Jeremy curled around Atticus to take the brunt of the impact when he struck the water. His back stung. The water enveloping him dampened the violent rush of the wave, but the current was swift as the water moved inland. He quickly unfurled to surge back toward the surface. Thankfully, Moira had not gained too much altitude, and the water level reached a couple hundred feet. If he kept falling like this one of these days, Jeremy would not be so lucky.
He gasped for breath when his face broke through the surface and hoisted Atticus above the water. They were still under the tree's boughs, but the current was carrying them away. If Jeremy could grab onto a branch, he could haul himself out of the water. Atticus squirmed and yowled, and they dipped back under the surface. With a sputter, Jeremy popped back up again and lifted the cat carrier onto his shoulder. He held it steady with one arm so he could tread water and take in his surroundings.
The others popped above the water with desperate gasps as well.
“Over here!” Caleb called. He had climbed onto one of the low-hanging limbs that placed him in most of their paths. Jeremy lifted his arm from the water, and Caleb clasped his wrist. The others saw and started swimming toward them.
“Here, take…” He stopped as water sloshed above his chin and into his mouth, but Caleb got the gist. He grabbed the cat carrier with his other hand and set it on the branch beside him. Jeremy could not imagine how Caleb had managed to get up onto the limb because it was too far to reach from the water's surface. But he had been a champion swimmer in college, so maybe it was not too strange.
As he reached down to help lift Jeremy up, something knocked into Jeremy’s leg. It caught his pants and ripped him away from Caleb’s grip. He did not even have time to curse before the current, and whatever was attached to his pants dragged him back under. He curled up and reached for his leg, unable to see through the torrent of water and bubbles. He dislodged the piece of debris but had gotten confused in the tumble of water and could no longer tell which way was up or down. The water was dark all around him.
Panic clawed at his chest as his lungs screamed for breath. He thought that he could see a spot of light in one direction. His mind immediately wanted to swim toward it, but it was far away, and the only lights in the cloudy night had been streetlights. Which would be at the bottom of the water now. He propelled himself in the opposite direction.
Something else slammed into him. It was small and did not catch on his clothes, but it was enough to punch a gasp out of him. Despite himself, he immediately drew in a breath, which was all water. Then, tried to cough it out and only succeeded in gulping down more water. It felt like a swarm of angry bees had flown down his airway, pressing and stinging against his lungs. He was drowning, he realized.
His mind began to slip away from reality. Everything grew muffled and strange like the moments after being first submerged in water. He felt something tug on his arm and grabbed it, trying to use it to claw his way to the surface. But it was of no use. The world faded to black.
When he woke up, the world was still black. But there were lights in the distance. An ambient glow that meant there were street lights nearby shone around him. It came from beyond a low wall several feet to his right. He stared at it for a few seconds before realizing it was the edge of a building roof. He could see the building across the street. The light below cast long shadows from the carved stone window frames across its brick front. He was on a roof.
His throat hurt like someone punched it, and his chest ached like an anvil had been dropped on it. He swallowed and looked around. There was someone up here with him. He tried to push himself up, but the movement pulled on his back. It lit up with pain. He gasped, then coughed when the air caught in his throat like it did not belong there. Which made his chest hurt and his gut roll with nausea. He rolled onto his side and puked, then flopped back and groaned.
While his breath evened out and his stomach settled, he lay there like a dead fish. There were a few of those around. They did not flop about anymore. Their wide eyes stared straight up at the sky out of their still bodies. It smelled awful. Not like rot yet, but like the bottom of a river had been picked up and dumped on top of the city. It had.
Jeremy wondered if he was destined always to be covered in the yuckiness from the bottom of a body of water. He gingerly lifted an arm and ran his hand through his hair. It was still dripping, and his fingers came away gritty. He frowned at the silt under his nails and in the creases of his hand. When he felt mentally prepared, he pushed himself into a sitting position. The wounds on his back must have re-opened when he hit the water earlier.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The person lying nearby turned out to be Sean. He was on his back. His suit was in disarray, and his hair was no longer styled. It stuck to his forehead and cheeks in stringy, wet strands. He bled from somewhere on his skull. The red on his forehead was streaky from the water also dripping from his hair. He looked pale as death, almost blue beneath his freckles. Jeremy took a steadying breath and then reached out to touch his wrist. His skin was warm. But Jeremy couldn’t feel a pulse. He could feel his breath against the back of his hand when he held it below his nose, though.
“Oh good!” A voice startled Jeremy so badly that his hand jerked and smacked into Sean’s nose. His head lolled to the side. A woman dropped a bag beside them and folded to her knees. She had kinked black hair drawn back from her face by a bandana. There were streaks of gray through it, although her face looked young and her dark skin smooth. She arched one perfectly manicured brow when Jeremy just stared at her.
“I’m glad you're awake.” She searched between his eyes, “Are you okay?”
“I…” Jeremy trailed off into a series of coughs. The word had scraped across his throat like coarse sandpaper. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. A water bottle was shoved into his hands. It crinkled as he clutched it. When the coughs calmed down, he uncapped it, but the thought of drinking anything made his stomach revolt. He could still remember the sensation of water pouring into his lungs.
“You’re alright.” The woman decided when he took a few small sips, “Do you remember anything?”
He remembered the kelpie and the dryad. He remembered the river lifting from its banks. With a shudder, he remembered drowning. But he did not know how he got on this roof, or how Sean got here. So he shrugged.
“Well, the river came out of its banks and washed through the city.” The woman told him, “Not sure exactly how that happened, but there’s magic now, so I suppose it's not so strange for mountains to move and rivers to change course. Anyway, I came up here to take a look at what was going on." She gestured toward Sean. " He was still breathing. I think the knock to his head is why he’s unconscious. I did some chest compressions on you and got you breathing again.”
“Thanks.” Jeremy croaked.
“No problem, sweetie.” She looked at Sean, “You should probably get to a hospital though.”
There was a distant explosion. Jeremy glanced toward the river and saw a building crumble. The dryad’s tree poked out among the tops of buildings. Jeremy wondered if the others had managed to get on the tree like Caleb or if they had been swept away too.
Jeremy cleared his throat, “How long was I out?”
“Well, I found you about five minutes ago. You couldn’t have been underwater for too long though.” She pursed her lips, “All together I doubt it was longer than ten minutes.”
“They are still going at it?” Jeremy muttered. The woman tilted her head to the side, curls cascading over her shoulder. Jeremy waved to the scene behind him. A flashbang of brilliant light exploded in the sky, making it appear as bright as daylight for a few moments. He winced and squinted his eyes, “There's a dryad and a kelpie going at it over there.”
“Oh?” She shielded her eyes with a hand and peered toward the river, “That sounds terrifying. I hadn’t heard of the creatures fighting each other yet, just attacking humans.”
“It seemed like these two were in an ongoing territory war.” Jeremy took another sip of water, “They were old, I’d bet."
He coughed a little and grimaced. The woman frowned at him, “Maybe you shouldn’t talk so much for now.”
Jeremy nodded in agreement. She pushed to her feet and went over to the edge of the roof. She wore a long skirt that fluttered as she walked and had a loose-knit cardigan that she tugged tight around her. Jeremy shivered in his damp clothes.
“I think the water isn't going to go down for a while.” She looked over the edge, “It’s a lot lower than the initial wave, but it’s still got to be twenty feet deep or so. We’d need a boat to get out of here.”
“Did you try calling 911 yet?”
“Yeah.” She looked back, “I called them as soon as I found you. The operator made a note of our location but said we'd have to wait because they've got a million other calls. But he said the National Guard was on its way here. They should bring rescue boats.”
Jeremy nodded, then glanced at Sean. He wondered if he could contact Sean’s back up and get them to bring a boat or a helicopter. He probably could. He rifled through Sean’s pockets and found his phone in the inside pocket of his tweed jacket. It had a waterproof case and, like Moira’s phone, had survived being submerged in perfect health. He shook his head. The phone buzzed angrily and told him that the facial recognition had failed. He tossed it onto Sean’s chest and watched it steadily rise and fall.
“Are you trying to get into his phone?” The woman knelt beside them again. She picked up the phone and turned it over to look at the plain black case.
“Yeah.” Jeremy said, “He’s got some friends who could probably help us out. His name is Sean, by the way. I’m Jeremy.”
“I’m Zanele.” She turned the phone back over and tapped something on the screen, “Most people just call me Zanie”
“Nice to meet you,” Jeremy said. She hummed, then handed him the phone. It was unlocked. He looked at her in surprise.
“How did you do that?”
She shrugged, “I’ve always had a knack for guessing people’s passcodes.”
Jeremy opened his mouth, then closed it and shrugged. He went into Jeremy’s recent contacts, then paused, thumb caught between selecting the general and the other most recent call, Juan, who must have been the backup. He remembered Sean saying Juan's name while he was talking on the phone. Sean's backup would be more likely to be able to respond quickly to them. The National Guard was a chaotic mess right now if Jeremy had to guess. Plus, Juan had their bags. Jeremy wanted to know if they had survived the wave. He tapped on Juan’s name and lifted the phone to his ear.