Before The Flood

Chapter 1

Darkness. that was all I could see. I didn't know where I was going, I just knew it wasn't safe here anymore. I know I have only been walking for a couple hours, but it feels like days passed walking through the endless city.I have no food, no water, no light, and no sense of direction. The purplish/greenish sky painting over the blue that I once remembered. The busy streets now empty. I passed the school that I attended just three days ago. The memories of staring longingly at the clock, waiting for 3:45 to come. Now, it looks like a dump. Half of the building slumped over as if it just gave up after forty years of standing. They have been warning us for years, but everyone told me that it was a hoax, a joke that I shouldn't believe. No one believed them. Why, oh, why did I not believe them! If we just did something about the pollution, this could have been prevented.

"Stop it!" I shouted to myself, "stop beating yourself over it. What's done is done."

I tripped over something, and my face met the ground with a loud, bone-crunching sound. The taste of metal filled my mouth. I looked down at my feet to see what I tripped over. 

A skull.

A singed skull with no body. Panic filled me, I ran. I ran away from the school, past the park I used to fish at, around Enrique's house, and ran out of the city. I looked back, bracing myself to see the wreckage of once a diverse city, and now a landfill. The sight was more than what my small little brain could have imagined. 

Miami was underwater. Only the tops of the tallest buildings could be seen. Trees floating on the top of the water. It was all too much, I had to look away. A lump formed in my throat. I wanted to cry, but my father's words rang in my head. "Men don't cry Toby. Toby, men don't cry,"  So, I swallowed down the lump and walked away, not looking back at my home.

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The events of the last two days replayed through my mind. It was just after dinner, and we were playing Risk. then...

I had to stop myself from thinking about it. It was all too much. The darkness around me seemed to be getting darker,  if that was even possible. I knew night time was coming, and I couldn't just lay in the middle of the road. I stopped and looked at my surroundings. There was a tree, easy enough to climb, and sturdy enough to stay in. I grabbed some rope that was laying on the floor and climbed up to the top of the tree. I tied the rope around my waist and closed my eyes, hoping sleep would come.