I tap away at my computer, running a few last simulations, the dawn light filtering into the office unnoticed. The results didn’t change this time either. I sigh. If only there was time to warn them. I exit my home of sixty years silently, to watch the sun come up.

I warned them all it was coming, gave them a time too. Everyone in California’s been expecting the Big One for years. Probably not a soul besides my stubborn self left in the whole state. I check the time on my fathers old timepiece. Any minute now.

Too late to warn them about the mistake I made. A simple mistake in vector calculations, something I left to an intern at the university. The one I found last night. Oh well. Just watch the show I guess. The whole place’ll slide into the ocean.

A rumble, a low thunder runs through the land. The world heaves, I fall and lose consciousness.

I blink, seeing beyond where the fault was is ocean now. I was right. I stare out to the east, thinking the nearest land out across the ocean is probably Europe.