Realistic or Modern Catastrophic Failure (closed)

[glitch.six]

LittleAndClumsy
Michael hated Florida. Mosquito hell in summer, sinkholes, roaches – he could go on for days, listing everything he hated in Miami and missed from Seattle. Oh, and apparently the fact that a category-5 hurricane can tear a hole through your city.

But his dad was here, so he had to be here as well.

Apparently, the corporation his father worked for required an on-site server technician. The job paid well – he and his father lived in comfort, and he didn’t have many worries outside of school and dealing with whatever fresh hell Keirra and company had cooked up.

On the bright side, he wouldn’t have to deal with that anytime soon.

But that was because he was staring at three feet of water in the living room.

And his dad was nowhere to be found.

He’d gone to bed last night, knowing Hurricane Arlene would slam the coastline (where he lived), but even so, he’d heard nothing from his father about evacuation (which anyone in their right mind should be doing!) He’d gone to bed just hoping the boarding on the window they’d set up would hold.

“What a waste of time.” He muttered, sloshing his way across the room.

 

[LittleAndClumsy]

Out of all the times her family had simply shrugged off storms, this was the worst of it - especially given that this time it wasn't just a storm, it was a hurricane. Her parents had ceased to worry about what Hurricane Arlene would do to the city, to their home. When everyone else was evacuating, they decided to stay behind - a horrible mistake. Everyone that she could depend on had taken off by the time the decision had been made and so she was left behind. It had been hard for her to force herself to go to sleep knowing that there was a natural disaster preparing to wreck Miami.

In the middle of the night it hit and she was lucky enough to still be awake when it did. With her room being on the upper floor she was okay for the most part, other than the fact that when she went to check on her parents they were nowhere to be found and the bottom of the house was flooded. Electricity was out and so she spent her time sitting in her bed in the dark, just hoping that it was all a bad dream. When the first rays of the morning light came through her shutters she was bitterly reminded that it hadn't been a dream, that Hurricane Arlene had not only damaged her home but her family as well.

She trudged her way downstairs, glad to see that most of the flood water was gone though there was significant damage to the house. "No, no, no." Keirra muttered, starting to walk through her flooded living room before she realized that she didn't know what she was or wasn't going to find. There was a car lodged into the wall of her living room and the living room window was acting as if it was a little waterfall, allowing water to flow into the house. "Can't stay here. Have to find them." It was almost as if she were talking to someone else in this moment of panic. If she didn't force herself to move forward she knew she wouldn't leave the house and what she needed to do now was find help.

It didn't take long for Keirra to gather what little supplies she could into her school backpack, grabbing a change of clothes, a few water bottles and the little bit of canned goods her family kept. She made her way out of the window attached to her bedroom, seating herself on the roof of her house and looking down to the flooded streets. Debris was floating down what used to be an empty street, brown water being littered with over-turned cars, broken trees, and what looked to be pieces of buildings and a body. A body. Her eyes widened at the sight of the over turned human body floating with the debris, something that reminded her just how bad the situation was. And even worse she didn't know if it was someone she knew. Just be the crazy cat lady. Or the creepy old guy. Don't be mom or dad.

 

[glitch.six]

Michael spent a lot of time, perhaps too much time, shifting everything up high above the flood line. His books had survived because they were upstairs, but his gaming systems were dangerously close. So he waded through, trying not to think about whatever else might be in the water. His phone had remained silent, even though he'd been awake for an hour now. Maybe, his father was -

He dropped the box of electronics on the kitchen counter, arms sore. "Can't do anything about that.." he muttered, sloshing his way to the stairs. He just wanted to focus on getting everything in order. With flooding like this, the National Guard must have been activated, so all he to do was wait. He slowly played through what the reaction probably was. Governor'd probably meet up with FEMA, give a speech, and America would ooh and aah at broken Miami till the next episode of Big Brother queued up or whatever.

Michael changed into a dry set of clothes, then clambered through his bedroom window, standing on the roof. It was still early. Early, and eerily silent. The birds were still sheltering, and nobody had A sickly yellow sky roiled above - he'd only seen a sky like that once before, on his 10th birthday, right after a massive thunderstorm tore through Indianapolis.

Funny.

Back then, he thought the world was ending.

 

[LittleAndClumsy]

"All you have to do is wait, just a little longer. Someone will be by soon enough." Keirra had said this phrase many times in the last hour and she frowned as she realized that she sounded almost like a robot. To her, the world was over - her parents were MIA, she was alone, and she wasn't sure which was worse. Sure, she had watched tons and tons of movies about natural disasters and always had pondered the what if's but now that it was reality Keirra was clueless on what to do. What had happened in the night was the stuff of dreams, no one would have ever expected it to happen to them. And here she was, stuck on the roof of her home looking like a lost puppy.

Finally after hours of waiting she decided that there was something to be done, she had to find a safer place. Her house wasn't in the best of shape and while the streets were certainly flooded there was plenty of cars in the street to use as leverage. Surely a search and rescue team would be coming to look for survivors soon, but when? "You can do it, you can do this. Hang in there." Keirra told herself, hoping that these self-talks would give her the steel backbone she needed in order to leave the roof of her home. But as she moved to the edge of her roof and started to swing a leg over the ledge she froze. "Shit." Keirra muttered, pulling herself back onto the roof of her house with ease.

Where would she go? Where would the search and rescue teams go first? Her eyes wandered to the body that floated in front of her house, the deceased person haunting her and suggesting that she was next. "Out of all the times to be a big scaredy cat, now is not the time." Keirra lectured herself, though her attempts to talk herself off of the roof were doing her no good, she wouldn't be budging any time soon, not without good reason.

(( I'm so sorry! I forgot to watch the thread and so I didn't know you had posted. I fixed it though. ))

 

[glitch.six]

The sky proved to be... boring. Very much so. Once he had finally succeeded in putting the worst case scenario out of his head, he realized it was much like any time his dad was gone, except the ground was murky water he'd rather not touch. Once the sense of imminent doom was removed, it felt almost... tranquil. Let it to him to be most likely the only one almost entirely calm during one of the most destructive hurricane of the decade. But Dad might - But one way or another, he'd need to get away, and that meant quitting the whole skywatching thing and getting into that water no matter how it looked. So he went back inside, rummaged up a few essential things - whatever food and water had been above the water line. His phone had been on the coffee table, which was now entirely submerged.

"Well, at least it wasn't a Note 7 - I'd probably be fried by now," he muttered under his breath.

It took a few moments of straining effort to force the door open - debris had collected out in front, and water did nothing to help against inertia - but right afterwards he was on the front yard, which was, of course, submerged. His lip curled up alomst instinctively as the water rose to his waist, the cold seeping into his flesh little by little. He thought of sinkholes, the water dissolving the rock, the ground yawning into a chasm -

"NOPE! No thank you! Let's just go!" he yelled, instantly clapping his mouth shut - but it seemed the only things he had disturbed were the birds. He sloshed his way down the road, intending to find more people.

An unknown amount of time later - the sun had moved considerably, so it must've been a few hours - he found his first dead body. He had slipped, crashing into the water, and when he came up, it was right there. He yelped and fell back down again, splashing violently.

That could've been me. It still could be me...

 

[LittleAndClumsy]

"You're okay, it's going to be okay." Keirra spoke, looking up at the sky in hopes of finding a reason to leave the roof that she had been sitting on all morning. The sky was giving no warnings of anything that was due to happen, in fact, everything seemed to be calm. At least there was that positive note - that so far, there didn't seem to be a chance of things getting any worse than they already were. After Hurricane Arlene, this city needed a break, it needed time to heal from the damages inflicted upon it. There was hardly a city left to heal.

Despite knowing that she needed to move she stayed on the roof of her home for hours, the sun shining down on her and reminding her that maybe it was a good idea to grab sunscreen. Her skin had now turned a light shade of pink, the beginning stages of a sunburn starting to form on her fair skin. It wouldn't be very bad, she would most likely tan but that didn't mean she would enjoy having a sunburn no matter how mild it was.

She was pulled out of her stupor by the sound of splashing and the very sound of horror. Immediately she moved to the edge of her roof, looking down to see what the commotion was and who her ally in this disaster would be. At first she saw nothing, another body being next to the body that had been floating next to her house all morning until finally the person surfaced again. The face looked familiar, even amid the drenched hair and the look of pure horror on his face. Michael. "You know, you scream like a little girl!" Keirra called out, smirking as she looked down at him.

Though there was considerable differences between them already, she had been sitting up on her roof all morning waiting for a knight in shining armor to come and save her and Michael had taken the initiative to go and find help. Why in the world was she mocking him? He was already a lot braver than she was. "Wait for me! I want to come with you!" Keirra yelled, moving to the edge of her roof and pausing as she looked down into the murky water. There was a car that she could probably reach if she lowered herself off of the edge of the roof - all she had to do was reach it.

Slowly she moved herself over the edge of her roof, her hands clinging to the gutter as she lowered herself towards the car. As soon as one of her feet touched the smooth roof of one of the cars near her house she released the gutter only to lose her footing and fall backwards into the murky water. A short lived scream was heard from her as she landed in the water, the female sputtering as she came back up with her hair around her face. "EWWW!" She screeched, standing up and frowning as the water surrounded her waist.

 

[glitch.six]

Michael resurfaced with another massive splash, shoving the corpse as hard as he could away from him and spitting like an angry alley cat. It spun away, bobbing aimlessly. Thankfully, though, it was facing away from him. He didn't want to identify the poor sap anyway. Too thin to be Dad, and he didn't need to empathize with it, not now of all times. Even so, he stared dumbly at the cadaver until a someone's shrill voice made him almost slip and go under again.

Keirra. Of course.

Wait for me? I want to come with you?

Give me a break, he almost snarled out loud. Over the course of his junior year, she'd systematically cut away almost every friend he had. Far be it for him to claim he was that popular in the first place, but occupying a middle ground on the social ladder is much more preferable to having her circle of friends spreading rumors around.

But here he was, alone, with no other human being in sight besides her. If he wanted to survive, he'd do better teaming up, even if he'd rather lug the dead body along instead. Maybe she knew something he didn't. Maybe...

His thoughtful reverie was snapped like a dry twig when he heard her screech in disgust as she most likely hit the water. He didn't need her to survive, he told himself, willing it to be true. And not without a lot of effort, he turned away.

"Get on by yourself, why don't you? I have enough problems right now."

 

[LittleAndClumsy]

It was taking a lot of nerve not to go back up onto the roof as she found herself standing waist deep in the murky water, in fact, she now missed being stranded on the roof of her home. At least she wasn't in some nasty water ruining her clothing and as she looked up to the roof of her home she realized something important that made her blood run cold - her supplies, she'd forgotten them. Before she could even say anything else Michael had uttered a reply that made the day even worse and she turned to watch as he turned away from her.

"I know sorry isn't going to cut it right now, but I am sorry and I need your help. Please!" Keirra cried, following after him and grimacing as she walked by the dead body that was floating in the water. She dared to take a glimpse, trying to check and see who it was but thankfully it didn't seem to be anybody she was hoping to find alive. It seemed to be just by appearances, Mr. Reynolds from down the street but she wasn't about to flip the body over to be sure.

Instead she continued to trudge along after Michael in hopes that if she followed him around all day that he would lead her to safety. "Where are we going? What's your plan?" Keirra questioned as she watched his back with a pout for him daring to tell her no. No one ever used that word with her. No one. If she didn't need his help she probably would have shoved him into the water or something but luckily for him she needed him.

 

[glitch.six]

Michael kept his mouth tightly shut as he waded down the street, noting the sinking sun. He'd wasted a lot of time up salvaging, and he'd only been out for a few hours. It was time to consider that he wouldn't find people out here. He'd have to double back, maybe. A dozen contingencies popped up in his head - if he could just get his bearings, maybe he could find the high school. Or maybe it was underwater. Of course, it'd be too easy for him figure out where he was relative to the school, wouldn't it? And he had to bring Keirra, because apparently the 'go away' sentiment hadn't been fully caught onto.

Although, he supposed he was glad he'd found someone out in the flooded suburb. It might've been a person he was not on the best - well, fine, the absolute worst terms with, but humans love being near other humans, and despite his previous attempts to isolate himself, he seemed no different. So he decided to not unleash a Swann-patented expletive-laden tirade, simply staying silent.

A part of him was rather happy she hadn't actually left - this was one situation he didn't want to be alone in - but really, he wasn't about to just let two years worth of bad blood lie. He glanced over his shoulder. She'd been in almost the same position he'd been. Probably was wondering where her parents were, whether they were even still breathing. Just like him.

"Sympathy for the devil, huh." he muttered.

 

[LittleAndClumsy]

There were two things that Keirra hated; the silent treatment and being ignored. Right now, Michael was happy to give her both of those things, clearly giving her the cold shoulder as he walked ahead. While her presence certainly wasn't welcome, that wasn't going to stop her from following him. In fact, that gave her more incentive to follow him as now it was clear that he wasn't going to stop her. They needed each other whether they wanted to admit it or not. While she was tempted to bother him about the silent treatment she decided that for now, it was best to keep her mouth shut.

While they were walking, she found herself looking around at the extent of the damages, taking in everything with wide eyes. What used to be her city, the one place that she dreaded now was barely recognizable. There were a few times when she'd stop to try and find out where they were. No luck. Nothing looked the same, there were no distinguishable landmarks. And worst of all, Michael wasn't going to take the time to tell her where they were going.

They had been walking for hours and the brunette was aware that she was cold and hungry, two feelings that she had been trying to ignore all day. The sun was going down now, too. "Where are we going? We need to find a place to stop and rest. I'm sure my feet look like raisins now." Well, rather everything from the waist down was likely to look like a raisin. "We need to stop. We should call it a night, we've been walking all day." She had kept silent all day, something that was certainly new for her and she was regretting it as her voice sounded unfamiliar to her when she did decide to speak.

 

[glitch.six]

Michael banged on the front door. At Keirra's request, they had stopped, and he'd picked a house at random. Which front door, or more importantly, whose, wasn't really on his mind then. There was a red mailbox in front, and while he felt like that was some kind of omen, he was more worried about how the sunlight was quickly leaking from the sky, leaving only a purple cloak of twilight. Keirra was right for a change. The water was still warm, having taken in a day's worth of summer sun, but sooner or later, they - he'd need to rest, and it sure as hell wasn't gonna be in the water.

"HELLO?!" he shouted into the door, trying to ignore the mocking echoes of his voice the reverberated around the quietly swishing floodwaters.

No answer.

Michael turned around, raising an eyebrow at his silent companion. "How about we split up? You can check the houses on the other end, I'll try and get to the door on this side of the street?" Why oh why was he being so timid, he thought. He didn't need to be afraid, she wasn't anything without her gossipmongers. So why the hell did he still feel so damn defensive?

 

[LittleAndClumsy]

Out of everything that she had expected to hear from Michael concerning her request to stop, she wasn't expecting him to make his way through a flooded yard and up onto the porch. They were stopping - he had actually heeded her advice and had listened to her and now they were presumably stopping for the night. Even if he wouldn't readily admit it, they both needed the rest and well, neither of them had eaten anything today. If she wouldn't have forgotten her bag of supplies on her roof, they could have been walking and eating but she had forgotten and they had wanted to cover as much ground as possible. Michael began to bang on a door and while he was trying to figure out if anyone was home, Keirra was checking their surroundings for any sign of life. Nothing.

Still no answer from anyone within the house though she found herself looking at Michael as he resorted to yelling. "I don't think anyone's home and I don't think your yelling will make them come back. Can it." She snapped, moving a hand to rub at her ear. His next statement or rather, his next idea regarding what to do made her blood run cold and she immediately began to shake her head stubbornly. "There's no way I'm going over there alone! We aren't splitting up. Not now, not ever." It was a heat of the moment statement that she was already regretting, of course they would split up eventually. Once she could find someone else to depend on or once they got to safety, she would happily kick him to the curb. But for now, she needed him.

"Why can't we just take this house? Nobody's home - they won't notice." Keirra added, looking between him and the door that was keeping them outside. After all, they had left the house to survive the storm, surely it could survive a few survivors.

 

[glitch.six]

"Oh, you can it, Keirra." Michael retorted, banging a few more times just to spite her. Of course, she didn't seem to like his alternate idea, either. Not now, not ever, huh? Excuse him for being a incorrigible cynic, but he didn't have any doubt he'd be discarded like a spent can of soda when she found... whoever they needed to find. FEMA. National Guard, something.

Michael folded his arms and planted his feet, ready for a fight. "One - more ground can be covered by looking separately, so if you want to have someplace dry to sit down before nightfall, you'll follow my plan. Two - yes, yes we are, I can't wait to be rid of you, and you know you're thinking the same thing - " He whirled around, sending mild waves through the water - "And three - do you even know how hard it actually is to break down a door?"

He sighed. "Lemme show you." If the deadbolt was still in place, he'd probably dislocate his arm or something when he hit it. But he was trying to prove a point, so anything was worth putting Keirra in her place. He rammed his shoulder into the spot where the lock met the doorframe, expecting to be stopped dead, or worse, bounce.

But the door gave way, snapping like balsa wood, sending Michael careening downward alongside a new rush of water.

Whoever lives here, I am really, really sorry.

 

[LittleAndClumsy]

As soon as he made the move to silence her, insisting that this time she can it, Keirra glared at him and turned her nose up in the air. Who did he think he was?! No one shushed her! No one! Her attention was turned back to the sound of him banging on the door repeatedly, another vicious glare being sent his way. "I swear if you don't stop banging on that damned door, the next thing that's going to be banged against it is your head!" She seethed, having the full intention of slamming his face into the door. She would do it, definitely. But luckily for him, he was making some pretty valid points.

"We can do that tomorrow. Its getting dark and right now, we need some time out of the water. We've been in it all day. For now, we can just go into this house." She spoke, a new sense of pain striking her unexpectedly as he insisted that once he got the chance, he was dropping her. Of course, she had been thinking the same thing but to hear it from someone else hurt. It wasn't often that anyone spoke out against her so harshly, she definitely wasn't used to hearing such things but then again, look who she was talking to. After a disagreement, they had started to tear each other apart.

Now it was time for him to demonstrate how manly he was and this was a display she wasn't expecting from him, either. "Wait!" She insisted, realizing that if the door didn't go down on the first hit that he could get hurt. They definitely didn't need that to happen, it would only slow them down. Luckily for him, the door gave in and he went into the water inside, causing her to laugh. "Shit, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Keirra questioned after a couple of minutes of uncontrollable laughter, moving to help him up out of the water.

 

[glitch.six]

A new wave of water folded in as Michael rose, spitting muddy water. He ignored Keirra's hand, instead scanning their surroundings. "Leave me alone, I'm perfectly capable of standing on my own two feet." The house was very average, very middle class. He stood up fully, wading into what seemed to be a hall. The water here was thin, like a film that covered everything. The second floor would be dry, then. He turned to her.

"Here, you can, uh, check upstairs, make sure no animals moved in." He muttered, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I'm going to check for some food." Michael turned away, looking for a kitchen.

He wondered where these people had gone - whether Keirra'd find their corpses in upstairs. If she did, he'd probably hear the scream from downstairs. Haha...ha. Somehow, black humor had lost its allure.

Well, he could always go and make fun of Keirra. That never got old.

 

[LittleAndClumsy]

A mild glare was directed at Michael as he ignored her attempt to help him, the male simply rising on his own and insisting that he didn't need her help. "Are you really so sure about that? Because at this rate, I'm sure a toddler has better balance than you." Keirra huffed, feeling a bit bothered that he had avoided her hand as if she would infect him with some sort of disease. She was trying to make this work, she was trying to come to grips with the fact that they needed each other and he certainly wasn't making it easy on her. After all, his reaction to her offer for help worried her.

In fact, she grew tense as he told her to go check upstairs to see if there were any animals. "You're going to make a girl check for wild animals? That's low. I always knew you were a wimp." She snapped, though she was thankful for the chance to be out of the water. Her clothes were now weighing her down, she was soaked from the waist down and she needed the chance to start drying off. Without much thought she started towards the stairs that would lead her to the second floor, the woman giving a sigh of relief as she stepped onto carpeted stairs. Had they been wood she would have risked falling and getting hurt.

As she got upstairs she was glad to hear silence, even if it had been the mood of the day, everything being silent, she was grateful that it still seemed to be that way. The first room to be checked was a closet directly to her left at the top of the stairs. Slowly she pulled the door open, being thankful that nothing had jumped out at her. However, as she pushed open a door to her right a cat came running out, hissing at her as it passed. A shrill scream sounded from the girl as she jumped backwards, her back slamming into a door.

She hadn't even thought to read the note on the door; 'If you find Sakari, beware. She's a little skittish of new people. She won't hurt you though. Please take care of her. If you can, bring her to Camp Truth - that's where we are. Sincerely, the Wilson family.' This made Keirra feel like a fool, her eyes lingering on the bottom of the stairs. "I'm okay! It was just a cat! I guess the owners couldn't take her but they want to see her again, they said something about a Camp Truth?" Keirra yelled down, being aware of the possibility that Michael wouldn't hear her. But she was sure that he would have approached the stairs by now to check on her.

Slowly she turned to check the next bedroom, this door being closed as well. This time she was smart enough to check for a note. Nothing. She pushed this door open, finding herself entering another girl's room. Seemingly her age. She paused, looking behind her and then eye-balling the closet. You need clothes, Kei. You're soaked. They won't mind, you're bringing them their cat. She told herself, making her way towards the closet and cursing herself with every step. This felt wrong but she needed supplies, she needed new clothing. Her own clothing was soiled and she was thankful for the chance to wear something else.

The girl kept her back to the open bedroom door as she observed the clothing in the closet, debating on what to wear for the night. She was cold from spending the day in the water though she knew that tomorrow she was likely to be in the sun again.