They arrive back at the dorm

The girls returned to the dorm and Kelly collapsed onto her bed, snoring almost immediately.

Unbelievable.

Kelly had been pretty out of it for most of the walk back to the dorm, and it took quite a bit longer than it otherwise should have. During one of the brief lucid moments that Kelly had, Traci had expressed the intent to contact the police about that night but Kelly had somehow managed to convince her not to.

Traci still wasn’t sure it was the right decision, but she was going along with it. For now.

She texted her boyfriend Tommy who it seemed was feeling a little bit more comfortable with his own campus experience now. She made no mention of the incident that night—it would only worry Tommy, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway.

After that, Traci finally got around to unpacking the laptop that had been issued to her. She moved the photos she had placed on the desk the night before—one taken with Tommy and the other with her parents—to either side of the laptop.

It was a disappointingly mid-range model. For the amount of tuition that was being paid, Traci had expected something more impressive.

“I guess this will have to do,” she said, looking over at Mr. Boo, the stuffed elephant that Tommy had won for her on their second date. Mr. Boo watched silently from his spot on the bed, kind enough not to make any judgements about the laptop. Traci regretted not bringing her desktop system with her to campus. Maybe when she came back from winter break, she thought to herself. It was doubtful the laptop would hold up to any serious gaming.

After making sure the laptop was working properly and connected to the campus wifi, Traci showered and got ready for bed.

The world was ending.

For months, scientists had been warning about the impending collision between the earth and the moon. It was only in the past few weeks that the government had gotten serious about their evacuation plans. Somehow Traci had found herself with a spot on one of the evacuating shuttles.

She was surprisingly calm as an attendant strapped her in. The countdown was announced, and the rocket engines roared to life. As she began her ascent into the sky, she saw, miles away, Tommy was running to catch up. Despite the vast difference—which was only getting greater, Traci could see her boyfriend clearly.

She watched helplessly through the porthole until the earth was fully receding, and somehow she could still see Tommy clearly, running in vain for the shuttle that he would never catch.

Traci awoke the next morning with a big yawn. She hadn’t slept as well as she’d hoped. Still getting used to the strange new environment—and certainly, the incident with those two creeps after the night out didn’t help. She looked over at the other side of the room and saw that Kelly was already gone. Her discarded clothing from the previous night lay crumpled up on the floor next to her bed. But the girl herself was nowhere to be seen.

The fact that Kelly had actually managed to wake up and get such an early start was both impressive and mildly infuriating.

Traci yawned again and reluctantly got herself up and out of bed.