Grandma rocked steadily in her carved walnut chair. Grandpa made it shortly after they were married. Too shortly. Their daughter was born a mere four months after their wedding. She dared anyone to say anything nasty about it. Our heirloom cradle that went with it, was his creation as well.

"It was foretold there would be a great calamity. On of such magnitude that the world would change in the blink of an eye, north becoming east and south becoming west. The stars will dance and spin in the sky, and there will be great floods."

Her voice held a touch of gravel. Not a surprise as the wind blew more dust across the station yard. We were dry as the mid world desert, as that is where we ended up. Fortunately building to hold out the cold, worked just as well to insulate us from heat. Thick walls and double sets of doors with mudrooms between them kept us from losing what little relief we could find from the tempest the weatherman called wind.

"I never thought you would be here to see what happened, Grandma," Misty, said.

"And I never thought the words of the warning would be so exactly correct. I saw the stars dance and the moon did a jig, exactly as foretold." The matriarch of the family shrugged her shoulders, then smiled. "Being almost one hundred-years-old is an advantage I supposed."

Grandma's wry tone brought giggles to all of the family gathered around her.

"Do you think we will survive?" Misty asked.

"With our water supply still secure there is no reason why not. We'll share our pond with the wildlife, and with luck the fish we stocked will survive. This desert isn't overly hot, just dry. We can make an oasis of our station here."

"When will we hear from other survivors?" Timmy asked. "The radio has been silent for days."

"Give our neighbors a chance to figure it out. Cell phones are not going to work as we have discovered. The government is likely in chaos, especially with the internet down." Misty's father patted her little brother on the head."

She saw the pout forming on his face. Lucky for her she had a stash of real books to read. For once her disgust with electronic devices worked in her favor.

"Let's do our chores, take care of what we have, and let the world find us when it can," her father said.

"I doubt it will be that simple," Grandma said. "The world has changed completely. Be prepared for trouble. We would be fools not to."

"Only if it finds us," Papa cautioned.

"Before," Grandma insisted.

Mama nodded.

Misty knew Mama would win and went to see if her shotgun was ready to shoot.