The rising tide

I woke up because of a lot of noise coming from everywhere—people screaming, cars honking, birds flying around, and a strange noised crack that made me jump out of bed. I ran to search for my family and neighbors but couldn’t find anyone; I only saw people I had never seen before. So confuse.

It started to rain, and worse I saw the building in my town that holds a lot of water breaking. So, I immediately went to a high building to be safe at the top. Many people did the same. In less than three minutes, the building’s crack was fully open, and the rain didn’t stop so the water was covering everything. 

From the top of the building, we were nervous because we didn't have a boat and the water was almost reaching us, eventually, it did.

I began to swim with the others, looking for another high building to stay safe, but the farther I swam, the less I could see any place to stay, and after a lot of swimming obviously I started to feel tired. There were some things floating, but whenever I found a kid or an old person, I would help them by giving them the object that I was using to float.

I became scared when my legs couldn’t continue and more scared when I arrive to an area and saw hundreds of dead bodies floating. I stopped exactly where I was, exhausted, confused, thoughtful because the water was still rising, and I couldn’t understand how the amount of water could increase so quickly or from where was this water coming. Not knowing what else to do, I just stopped floating to start swimming but under water. As I was sinking deeper, seeing many people still trying to search for help, something caught my attention: a pool with working lights and a pretty light-blue color. At that moment, I forgot about losing air and started to swim faster toward the pool (I know it seems illogical, but continuing upward didn’t seem feasible either).

People who saw me swimming in that direction might have thought I was insane or even trying to end my life, and they might have been right. However, when I arrived at the pool, something I never could have predicted happened—I fell to the bottom of the pool... There was no water inside; it was filled with air... yes, a pool filled with air while the entire town was covered with water, anyways, I could breathe again. 

When I looked up, I saw all the water, people, plants and an elephant above me, but nobody noticed me or looked down. I tried to signal them, but the water became darker, so I just sat there, then I was in calm and falled sleep.

When I opened my eyes, I was back in my own life.

Thanks for reading, please let me know anything on the comments.

Read me soon!

Tania Yudith Martínez