“Something happened. They want everyone in the conference room,” said Angela’s coworker from the doorway. Angela looked up from her computer, ready to complain about the interruption, but one look at the woman’s face changed her mind.
She set her phone on vibrate and slid it into her pocket in case one of her boys tried to call her. She joined her coworkers streaming down the hallway like a school of fish. The entire Child Protective Services Division, where Angela worked as a social worker, assembled in the conference room. The division director held up her hand for silence. “If you follow the news, you know that an oil spill occurred off the coast of Louisiana a few days ago. To clean it up, the oil company released oil-eating bacteria into the ocean, which is apparently a common practice, I don’t know, sorry, I don’t follow this kind of scientific stuff much. According to the news, the bacteria ate the spill and jumped to land, where it’s spreading across the country, eating crude oil. The scientists who created the bacteria can’t seem to stop it. I have no idea what this means, people. But they’re saying we’ll have no more gas. Could get crazy. I’m closing this CPS office for the time being. When this blows over, you have a job waiting for you here. It has been an honor…” She choked up and simply put her hand over her heart.
For a moment Angela thought the whole thing was a prank set up by a warped reality show. Everyone looked confused and stunned. The director’s words sunk in about as swiftly as water poured on concrete. The room bulged with professionals trained to assist people in crisis, but this wasn’t your garden-variety crisis. At first no one moved, and then, as if instantaneously zapped out of a frozen state, everyone moved at once in a million directions.
Angela needed to reach her sons and see them safe home because the world had just cracked open.