Nick Gullo & Christopher E Long – FINAL INSTALLMENT

Into the Void – Chapter 3

APOCALYPSE NOW!!!

Massive Mystery Hole Swallows Bystanders—Countless Dead

 By Dylan Caldwell, Investigative Reporter

Los Angeles – Eyewitness accounts describe a massive sinkhole that opened in the middle of Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood on Friday afternoon, killing numerous early-morning commuters and pedestrians.

“It was terrifying, straight out of a B-horror movie,” Shannon Fenton recounted. “I was sitting across the street near Pike’s Coffee, just drinking a latte, when the table started shaking and I heard this low rumble moving beneath the floor… then Boom! Loudest damn thing I ever heard. I looked and the ground’s tearing open as though a giant hand come rising from the Earth, snatching down cars and people. I jumped up and started snapping pics with my phone. This poor child, I could hear her scream rise then fade as she plunged in and vanished. No doubt haunt me the rest of my life, can’t forget it if I tried. People running like from Godzilla or something. It was complete mayhem.”

Videos on social media show several sinkholes opening simultaneously throughout the city. Eyewitnesses describe the holes as bottomless pits. Then came the truly inexplicable. As Fenton filmed, the ground again shook and the rim crumbled inward, sending onlookers fleeing as the fissure sealed shut. This reportedly occurred to several of the sinkholes, but the massive hole at the base of Mount Lee’s Southern slope, just below the Hollywood sign, remains open. Police are warning the public to avoid the site as the adjacent ground may prove unstable—to no avail! In the ensuing days thousands have made the journey, abandoning cars at roadblocks and collapsed freeways, hiking in long lines as though trekking towards Mecca. “I wouldn’t miss this for nothing,” said Jeff Schmidt, who drove all night from Arizona after watching news reports, “folks been waiting a long, long time, I’m talking like millenniums, and it’s just starting. Shit’s gonna get bucknutty!”

In contrast to the festive atmosphere in the makeshift camps around the Hollywood hole (as it’s now called) many Angelinos are mourning the hundreds of friends and family reported missing, most presumed dead. “Rescuers are working around the clock to dig out survivors and retrieve bodies,” a spokesperson with the LAFD said, but with each passing hour, the hope dims.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Rodriguez released a statement naming Amy Frost as the technical lead appointed to investigate the sinkholes. Leading scientists disagree on the cause, and reports from across the globe detail similar occurrences. Theories range from methane explosions caused by climate change to collapsing underground military facilities. Dr. Norman Deaver, lead research scientist at the Institute of Science and Geological Center, stated: “I’ve never seen a geological phenomenon like this on a worldwide scale. Usually, sinkholes are isolated. This appears as though it was coordinated, but no one has the power to control natural disasters, so I’m at a loss.”

While scientists are not prepared to put forth a theory, Pastor Kurt Williams, of the Maranatha Baptist Church in Silverlake, has his own: “This was a sign from God. In Numbers 16:32, it states: The Earth opened its mouth and swallowed the men, along with their households and all their followers who were standing with them, and everything they owned.”

“We live in wicked times and have turned our attention from God,” Williams said. “This is his way of reminding all of us that He is here and will no longer be ignored.”

These sinkholes are not the only strange and unexplainable event in the last year. Repeated mishaps with strong mystical undertones have spread fears among religious groups and bolstered the idea that we are indeed living in the End Times.

Since August, numerous temples and ashrams around the world have reported finding statues of both Buddha and Shiva fallen and in rubble, many, at first, chalking the acts up to vandalism. Then came the tragedy in Chechnya, when the golden dome of the Serdtse Chechni mosque imploded and crushed over fifty worshippers. Followed by revelations from the Vatican of an infestation of venomous snakes, one viper striking and killing a cardinal.

“There are many non-believers who dismiss these strange happenings as coincidence,” Williams said, “but an inability to recognize the truth doesn’t make it false.”

For tips, please contact Dylan Caldwell at dylancaldwell932@gmail.com.