Emma Pattee is a climate journalist and fiction writer. Her work has been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and elsewhere. She lives in Oregon.
Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money and a city left in chaos, there’s nothing to do but walk. Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career and her anxiety about having a baby. If she can just make it home, she’s determined to change her life.