Left Behind: Chapter One

On a "fully loaded 747" crossing the Atlantic en route to Heathrow:

Dramatis Personae:

Captain Rayford Steele: Pilot who has "pushed from his mind thoughts of his family."
Hattie Durham: Senior Flight Attendant, "drop dead gorgeous" and "a toucher."
Irene: Rayford Steele's wife, who "has hooked up with a smaller congregation" and is into "weekly Bible studies and church every Sunday," making Rayford "uncomfortable." "Lately [has] been reading everything she could get her hands on about the Rapture of the Church."
Cameron "Buck" Williams: at thirty, the "youngest ever senior writer for the prestigious Global Weekly." "[They] called him Buck ... because he was always bucking tradition and authority."
First Officer Christopher: at one point "squint[s] and lick[s] his lips." Is not given a last name until he commits suicide in Chapter Three. Apparently exists so Rayford Steele can leave the flight deck to perhaps have an encounter with Hattie Durham which may involve hand touching. (If the mood permits and things escalate.)

Introduced via flashback during the ruminations of "Buck," reflecting on the greatest scoop of his career -- his live reportage from the Russo-Libyan-Ethiopian total nuclear assault on Israel:

Steve Plank, Executive Editor of Global Weekly: Appears briefly in an editorial meeting that sends Buck to Israel to interview Chaim Rosenzweig. Apparently exists so Buck can go places and have money to do stuff with.
Chaim Rosenzweig: "Chemist," Global Weekly (and Time's!) Man of the Year, transforms Israel into the most awesome greenhouse ever, with "zero unemployment," said transformation inspiring the Russians to throw their entire arsenal of ICBMS and "nuclear-equipped MIG fighter-bombers" at it, an assault that "became known as the Russian Pearl Harbor."

The action:

People disappear from the flight while it's in the air, crossing the Atlantic. "Their shoes, their socks, their clothes, everything was left behind. These people are gone!"

But what about Israel, after the Russo-Libyan-Ethiopian total nuclear assault?

Pretty o.k. "Miraculously, not one casualty was reported in all of Israel." "[T]he entire Russian air offensive seemed to destroy itself." As a bonus, "[a]mong the ruins, the Israelis found combustible material that would serve as fuel and preserve their natural resources for more than six years."

Recap:
Israel -- a verdant paradise, selling grain and flowers and heating its homes with leavings from spent nuclear munitions.
A fully loaded 747 -- hurtling toward the unknown, Capt. Steele realizing that "Irene had been right .... [h]e, and most of his passengers, had been left behind."

Previous posts: Introduction
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