by J. Thorn
Chloe hobbled over to stand between Dax and Neil. “Because the backup power is about to run out. Isn’t that right, Neil?”
Neil took his glasses off and cleaned the lenses in the bottom of his filthy t-shirt. “Yes.”
Dax sighed, and Isaac stood in the corner, his mouth hanging open but with no words coming out.
Neil paced back and forth, looking up at the water-stained ceiling and dangling wires that no longer carried an electrical current. Dax stepped in front of Neil and stared at him as the man explained.
“Of course, y’all know that most of New Orleans is one or two feet below sea level. In some places, it’s as much as twenty feet. If you were here during Katrina, you know what kind of a nightmare that was. The pumps at the station run on backup power if a catastrophe like this occurs, but that power will eventually run out. It was designed under the assumption that the grid would come back up within a matter of days, or weeks at the most.”
“What are you saying?” Isaac asked.
“I’m saying that, with all of the recent storms, when the pumps go out, the city will flood. Completely. By my best calculations, that could happen at any moment. And to make matters worse, the water will be incredibly toxic. Chemicals from the oil refineries will leech into the reservoirs. It’ll be like an acid bath. Everyone trapped in the city will die.”
The realization shot through the room. The children began to mumble, fully understanding what was about to happen.
“Jesus Christ,” Dax said, running his hand down his face as he turned around.
“How do you know all this?” Isaac asked. “I thought you were a security guard at the pump station.”
Neil looked around the room before setting his eyes on Chloe. “I lied. I was an engineer.”
“You lied?” Monica asked.
“Yes. And I’m sorry.”
Isaac slapped his right palm against the wall and kicked a beer bottle across the room. “We can’t trust any of you fools.”
“I have to go right now,” Dax said as he headed for the door.
“Where?” Chloe asked him.
“I told you I need to get to my sister. I’ve gotta get there before those pumps stop working. And when I do, I’m getting the hell out of this city.”
“Where does she live?” Neil asked.
“Over near Tremé.”
“I know of a tunnel only a few blocks from there,” Neil said. “It’ll get you guys safely out of the city and headed for Texas.”
“Bullshit.”
Neil approached Dax. “I’m a civil engineer. I know about parts of this city that not even the mayor knows exist. You can call me a liar because I said I was a security guard instead of an engineer. That’s a little white lie I can live with. Not the same as hiding the fact that you’re a convicted felon.”
Dax gritted his teeth. The man had some nerve reminding everyone in the room of Dax’s past to soften his own lie. Everyone in the room had fallen silent. Even the children had stopped fussing. Neil looked at Chloe, and Dax followed his gaze. She looked to Neil and nodded.
“If you get us to higher ground, then I promise that I’ll get you into that tunnel and you can get out of the city. But you have to get us out of the flood zone. Right now.”
Dax exhaled through his nose and stomped his foot down on the floor. A puff of dust motes floated into the air, forcing a cough from Monica.
Motherfucker.
Chloe stared at him, her eyes wide and shimmering.
Neil stuck out his hand. “So, do we have a deal?”
17
Dax was halfway across the yard when he heard the high-pitched squeal of the front door’s hinges.
“Seriously? You’re really leaving us?”
Dax exhaled and turned around. Neil stood alone on the porch, the others beginning to gather in the open doorway. Dax looked into the long faces of the children. He could see Chloe in the back of the group, Isaac standing next to her with an arm around her shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Neil. I can’t. I mean, I know you guys need help, but I can’t be the one responsible for y’all while this city turns into a toxic shithole. My sister’s out there, and I need to get to her. She’s family.”
“And what are you going to do when you find her? You said you want to get out of the city. I’m offering you an easier way to do that. I can get you into those tunnels, I promise.”
Dax scoffed. “If I go now, I don’t need to crawl through some rat-infested hole or worry about when Lake Pontchartrain is gonna fill your tunnel. Me and my sister can walk out of here, straight down the middle of I-10. We’ll probably stay at her place for a few days, gather supplies before heading out. If you want, you can come with us. But you gotta get there before the water rises.”
“We’ll never make it in time. Look at us,” said Neil, not needing to point out Chloe’s handicap. “We’re people, too. And we need your help. You’re really going to turn your back on all of these children? What about Chl—”
“You don’t know me. You don’t know who I am, or what I’ve done. I ran with some bad dudes in my day and did some shit I’ll regret for the rest of my life. I’m sorry. This group ain’t my problem. My sister needs me.”
Dax turned his back to Neil and walked away. He was almost to the curb when a more familiar voice called after him.
“Not your problem?”
He turned around to see Chloe standing on the porch.
She moved down the steps, ignoring the attempts from Neil to assist her. Chloe hobbled across the yard, stopping in front of Dax.
“So that’s all you got to say? That we’re ‘not your problem?’”
Dax sighed. “Chloe, look... I’ve got to—”
“You know what? I should’ve known you’d be like this. I heard about all the shit you did. When you first showed up and freed me from those criminals, I told myself that everything I heard wasn’t true. That you were the Jackson, I loved and remembered. But you’re just some dude named Dax. A selfish prick about to turn his back on a group of helpless people.”
“I’m a guy who has to get to his sister. She needs me.”
“She needs a fix. Your sister’s a fucking junkie, Dax. She’s probably already dead.”
“She has a medical condition.”
Chloe laughed and shook her head. “Yeah. You keep telling yourself that.”
Dax stared into Chloe’s eyes.
Based on Gabby’s erratic behavior during the last few months that she’d visited him in prison, Dax had known Gabby was strung out on something. The fact that Chloe knew meant everyone did. No matter what he told himself, Dax had a junkie for a sister—and that was if she was even still alive.
Chloe hadn’t blinked or looked away. He broke first, stepping away and looking at the roof of the house so he wouldn’t have to see their faces.
“See ya, Chloe. Gabby’s place isn’t that far from here. We’ll probably stay there a few days until we have enough supplies to head north.”
He turned around, stepped over the curb and started walking away. When Dax reached the end of the street, he stopped at the intersection and looked both ways.
Don’t turn around. Gabby needs you.
He took a breath and turned left. A blue plastic shopping bag tumbled across the street. Drapery fluttered from broken windows, and a pack of three hungry dogs had cornered something beneath a porch. Dax saw smoke spiraling into the sky from various places within the city, and he thought again about what Neil had said.
At least the flood will put the fires out.
He stopped in the middle of the street and closed his eyes. He could still see Chloe standing in front of the house, her gaze boring into him and stirring the guilt he’d buried for so long. Dax had gotten mixed up with the wrong dudes, and that had landed him in prison. He’d been locked up when his sister had needed him the most. He wouldn’t let her down again. Not now.
Dax opened his eyes to the sound of gunshots. He had become accustomed
to those, though. It was the screams that followed which caught his attention. He hadn’t seen any other people in this neighborhood when the group had arrived. Dax had been certain of that.
He turned around and started running back toward the house. His mind skittered and skipped like a radio station dial bumped slightly out of tune. The hungry dogs ran, too. Away from their prey trapped beneath the porch.
More screams.
Where are they coming from? What is happening?
When he ran through the intersection and turned the corner, he saw people running. They weren’t from Chloe’s group, and Dax silently chided himself for thinking he had found an abandoned neighborhood. People crawled from their houses, some carrying as much as they could in soggy cardboard boxes and black garbage bags.
Dax ran away from the house where he’d left Chloe’s group and deeper into the neighborhood. Something had spooked the people who had before been barricaded into their homes. Something had driven them onto the streets where murder, fire, and chaos ensued.
Water.
Dax stopped in the middle of the street, both hands on his hips as he took huge gulps of air. At first, it looked like a malevolent black shadow spreading across the land. But as the floodwater crawled toward him, he could smell the oil and toxic brew roiling around on its surface. The floodwater turned the lawns black and oozed across the asphalt and between the curbs, transforming the street into a shallow but ever-growing canal. Black vultures took flight and rats crawled from the sewer, their fur already coated in a slick, dark fluid.
The flood was coming.
18
Chloe stood in the yard and watched Dax stop at the end of the street.
“Please. Come back,” she said under her breath.
But Dax kept walking. To the intersection and out of sight. Chloe pulled herself back toward the house, the bottom of her crutch dragging across the gravel and through the high grass of the lawn. She tilted to one side suddenly, but Neil ran over and grabbed her left arm before she could tumble to the ground.
“Help me with her, Isaac.”
The teen jumped down the stairs and rushed across the yard, grabbing Chloe’s right arm. The two straightened her up, and she sniffled.
“I’m fine. I can handle myself.”
“Are you sure?” Isaac asked.
“Yeah—give me some space, please.”
The two men backed away. Isaac looked at Neil, but he shook his head quickly, communicating to the kid to leave her be. Chloe ran a hand through her curly hair while using the other to grip the crutch. Sweat had broken out on her brow, and she wiped her forehead.
Kevin skipped down the walk to where Neil, Isaac, and Chloe stood. He turned his face up to Neil.
“Mr. Neil. I think we found some food in the smelly house.”
“Go ahead,” Isaac said to Neil. “I’ll stay with her.”
Neil nodded and followed Kevin up the porch steps.
“You can go, too. I’ll be fine. Give me five minutes to get some fresh air.”
“I’m not leaving you out here by yourself. We don’t know who could be watching us from inside any of these houses.”
She turned when his hand touched her shoulder.
“We can do this without him,” Isaac said. “He’s selfish, and we don’t need him.”
But did she really believe that? Chloe’s first thoughts had been of escaping the city. She’d wanted to get as far from the chaos as possible. Now, she didn’t have a choice. She had to stay and help them—but Dax didn’t.
“You’re right.” Chloe pushed another spiraling lock of hair out of her face. A slight breeze blew past them, and she caught a whiff of something strong—maybe natural gas or sulfur. “Screw him. We can figure this out ourselves.”
Isaac smiled, and Chloe put her hand over his, which was still on her shoulder.
“Thanks for being here for me. And I appreciate what you did back at that compound to get us out of there.”
Isaac shrugged. “It felt good to hit him.”
Chloe laughed, smiling at Isaac until she felt something on her foot. At first, it felt like a cat had pressed against her leg, but when she looked down, there was no animal.
Water. It came toward them in a steady, black flow—down the street and running between the curbs and splashing into the yard where Chloe and Isaac stood.
“It’s happening, Chloe. Neil said the pumps would stop soon. What are we gonna do now?”
She looked down at the water and back to Isaac, not knowing exactly what to say.
19
Chloe and Isaac had taken the kids outside and awaited him on the sidewalk. Neil took one last look around the room, and grabbed the door and pulled it shut. He closed his eyes and exhaled before stepping away.
Except Chloe, nobody in the group had spoken to him unless he’d spoken first since he’d confessed his little white lie. He wondered if they even cared. Maybe everyone had collectively decided they were resigned to whatever fate the universe handed them. They knew what it took to protect a group of teenagers and young kids. Whether it was Neil or Isaac or Dax or Chloe, nobody was going to be able to save them. Neil decided that he had become their scapegoat. They didn’t know what had happened to their city, but they know that he had lied, and that misplaced anger would have to suffice.
Neil stopped mulling over things he couldn’t control and joined the others in front of the house. He looked into the street to see the flowing water, rising high enough to spill over the curb and into the yard.
“Stay close to us, guys,” Chloe told Kevin and Darius. “I want you to hold hands and stay together.”
The two boys locked hands with Monica, and the group started down the sidewalk.
The city of New Orleans sat at the bottom of a huge bowl, about a foot below sea level. The water would be coming from all directions as it flowed over the edge of the bowl and into the city.
Neil scanned the front of every house. Now that the flood had begun, he knew bad people who had hunkered down in the homes would be flushed to the surface like sewer rats. Perhaps they’d jump out and come after them, though that was unlikely with Isaac carrying the assault rifle he had taken from a member of Chuck’s gang.
“What’s that smell?” Monica asked.
Neil had noticed it even before he’d seen the water but had hoped the children somehow wouldn’t. Foolish thinking. The stench oozed forth in the heavy, humid air.
“Keep moving,” Chloe said.
She slowed, allowing Isaac and the kids to pass her and for Neil to catch up.
“Is that the water?”
Neil nodded.
“How much worse is it going to get?”
“I don’t want to think about it. It could get so bad that we won’t be able to come outside without wearing gas masks. And good luck finding even one of those.”
Chloe stared down the street. She didn’t ask any other questions. Neil relished the relative silence, knowing that as the water rose, the questions would come with it. And nobody in the group would want to hear the answers. They wouldn’t be able to make it out of the city before it flooded which meant their only option was finding a place to wait it out and hope the National Guard or FEMA would rescue them.
They walked for hours until the kids began asking for food. But the water kept coming, and it would soon force them to either swim or find higher ground in order to stop and rest.
Finally, they approached an apartment building on the other side of the intersection, several stories taller than the surrounding houses and shops. Colorful yet unreadable graffiti covered the faded brown bricks. Trees grew through the foundation and kudzu wrapped its way up the side of the building with tentacles crawling toward the windows.
Neil saw a one-way steel door which most likely served as an emergency exit on the other side. The door had been propped open a few inches, but it was the spray-painted mural on the outside that caught his attention—a full-color depiction of a man stabbing a naked
woman.
“We’re going in there?” Darius asked.
“I don’t want to,” Kevin said.
“We have to, guys,” Chloe said. “We don’t have any other choice. We’ve gotta get to higher ground before more water comes. There’s no way we can make it out of the city in time. We can wait on the top floor of the building until help arrives.”
“We’ll keep you safe,” Isaac said. “Hold on to Monica’s hands and stay close to us.”
Neil grimaced as he approached the graphic depiction on the emergency door. Several windows on the ground floor of the apartment building had been boarded up, so he wasn’t about to take this vulnerable group strolling through the front door. They stopped about fifty feet away. If anyone was hiding on the other side, they’d certainly know a group of people was approaching. Apparently, Isaac had been thinking the same thing.
“Neil, I need you to slowly open the door.”
“Stay over here, kids,” Chloe said. Monica helped her usher them a half block down the street, away from the door.
Neil and Isaac advanced on the building, Isaac with his rifle raised and aimed at the door. Neil tiptoed and angled toward the hinged side of the door in case someone inside was watching them through the opening. Isaac stopped about ten feet in front of it, his eye on the sight of the rifle.
Neil mouthed silently to Isaac, “Ready?”
Licking his lips, Isaac nodded.
Neil leaned over and used his fingers to grab the edge of the door. He pulled it open.
When he didn’t see a muzzle flash or hear the crack of a rifle, Neil’s tense shoulders relaxed. Although he couldn’t see in the doorway, Isaac had lowered his weapon.
“Let me take a quick look with the rifle.”
Neil watched as Isaac took three steps forward, the rifle at forty-five degrees—he wasn’t expecting a firefight, but he wasn’t going to be caught off-guard either. Isaac entered the building, and Neil held his breath.
“It’s clear,” Isaac’s voice came from within.
Chloe and the kids approached.