵 Hana Watanabe — Kyoto
The temple bells screamed.
Hundreds who had touched their orbs were gone. Their robes, shoes, and offerings remained—arranged around white circles that glowed like sacred seals.
Hana, who had resisted, fell backward as the bells' vibrations warped into a low, mechanical hum.
The cracks in the circles pulsed in rhythm with the second countdown above her.
She felt it in her bones: something inside those seals was still alive.
---
🇨🇦 Clara Hughes — Vancouver
The camera caught everything.
Through her lens, the vanished didn't disappear—they folded, like paper being turned inside out. Their reflections were trapped in the circles, eyes open, expressions frozen mid-breath.
The newsroom erupted in chaos as people screamed, pointing to their missing coworkers' names on screens. Clara kept filming, whispering to herself:
> "They're not gone. They're somewhere."
Her second orb began counting down.
---
Siberia, Russia — Alex Morozov
Snow fell like ash over the frozen plains.
Alex tightened his coat and stared into the white expanse of the oil field.
The machines were silent tonight, engines locked in frost.
A year had passed since his brother's death, but the ache still lingered like a phantom limb.
Then the ground cracked.
A blue orb rose from the snow, humming like a heartbeat.
It shone against the steel towers and glacial winds.
Alex sneered. "A government trick," he muttered, turning away. "We're lab rats."
🕶️ The Smiling Figure — Nowhere and Everywhere
They stood at the edge of the infinite white, surrounded by billions of suspended silhouettes—each one glowing faintly within its circle.
They tilted their head, amused.
> "Curiosity always eats first," they said softly.
"Let's see how long the patient ones survive."
They waved a hand, and every second orb in existence began to shimmer brighter—synchronized, like stars preparing to explode.
---
Monday, 11:01 A.M.
All across Earth, the survivors stood alone among the circles.
Some wept. Some prayed. Some reached for the next orb despite their fear.
Above them all, the second countdown ticked down in unison.
> 01:59:58… 01:59:57…
And from within the glowing cracks, the faintest whispers began—voices of the vanished, calling to the living.