Prizhina officials barely had time to react. By the time the first distress call was made, emergency centers in Asia and the Americas received only static.

Tsunamis were reported as far away as eastern India. It hit hardest the coasts of Mexico and the western United States. Entire seaside towns and cities were slammed by hundred foot tides.

Fortunately, the tsunami warning systems in place spared almost everyone in the path of the waves. They falsely considered themselves lucky.

After about 10 minutes of wading, Emily finally reached the shore.

Her first inclination was to sit down, but as she stepped onto it, the muddy soil, which must have been covered in moss, gave way and her foot left a deep impression. She took a couple more steps and then just decided to sit down anyway.

Her butt left an even larger impression which then started to feel wet. Emily immediately got up and the place she sat was filling with water.

“I must be in some salt marsh or estuary,” she thought. She found a higher, less mushy place to sit. As Emily sat down, she began absent-mindedly ripping the moss from the ground and toying with it in her hands.

That’s when she noticed that something was off.

“The clouds, are they normally arced over like that?” Emily noticed that the horizon was ever so slightly curved as well.

A thought popped into her head. She quickly got up and stepped back to the water’s edge. Surely enough, there was more of that seaweed from earlier. But Emily also noticed some whitish-gray blotches on the ground, one of which she had clearly stepped on.

It was a fantastical possibility, but…

Emily kneeled down and examined one of the blotches. It didn’t take much to realize that it looked exactly like satellite imagery of a city. She then picked up one of the pieces of seaweed, this one fitting in the palm of her hand. While Emily had thought they were grayish-green, it actually looked like it was just with green specks. The details became clear to her. It was then that she knew.

It was odd, actually. Emily could not, no matter how hard she tried, manage to feel even a bit of guilt for inadvertently ending the lives of 800,000 people. More even, given her ventures on shore.

She wasn’t thinking for long before she noticed she was hungry again. Emily really wanted to eat some more of that… what she now knew to be entire cities. She pondered the one in her hand.

“They must be so scared,” she thought to herself, but still could not muster any remorse.

At once she made her decision.

“I need to eat, after all. And all I’ve had today was a snack.”

Emily gingerly placed the city on her tongue and ate it in one bite.

“An entire city, no more to me than a morsel of food.”

She giggled at the ludicrousness of the thought.

It tasted delicious. A milder flavor than the large one, but with different, subtle nuances.

She looked up and down the coast and these delicious little treats stretched into the horizon in both directions.

Emily made herself a feast, devouring 20 or 30; she had lost count.

She sat on the accommodating earth and lounged back.

Emily touched her belly in satisfaction.

“That should be enough, at least until tomorrow.”