Eighteen days into the unrelenting downpour-
It seemed like the world had already forgotten what sunlight felt like. It had been eighteen long days since most of the cities in Starship Country saw the sun for the last time, since they last enjoyed a peaceful and normal day.
It had been so long and yet the rain kept pounding against the earth with an unceasing ferocity. It had turned concrete streets into rivers and homes into prisons. The once-vibrant cities were now lifeless as their colors had been washed away by the endless gray of the skies.
And the worst of this disaster was seen in the Capital City. The entire city was submerged into water and hundreds, if not thousands, had already lost their lives.
Around twenty sinkholes had appeared around the city, several buildings had collapsed because of the earthquake and heavy rain, and a storm just washed over the city.
If one looked closely, they might even notice bodies floating in the water along with all kind of debris, garbage, and uprooted trees.
The air inside a two-storey house in the Seventh Avenue was damp and suffocating. A woman in her late twenties was sitting huddled on the edge of the couch with a threadbare blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She was staring at the flickering candlelight, its faint glow was barely illuminating the room.
"I can’t take it anymore," a man’s voice suddenly broke the silence. He was her husband, Steve. The once handsome man, who seemed invincible just days ago, was now sitting with his head in his hands. In these eighteen days, he seemed to have aged several years. His usually confident demeanor was shattered. "No power, no gas... no food."
Clara, the woman, glanced at the small stash of crackers on the wooden coffee table sitting in front of her. It was the last of her supplies. She had been rationing them as best as she could, but hunger clawed at her insides like a rabid beast. She avoided looking at Kevin’s hollowed-out eyes... desperation had made everyone dangerous.
That very moment, they heard muffled cries coming from outside. There were people wading through waist-deep water. Their voices were shrill with panic as they screamed. "Help us!" But their words got drowned out by the roar of the rain.
Still, they succeeded in making enough noise to catch Clara’s attention. She stood up and moved to the window, but was careful to stay hidden behind the soaked curtains.
Below, she saw a family standing on the roof of a submerged boat. There was a couple with a young teenage boy. They were waving their arms frantically as they called for help, their boat was moments away from sinking. They had no umbrellas, no protection - just drenched clothes clinging to their shivering bodies.
"Do you think the government’s coming?" Steve suddenly asked, his voice tinged with a false hope.
Clara didn’t answer as she watched the family down below sinking slowly into the water. She knew the truth but didn’t dare say it. The government had given up. If not, then why the rescue hadn’t arrived yet? It was just a matter of time before the water level would reach the second floor, and then, there would be no saving her and her husband.
It took barely two minutes before the family of three was gone. The powerful flow of water took them away with it. Clara didn’t even want to think about what kind of end they would meet.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from somewhere. She flinched as she saw a group of men breaking into secomd floor of the corner store. They smashed the glass with rocks, their movements frantic as they waded inside to grab whatever remained.
Moments later, a woman stepped out while clutching a soaked bag of rice to her chest.
"Hey! That’s mine!" one of the men shouted. He lunged at her and she screamed as the bag ripped, spilling the contents into the filthy water.
"Stop it!" Clara hissed under her breath, even though she knew they couldn’t hear her. She turned away from the window while her heart pounded. She knew without even looking that either that man or the woman were about to die.
This was what desperation had turned them into - animals fighting over scraps.
As if everything wasn’t already hard enough for her to take in, Steve wasn’t making things easier for her. He stood abruptly and started pacing back and forth. "We can’t just sit here," he muttered. "We need to get out of this place, maybe this city. There has to be higher ground somewhere."
"And how do you propose we get there?" Clara asked bitterly. "Swim? Walk through that flood with no food, no protection and end up in one of those sinkholes? We won’t make it a mile."
Steve stopped pacing at her words and clenched his fists tightly until his knuckles turned white. "Then what? We stay here and starve?"
Clara didn’t respond. She had no answers.
Without saying anything, she returned to the couch and sat down there while curled up under the warmth of the blanket. Moments later, tears were running down her cheeks as she silently prayed for some sort of miracle to happen.
She heard Steve cursing as he felt frustrated, but she felt tired. There was nothing she could do, or say. She was completely helpless, and this helplessness was killing her more than the hunger.
But she wasn’t the only person feeling helpless at that moment. There were millions of people who shared her feelings in that moment. The future had indeed become unpredictable, but what everyone knew for sure was that if the rescue didn’t arrive soon, a lot of them were about to die.
It was unknown exactly who heard their prayers and screams for help, but on the twentieth day, the rescue finally arrived. It took government twenty long and painful days to come up with a rescue plan, but it finally came.