Murder in the Marsh

by Ramsey Coutta

  As she sat on the floor, she suddenly heard a loud thunderous noise rapidly approaching. She stood up quickly and peered out the window, which faced down the street toward the levee. To her disbelief and horror, she saw a brown wall of churning water nearly six feet high, barreling down the street towards her vulnerable sanctuary.

  What happened, she thought! This couldn’t simply be more water coming over the top of the levee. The levee must have broken! Watching the wall of water in a trancelike state, she drew back in shock when it slammed against the home closest to the levee and completely engulfed it. She had only enough time to see the walls of the house collapse inward and the roof slide completely off into the yard, where it was ripped apart by the powerful current. Rachel threw down the cereal and raced to the stairs leading to the second floor. Hurtling herself up them, she gave no consideration to the pain in her ankle. Seconds later, she felt the wall of water slam into the house, causing it to groan loudly and tremble violently. Another minute passed, and she could feel the air pressure within the house begin to build due to the water surrounding it on all sides. She hoped the structure would hold, but after seeing what the water did to the house up the street, she had grave doubts.

  She peered down the stairs and could see the water seeping in around the front door and gushing through the porch window she had busted. Unlike many of the neighboring houses, she had noticed earlier this one was built on a cement slab elevated a couple of feet up on a dirt footing. Whether this would be to her benefit, she didn’t know. Minutes later, the water completely filled the living room below and rose halfway up the stairs. Furniture floated around wildly, while the air pressure within the house continued to build, painfully affecting Rachel’s eardrums. Rachel believed the upstairs’ windows could burst at any moment. Realizing the rise of the water was not abating, Rachel retreated to a child’s bedroom and looked frantically out the window. The whole neighborhood below was covered in a thick brown blanket of moving water. Many of the one-story homes nearby had either collapsed or the water had reached the eaves of their roofs.

  Rachel threw herself to the floor, praying that if it was God’s Will, He would spare her and the others and provide a means for escape. As she prayed on her knees, she suddenly felt the icy fingers of the rising water creep up under her legs, having reached the threshold of the second floor. Only moments later, she felt the whole house begin to shift and twist awkwardly. The flood was washing it off the slab! The groaning grew louder and louder as the house began to come apart at the seams. Rachel had never heard a sound like it, and it reminded her of some horror movie. She sensed collapse was imminent, and stumbling her way to the bedroom window, she opened it only to find the water was right below the sill. At least she wouldn’t have to jump far, she thought.

  As Rachel extended one leg out the window, she noticed dead animals floating by including dogs, a cat, and several marsh animals, such as nutria and raccoons. A thin sheen of oil covered the surface along with assorted multicolored debris. She had no idea where she would go, but the collapsing house was no longer safe. She extended her other leg out the window and was now sitting on the sill with her upper body still inside the house. She gave a little push and dropped down into the cool dark water. She kicked her way to the surface and began swimming quickly away from the house. The hurricane force wind blew water into her face making it difficult to see in the direction she was swimming, as the oily sheen clung to her body. Behind her, she could feel and hear the house finally succumbing to the forces of the flood and collapsing sideways into the ravenous flood.

  Rachel continued swimming, finally deciding to head toward the jutting upper branches of a standing live oak tree. Reaching it, she pulled herself towards the sturdier, inner branches, wrapping her body around one several inches thick. She then managed to shift further up the protruding branch until most of her body was out of the water. The wind continued to shake the branches violently, as she clung on for life. Wet, scared, and miserable she felt like she was the only person left in the world, a world completely covered in water and tormented by the cruel wind. She cried out to God, but the winds mercilessly ripped the sound from her throat and muted her before its immeasurable might.

  Forty

  Daniel and Claude decided their best course of action would be to try and make it out to the highway and follow it toward the school and Rachel’s apartment. Already the water had completely covered the inhabited land crammed between the two levees with nearly half a foot of water, and it was still rising. They suspected the highway was the same, but hoped there would be fewer obstructions. Each man supported the other as they struggled arm-over-arm towards the highway.

  Fifteen minutes later, they could see the submerged highway just ahead of them. It was covered in water, but passable. Better still, the river levee was right next to it and higher than the water level. They could climb up it and travel down its length to where it was directly across the highway from the school. They would then need to reenter the water, but the distance wouldn’t be far to the apartment.

  A couple of minutes later, just before they reached the highway, they heard a thunderous noise approaching from the south that made the ground tremble. Peering through the gray barrier of wind and rain, a large wall of water several feet high, bore down on them at a tremendous rate of speed. Giving each other a look of disbelief, they instantly dropped their arms and attempted to cross the remaining few yards to the safety of the levee. The water beneath their feet, however, prevented them from running very fast, and they only made it to the concrete pavement of the highway when the wall of water slammed into them.

  They were instantly driven backwards as their feet were swept out from under them. Daniel groaned as his still tender arm flayed about. He tried to gasp for air when he broke the surface, but more water covered him at that instant causing him to choke. He completely lost contact with Claude and was barely fending for himself wondering if he would escape.

  Fortunately, the wall of water sped forward at an angular approach to the river levee and eventually dashed Daniel upon its grassy bank before continuing to thrust him down its length. Daniel struggled to free himself from the powerful current and pull himself up to safety on the levee, but without success. It seemed like he had already been propelled a couple hundred yards northward from his original spot. Finally, he collided with a large upturned tree wedged against the bank of the levee. He used the support of the tree trunk to pull and push himself up out of the water and onto the levee bank. He lay gasping for several minutes, coughing up the water that had entered his lungs, straining to draw in a breath.

  “What was that?” he thought, as he lay trying to breathe. It must have been the levee. It had broken somewhere. But where? He hoped it had not been near the school and Rachel’s apartment, but it did come from that direction. He lifted himself up and looked for Claude. Down the levee, in the direction from which he had been driven, he saw another body struggling on the embankment. It was Claude. Claude had managed to pull himself out of the water before Daniel. He was moving, and that was a good sign. Daniel stood up and stumbled down the embankment toward him. By the time Daniel reached him, Claude had already recovered from his own ordeal and was waiting for him.

  “Are you awright, Daniel?” Claude shouted, as Daniel approached.

  “Alive and breathing,” Daniel replied, thankful he was still living.

  Claude gave Daniel a grin, “The Lord sure has peculiar ways of providing us His protection.”

  “That he does, but thank God, we’re not dead yet,” Daniel grinned in return.

  They reexamined their situation and observed that the water had massively flooded the entire strip of land between the two levees. It had risen three quarters of the way up the levee, but fortunately the river levee was built higher and sturdier than the marsh levee due to a past history of river flooding. Their mood grew somber as it struck both of them that the women had likely experienced the same traumatic flooding they had. No
words needed to be spoken between them. They immediately set off as fast as they could, following the curves of the protective barrier southward toward Rachel’s apartment.

  Forty-One

  Adele felt torn after talking with Rachel on the two-way radio. She desperately wanted to go and help Rachel, but she also had Michelle to consider. She couldn’t take Michelle out in the hurricane with her, nor could she leave her alone in the apartment. As difficult as it was, she finally decided to stay where she was. Over the time she had spent with Rachel, she had learned she was a resourceful woman, and if she could get into an abandoned home, she should be in just as good of condition as she and Michelle were.

  The back wall of the hurricane struck suddenly outside the apartment, leaving Adele worrying about Rachel until she received the radio call. Once they agreed that Rachel would seek cover near the pumping station, Adele and Michelle returned to the safety of the bathroom to wait out the storm. As the hurricane picked up intensity, they could once again feel the wind shaking the apartment building. This time, however, the boarded up windows helped to minimize the wind blowing through the apartment. Adele held Michelle closely and sang gently to her to ease her worry.

  Nearly forty-five minutes passed, when Adele noticed an unusual sound directly under the floor. It sounded like running water. Maybe the pipes had broken, she thought, and water was spewing out beneath the bathroom. Since the apartment building was elevated on cement blocks with a wood floor, rather than a slab, this seemed like a plausible explanation. Still, it sounded like more water than a busted pipe might discharge. Adele tried to peer down through cracks in the floor, but it was dark beneath her, and she couldn’t see anything.

  Minutes later, the stark reality of their situation became chillingly evident. As they continued to sit on the floor, Michelle suddenly let out a shriek and jumped up to her feet.

  “Michelle, what is it?” Adele said surprised and worried at the same time.

  “It’s water, mama!”

  “Where, baby?”

  “De floor, mama.”

  Adele had been sitting on a cushion and didn’t feel the water coming up through the floorboards as quickly as Michelle had. But then she felt the water touch her ankles and feet. She jumped up just as quickly as Michelle. Shining the flashlight at the floor below them, they were both shocked to see the whole bathroom floor covered in an inch of water and rising. Adele quickly picked Michelle up and jerked open the bathroom door. The hallway floor was the same, as well as the living room.

  She went to one of the windows and peered outside through the boards. The whole area outside the apartment building was covered in floodwaters, and a stiff current was pushing more water past their building and across the street. It looked like it was rising even as she watched.

  Adele wasted no time, but quickly exited by the apartment door leading out into the hallway, carrying Michelle up to the second floor. She used the key to the apartment of Rachel’s friend and opened the door. Immediately, they were nearly struck by debris from the room, which had been turned into a swirling tempest due to broken windows and hurricane winds. Adele grabbed the doorknob again and strained to pull the door shut. Finally, she got it closed and decided it was safer to remain out in the hallway. Both Adele and Michelle glanced around nervously in the dark, wondering where the next danger would come from. Surprisingly, Michelle didn’t cry, due to being overwhelmed by the dramatic turn of events. After ten minutes, Adele decided to walk back up the hallway to look down the stairs. Standing at the top of the stairs, she shone her flashlight downwards. To her dismay, the water was over halfway up the steps. She beat a hasty retreat back down the hall. As she contemplated their situation, she felt an unusual sensation. Though she was standing still, she felt as if she was moving. She held her breath and remained perfectly still, holding Michelle tighter. She felt the sensation again. They were definitely moving, though she wasn’t taking a step. “What could be happening?” she wondered. It seemed impossible that the whole apartment building could be moving.

  Finally, with the sensation continuing, she decided she had to find out an answer for their safety. Explaining to Michelle what she was going to do and assuring her that everything would be all right, she set her down on the hall floor. Michelle began to cry softly, but didn’t resist. Adele then unlocked the door and entered the friend’s apartment, quickly closing the door behind her so Michelle wouldn’t be hit by flying debris. Crouching low to avoid the worst of the debris, Adele dashed over to the nearest window. Looking out, she saw below her everything was completely covered in many feet of water. Rachel’s Sentra floated rear end up with only the license plate showing RDQ-267. The water was a couple of feet below the second floor window, but rising fast. Most alarming of all, was that the apartment building was slowly floating towards the nearby high school football field. Nothing could have been more surreal and unimaginable.

  Forty-Two

  Rachel figured she had been clinging to the tree for over an hour, and there still seemed to be no let up in the ferocity of the storm or the volume of water coming through the breach in the levee. She felt herself growing weary and wondered if she would be able to hang on for much longer. She had to inch higher up the branch as the water slowly crept upwards. Her emotional situation wasn’t improved by the fact that dead animals continued to float by in and among the branches, some getting caught up near her. Several snakes had also found refuge in the tree branches, which she kept a wary eye on.

  Clinging to the branch with her eyes closed to the wind and rain, Rachel suddenly sensed a large presence behind her. She was in no position to fully turn and look, but twisted her neck as far as she could. What she saw was not what she hoped or expected. A fully intact home had come off its foundations and floated slowly, but dangerously towards the oak tree sheltering Rachel. The tree itself was large and thick, but she could see the collision would endanger her. She decided to make her way to the outer edge of the tree opposite to where the collision would occur, and hold on as long as she could to see what the impact would do. If she needed to escape, she could quickly swim away.

  Sliding down the branch, she allowed herself to drop into the water. Grasping one limb at a time, she pulled herself out to the edge of the tree and waited. A few minutes later, the house collided into the opposite side of the tree. Rachel had expected the branches to splinter and crumple under the weight of the house, and that was partially what happened. What she didn’t expect was for the house to gradually push the tree over, due to its waterlogged and weakened root base. As a result, her section of the tree began to drive downward into the water as the opposite side lifted up into the air. Realizing the jeopardy of her situation, Rachel pushed away from the tree. She started floating backwards, but then was suddenly seized on the ankle by something beneath the water. She flailed wildly, but was relentlessly pulled under.

  Rachel had no idea what had grabbed hold of her, and in the murky brown water she could not see. She felt her body being dragged deeper and deeper below the surface and knew she wouldn’t have long. Using both hands, she began feeling down her trapped leg until she came to her ankle. She discovered that her foot was caught in the crook of a branch, which must have happened as she was kicking underwater away from the tree. She determined the direction she needed to pull her foot to free it, and with a couple of strong pulls, was able to extricate herself. She swam towards the surface, colliding with several smaller branches before emerging. Desperately sucking in air, she saw the tree was on its side with the house beginning to rotate and float off in another direction. Rachel looked around for another point of refuge as the wind whipped the waves about her.

  She noticed other homes were floating or partially demolished as well. The flooding had a devastating impact on the neighborhood, and none of the homes would likely be livable again. After struggling to stay afloat for several minutes, Rachel finally identified a small portion of a house protruding up out of the water. It actually was the outside w
all that had been turned up on its side, and was motionless in the water. It was neither sinking nor floating, and provided no protection from the wind and rain, but at least it was stationary.

  Rachel fought against the current and gradually began to make headway towards the structure. Reaching it, she pulled herself up its side until she was completely out of the water. She only had a small island of several square feet, but she considered herself lucky. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them and tried to fight off the chill that once again began to sap her body’s warmth.