What if disasters were a portal into a new future? On a Halloween night in the near future, the Cascadian Subduction Zone triggers a massive earthquake, sending tsunamis and shockwaves across the Pacific Northwest. As the disaster hits, six disparate characters cross paths as they survive (and thrive) in the aftermath. Reluctant stay-at-home dad Levi is stranded in downtown Portland, cut off from his family. As he makes his way across the river and back home, he meets a former love interest who threatens to change his future. Will he return home? Or use the disaster as an excuse to disappear forever? Angel is a bikini barista who has just gotten off a long shift when a telephone pole crashes into her car; when she awakes, she finds a new portal has opened into a ghostworld where nothing is as it seems. Randy is an addict who finds his life’s purpose in helping others in the quake’s aftermath. And years later, a daughter searches for her father in Alaska, looking for answers behind his disappearance. AFTER The EARTHQUAKE is a novel about the different ways people respond to crisis—through selflessness and selfishness, anger, fear, hope, and mutual aid.