Lightning struck nearby and the ground shook again. We paused and held onto one another, waiting for the earth to stop moving.
“Earthquake?” Eva asked in a whisper. It was like she didn’t want the storm to hear her.
“I think it was just the storm,” I said.
If the shaking was an earthquake, it had been different from any other I’d experienced. Of course, I’d never been in one out in the middle of the woods.
There weren’t many twigs and rocks on the path we took between the trees. It was almost as if we were on a path that had been carved out by hikers or runners. Every so often, we’d have to duck under a branch but if they hadn’t been weighted down with water, they may not have been so low to the ground.
Being inside the woods was darker than if we’d taken the road but when the lightning struck, we’d get a flash of light to let us know we were on the right track. We hadn’t gone even a quarter of a mile when Eva started complaining.
“I can’t do this,” she said balling her hands into tight fists. “I really can’t do this.”
“We don’t have a choice,” I reminded her.
“We’re barely off the road and I need a break,” she said. “I can’t catch my breath, my leg is killing me, and I’m freezing.”
I gave her a quick squeeze. “I know. It sucks and I’m sorry but we have to keep going. We’ll stop at the first house we see and I’ll go inside to call for help, okay?”
Eva sniffed and blinked the droplets of water off her eyelashes. She stared into my eyes as if she was searching for something. Even though it was hard, I forced a smile.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said.
“Fine,” she said grabbing onto me once again.
We didn’t make it more than ten steps before Eva smacked into something. Her arms flopped around, hitting something in front of her.
“Help! Get it off me!” Eva screamed.
I pulled her back and stepped in front of her protectively. There was a shadow in front of us but it wasn’t coming at us. It was swaying back and forth.
“What the—”
A crack of lightning stopped my words and lit up the area in front of us. Eva screamed and I pulled her back as if we needed to get away.
But we didn’t need to get away because the naked woman hanging from the tree couldn’t do anything to us. Her empty eyes stared forward as the woman swung around with the wind.
If there had been blood, the rain had washed it away.
Eva started wiping her hands frantically on her pants. “It touched me. Oh my God, it touched me!”
“Mike came from this way,” I muttered.
“That guy was a creep,” Eva said.
“I think he did this,” I said. “I’m not an expert but this doesn’t seem like it happened that long ago.”
My head turned sharply. I was suddenly afraid Mike had followed us into the woods and we’d be his next victims.
“We have to get out of here,” I said grabbing Eva.
The pain in my leg was intense but I ignored it. I guided Eva around the swinging body and back down the hill. If I had to carry her back to the city, I would.
The ground shook again. It felt as though the trees in front of us were pulling away from each other. The earth squeaked like an old man stretching as he got out of his favorite recliner after a good day of sitting.
I wanted to grab onto a tree and wait out the shaking but I was afraid Mike would find us. Mike had run off in the opposite direction after he’d talked to us. He’d looked terrified but maybe it wasn’t because of the storm, it was probably because he was afraid he was going to get caught for what he’d done.
If he found us and got rid of Eva and me too, maybe he wouldn’t get caught. But he didn’t know we were going to venture out into the woods.
“You keep looking over your shoulder,” Eva said.
“I’m sorry,” I said automatically apologizing. Something I was used to doing.
“You think he’s following us, don’t you?
I hesitated, attempting to come up with something I could say that would keep her from freaking out. There wasn’t a damn thing I could think of.
I shook my head and sighed. “I don’t know. But if he is, I want to be ready.”
“Oh, God, Adam!” The first word came out loudly but the other two were muffled by her hand as if she were afraid someone would hear her. She kept her voice below a whisper. “I don’t want to be murdered out here. I don’t want to die at all.”
“No one wants to die,” I said as the earth settled enough to move quicker down the hill again. Not that we were moving all that quickly due to the injuries. “The sooner we get out of these woods, the better.”
Eva agreed with me for quite possibly the first time since we’d met. She took my hand, suddenly needing less help.
I could tell she was in pain but like me, she was going to ignore it as much as possible. At least for now… because we had to. I gave her a long look. She seemed different from the whiny girl who’d been lying on the road not that long ago.
I smiled at her but it rattled off of my face when the earth shook below us again. I reached over and held onto a thick branch. We couldn’t move. It was like walking on a spinning merry-go-round and the last thing we wanted or needed was more injuries from falling.
Eva had been right. Even though it wasn’t like any other, it was an earthquake.
9
Stevie
There was less than a half-inch of water pooled near the stairs. I stood there watching to see how quickly the water would rise up the side of my shoe. As far as I could tell in the almost complete darkness, it hadn’t risen at all. At least not in any amount that I could measure.
We’d have time to figure out what we were going to do before we’d have to go to the roof. Although, I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. After the roof, there would be nowhere else to go.
I shivered as I walked over to the break room. The air wasn’t terribly cold but my drenched clothing felt like it was made of ice as it clung to my body.
I rifled through the cabinets and drawers, pulling out anything that I thought we could use. There were sugar packets and snack bars but not much of anything else. If there was a way to break into the vending machine, there would be a slightly wider variety of items but I’d have to leave it for the time being. Attempting to break through the glass or plastic would wake Gage and he really did need his rest. I probably did too.
The refrigerator was no longer working but there were jugs of juice and water along with a few bottles of an iced coffee drink. A woman named Janice was apparently concerned someone was going to steal them since each one was labeled with her name. Each letter had been written in bold permanent marker.
“Sorry, Janice,” I muttered as I took one of her coffee drinks and chugged it.
My insides chilled as the still cool, bitter but overly sugared drink slid down my throat. The beverage hadn’t quenched my thirst but hopefully, the caffeine would give me the energy I needed.
I sat down in a chair near a small window and stared out at the surrounding ocean. How could this have happened so quickly? If it came on this strong, maybe it could recede just as fast. But I didn’t know the first thing about weather and whatever was happening around us didn’t seem like typical weather.
The flashes of light in the sky seemed to be slowing but maybe that was just wishful thinking. Without them, we wouldn’t have much light until morning came. If we even made it to morning.
Rain continued to pour out of the sky. The drops were the size of blueberries, smacking into the glass panes with hard pits and pats. If my heart hadn’t been racing, the sound might have been somewhat soothing.
I thought about Jace as I looked out at the waving surface. Was it possible he was still out there? There weren’t many buildings poking up over the surface of the water. The closest was at least six blocks away.
He wouldn’t have made it.
I swallo
wed hard and coughed back the tears stinging my eyes. I had to keep it together. The only way Jace could have survived the wave was if it rolled him right into the other building, which I knew, it hadn’t.
He was gone. And I hadn’t done nearly enough to save him.
It wasn’t just Jace, though. If I wouldn’t have gone out to the beach, maybe I could have done something to help Ryder and Beth. My mom would have shouted ‘wee’ in her drunken stupor as the waves pulled her away but my siblings… I should have been there for them. They must have been so frightened.
There wasn’t anything I could do to stop the tears once I thought about my siblings. I buried my face in my arm and rested my head down on the top of the table.
And here I was… alone with Gage. Somehow, I’d have to manage to survive even though it seemed as though no one else had. Why would I bother? What was the point?
A hand lightly rested on my shoulder and I jumped back, holding up my fists. Gage took a step back and held up his hands defensively.
“Sorry,” he said.
“You scared me,” I said letting my arms fall to my sides.
Gage cautiously walked behind me and peered out of the window. He managed to find me in the office and now he was looking out of the window. I watched him with narrowed eyes.
“Is your vision better?” I finally asked.
“Somewhat,” Gage said. “It’s still mostly just shapes but a bit more definition. That’s all water around us, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Everything is gone,” he said lightly touching the glass with his fingertips. He was probably thinking of Jace. Or maybe his family. Likely both.
I swallowed hard and quickly wiped away the remaining tears. I didn’t even want him to see the shadows of my sadness.
“It’s all gone,” I said.
“You know what this is, right?” Gage asked turning back to face me. It felt like he was looking right into my eyes.
I shook my head.
He pointed at the bottle on the table. “What is that?”
“Coffee,” I said.
“Are there any more?
I nodded. “Janice might be pissed if you take it, though. Think she’s sick and tired of people stealing her items.”
Gage chuckled as he made his way to the fridge. “I don’t blame her.”
He definitely seemed to be making his way around much better. That was a good sign.
He sat down across from me and twisted the top off with a loud pop that echoed in the small room. I watched him drink much slower from the bottle than I had.
Gage grimaced as he swallowed. “Coffee is the worst.”
I laughed. I’d been drinking coffee ever since I turned sixteen but it wasn’t because I liked the taste.
“There are other options,” I said.
“This will do for now.”
“What were you saying? About what all this is,” I prompted as I jerked my chin toward the window.
“Someone did something to change our world. The climate stuff. They’ve been talking about it for years,” Gage said. “It was talked about daily.”
I’d heard the discussions but the last I’d heard, any potential solution was still years away. Nothing had been agreed upon or developed… at least not in the United States. At least nothing that anyone had admitted to. Granted, I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the news because I was always so damn busy.
“I think someone did something,” Gage said. “And I don’t think it worked the way they planned.”
“What makes you think that?” I asked my words coated with more sarcasm than I had intended. It was quite obvious it hadn’t worked.
“This isn’t your typical hurricane,” Gage said forcing himself to take another drink.
I raised a brow. “Who says this is even a hurricane?”
“It very well might not be,” Gage said leaning forward slightly. “But if it is some weird version of a hurricane, you know what happens at some point, right?”
“I’m not sure I’m following you,” I said.
“The eye,” Gage said gesturing toward the window. “This, right now, could just be the eye.”
I stood, pushing the chair back so hard it crashed to the floor. Panic and fear surged through my veins and I felt like I needed to get out of the small break room.
We couldn’t survive if the water got any deeper. I wasn’t even sure we’d survive with how deep it already was.
Gage sighed. “You might as well just sit back down. There isn’t anything we can do. They wanted to reset the planet and now all we can do is wait to see what happens.”
“They destroyed everything. That’s what happened,” I said.
“We don’t know what’s out there,” Gage said. “All we know is what it’s like here. We have to stay hopeful, right? Otherwise, what will stop us from just jumping off the roof and sinking into hell?”
There wasn’t anything stopping us from doing just that. Apparently, my life and my death were going to be dreadful.
After everything, though, Gage still had hope. He’d lost his vision, his best friend, and probably his family too but yet he wanted to see if there was life beyond the water.
“I just don’t know how we can get out of here,” I said bringing my fingernail to my mouth.
Gage shrugged. “Eventually, the water has to go somewhere, right?”
“Maybe? Maybe not,” I said. “There is so much rain falling from the sky. The whole planet could be flooded.”
“Yes, maybe, but there isn’t that much rain that the whole town would be this far underwater in such a short period of time.” Gage stood and crossed his arms. “It would take weeks, maybe even months for rain to do this and even still, I’m not sure the entire city would become the new bottom of the ocean.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said with a sigh. “But let’s say you’re wrong… what will we do then?”
Gage hesitated. A smile curled the corners of his mouth. “We could build a boat.”
“Right,” I said with wide blinking eyes. He couldn’t be serious. “Before we get started on our arc, let’s tear this place apart and see what we can find.”
Gage nodded. “Aye, Aye, captain.”
10
Joss
We spotted the house without much trouble and ran up the steps to the front door. There was a dim light inside the house.
“Hello?” Caleb shouted as he knocked repeatedly. “Anyone in there? We need help!”
“They probably can’t hear you,” I said staying close to Caleb.
The winds behind us were relentless. I could hear the wind whistling through nearby trees and the branches creaking and cracking as they smacked together, threatening to break.
“Hello!” Caleb shouted as he turned the doorknob. Unsurprisingly, the door was locked. He slammed his palms against the door. “Shit!”
Lightning flashed behind us. It was a particularly bright bolt that lit up our surroundings.
“Oh my God,” I said turning toward the door. I started pounding my fists against the dense wood. “Please! Let us in or we’re going to die out here.”
Caleb was staring at me. He was surprised by my sudden burst of desperation.
“What happened?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “But at least six tornadoes are spinning behind us.”
Caleb’s head jerked back. He didn’t wait for lightning to flash to confirm what I’d seen.
“Please, let us in or we’ll break the door down,” Caleb said.
I looked at him. “How are we going to do that?”
“I’ll figure out a way,” Caleb said. “We can always break a window.”
The door slowly opened and a gun poked out of the opening. A round, frightened eye peeked out at us.
“Please, sir,” Caleb begged. “We just need shelter.”
“What are you doing out here?” the man asked.
“We were down the road. Our car
was… our friends were,” Caleb said struggling to find a way to explain.
I pressed my palms together. “Sir, we can explain but please let us inside.”
“I’ve got kids in here,” the man said.
My nose wrinkled. “Okay, we just need shelter until the storm passes. Please.”
The man looked over his shoulder before opening the door wider. He slammed it closed and locked it once we were inside, dripping on what looked like a hand-woven matt.
“Here,” a woman said handing us each a towel. She wore a pale blue dress with an off-white apron over it. Her hair was pulled back. “Dry off. You’ll catch your death.”
“There are about six funnel clouds out there,” Caleb said as he dried his hair. “Do you have a basement?”
The man shook his head. “We’re hiding under the stairs.”
He pointed to a small area under the stairs where there were blankets and a small lantern. There was a small pile of books and a little boy and girl huddled together, both looking as though they were just as terrified as Caleb and I were of the storm.
“We’re so sorry about this,” I said. “Our car was taken by one of the tornadoes. We barely escaped.”
“Come in,” the woman said waving for us to come away from the door. “I can’t get Earl to stop looking out the window. He doesn’t understand it’s dangerous.”
“Hazel,” Earl said his voice tinged with warning.
She gave him an apologetic nod. “Come.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Inside the house, I felt only a little safer. I could still hear the sounds from the storm… rain hitting the roof and windows, wind howling like ghosts, and other noises that were probably caused by things flying past the house.
“I’ll get you some blankets,” Hazel said lowering her head as she walked down the hallway and opened a closet. She took out a stack of blankets, much more than Caleb and I would need. She gave Caleb and me each two. “You both look so cold.”
“I think we’re both much better now,” I said. “Thank you again for letting us into your home.”
The Reset Series (Book 1): Flood Page 5