She already had. “Too bad there’s no granola bars or anything.” She handed him the water, and he put it in the bag.
“Hopefully we won’t be out there long enough to worry about needing another meal.”
“You think?”
“It takes, what, fifteen minutes to walk from here out of town, if you head to Kooly’s field?”
“Yes.”
“So, say we double it because of the water, and any obstacles. I bet someone finds us before then.”
“Oh!” She walked back to the bar and looked around until she found a pen and some paper. “I’m leaving a note for the guys, in case they come here shortly after we leave.” She scrawled. “Will you grab me a couple darts?”
Ryan gave her a funny look, but went to the dartboard and brought a couple back. She took them and pinned the note to the wall across from the door, so the first thing anyone would see when they walked in, was the note.
Ryan read the note out loud. It was the route they were taking, the time, and their names. “Sounds good.”
“Did I miss anything?”
“No. It’s perfect.”
She nodded. “Ready?”
“Can’t stay here forever.”
For the first time since the others left hours ago, they went to the door and looked outside.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The flashlight reflected back from the glass door, blinding them to what lay outside. Ryan turned the lock and opened the door. Only a couple inches of water were on the step, and up the door, but that gave resistance. If it had risen much more, they’d have had to smash their way outside. The rain held off for the moment, but the air was thick with moisture, and Ryan knew it could pour again at any time. They’d have to move as quickly as was safely possible.
He stepped outside first. Though it was cool outside, it reeked like Ryan imagined a swamp did. Like damp and mud and the inside of an aquarium. Rich, but rotten. “Careful, it’s slippery.” He held his hand out to steady her as she got used to her new shoes and the slop beneath the couple inches of water.
She hissed in a breath, and her hand clenched his as she made a high-pitched noise in her throat.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” He looked down to see if she’d stepped on something.
“Can’t you feel it? The water’s fucking freezing!”
“Oh.” He couldn’t feel it yet, his boots were higher, and the water didn’t reach the tops. “Okay, we’re going to go slowly down the steps, then cross the street as carefully as we can, but we want to be fairly quick about it. There will be all kinds of debris under the water, maybe currents too, so if you feel yourself get caught on anything, tell me right away.”
“Okay.”
He shone the light out at the cars on the street, pausing momentarily on a light-colored Jeep Wrangler. “Damn
“Yours?”
“Yeah.”
“Anything useful in it?”
“Not for this scenario. Where’s your car?”
“Shine your light up the street a bit. To the right.”
The light barely reached the little blue Jetta, with water up to its windows. “Shit.”
“Anything useful in it?” Ryan repeated her question.
“No. Damn.”
“It sucks, but at least we’re okay. The water’s slowed down compared to how it was coursing through here earlier. And it’s only about four feet deep I’d say. No biggie.”
“No biggie? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“What?” And then he felt like an idiot. “Oh. Damn.”
“Yeah.”
He was over a foot taller than she was—four feet of water wasn’t a big deal to him, but it was almost as tall as she was. If there were any dips in the road, she was likely to be dunked under completely. “You’re going to grab onto my hand, and not let go, okay?”
“This sucks.”
“It does.” He grasped her arm and gently squeezed. “But we can do this, Leila.”
She nodded.
“Are you a good swimmer?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We should be able to walk, but if something happens, we can both swim. I’ll carry the bag.”
“Thanks.”
Hitching it on his shoulder to keep it out of the water, he took her hand and, holding the flashlight to illuminate their path, led the way down the steps. Silt and sludge squished out from under his feet, but it was the temperature of the water that nearly made him lose his footing. “Holy shit, it’s freezing.”
“You’re telling me.”
He hadn’t expected it to be this cold. This wasn’t just rainwater. “We definitely need to move quickly, Leila. Water this cold isn’t safe to be in for long. Hypothermia will set in fast.”
“Then let’s move.”
There was more debris and mud on the ground than had been on the steps, and it was slower going than Ryan had hoped. He sank in up to his ankles in mud before finding purchase on the ground, and each step sucked at his feet like his legs were weighted, making every step lumbering and heavy. His legs began to burn with the effort even as his skin started to go numb with cold. He couldn’t even imagine how cold it felt to Leila, but he was glad he’d thought to cover her sandaled foot in with the tape.
They used a car to brace themselves with when they reached the curb, then they were out in the open. A few branches and who knows what poked his ankles, and something brushed his side, but it was gone before he could shine the light and see what it was. Better not to think about the dangers lurking beneath the surface of the murky water, for his sake and for Leila’s. They reached the middle of the street where the ground was higher. He shone the light at Leila, shocked to see that the water had reached up to her neck at one point, though it was now back down to her chest.
“Maybe you should climb on my back.”
“N-no.”
“Shit, Leila. You’re freezing already.” He continued walking them, and picked up the pace.
“Wish I had m-more ins-sulation.”
“Nah, you’re perfect as you are.”
“Th-thanks.”
“Except for you’re kind of scrawny. And you have a smart mouth.” Maybe if she got mad, it would keep her warm.
“Fu-f-fuck you.”
He laughed and pulled her across to the curb, stepping them up the entrance to the bank and up the steps out of the water. The bank was higher up, but their feet were still submerged. His jeans were heavy and stiff, and his legs were filthy from the knees down, despite having been in water. The mud clung like cement, and he kicked his feet to shake some off. He stopped Leila when she began to do the same. “Don’t clean it off. The mud will protect you from the wind, and hold in some heat.”
She started shaking harder, and he took her in his arms, rubbing her back to warm her up. She was stiff but didn’t resist.
“H-how are y-you so warm?”
“Awww, you’re saying I’m hot?”
She sighed and wrapped her arms around him, mumbling into his chest. He hoisted her up onto his hips. “Wrap your legs around me.”
“N-now?”
Her tone said it all. He reassured her. “Nothing sexy. It’s just to get your feet out of the water.” She was like an ice cube, but her shaking lessened after only a couple minutes.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He nuzzled her closer and leaned against the granite wall. Or marble. He didn’t know what it was, but it was shiny and warmer than the water he stood in. He flicked off the flashlight to save battery power while they stood still. Should they continue with the route they’d planned, or deviate? It was difficult to think about which way they should go from here when Leila was pressed up against him, vibrating on parts of his body that had no business paying attention to her right now.
She sighed. “I think I’m good now.”
“I don’t want to set you back into the water, so we should figure out which way to go from here.”
“We�
�re taking Third, and following the way the others went, aren’t we?”
“That was the plan.” God, even coated with river water, she smelled good. What perfume did she wear? He wanted to make it mandatory for all women from now on.
“What’s changed?”
What? He flicked the flashlight back on to distract himself. “That was before the water got higher, and we realized how cold it is.”
She leaned back and frowned. “No matter which way we go, I’ll be in the water, and so will you. We’ll just have to move quicker.”
“It’s about safety too. You felt the mud. I’m heavier, so I sank deeper, but it still sucked at me, hard.”
She coughed, and he patted her back for a second, then realized she was laughing, not coughing.
“You know what I meant! Tiny pervert.”
“We’re surrounded by kinky mud in a deserted town. That’s a B-horror movie-slash-porn flick if ever I heard one.”
“You can write in to Penthouse after we get out.” He set her down.
“Do people still do that?”
“How should I know?”
“Isn’t there a manual for guys? Protocols to follow, dude codes?”
He led her down the stairs, flinching as the icy water reclaimed their bodies. “Women are the ones who need a manual. You are complicated creatures.”
“Oh, you’re just as complicated as we are. But even if there was a manual all about women and what made us tick, you guys still wouldn’t read it.”
“Probably not. This conversation isn’t getting less weird.”
“Yeah. I hear that a lot.” Her voice rose in tone, but lowered in volume, affected by the water.
When they’d been crossing the street, he hadn’t looked at more than a few feet in front of them. Now that they were on the sidewalk, and the water had gone down to three feet deep, he shone the light a little farther ahead and looked at the buildings around them. They passed Smith’s Barbershop, and even though he knew it wasn’t dry inside, he still felt sick when he shone the light at the window and saw water floating just as high inside as out on the street. A few things floated on the surface, but he turned the beam back to the path in front of them.
“That’s where I get my hair cut. Smith’s has been there forever. How are they going to get over this? How is anyone? It’s got to reach all the way across the bridge, and just as far out on that side as over here, probably all the way to the bottle depot.”
“There’s not a business that won’t be affected by this flood. Not a single one.”
They walked in silence for a moment, then Leila sharply inhaled and grabbed his arm.
***
Shiva’s Gift Shop occupied the corner of the block and had always had bright figurines and blown glass ornaments in the huge windows. But now, as Ryan aimed the flashlight at the window, only devastation reflected back. The windows were gone. The ornaments were gone. It looked like someone had driven a truck through one side, and out the other, leaving the brick wall at the corner intact.
“Oh, my God.” Her voice shook, and for the first time she realized exactly how bad the devastation beneath the water would be when it dried up. Until then, it was easier to focus on her almost numb feet, or the things—hopefully branches—that scraped her legs. Getting to safety, and barely focusing on the buildings around her. The water was everywhere, but it had pretty much hidden the damage from sight.
“I want you to jump on my back.”
She turned to him. “It’s cold, but I’m doing better now.” Mostly because her legs were numb.
He shook his head. “Not for warmth. There’s going to be a shit ton of glass all around this area. If you step on a shard, you could get seriously hurt, never mind infections afterwards.”
She tried not to think of the branches that had already scraped her legs. “Okay. But I’ll carry the bag. And flashlight. Then your hands will be free.”
“Okay.” He handed her the bag and crouched down a bit. “Shit, that’s cold!”
“You’re telling me!” She hopped up onto his back, clinging tighter when he stood to his full height. His warmth felt so good it made her nipples tight. Or maybe that was from the icy water. Either way, she wanted to rub against him and soak in his heat, and those sexy thoughts were so horribly inappropriate she turned to humor instead. Especially since there was no point flirting with an impossible future like Ryan. “Huh.”
“What?”
“The weather’s better up here. Drier.”
“Funny.”
“Do you ever get scared of falling? It’s a long way down, is all I’m saying.”
“You’re the worst backpack ever.” He handed her the flashlight. “Ready?”
“Yup.” She shone the light a couple feet in front of them but rubbernecked into Shiva’s as they turned the corner and passed by its other window. Leila didn’t have fussy ornaments, or want them, but she appreciated their beauty. The sheer ruin that lay beneath the water broke her heart.
“The really fucked up thing about all this, is that the business owners likely have no idea just how bad it is.”
“We’re probably the only ones who have seen it. I hope we are, anyway.” I hate to think of others being trapped in this, and wading to safety like we are.
He nodded. “I think most people got out before the wave. It was pretty quiet when I came downtown.”
“It pisses me off that we were allowed downtown at all.”
“I know. Hey,” he hitched her higher on his hips. “Do you remember The Quire?”
Leila followed the angle of his head with the flashlight, and saw the tiny store that specialized in fancy stationary and office supplies. “Yes! I used to love going in there with Eve.” Her friend had gone on to an art and design school, and they’d lost touch as people do. “I never needed anything, but always bought something.” Water gently swelled inside, to the motion of some unseen current, carrying unidentifiable objects along the surface. A few pencils floated along, bright and cheery.
“Cam bought it. He and his family run it now.”
“Cam Greene?”
He chuckled. “Yup.”
“As in, the Cam who streaked through the cafeteria with you? The same guy who did Smashy Smashy?”
“Yup.”
Smashy Smashy had been an amazingly fun time. Everyone donated old computers and electronics, and well, smashed them. The whole thing was filmed and put to music, and went viral online. Unfortunately, Cam hadn’t technically asked to do it at school, and the administration hadn’t seen the humor in launching computer monitors from the roof into the staff parking lot. The keyboards had made an amazing sound when they shattered against the pavement; the keys flew up and when they fell down, tinkled like artificial rain on the asphalt.
“He’s married?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. He wasn’t that bad.”
“No, but he was a little shit.”
“All teenage boys are.”
“Touché.”
“He married a nurse, works over at the hospital. They met when his mom got sick, fell in love.”
“Lived happily ever after.”
“Well. Until today.”
“It’s so weird. Like, I know we all grow up and go live our lives, but usually you think of those people as static. Just as they were the last time you saw them.”
“Throwing computers off of the school.”
“Streaking through the hallways.”
“Hey, I only did that once!”
“I know. I remember.” And here she was riding him like a lifeboat. “It’s weird to be chatting about this, as if we’ve bumped into each other on a sunny day downtown, not a care in the world. Feels wrong.”
He squeezed her thighs. “Don’t. It’s a natural response. We wouldn’t be much use standing here tearing our hair and bawling our eyes out. And it’s too much for the mind to take in, so we turn to humor to downplay.”
“I remember overhearing a few conversation
s between Dad and his colleagues. Dark senses of humor to say the least.”
“We have to. This job, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. Your heart breaks every single day on the job if you wallow in the horrors.”
“I know.” She felt bad for him, for her dad and brother. For all the men and women who put themselves out there, rescuing injured people, recovering dead bodies. Seeing things no one should have to see day after day. She rested her cheek against his neck and sighed. “I don’t know how you guys do it.”
“We do it because we have to. Because we want to help, but hope we aren’t needed. Every day I go to work and hope nothing happens; that no one will lose their house or their life. It’s worse when you know the people. Some days I wish I didn’t know that the person lying on the side of the road is Bill’s daughter, or Debra’s mom. But I love this town and the people in it. I want to make it a better place.”
He really loves this town. She felt proud of him, even as her last hopes of a relationship sank into the water behind them. He’d never leave Silver Springs, and I’d never stay. A bird loves a fish, and there’s no future for them together. Get over it, Leila. You’re lucky to get out of this safely. She’d take her new outlook on life, and find love in the city with someone more compatible. Blessings firmly counted, she tried to ignore the feeling of his hands on her thighs.
He slowed as they approached the street. “I can’t remember if there was a manhole cover here or not. Chances are they all blew with the flood. Stepping on that would suck.”
“Literally.” She shivered and clutched him tighter, imagining being dragged beneath the surface of the water, and down into the sewer, trapped beneath the street. They’d die, and who knows when they’d be found? “The water looks rougher here.” Waves peaked and the cross street was more like a river than a lake like the last street had been. “Maybe we should go another way.”
Ryan shook his head. “Still waters run deep.”
“Oh. So that’s where the saying comes from. I never thought about it as a literal.”
“Yeah. So the more waves and crashing, the shallower—within reason. Doesn’t mean it’s safe—there could be one hell of a current beneath a still surface too, but you can see how it swirls when it hits the shoulder or the curb.”
Taken by Storm Page 10
