[ WP ] `` Almost all communication with the West coast of the United States is down after an unprecedented multiple earthquake event spanning the Pacific Ring of Fire . ''

Every day we woke up to the sound of helicopters. They hung in the air like vultures, blades whipping up ash. Each one was equipped with a massive spotlight, sweeping across the dark day, searching desperately for bodies. 
 
 My city was blood and dust and iron, our great skyscrapers bent like broken bones, our bridges sunken in defeat. The waters were coated with a layer of white ash, sometimes adorned with a floating swimmer's body. 
 
 Who would have known? No one was here for us. No one had anything to save us with. The only hope we had was in each other and in the idea of something greater than us, be it God or otherwise. 
 
 Today we would look for our fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers, our friends and enemies alike, anyone at all, because in these times it was the people around us, the few that held breath in their lungs, that would drive us on.
