Leila nodded her head and quietly exited the office. It was moments like this that brought Sabine joy. Having bright young students, still full of energy, bouncing their ideas off her was what she had wanted in her career. Unfortunately, these students were far rarer than the ones who simply wanted to pass the class and move on. A decent portion of the student body seemed to have little or no intellectual curiosity whatsoever. College was simply a means to an end.

Aside from Leila’s visit, Sabine’s entire office hour was as usual simply a waste. Not another soul came to visit her, which she fully expected. Considering their research paper was due in another week, she figured she would be getting several frantic emails from various students, starting in about six days, but no office visits. It was unfortunate in Sabine’s view that the university insisted that she keep regular office hours. It would have been a much more effective use of her time simply having office hours by appointment, then she wouldn’t have all these wasted hours. And Sabine was perfectly happy to hold office hours as needed by the students, though she recognized that some of her colleagues would probably simply ignore the students outside of class altogether if they were not forced into having regular ones.

Once the clock ticked to 2pm, Sabine rose and shut her office door, relieved that she was now officially off duty. She sat back down at her desk and decided she had better check her email, she hadn’t really checked it at all today. The first thing that she saw in her inbox was the reply from Chase’s team, asking for her availability. She scrolled down to see if any students had emailed her, and aside from a thank you note from Leila for today’s visit there were none. There were several campus announcements though, including a potentially interesting talk that was upcoming which would be given by an official from inside the president’s administration. Sabine marked off her calendar for that one.

After peering through the available dates, she chose one a few weeks out. Chase was successful enough that he and his team had the money to offer to pay for her trip. She decided to accept that option, she had no interest in spending her personal funds, nor her research funds to travel for this potentially pointless debate. She doubted she would change anyone’s mind on the podcast, and she was certain she would simply leave angry and even more pessimistic about the direction and fate of mankind. The only carrot was another mark in her precious tenure package. She was beginning to doubt that was enough of a draw, but she knew what Marcus would say. Some line about always being too much in her head.

After a quick check of her online calendar, Sabine realized that the rest of her day was completely open. She decided to take the opportunity to go home for the rest of the day. She grabbed her copy of On Tyranny and headed out to her car, also carrying her briefcase which contained her laptop and a large notebook where she kept her scattered thoughts for future research directions. Sabine only lived a few minutes off campus, so she had an easy commute.

After a short drive, Sabine arrived at her apartment. She knew she would be greeted excitedly by George, her aging mutt. George was 14 years old and weighed about 45 pounds, and his grizzled fur was a patchwork of faded browns and grays, like autumn leaves clinging to memory. He had a broad chest, crooked tail, and eyes that had seen too much but which still softened at the sound of her voice. His breathing was slow, deliberate, the kind of rhythm that only comes with age and quiet acceptance.

George was her primary companion. Sabine had a number of boyfriends through the years, but George had been her only constant. She had gotten George even before going off to college, when she was only 16 years old, at the insistence of her mother. Her mother knew of Sabine’s intention to go to college, the first in her family to do so, and was fearful of the dangers that Sabine might face when she went out on her own.

At this point in her life, Sabine was too busy to date, or at least she felt that way. She was laser focused on getting tenure. George was enough for her, and she never had to wonder where his loyalties were.

Once she kicked open the door, a quirk of her apartment that she needed to get addressed, George rose slowly, tail wagging at a furious pace. He came over to visit her, as he always did. She patted George on the head a few times and then spoke to him.

“George I really need to run to the bathroom. I promise I will give you your proper loving in a minute.”

Sabine sat her briefcase down next to her home office desk and put her book on the desk and rushed to the bathroom. She hated using the bathroom at the university, often choosing to hold it until she could get to her own, which she knew was quite clean.

She rushed into the bathroom, which had no windows, and flicked the light on as she ran in, closing the door behind her. As soon as she sat down George started barking. This was curious to Sabine, George rarely barked anymore, he rarely had the energy.

“What is the matter boy?” She shouted from the bathroom.

Then Sabine heard a low rumble and felt an unusual amount of vibration. She heard someone on the floor below her scream:

“Earthquake!”