It came without warning the biggest solar flare ever. Astronomers were able to monitor the phenomenon as the data was off the charts.

There was little that they can do as the solar storm dislodged a million tiny specks of cosmic dust that fell on the night sky. It was an impossible situation they say because it shouldn't have been able to move those particles but they were on a course to hit Earth.

The storm washed all over the earth bathing it in radiation causing EMP-like effects. Planes dropped from the sky, trains stopped in mid-motion and ships lost navigation tools.

There was chaos in the streets as people watched in horror as planes plummeted and it was like seeing a thousand 9-11's play out right before their eyes.

Electronics were disrupted and all the lights were turned off. The world was plunged into darkness.

Then the first cosmic specks started to fall and in a lightless world, it was beautiful to behold.

From Unsplash - photo-nic.co.uk nic

The world watched in awe while waiting for things to start back up. This phenomenon would be forgotten soon they think as they turned their attention to the tragedies of hundreds of thousands of lives were snuffed out due to electronic malfunctions.

Stories of pacemakers failing, of ventilators stopping, of generators and back up systems failing to reboot and killing patients as doctors and nurses scrambled to save as many as they can.

The news would be full driverless cars crashing and causing multiple car collisions, of the names of passengers of the thousand planes that fell.

The world was grief-stricken with the loss of so many human lives. Yet it was not over.

---

The Loss

People started to notice there was something amiss. In the chaos that happened after the solar flare the focus was on the tragedy with other people but they did not realize that a calamity was so much nearer.

A child missing, a father not seen, a mother who was assumed to be out and siblings that were thought of just being busy. Co-workers not reporting for work, students absent from school.

People just assumed that they were somewhere else and would return soon. They never did.

Media called them "The Lost", millions of people that seemingly just vanished without a trace. No evidence of foul play, of them shirking away from their responsibilities and families. These were good people.

Conspiracies and the theories burned like wildfire trying to explain what happened to "The Lost" everything from being kidnapped by the Illuminati, to being taken by the Men in Black or being experimented on by Aliens.

The End of Days

Source

“But in those days, following that distress, “ ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
-Mark 13:24-27

More than a few people thought that this was the start of The End of Days. This was the Rapture happening when God would take his chosen people.

Science and logic could not explain it so people turned to Religion and faith. Yet some of the priests were still here while some of the brethren vanished. Would people trust a religious man that was not taken in the Rapture? A crisis in faith happened as people lost their faith and hope.

God has abandoned you

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Life continued albeit with less caring and goodness as people succumbed to their selfish nature. People grew to distrust each other and found it to be more and more difficult to work together unless if it was to step on someone weaker.

Lives were easily tossed as people sought out their desires and want because there was no God accounting them for their actions. If they are to be abandoned and damned then they might as well enjoy what remains of their lives.

It was every man for himself as the only thing important was me, myself and I.

This scarcity mindset made people hoard and protect their stash with extreme prejudice. Raiders became commonplace as people wanted more and felt entitled that it was theirs because of their might.

The powerful were surrounded by lackeys who are waiting for an opportunity to murder and steal.

Mankind lost their goodness and hope. Man lost everything with the Rapture and it has only begun.

The story of The Rapture was one that left an early imprint in my mind. Being raised in a religious household and been educated in schools run by monks, religion was constantly pounded into my mind.

Things did change when I was exposed to Philosophy in college as I started to reject religion's dogmatic principles.

A post-apocalyptic world is usually one that was set off by a nuclear war or a pandemic of a zombie plague.

Of dystopian settings of hunger, lack of resources and technology being lost. Knowledge lost is often portrayed as a huge calamity for mankind as it sets back progress but I wanted to explore a world that lost its goodness and hope and what remained was a self-serving attitude.

I was thinking that if humanity lost its goodness it would be a greater tragedy because all that would be left is to be evil and selfish. The world would lose hope and kindness because everything would be a What Is It For Me {WIFM) kind of world.

This story was inspired by articles that I have seen by some religious friends that I have that are posting in Facebook that the Rapture is going to happen this August 2018. If you try to engage them into a discussion though it gets ugly really quick because they denounce you as an unbeliever that will go straight to Hell. So I don't talk to such characters anymore.

This is an entry to Neoxian's Prodigious and Desolate Post-Apocalyptic Writing contest!

^{Footer by @ameliabartlett}