CHAPTER SEVEN—EPILOGUE

Francine rushed her children as Muffy stood behind them like a posh movie star. She wore large-rimmed sunglasses and a white sundress, complete with a large white sunhat. She looked ravishing compared to the bunch of refugees, who'd been wearing the same four outfits since everything began. They had access to laundry, of course, so the outfits were clean, but they had memorized them so completely that they were almost tired of looking at each other, though if they weren't seeing each other, that meant they would likely be dead.

Catherine and John got news first from their landlord, who had evacuated to France. Their building was a total loss because of flooding, and most of it was now floating in the ocean with the hundreds of other homes the tidal wave swallowed, tackling it both on the way in and the way out, as the water took over.

Buster, then Brain, discovered their homes also had flood damage, but theirs was standard damage. They would be able to return home in a week to begin the cleanup process, but both men knew their upper-floor units, once angering to their ex-wife, remained safe from the floods. Only Brain's office was at risk because it was on the second floor, but he would just have to take that risk.

Francine and her latest husband's house was in a lower part of town and sustained more damage, but he refused to deal with the situation. He remained heartbroken in Austin, Texas, refusing to help Francine with the cleanup. He'd let her other ex's take care of that, and she coldly let them take in the girls while she sorted everything out.

Eventually they returned home, flying on Muffy's private jet. Muffy had her parents take in Catherine, John, and their kids, a favor the Crosswire's didn't seem to mind (and their property was dry thanks to sandbags and pumps, so there was no cleanup for them to do), and Francine decided she would join them if they would have her, which they would. Eventually she found a new house outside of town and moved there with the girls. Buster and Brain would commute together, namely because Buster's car had been destroyed in the flood and he had yet to replace it, to see their daughters and spend time with them.

They were lucky compared to people in other parts of the United States. Ladonna and her family, who had all returned to their native Louisiana, were lucky to evacuate to the Midwest during the event. For nearly a month, water from the overflowed Gulf of Mexico covered their various properties, destroying them completely. The rebuilding process was difficult, one because insurance companies were overwhelmed, but also because the water never really left. New lakes formed in lower areas, freshwater lakes were contaminated with ocean water, and some areas just never really drained again, forming swamps. This happened in the east too, especially where the tidal wave managed to get water across the Appalachian Mountains. People in these areas were just stuck with the problem, so much so that many were forced to relocate.

Everyone admitted this was extremely lucky. If the countdown had been wrong the other way, meaning if the asteroid would've been forty-five minutes late instead of forty-five minutes early, the Carolinas and part of Virginia would be missing a huge chunk of land, a chunk of land that would've been turned to bits and sent into the atmosphere. The impact crater would be filled with water and covered up by the ocean, much as what happened when the Gulf of Mexico was formed.

Loss of life was thankfully minimal across America, and even places like the United Kingdom, where dykes were breached but things were mostly just soggy and hard to manage. In areas where evacuation had been impossible, the loss of life had been staggering, and it would take years for scientists to realize that over two million people had been killed in the event just in Central America alone, island nations not included.

Those areas faced tragedy too sickening to convey, but the world refused to forget those areas. Resources flooded in to help repair the areas, and the few that were able to escape returned to repopulate their homeland and start anew. It was their only choice, and they, like billions of other people, knew this was just one of those extremely rare situations, and while they got the short end of the stick now, at least the entire planet hadn't been wiped out by the impact.

~End

A/N: So I decided to go NextGen here to see what I could come up with. My Disasters series hadn't seen that yet, so I figured why not? I kinda made Francine a cold-hearted biatch, but, as Catherine and Brain discuss, I think she's just missing something important. What is she missing? Well, you figure it out.

My main focus here was the impact. I feel this last part was a bit cold, but I also didn't want to get into the people who would get slaughtered. It's hard to think about, even in this fictional scenario, because I've tried to stay true to science here. If an asteroid that size did strike the ocean, things would be bad for whoever was closest. Those the furthest away might not notice much of anything, aka Muffy and Francine didn't have to evacuate from the west coast, aka California, because they knew the oceans would adjust, making the extra waves smaller than where the impact freshly happened.

I hope this doesn't happen ever in my lifetime, but if it's going to happen, I hope we have technology like in this piece. If you recall, there are now satellites in the story orbiting our moon and Mars that help us see more. I hope this is the future because I feel like it would really help, especially if we could get one around a moon or planet past the asteroid belt. We'll just have to see what happens, I guess.

Keep your eye out for my next Disasters piece. I'm really on a roll with these things so why stop now? And please review. I would really appreciate it.