Donavan Prolector sat on his bed with his laptop resting on his thighs. He had spent the last five minutes trying to decide what website to visit first. Tired of exerting the energy, he looked out the window of his Dad's tenth story apartment and switched his thoughts to something else.

"Maybe I should go job hunting," he said to himself and then immediately laughed at the idea.

There was a knock on his door.

"Come in," Donavan said.

The door opened to reveal Chuck, who, like Donavan, had graduated last week. Chuck was looking down at two sheets of paper as if each contained an Advanced Calculus problem.

"What troubles you, dear boy?" asked Donavan.

Without taking his eyes from the paper, Chuck responded, "This code program you found. Are you sure you did it right?"

Donavan smirked. "Well, I was never the honor-roll student you are, but I think I read the simple instructions correctly."

"You placed my name into the program, and it ran it through all possible matrices?"

"Yup."

The matrices program had been sent to him via email. He hadn't known the sender, but the attachment had passed the virus checks.

"Where do the matrices come from?" asked Chuck.

Donavan brought up the email and scanned it. "They're supposed to be from several sources, like The Bible, The Koran, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and so forth."

Chuck shook his head. "Well, they don't make sense."

Donavan held out a hand, and Chuck handed over the two sheets of paper. On the first, was the computer-generated outline of Chuck's full name, Charles Theodore Milacheck. Then there were the vertical words Chuck had outlined.

"Straddles fence without sides," Donavan read out loud, left to right.

"Look at the next page," Chuck insisted.

Donavan did. The back contained Chuck's name and another message, which Donavan also read out loud. "Schooling finished."

Chuck almost looked as if he could cry. "I had my choice of colleges narrowed down to Stanford and Berkeley. I hoped your matrices program would give me a little hint, but now it's basically saying my education is finished."

Donavan stared at his serious friend. Despite being a good-looking guy, Chuck had never been popular with the girls, and Donavan had always thought it was because he was way too tense. Donavan couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny?" Chuck asked.

Donavan stopped laughing. "My word, dude, you aced every science class you took, and you still think this matrices crap holds water. Throw away these papers and flip a freaking coin."

Chuck stood in silence for a few more seconds and then he smiled and laughed a little. "I guess this decision has made me a little crazy."

"No, Chuck," said a female voice. "Being you has made you crazy."

Their classmate Natasha walked into the room carrying her two pieces of paper. She shoved them at Donavan, who winced and took them. The computer had outlined Natasha Angela Randally. He read out loud what Natasha had outlined.

"Holding baby when falls."

He looked at Natasha's scornful face. "Okay, scary girl, you don't have to believe it, and if you do, just avoid holding anyone's brat."

Natasha bared her teeth. "I'm pregnant, dumbass!"

Donavan's mouth fell open. Chuck actually gasped.

"I'm sorry," Donavan said. "I had no idea."

"Don't be sorry," Natasha hissed. "You're not the one who knocked me up. It was no one the two of you know, and I was dealing with it just fine. I have an appointment later today at the abortion clinic. Now look at the other freaking page!"

Donavan did as told. He read, "Never visits clinic." He looked back at Natasha, whose face looked like it could explode.

"Am I supposed to feel guilty for wanting to abort it? Is that what this is for? I mean, why would I have the stupid thing if I'm just going to fall with it?" She put her face in her hands and started to cry. Donavan had no idea what to say to her, and Chuck looked so uncomfortable he might as well have been naked.

A minute later, Natasha lifted her head. "What did the two of yours say?"

Donavan handed her Chuck's, and she appeared to read both pages. "Yours is weirder than mine. Why would you not go to school?" She shook her head. "The only way you wouldn't go to school and I wouldn't get an abortion was if the choices were taken from us."

She looked turned to Donavan. "What did yours say?"

He smirked. "Mine was the only one that made sense. I only got one page, and all it said was ‘Boy from broken home waits idly when friends depart.'"

He watched as the both of them changed. He listened as they started laughing.

Chuck said, "At least we know we're getting out of this place. We're his only friends, so we'd have to be the ones departing."

Donavan shrugged and sighed. "Sad and painful, but undeniably true. Not to mention, I do come from a broken home. My parents split years ago."

They all laughed. They laughed until the shaking began. Within seconds, Donavan knew this was the biggest earthquake he had ever experienced. He saw the walls of his room begin to crumble and then he was falling.

The next thing Donavan was aware of was the strong scent of dust in the air. He could hear sirens above, but they were muffled, and he couldn't see anything. He could feel his body and could tell it was broken in several places. He could not move. Strangely, he began to think of how all the prophesies made sense now, especially his own. His home, the apartment, had broken. He was alive, but he couldn't do anything but wait idly. His friends had no doubt departed.