The Relic

by Francisco Angulo

  - Hurry, hurry!There’s no time to lose! - said Flat, as he helped María get up.

  We have to get to the pier before the water covers everything.

  María got up quickly. She had multiple bruises all overher body caused by the current of stones that had dragged her but she had great physical strength and did not even stop to look around her.

  They had covered more than half the distance to the pier but the situation was increasingly getting worse. Flat was aware that if they didn’t reached it quickly, their survival was not guaranteed. The three of themwent on their way and after crossing the ridge, not without many setbacks, they finally reached their destination. The pierwas partially flooded and most of the boats were half sunk or wrecked. This made him feel uneasy because now Flat’s plan seemed impossible.

  The Pier

  IT WAS A BUILDING with corrugated metal walls of a metallic silver grey colour. Part of the dock area was also used as a yacht club, dedicated to canoeing and kayaking competitions and that’s why the building was two-storey tall - to store canoes -, making it look like a hangar for storing aircrafts. The canoes sat on a kind of shelf that occupied the entire height of the structure in order to store a large number of them. This image came to Flat’s mind, the last memory he had of what was it like inside the boat house. But when he opened the door, his image vanished like the aftermath left behind by a meteor, showing him the harsh reality they faced. The interior of the building was dark and from there you could discern the silhouettes of boats scattered everywhere. The shelves had collapsed, dropping the canoes from above onthose which were on the floor, causing pieces of wood to be scattered everywhere. The ravaged place conveyed a kind of anguish and terror. It looked like a graveyard for ships. Walking among those remains of splintered wood, with water up to the waist, made one imagine things. It seemed that among the pieces of vessels half afloat there was something lurking underwater.

  A predator waiting for an unsuspecting victim to enter its lair, to fall into its trap. One expected this creature to prance over him or her at any time,ensnaringtheir legs under the water and dragging them into the darkness. A giant octopus with its huge tentacles, or perhaps their legs were to be pulled apart by the jaw of a great white shark. María and the dog walked behind him, without distancing themselves an inch from him, like a group of terrified people about to enterthehouse of horrors.

  He continued looking at all the boats but there was no sign of hismotor boat. Then, a clear image came to his head: the boat could in fact be moored in the back of the pier near the jetty. And so he went to the rear of the building with difficulty and there it was, exactly as he had imagined it, covered by a tarpaulin that prevented it from sinking in the rain. He started working on it - the gas tank was full but the engine would not start. It had to be manually started by pulling a rope that hung at the end of the engine. Flat pulled it repeatedly, but the engine refused to startbut as he was not the kind of man who would give up easily, he continued trying again and again until a sputter was heard, then it stopped again. He pulled even harder - the engine sputtered again and then it began to purr. Flat stood at the controls of the outboard, picked María and their canine companion up and began sailing on the waters that now covered the park completely.

  The speedboat was average in size and it could easily accommodate eight or ten people. Flat sailed slowly as he had to dodge floating obstacles continuously being carriedby the current. They were safe in the boat. The only mistake they could really make at this point was trying to get out of there in a hurry. He was sure they would reach anywhere without a problem if he sailed calmly and slowly. So he navigatedcarefully dodging obstacles and driving the boat through calmer waters. Suddenly the dog began to bark and look at the top of a tree. Flat did not pay much attention, but María did and thought she saw something.

  Go towards the tree, to the tree, Flat!

  Flatfollowed María’s orders and went to the tree. As they approached, María’s presentimentbecame true -the figure of a person could be seen among the branches. When they reached the side of the tree, they saw a man who would have been about thirty-six years of age. He was very weak and could hardly talk. Between Flat and María they got him on board, they covered him with the tarp that previously covered the boat and the man began to recover slowly. As soon as he was strong enough the man thanked them and introduced himself by saying his name. Then he began to talk about what he did in life. Maríanoticed that he had a mobile phone in the pocket of his shirt and asked him to call the firefighters’ rescue service but the man said that mobile phones had stopped working a while ago and there was no coverage.

  The man continued his yarn, referring to events in his life as though these were already part of the past. While the man was talking Flat heard something faint in the distance, but with the sound of the rain and the engine of the boat running, he could barely hear anything. He slowed down, pausing the engine. Then he heard it more clearly - it was the voice of a woman calling them, clinging to a buoy. It was an older woman in her sixties. They moved towards her and the three of them helped her climb into the boat.

  Thus a rescue teamwas born. The floods would have minimised the number of operational fire teams and those that were left, would have been too busy to get to the park, so they decided to look for more survivors through the vastflood site themselves. The rain made the area look likea documentary about the Amazon River, withthe submerged branches of the tree trunks sticking out to give it the appearance of a mangrove.

  As soon as the rescued man and woman recovered, they joined forces and began helping María and Flat with their rescue efforts. They found a young girl inside a watertight plastic dumpster that was floating adrift. The incredible thing was that this container did not belong to that area and it had landed there all the way from the other end of town. The girl, dressed elegantly, also had a mobile phone and kept trying to reach out for help but it was useless, there was no coverage. Flat observed that there was a headset connected to the phone and asked what they were for, to which she answered that there was a radio integrated in the phone. Flat then asked her to turn it on. The woman unplugged the headset and put the radio on speakers so that everyone could hear it.

  Together, under the tarp, everyone remained attentive to what was being said on the radio. The news could not be worse, the rains were widespread throughout the country and they talked about worst disasters occurring simultaneously in other countries, some destroyed by volcanoes, others by sea water. Elsewhere, tornadoes were so devastating that whole houses were carried through the air. Every so often they advised not to leave home and to seek refuge in high areas. They also indicated people should head towards the highest point in the city, a small mountain range to its north, from where the army was evacuating all survivors.

  María spoke aloud reassuring everyone. Together they’ll survive and as soon as the storm passed, they would be able to return to their loved ones. Night was approaching. The poor visibility they had beforenow turned into complete darkness but thanks to the acute sense of hearing and smell of the dog they managed to find more survivors.

  The situation was getting more precarious by the moment. The boat did not have much fuel left and if the engine stopped they would be swept away by the currents, losing control of the boat and at risk of easily colliding with any obstacle, being stranded or even wrecked. The dog barked loudly, again indicating that there was something in the water being carried by the current. They noticed a shadow, a figure trying to stay afloat. The dog jumped out of the boat, diving into the water. It was a little girl, about eight years old, struggling to swim upstream but her efforts were useless against the violent current that dragged everything in its path. The dog jumped into the water and swam towards the girl, fighting furiously against thetesting current that dragged itsideways. The waves covered the dog and the child makingthem instantly disappear under water. Flat tried to near the boat to them, but it was impossible, there was nothing he could do toenter into t
hat current but still he tried to get as close as possible to the child. The dog managed to reach her and held the top of her dress gently between its teeth. Then it tried to push her away from the current, but it proved impossible. The animal continued struggling with all his might but the current was dragging them away. The situation became increasingly more complicated. The current hauled them towards an area where the waters were even more violent, increasingly spending more time underwater. If they were not able to pull them out right away they’ll disappearunder the waves. Despite the risks, Flat decided to enter the brutal current with the boat.

  They were running very low on fuel and manoeuvring to fight the currents would leave the tank without a drop. Once it finished he would not be able to control the operation of the boat and it would be set adrift. All the risksnotwithstandingFlatcould not sit idly watching the waters take them away. As soon as part of the boat penetrated the current, its bow was hit by countless objects. He had to proceed with caution, approaching the animal and the girlwith the side of the boat. It would be too dangerous to have the engine too close to them, plus they would not be able to get them on board over the bow. The dog fought hard to keep the child afloat but barely succeeded. When Flatmanaged to pull the boat in the right position, something struck the hull of the boat with great force, deflecting it from its path and making it move away from the correct position. Without hesitating a second, hetried it again but as he was devising a new route to rescue the girl and the dog, someone warned him of a breach in the hull.

  The water flowedinside the vessel at tremendous speed. They tried to plug the crack with their hands but it proved impossible. They tried covering it with a jacket and this bought them some more time. Flat ignored the problem that had just emerged, trying a new approach over and over again. The amount of water accumulated inside the boat caused most of the hull to be submerged, as if carrying excessive weight, and this made it more difficult for Flat to manoeuvre and the response speed in the control to waver. Flat focused on the path drawn in his mind, delicately handling the controls of the boat and managed to get close to them keeping the vessel in some sort of delicate balance. María grabbed the girl with one hand and the dog with the other and the rest of the people helped her pull them aboard. They quickly covered the girl who remained conscious, only slightly bruised and in near perfect condition.

  The sound of the engine became a lot louder and then it stopped. Air bubbles had entered the engine with the last drops of fuel, increasing the noise of the explosions and when the last drop of fuel burned, the motor stopped.

  Now they’d be washed away because since they had no engine, the boat was almost impossible to be steered. Flatdid everything in his power to get them out of those raging waters that wobbled the boat as if it were a nutshell. The incomprehensible amount of water that never ceased to fall from the sky and the breach that had opened in the hull of the bought made them realise they had no choice other thanto swim. Finally, night had arrived and there was darkness. After hitting everything in their path, the current had eventually driven them away from the most turbulent area and into calmer waters. If it were not for the fact that everyone was well aware of what happened, one could think that they were in the middle of an immense lake and not in the park where they had beenhappily walking that very same morning.

  One finds strength amid the chaos. One finds encouragement in the smallest things and isfilled with joy when small achievements are made. In their case, the small achievement was to be able to plug the leak in the hull of the boat. Sadly, their joy did not last long because although the gapseemed well sealed, the water kept on flowing inside and, before long, the vessel was tofounder. There was no place for panic nor time for despair. Everyone worked together to get as much water as possible out of the boat with their bare hands. The water already filled the hull and the additionalweight accumulated made the dinghy sink in the blink of an eye.

  Following María’s orders, everyone remained together to prevent being taken by the current. Together they would also maintain the heat better, thus reducing the chances of dying from hypothermia. Everyone started recounting something about their lives in turns. They didn’t want to fall asleep or unconscious and die from the low temperature of the water. The night was so dark that they could only make up the silhouettes of the faces and couldn’t tell who was who without hearing their voices.

  It is extreme situations where one thinks there is no way out that bring to light the true nature of men. They knew with certainty that the rain would not cease and they were sentenced to a certain end, but nobody wanted to give up, no one would throw in the towel, they would fight to the very last minute. Facing the cold water would break the will of the strongest because after a few minutes submerged in it, the joints start to go numb, the cold paralyses the entire body, blood concentrates in the vital organs leaving the extremities without circulation and the person pale, white as chalk, lips turn purple, the body tries to fight it, trying to use all its energy to warm itself up and not shiver. After several hours the bones feel as if they were ice inside the body. By staying together, they ensured the heat escaped at a slower rate and lasted longer without fainting. In these last moments, no one wants to think about what they did wrong, or they things they’d missed. In these last moments you wait for death as you would wait all night for dawn to arrive.

  When you make peace with God, in that moment when nothing else really matters, when you let out your last breath and your lungs are left completely empty, your muscles relax, and you are carried away by the angel of death, it is in that very moment that a new breath of air enters your lungs and your muscles tense again sending the brain a signal of pain throughout the body. That's when you know for sure that you will not die, you will survive, you will die years later as an old man or woman. Your strength returns and although you feel pain throughout your body you feel joy to be alive, and find strength because you know that there are still many things to live for.

  CHRONICLE OF THE ARICA

  TSUNAMI,1868

  AROUND FOUR o'clock I was in the commander’s cabin when we were alarmed by the boat vibrating as it would when the anchor was dropped and the chain moaned in the hawse. Completely sure it could not be this, we ran to the bridge. We noticed that a cloud of dust was advancing inland from the southeast, while the intensity of the noise grew louder. Before our astonished eyes the hills seemed to wobble, and the ground shook like small waves of a choppy sea.

  The dust cloud already encasedArica and through its impenetrable veil one could hear the cries for help, the roar of the houses as they collapsed and the thousand muddled cries that occur during a calamity. Meanwhile, our ship quiveredas if it was taken by a giant hand. Then the cloud went over us.

  As the dust dissipated, we rubbedour eyes and looked around us unable to believe what we were seeing- where seconds ago there was a happy and prosperous city bustling with activity and life, we could only see ruins from where the least gravely wounded struggled to emerge, unfortunate prisoners of the ruins of their own homes. Screams, howls of pain and distress calls inundated the air, under a merciless sun shining in the clear sky.

  Worriedabout the arrival of a tsunami, we looked towards the open seabut the sea was calm. One could believe that the four or five minutes we had just lived, as well as the desolate spectacle we returned back to momentarily, had been a nightmare. Prudently, the commander orderedto lower the additional anchors, batten down the hatches, tie down the cannon and put up the gratings.

  On land, the survivors crossed the beach and huddled in the small boardwalk calling the crews of the ships nearby to help bring their relatives from thechaotic ruins and into the apparent safety of the anchored boats. That was more than we could stomach, so we immediately lowered a boat with thirteen men aboard. It reached the shore and the crew disembarked immediately, leaving only a sailor on duty in the boat. Meanwhile, on board we were trying to organise an armed team with shovels, axes and pickaxes, when a murmur caught our atte
ntion. Looking back to the land we noticed with horror that the place where there stood onlyan instant ago a dock full of human beings had now been swallowed by the sudden rise of the sea, while our vessel, floating on the surface, had not even noticed it. We also saw the boat with its crew pulled by the irresistible tide towards the high vertical cliff - known to the locals as Morro -, where they disappeared under the foam left by the wave breaking on the rocks.

  Just then we felt another seismic shock, accompanied on the shore by a terrible roar that lasted a few minutes. We saw the land undulating again, moving from left to right. This time the sea withdrew to such extent that the boatran aground, revealing the bottom of the ocean and exposing things we had never seen before – fishes struggling between the rocks and stranded sea monsters. The round hull boats rolled on their side, while our Wateree landed on its flat surface. When the sea returned, it did so not as a wave but as a huge tide that forced theunfortunate ships near ours to roll with the keel up the mast,while the Wateree stood unharmed on the troubled waters.

  From that moment on, the sea seemed to defy all the laws of nature. Several streams rushed in opposite directions and dragged us to a speed that we would have never reached even at full steam. The earth trembled continuously, at regular intervals, each time with less violence and for less time.