The Vanishings by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins

did the backup cop! The patrolman assumed the driver and one of his passengers had ducked down in the seat, so he pulled his weapon and warned his partner, who was no longer there.
    The cop put both hands on his revolver and skipped to the back of the car to check on his backup and discovered his cap, shirt,badge, trousers, belt, gun, cuffs, ammunition, and shoes right where he had been standing. The patrolman panicked, screaming at the occupants of the car to come out with their hands up while he scampered behind his own patrol car for cover.
    As he crouched there, one woman in the backseat of the car came out in hysterics, screaming that the driver and the other passenger had disappeared. The cop made her lie face down on the pavement, and he cuffed her before searching the car. He pulled empty clothes from the seats, then released her from the cuffs and comforted her as they tried to make sense of it.
    By the time the cameraman in the chopper realized what had happened, several accidents had occurred on the same stretch of highway. He pulled back and panned wide to see tractor-trailer trucks hung up on guard rails, cars having plunged down ravines, and even the clothes of a utility worker hanging from a ladder that led to the top of a light pole.
    Ryan wished his mother was home, but he didn’t think he could speak even if someone was there to listen. This couldn’t be real! He changed channels and found the same thing on every one. People were urged to stay in their homes as long as they were safe, and tostay tuned for more information. Ryan tried Raymie’s phone again and reached only the answering machine. He did not leave a message. Later, if he dared, he would walk down to the Steele home and see what was going on. He wondered if anyone he knew had disappeared.
    Ryan tried his mother’s car phone. It rang and rang, but no one answered. He didn’t get that usual recording about the cell phone customer having driven outside the service area or already being on the phone, so he knew he was getting through. It wasn’t like his mother to leave the phone in the car if she wasn’t there, and she always left it on when she had it with her. Ryan couldn’t figure it out, and now he was really worried.
    He found a station that listed all the crashes of planes that had been due into O’Hare that morning. His father had been coming in from Asia, which was all he knew. One of the crashed planes was coming from there, but Ryan didn’t know the time or the number or even the airline. He just hoped against hope his father had not been on that plane.
    News helicopters showed scenes from above O’Hare where big jets were parked up and down the runways. People walked from the planes as far as two miles to the terminal,and once there, it was nearly impossible for them to get out of the airport. Traffic gridlocked the road that led into and out of the airport. Ryan watched as thousands of stranded passengers walked through the zigzagged cars and down the overpasses and exits until they found taxis and limousines that would carry them toward their homes, if they could make it through the tangled mess.
    Somewhere out there Ryan’s mother was either trying to get to O’Hare to learn some news about her husband’s flight, or she had already picked him up and was trying to make her way home. From what Ryan could see on the news, he didn’t expect her for a long time. He dialed and redialed her cell phone number, but she never answered. He hoped with all his might it was just part of the communications breakdown caused by so many people disappearing.
    Ryan grew panicky, unable to reach anyone by phone and not having any idea whether his parents were safe. He hated to think his mother might try to call him while he was gone, but he had to get out of there. He had to get to Raymie’s house and see what was going on.
    Ryan tried his mother again, then Raymie’s line. Still just the machine. He hung up and ran from the house, down