BAU

I woke up late. Again. Had to rush my kids to get ready and out the door onto the bus (at least they were on time, yay!), then get myself ready. Time to make coffee? No. I’ll get something on the way. Purse? Check. Keys? Check. Laptop? Check. Slide into the pumps and out the door. A rumble and shake of the ground as I’m locking the door. Not bad, must be a few miles away. Can’t worry about that when “we gotta hit those KPI’s!”

I waited in line at the local coffee shop to get my usual morning must-have-to-function beverage while I watched the tv up in the corner. The news was on. They were discussing the latest attack this morning. Huh, that was three miles away, just east. Good thing I’m headed north. Traffic going east would have been awful. Ope, my turn to order.

I was late for work (my own fault), but the road construction didn’t help. It’s bad enough in the Midwest, but the fallout from the attacks on and around the city impacted the highway so we’re still down to one lane. Anyway, off to the daily status meeting!

I walked in and took a seat. After the “you’re late” / “I know” song and dance, we jumped right in. I know he wants to fire me, but we’re so short staffed after the two attacks last month, and I’m damn good at my job. Who would have thought having a pulse would be my job security.

“The CEO isn’t happy with the reduction in site traffic he’s seeing. We need to brainstorm ways we can increase traffic and revenue before the quarterly shareholders meeting at the end of the month,” he said as he looked around at each of us making direct, and uncomfortable eye contact.

“Anyone have any experience in necromancy?” It was an idea murmured anonymously from someone in back, not at the table, and it was met with giggles and a chortle from around the room.

“I’m serious. We could be looking at substantial cutbacks or pay cuts if we don’t hit our projections, and we all know how expensive food rations have gotten. NONE of us can afford that.”

“Well,” I said, “to start, we’re going to HAVE to open up our Ad targeting to a broader range of people since the current pool of people is shrinking and that’s something that is out of our control.” As I was about to “second-of-all,” the building shook. Then it vibrated. Then it shook again, VIOLENTLY. That’s close. Too close.

My boss looked around. “All right everyone. The building is safe. It’s made of reinforced steele beams. Just come away from the windows. Come to doorways or hold onto any of the posts you see throughout the floor and hold on tightly until it passes.”

All the while the building feels like it’s shaking from side to side. My ankle twists sideways in these damn pumps - why’d I even bother? Plaster starting to rain down like dust into everyone’s hair. Then chunks of the cheap cardboard drop ceiling.

Another violent shake and a sound so loud one moment, then I couldn’t hear anything at all. Then a loud, piercing frequency until I realized what was happening.

Oh God, what about my ki–

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Author’s Note: This is not meant to make light of war or tragedy. This story is meant to highlight that while other countries endure trauma like this all the time and go without food or clothes or basic necessities, the U.S. has been substantially lucky not to have had this brought to our doorstep. Further, with the movies and social media, we seem to have become so dissociated and desensitized that it seems like if it did come to our doorstep, we may just act like zombies in denial and just continue our normal day to day even if it doesn’t have any meaning or purpose anymore.