What Comes After

May 20

School let out early today. We only had thirty minute periods and most of the time we didn't do much in class. More people were gone, maybe around twenty percent of our class was left. I guess everyone's worried about more flooding and decided to move away, possibly to higher grounds.

The gym was still filled with patients from the hospital, and temporary fences were installed all around the building to keep us out, though no one could resist gawking. Some of the classrooms were converted into shelters for the displaced families, so in some of my classes, we ended up sharing a room with another class. Everyone was pretty quiet though, so it didn't end up as bad as I had expected.

Charles and I took a detour when we were walking home today to see the flood zone. There was bright yellow tape around cones marking the borders of the danger zone. High tide was rising, and you could see the murky blue ocean water sweeping up the debris in the distance. On the other side of the border, the rows and rows of houses stretching across dozens of blocks were stained tan and the grass was soggy.

"Do you think it's going to be like this forever?" he asked.

"I don't know."

"That's a terrible answer."

"Fine. I do think it's going to be like this for a long time."

"Do you think the government is going to come and save us and maybe everything will go back to normal?"

"I don't think so."

"Some part of me is happy that this happened," he said. "Because now we've got a beach in our backyard."

I chuckled. I know I shouldn't have. Lots of people died from the flooding. But I think he was trying to lighten up the mood. "Wow," he said. "You just laughed about the death of thousands of people."

"Oh no," I said sarcastically. "I'm such a terrible person."

And he laughed, and then, even though I felt bad for making this joke, we were both laughing at something that wasn't even remotely funny because it's the only thing that we can do. We passed a whole line of cars and a horde of people by the gas station. Gas prices have risen already to nine dollars a gallon. I think all the offshore rigs got destroyed with the tides and most of the port cities are badly damaged from all the flooding.

I dropped him off at his house. I think he's getting worried about everything that's happening. This whole world around us is changing so fast. And it feels too fast for me to keep up with.

The power at home went out, so I couldn't open the garage door with my phone, but luckily, I had a house key in my backpack. There weren't any cans scattered on the floor anymore, and boxes seemed to be stacked neatly on the side of the house. Mira was sitting on the ground.

"Are you going back to college?" I asked.

"Mom wants me to stay," she said. "She's worried about all of us after what's happened, but I don't know."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You promise not to tell Mom and Dad?" she asked, and I nodded. "I have a boyfriend."

"Ooh, so scandalous," I said sarcastically.

"You know how Mom and Dad feel about dating," she said. "No college boyfriends!"

"Wait, didn't Mom and Dad meet in college?"

"Hypocrites," she said, and we shared a soft chuckle before everything became serious again.

"But I'm worried about him," she said. "Our college is a couple of miles away from the coast and I'm scared that it flooded. And with the power being out and cellular service down, I have no idea what happened there."

I didn't know what to say back to her, so I said the best thing that I could think of. "Hopefully, everything's going to be alright."

"Yeah," she said, turning away to push boxes. "I hope so."

May 22

I told Mom and Dad about the gasoline price increases, and I managed to skip out on driving lessons on the weekend. But now I'm stuck studying for the SAT subject test for math. Apparently, Mom and Dad think that even when the whole world is ending, studying for the SATs is somehow important.

We still don't have any power. It came on for a couple of minutes in the middle of the night, so everything began running and then faded away. We've got some solar panels charging in our backyard, but 32V of electricity isn't even enough to support a washing machine, let alone power an entire house.

But you know what's the worst part of losing power. It's not the lack of internet (though that's a close second)— it's that dang fire alarm that keeps beeping. I swear it's driving me crazy. I'm going to ask Dad to disable it tomorrow. I think I'm more likely to die of annoyance than from a fire.

Our governor says that he's working on fixing up the power system, so that everyone will have power by the end of the week. I doubt that's going to happen with all the damage to the oil rigs and ports. Maybe the government might finally start investing in solar and wind.

There's no school tomorrow. Mom and Dad are still going to work. They're taking Mom's electrical car. We've got a good amount of miles left on it, so I think we're fine.

I'll probably head to Charles' house tomorrow. There isn't much to do without the internet. Mom said to make sure to dump the laundry into the washer if the power turns on. I'll ask May to do it since she owes me a favor.

May 23

I biked to his house sometime this morning. Mira took the other bike to roam around town. She's worried about her boyfriend and I guess she wanted some time alone or something like that. Because of all these power outages, I don't think there was much for Charles to do. His house also didn't have power, so we decided to bike into town to see what was happening.

There were lots of people roaming the streets. I guess no one has anything better to do. All the cafes and stores were closed though, so no one seemed to be doing anything. There were papers fluttering through the air. I picked one up. It was a missing person sign. There was a young woman holding her dog and smiling like she had no cares in the world.

Charles and I looked at each other knowingly. "Do you want to head back?" I asked. "There's nothing much to do."

He shook his head. "No. Let's stay. We might be able to find stuff out."

"Okay."

I got off my bike. "I have to do something first."

I took the missing person sheet to the wall. There was an old poster for the summer festival taped on the brick wall. I grabbed the piece of tape and taped the sheet onto the wall, letting the summer festival one drift with the wind. I doubt that we're ever going to have a summer festival. I might as well use the tape for something more useful. It's the least I could do.

We biked around town for a bit. "Can you do this?" he asked as he let go of his bike handles.

"No," I said. "Isn't that really dangerous."

"There aren't any cars around," he said. "I dare you to do it."

"I'm not taking your dare."

"Chicken."

"I don't care."

"I think you do."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You owe me."

"For what?"

"The deal we made on Wednesday."

"No."

"No? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It was for something of equal magnitude."

"Exactly, it was made for this."

"No. That's dangerous."

"Fine. I'll remember this forever."

"Blackmail? That's a new low for you."

"That's what best friends are for," he said.

"You're so annoying sometimes."

"Someone has got to push you to do something new," he said.

"Fine." I said. "I'll do it."

I let go of the handlebars for half a second. It wasn't long enough for him. So I forced myself to let go of the handles for five seconds and nearly fell on the ground. This is why you shouldn't have friends.

Most of the stores and cafes were dark, and as we passed strip malls and plazas, I noticed that most of the grocery stores had their windows shattered and were deserted, with the couple that remained untouched being heavily guarded by security guards and police forces patrolling the streets. But even those places were filled with shadows and unpowered by electricity.

I don't think anyone had power except for the places with backup generators like our school or the hospital. There was a memorial being held in front of town hall with flowers and candles strewn across the ground. There were lots of people sitting and crying and being sad. We biked away from town hall. It was too depressing of a sight.

We got hungry for lunch and since nothing was really open (except for a heavily guarded stand that was selling ice-cream and popsicles for 70% discount), I went back home while he went back to his house. May said that the power came on for about fifteen minutes, but it went away. We had to lay out the dripping clothes in the bathtub and the railings on the stairs. It was a big mess.

We ate some canned beans for lunch. The microwave wasn't working, but our burners still lit up, so we used it to heat the limp, gray beans. Today was our first day eating canned food. I don't think I'll ever get used to eating it.

"Remember that time when we wanted the world to end so that school could be canceled?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Any regrets now?"

"Nope. The apocalypse is pretty boring."

"Yeah. What type of apocalypse would you like?"

"Something like a zombie apocalypse. I mean it'd be a lot more fun to whack the heads of the zombies with baseball bats."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works."

"Who cares?"

She shrugged and left some beans in her bowl unfinished. "You're wasting food," I said, calling out to her as she walked away.

"It's not like it matters. The world's not actually ending."

She disappeared into her room probably to get away from me. I hope she's right though.