Chapter 1: Earthquake

"It all happened so fast..."

"One day we're going about our daily lives..."

"And the next we're thrusted into a world where only your own survival matters..."

"Just where did it all go wrong?"

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[1 week earlier]

A woman was sleeping peacfully in her bed. The sun was just rising, and it's sunlight peeked through the shut curtains. The warm light basked the room in a soft orange glow.

Slowly, as if to not make any noise, the door to the woman's bedroom creaked open. With small thumps, a petite figure tip-toed into the room, careful not to make noise. With its arms raised high into the air, the small figure leaped onto the woman's bed and collided with her.

The woman startled awake with a gasp and quickly turned to look at the perpetrator.

Lo and behold, a small girl, around the age of 9, laughed with wild abandoment. Her joyful laughter filling the room as the woman sighed before flashing a tired but warm smile.

"You little rascal!" The woman playfully scorned as she grabbed onto the little girl and ruffled her already messy hair. The child laughed gleefully upon seeing her mother's playful nature and tried to get out of her mother's grip all the while she giggled.

After a while of back and forth playful banter, the woman finally lets go of the little girl, who escapes quickly to avoid another tickle torture session, the child's face full of smiles.

The woman then gets out of bed and tiredly walks over to her bathroom, grabbing her glasses on the way. She looks into the mirror for a moment before turning on the faucet and splashing her face with water to wake herself up. She grabs a hand towel from the side and wipes down her face. She then starts her daily morning routine.

After an hour, the woman is finally ready for the day. Her face is adorned with a fresh application of natrual looking makeup, and her dark brown hair is styled into a clean bun. Her golden frames compliment her hazel eyes as she puts on her usual work outfit. A clean white blouse and black high-waisted trousers outline her toned, but slim body.

For a brief moment, the woman looks at her desk, cluttered with work documents and files. Her eyes land on a small picture frame, a picture of herself, a man, and a toddler. In small handwriting, a little message is in the corner of the photo: "For my dear wife and best friend, Carol. Love, your handsome husband."

The corner's of Carol's eyes prick with tears, but she quickly wipes them away to avoid ruining her makeup.

With a small sigh, she leaves her room with her phone and bag. The little girl's head immediately snaps up as she hears her mother walk out of her room and stops what she's doing in favor of running up to her mother.

"Mom! Come look at what I drew!" The little girl exclaims, trying to pull her mother towards the coffee table where all of her art supplies were.

"Of course, Ruby. Show me your latest masterpiece!" Carol says in a dramatic voice as she is pulled along by Ruby.

Their family is well-off, and the house has a modern feeling to it, illuminated by the bright sunlight pouring in through the open curtains, giving way to a bustling city down below.

Ruby hurriedly pulls her mother to the living room and proudly proclaims her new drawing is "The greatest masterpiece anyone has ever seen!" Finally, Carol gets a look of Ruby's drawing. It's a crude drawing of a woman and a small girl holding hands, drawn in such a way that only a child could create.

Carol smiles warmly and kisses her daughter on the cheek.

"It truly is the greatest masterpiece the world has ever seen. I don't think anyone is ready for this splendid art piece." Carol boasts as she takes the paper in her hand and walks to the kitchen, grabbing a magnet and placing it on the fridge's door alongside a multitude of different drawings.

Ruby smiles smugly and places her hands on her hips.

"When I grow up, I'm going to be the greatest artist that ever lived!" She procaimed, to which Carol responded with a chuckle. "Of course! You will be so famous that the president will ask YOU for an autograph!" Carol happily entertained her daughter, knowing that she will surely become someone great.

Ruby laughed and ran back to the lving room to continue drawing. Carol shook her head with a small chuckle as she grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and placed it in her bag along with a granola bar.

After she was sure she was set to go, she grabbed her keys and put on her low heels. Just as she was about to shout out to her daughter that she was leaving, she had a sudden urge to change to more comfortable shoes.

With a bit of hesitation, she switched out her heels with fully black converse.

"Ruby! The nanny is going to come in around 15 minutes! So be good while I'm gone, alright?"

"Okay, mom!" Ruby's voice replied from the living room and Carol opened the front door and walked out, closing the door behind her.

Carol walks down the hallway and stops in front of the elevators. After pushing the down button, she goes on to her phone while she waits for an elevator to arrive. As she's looking through her feed, a pop-up on her screen shows the weather for today.

"Bright and sunny skies for most of the day, but watch out for a storm in the afternoon..." Carol reads aloud. Before she can continue reading, the elevator doors ding and open. She walks inside the elevator and presses the lobby button.

Nothing of much interest happens while she waits for the elevator to descend and she promptly leaves the complex building with a small goodbye to the security. She walks over to her car, a sleek black 2024 Lexus UX Hybrid. An affordable, but luxurious car. With her keys in hand, she starts the car and gets inside. Checking to see if anyone is in her way before driving out of the parking lot and heading on route to her work place.

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[A couple of hours later]

Carol stretches her arms as she sits in her seat at her desk, popping a few bones. Her boss wants her work finished by the end of the day, and thankfully, Carol managed to finish it just before office hours ended, succesfully avoiding overtime.

Her coworker, however, wasn't so lucky. He leaned over Carol's desk, and upon seeing she was done, he started complaining.

"How in the hell can you finish these things so quickly? I swear you're a machine when it comes to these things!" Alex complained, huffing about how fast Carol was.

Alex was much younger than Carol, who had been working at this company for years on end. Alex, on the other hand, was a fresh-out-of-college employee. He had tired green eyes and ginger colored hair. He had freckles on his cheeks and had a lanky body. It irked him to no end that Carol was much taller than he was, seeing as Carol was 6'5 while Alex only clocked it in at around 5'11.

"You're just mad because you're slow at this." Carol retorted as she got up and grabbed her purse, ready to clock out. Alex continued to grumble, but soon stopped as he saw that Carol was smiling and stayed standing up without moving.

"So, I'll wait until you're finished. I know you don't have a ride home, so I'll take you." Carol treated Alex much like a son and always made sure that he was doing okay, even if she occasionally bantered with him.

Alex just about started sobbing dramatically but held back and continued working, Carol occasionally teaching him some pointers about how to do certain tasks.

Eventually, Alex finished up, 30 minutes past office hours. Alex picked up his stuff and Carol started walking to the exit, Alex close behind.

The two stopped at an elevator and chatted while they waited. That's when Carol was suddenly reminded of something.

"Alex, there's apparently going to be a storm around this time. I saw it on my weather app today."

"Really? Aren't those things usually wrong? 'Sides, it's been sunny all day, why would it start stormin' all of a sudden?"

Carol hummed in agreement when the elevator doors dinged and opened. The two got in and pressed the lobby button. After a moment of nothing happening, the lights inside the elevator started to flicker. Both Carol and Alex looked up curiously at the lights, but just as they were about to say anything, the elevator doors opened at the lobby.

They shrugged it off as a simple electrical problem and exited the elevator.

Carol noticed that the lobby was strangely empty, usually the security or the janitors would still be around, but there was absolutely no one.

Alex was rambling about a show he was watching, but Carol didn't listen as she surveyed their surroundings, finding a few chairs upturned and papers scattered on the floor.

"Alex." Alex stopped talking as soon as he heard Carol's serious tone. It was only then that he noticed the strange state the lobby was in. "Something is wrong, stay close to me."

Alex nodded with a fearful expression and grabbed onto Carol's hand. Carol led the both of them towards the exit cautiously.

But before she could open the door, a sudden tremble of the ground almost toppled both of them down. Glass could be heard shattering on impact as the ground continued to shake violently. Carol quickly led them to a nearby table and pushed Alex underneath it first before she went under as well.

"Keep your head down, Alex. I know it's scary, but we're going to be alright." Carol tried her best to calm down the terrified Alex.

Alex was not used to earthquakes as he used to live in an area that didn't even have light tremors, so an earthquake of this magnitude would surely terrfiy him. Alex tried his best to keep his composure and kept his head down as instructed all the while gripping onto Carol tightly, tears threatening to fall down his cheeks.

Carol could only hug Alex closely, the same thing she would do whenever she was with her daughter. 'I hope Ruby and the nanny are alright...' Carol thought as she held her head down, books and furniture toppling over and crashing onto the ground.

Half an hour later, slowly but surely, the tremors started subsiding, until it finally stilled. Only the creaking of the light fixtures overhead and the faint wail of sirens could be heard. Seeing that the earthquake seemed to be over, Carol slipped out from underneath the table and pulled Alex along with her.

Alex seemed shaken and clung tightly onto Carol as he took shaky breaths. Carol rubbed his back and muttered soothing words while she looked around at the damage.

'This... An earthquake of this magnitude should've alerted the city. How come there wasn't a warning?' Carol thought as she pulled them both up before leading them to the exit once again.

She opened the doors and she almost gasped when she saw what was outside. She saw fires in the distance, and countless buildings in ruins. Debris covered the streets and cars were overturned.

Without a second thought, she ran towards the parking garage, pulling Alex along with her as she sped towards her car. As soon as she saw her car in view, she pulled out her keys and started the car.

"Alex, get inside." She said as she hurriedly sat on the driver's seat after unlocking the doors. Alex wasted no time in listening to Carol and did what he was told, swiftly getting inside the car and sitting on the passenger's seat.

As soon as Alex clicked his seatbelt, Carol sped out of the garage and weaved in between left-behind cars and random debris that blocked the lanes.

Then, a single drop of rain landed on the windshield of the car. Then another, and another, until it was a torrent of rain that came down from the skies. The once clear and sunny sky was now dark and cloudy. The rain got so heavy that Carol could barely see in front of her, it was thanks to her car's safety features that she got to avoid crashing into random objects. It wasn't that long until a loud ringing came from her phone.

"Alex, check what it is, please." Carol said as she focused on driving. Alex got her phone from her bag and looked at the screen, his tears already dried up.

"It says... that the government has issued a world-wide emergency... that strange weather phenomenons have been occuring all around the world and has lead to major deaths and injuries. It is highly recommended to find the nearest military base to seek shelter..." Alex trailed off and he looked back up from the phone to look at Carol.

Carol had an unreadable expression on her face, but it was quickly revealed what she felt when she suddenly sped up, narrowly avoiding crashing.

'I'm coming for you, Ruby... Please... be safe...'