Your work cases quadrupled once people realized you were the only lawyer in town that was still open for business.
All the others had fled the doomed sunken city.
You would have fled too....had you known what was coming next.
It happened just three days after moving into your office building with your displaced family.
The first night was the most stressful....
Nora was restless and Billie was clearly coming down with a cold because she kept sneezing and coughing which would just wake Nora up.
You hated living in your office and sharing a squeaky sofa bed.
You wished you could have done more to protect your family from the hurricane.
You felt like a failure for losing your home.
Your wife kept reminding you that thousands of husbands lost their homes in the floods - not just you.
She said the important thing is there's still a roof over your heads.....which a lot of other people don't have right now.
You knew she had a point....
Then she said she was greatful you were able to provide these luxurious accomodations for her and Nora on such short notice.
You promised your wife that you would build a new home for her and Nora, but she said not to worry about the future right now.
That she doesn't mind living in your office.
That it's......cozy.
The second night was better.
You didn't feel as guilty after seeing all of the widespread damage from the hurricane and hearing the death totals on the news.
You knew the catastrophic Hurricane wasn't your fault, just like losing your home wasn't your fault.
You found out your secretary didn't survive the Hurricane.
You weren't particularly upset getting the phone call, though.
You had been planning on firing her for months anyway - you just didn't have the courage seeing as how her late father's passing was what opened up this law partner position for you in the first place.
Firing her seemed rude........so you were secretly relieved that the old woman had finally kicked the bucket.
She was always fucking up your files anyway.
You were on the phone that third night, talking to a new client, when the building began to violently shake around you......
Your wife was showering in your office bathroom, and your infant daughter was propped up on a travel pillow, on your desk, chewing on her own fist while staring up at you.
You thought it was an Earthquake.
Especially when the phone line disconnected and the power in the building turned off.
You could see out your floor to ceiling office windows that all the power in the city went out!
You scooped your daughter up and hurried to the bathroom, where you found a naked Billie stumbling out of the shower in the dark.
You grabbed her by the wet hand and pulled her out of the bathroom.
You were going to head to the tornado shelter - at the far left end of the executive floor- but the violent shaking stopped before you even made it to your office door.
The world outside of your window didn't look any different.....
In fact even the news anchors didn't know of the split, just below San Luis Obispo, until an hour later!
Southern California - from Santa Barbara down through San Diego- was now a free floating island!
It was complete chaos in the streets after that.
You were glad your family was safe and protected in the top floor of your law office.
The people below had taken to the streets to challenge the police who were failing at keeping the law in order....and the frightened citizens were losing by the van full - getting hauled off to jail!
You didn't have any candles in your dark office to light, but building security stopped by to drop off a flashlight and your yam casserole dinner.
You gave the flashlight to Billie to use, while you just watched the riots in the flooded streets below while nibbling on the dry cassarole.
Nora wasn't a fan of the dark, so Billie had to keep the light facing her so she would stop crying.
Eventually Billie just rocked her to sleep on the pull out couch bed, while the flashlight casted their moving shadows on the wall behind them.
You were scribbling down everything you were seeing in the streets for your records.
You could see clear human rights violations going on!
The police department would have hell to pay when you're done with them!
As soon as the power turned back on, roughly 2 hours later, your office phone instantly begun ringing off the hook with new clients wanting to sue the city!
After taking the calls for three hours straight, you actually had to unplug your office phone just to get some rest that night.
You thought you were doing your wife and daughter a favor, by letting them get some peaceful sleep too....but Billie kept tossing and turning all night.... mumbling about how this wasn't supposed to happen.
That California isn't split in the future.....
You were exhausted after a long hard day of work, anxiety and stress so you didn't even have the strength to correct your wife's silly future talk this time.
Instead, you just sighed and told your worried wife to shut up and go the hell to sleep.
She did, to your surprise.
Just rolled over and went to sleep.
Unfortunately for you, instead of finally getting a good night's rest, that's when the mass shootings in the streets started.
The echoing bullet blasts traveling up to your office suite and waking up a startled Billie and crying Nora.
Your building went into lock down mode.
You were greatful for the intense security features, keeping your family safe, but the locked doors and extra armed security guards did nothing to stop the noise from the chaos erupting in the flooded streets below.
Once you saw the hooligans breaking into business and local offices just to start fires - you knew you had to do more to protect your family.
You didn't believe in guns.....but now seemed like the perfect time to get the gun Ernest keeps locked in his office desk.
