Deus Ex Machina: Dusk.

Dawn: Prologue

Deus Ex Machina: Dusk

(Prologue)

By Mario Paolo Macariola

‘Considering that seven days ago, it only rained for six hours and it hasn’t rained eversince, that when the rain stopped then, there were only small puddles on the streets and not the continuously rising waters despite the recent dry weather. i tell you, it is the hand of God at work here.’

The words of the T.V. Evangelist ran inside Feb’s mind as he combed his hair with his fingers. He sat up on the bed and leaned forward unto the windowpane, letting his right hand rest on the impression on the mattress that was still warm from his own body. He then looked into the window of his second floor bedroom where the sun’s pale trickled inwards like fragile yellow stalks that somehow separated themselves from the reflected light of the flood submerged streets below. The glow created an eerie jaundice that stuck on the walls of his room. He saw that the water was now only two feet below his window which at present also served as the house’s main entrance. This fact troubled him, because he knew that if the waters continue to rise at this rate, he’d be sleeping on the roof a week from now.

From where he was sitting, the village looked like a tub with misplaced models of red-brick houses.

‘It hasn’t been raining for a week but the goddamn place still looks like waterworld’      he thought disgustedly, shaking his head.

He picked up his cellphone to check for reception, there was a single bar of it, while its battery was still full from charging the night before at a nearby mall. It was already 7:45, and so he picked up his bathrobe where it hung behind the door and went on to take a quick bath. After dressing up and eating breakfast, he opened the window and scanned the submerged streets for an empty rentable motorboat, he thought about the changes that occurred since the waters rose from last week’s tiny puddles to this day’s oceanlike view. He muttered a curse under his breath remembering the many theories that arose from this mysterious event.

Three days ago, before the water reached the electric sockets and shorted out the electric supply, he heard the T.V. evangelist preach about the end days as he switched channels to find anything that could explain the strange flooding that plagued his home. All over the news were baffled scientists who aired their grievances over now being able to make any plausible guess on how did it flood like this when the nearest ocean was miles away-- That the only body of water near the village was a drying rivulet which by no means could even drown a cat.

‘Fucking hand of God’    he cursed loudly, momentarily closing his eyes as he breathed heavily. Feb saw across the street an empty yellow motorboat and he whistled at the driver. The driver steered the boat towards Feb’s window with a chugging sound.

‘I need a ride’ Feb shouted at the driver as the boat halted directly under his window. Its engine was still rumbling loudly.

He thought that the boat looked like a ray of sunshine from an old cartoon.

‘Well that’s what you called me for right?’      the driver shouted sarcastically, his face spread out in a wide grin.

‘Whatever’      Feb said to the driver, he then climbed out of his room and unto the boat.

The motorboat rocked as his feet landed with a thud near the hull.

‘Hey watch it! Man, you’re gonna capsize the damn boat, why don’t you use a rope to climb down anyway?’     the driver said rapidly with a poisonous glare at Feb who was holding the sides of the boat as he tried to sit down.

‘Damn kids stole it yesterday, I had to dive and swim in the shitty flood just to get inside the house’       Feb stated, hissing every word.