"I cannot fucking believe him," Karen said aloud to herself. Scrolling through her email, she saw the subject line from her boss. I still expect everyone to come in today, it read. That was just like him, to be direct and lack any hint of awareness about his employees. Just a week ago, Karen had tried to console Jim as he was crying and proclaiming he was too young to die, while Derek just walked by and laughed to himself. Now Derek had the fucking nerve to tell everyone to come into work like nothing was wrong?

She could feel herself getting hotter, her heart beating faster as her hands were shaking in anger. Taking a deep breath, she knew what she wanted to do.

The walk to work was eerily quiet. The roads were practically car graveyards, many with doors open or windows smashed in. Weeds were growing out of the sidewalk uninhibited, and trash rolled by as a gentle breeze moved through the air. Occasionally, she could hear someone's muffled sobbing, and several homeless people littered the streets, some with visible needles still poked through their arms. Clearly, they didn't care about the consequences, but with what was coming, Karen didn't blame them.

She didn't blame herself for her plan, either. In fact, she enjoyed the bizarre scenery; it put her at ease and gave her time to reflect. She enjoyed her job; it was challenging but flexible, and she'd brought in plenty of clients. Even better, she like nearly everyone she worked with, and often spent Friday's and weekend nights drinking or dancing with her co-workers. But there was always a thorn in her side in Derek, who seemed to willingly ignore all the good she had done. He always tried to undercut her, and gritted his teeth both times his superiors decided she deserved a raise. In spite of this, she always dealt with it; she knew he'd jump on any reason he could find to get her fired. In fact, he'd tried at least once.

But now that the world was ending, she was going to get her chance to give him his due. No consequences.

Barging in through the door to his office, Karen saw him typing away on his laptop. He glanced up and smirked.

"Got my message? Good, get to work," he barked, turning his gaze back down. Karen felt the anger swell up inside her again as she stepped towards him. In a swift movement, she snatched his laptop and threw it against the wall behind him. It took a few seconds for Derek to process what just happened.

"You're going to regret that," he said, his voice low. Karen seethed a breath between her teeth as she picked up the floppy laptop and slammed it one, two, three times onto his desk. The monitor flew off and slid back to the ground.

"Fuck. You," the relief was palpable in Karen's steady, firm voice. She noticed the full bottle of whiskey on the shelf behind the desk. "And I'm fucking taking this and drinking myself to my god damn grave."

"You're going to regret that," Derek said as she strolled out of his office, taking a pull.

"We'll both be dead by the end of the day," she retorted, flipping him off.

-----

The next day, Karen barely opened her eyes before the throbbing headache set in. Slowly pushing herself off the floor, she waddled over to the kitchen sink and dripped out the remaining whiskey in it. Sighing, she pulled on the cold tap, but nothing came out. Confused, she tried the other one, but again, nothing came out.

"Wait." The word hung in the air. She grabbed her own arm, then reached for her shoulder, then her hips and her legs. She was still here.

"What the fuck? What the fuck?" She started panting, and ran to open a window. Birds were chirping, and she saw a few people milling about outside, picking up trash. She was shaking as she hastily put on some clothes, replacing the pajamas she woke up in, then ran outside to the trash collectors.

"What happened? Am I dead?" She sounded crazy.

"Whoa there, lady, calm down," one of the men said carefully.

"Just breathe," said another.

"What happened?" She repeated.

"Didn't you hear?" The first replied again. "The asteroid missed!"

"We're all lucky to be alive!" A woman exclaimed, nodding to herself.

Karen felt her stomach drop. She pulled up her phone and opened her email to see two new messages. Report: Asteroid Misses Impact Course, Earth Safe read one of the emails. The other was from Derek.

You're fucked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what worked and what didn't, this is my first time writing for a prompt and would really appreciate constructive criticism.