If Only

If I were going through the bored-out-of-my-tears process of healing during the month of November I would be participating in NaNoWriMo. Not because I am a good writer or because I have any particular aspirations to author-dom, but because this morning, in the shower, I came up with the BEST idea for a sci-fi story. Seriously. Since the chances of me ever actually writing it are negligable, and since I trust you all implicitely, I will share the idea that could potentially make me a wealthy and famous author. Be sure to mention me in the credits if you steal it.

Here's the deal. It is many years in the future. Everything is pretty much the same. Life goes on...except every once in a whilea person under great duress performs a feat that is technically "impossible". Not just out of the ordinary...really, physically, scientifically impossible. A man desperate to get to a last chance interview before it is too late manages to slow the passage of time until he can get through a snarl of traffic. A woman bring her stillborn child back to life with the power of her denials. A child decides to fly away from an abusive situation, and does it...literally. Things are getting wierd.
The world's top scientists start researching and manage to pinpoint the moment in time when these impossiblities started becoming reality. After a bit more research, they learn that this is the same moment that "a devestating event" (not exactly sure what, but I suspect it has to do with WMDs) occurs. It turns out that everyone - the entire population of Earth was killed in that instant. However, following the premise of so many stories before, those inflicted with death don't realize that they are so inflicted. They go on with their daily lives as before, unaware that anything has changed. And since they all died at the same time, there was no one to notice the shift (aside from the initial feeling of queaziness and disorientation that was shrugged off so casually).
Eventually, it is postulated that what they have been taking for reality for so long (like, 50 years or something) is, in fact, nothing more than a mass hallucination. Or perhaps a figment of a collective imagination. As with any theory, there are believers and non-believers. The trouble is that the believers, suddenly accepting the facts of their own death, immediately puff out of existence. This solidifies the theory with any non-believers who were leaning on the fence and they become believers...and puff out of existence...convincing more non-believers...you get the drift.
In traditional ripple-effect form, people begin puffing out of existence more and more rapidly. Eventually, you are left with a small collective of individuals, who would of course spend many pages discussing what lies on "The Other Side". These folks are struggling to maintain even the basics of their created reality - since the small number of minds leads to a large number of inconsistencies and gaps. Eventually, they decide to give in to the reality of their own deaths, puffing out of existence (and into some unknown), at which time the Earth returns to its own reality. The story ends with a discription of a formerly war-torn, devestated planet showing the first signs of growth and re-birth.

Oh...and if you do steal it...I want a copy of the final product. Thanks.