Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

Olivia felt the ground beneath her shake violently. it was the fourth quake this week. As the people around her walked quickly trying to find cover and the such, she walked steadily. If anyone would slow themselves to look into her eyes, they would see naught but hollow windows. Olivia was walking down a crowded Mainstreet in Queens, New York. Her apartment had caught fire less than an hour before due to a neighbor leaving their kitchen eye on to go out and dry clothes while their dinner was cooking.

The poor girl was left had just come home from work at the nursing home to find that she had no home to come back to. She felt her soul leave her body as she walked through the burnt aftermath. She had cried. She had screamed at the top of her lungs. And she had been angry. But the anger didn't last. Not after looking into the eyes of her neighbor who was lost in seemingly so many thoughts. That person had looked absolutely crushed and broken.

Olivia wouldn't ever say she was a saint. If anything, she would only say she was human enough to feel sympathy. She knew that they were both going through what felt like the impossible. She had gone over to the neighbor and waited for them to look up at her with their hollowed eyes. They stared at each other, then Olivia grasped them in a hug and they had cried together.  They cried for their losses, their selves. and for each other.

Afterward, Olivia just walked out of the building, and she then just kept walking. She walked without care, without emotion, without direction, and just was. She spoke to no one. Called no one, as if there was anyone to call. She had left her family behind in Poland and come to America to start a new life. She had betrayed her heritage to live a better life and now her cheap place of comfort was gone. She had lived in the apartment for 7 years now. Seven years later and she still lived in a cramped apartment working for just above minimum wage. Luckily she hadn't started in New York or she would have never been able to live in the most expensive city in the United States. 

She still felt the quakes under her feet as she walked, but they were subtler now, calming themselves. She sighed as the light came back to her eyes and she tried to picture what her next move would be. She had tried to get another apartment in her complex, but the superintendent had made it abundantly clear he wouldn't be keeping anyone. Whether that be because he had no more space, was worried about publicity, or simply because of other reasons would remain unknown to her.

She finally made the sane decision to stay in a cheap hotel for a few nights while she sought out a new place to stay. Then she paused. She had been working all day and then had the infuriating situation with the fire that she had completely forgotten to pick up Dustin, her son. She had been dazed and walking for a while now and had completely let reality slip from her. She wasn't alone, and she had responsibilities, "Gowno," she hissed in polish as she cascaded her hand over her dirty blond hair. 

She ripped a black flip phone from her pocket as she made the call to Dustin's elementary school. After listening for a while she had confirmed that they had kept him at the school. They knew she took public transportation and had assumed that the bus was just running a little late. After she explained what happened the vice-principal agreed to keep Dustin until she arrived on the next bus, as she had missed the one that dropped her off the closet to the school. Shirley, the vice-principal, had offered to send him to her, but Olivia just said she would be there.

At the moment she looked a mess, and she refused to let her son see her in such a state. She also needed time to get her affairs in order. She felt as if the air had been knocked out of her as she got on the bus. Something suddenly came over her like a cold wave left a bad feeling in her stomach. Another quake then struck as the metal shuttle was halfway to her drop-off point. She found the violent shake worrying as she felt the bus lurch to a halt. Then she saw why the bus driver had stopped. Everyone had.

Olivia chose to ignore the window in her face for now. She looked around as the quake became more intense and some of the taller buildings began to topple. She watched as the road ahead became crowded and decided to get off the bus. She knew her mode of transportation wouldn't be moving anytime soon. She decided she would travel the rest of the way to her son's school. 

The screen flickered in her vision again, changing to support a different set of words, but she ignored them. She took off with a fire in her eyes. She could feel it in her guts that she had to get to him soon. She knew because she could tell that the world they knew... was ending.