I've been Challenged Once, Given Coffee Twice

Hurricane

Hurricane

The rain poured down heavily making a deafening clacking sound outside the car. It was almost impossible to see the road ahead us. The raging gusts bended the trees ferociously and the breaking feeble or exposed branches hit the car making me jump on my seat. The falling leaves were glued to the crystal by the rain drops and only the rapid movement of the wipers cleared the pane for a few seconds. On the car radio the Emergency Alert System sounded with its shrieking advisory noise first and then alerted of the terrible weather conditions due to hurricane María and its pass over the island.

"Flash flood warning effect until 11:00 pm... Maximum sustained winds registered at the Luis Muñoz Marin Airport station was of seventy miles per hour and gusts of eighty. Waves of twenty-two feet are expected to rise as the eye of the hurricane approaches to the east of the island and the insular municipalities of Vieques and Culebra." The meteorology man gave the message first in Spanish and then in English in a thick accent.

I looked at my husband as he drove, pulling himself closer to the windshield to have a better sight of the road. The torrential rain and the darkness of the night made the compulsory trip a nightmare. I held both my breath and my tears when I heard the governor speaking to the citizens about the dangerous situation hurricane María represented to the island. "I advice... Listen, I truly recommend the Puerto Ricans to stay alert if you think is too late to evacuate your residencies. If you live in an area prone to floods or mud slides take the correspondent precautions. Please, I beg you, stay at home with your family. Do not venture to go outside even if you think it's necessary. The atmospherical conditions will deteriorate within the next hours. The eye of María is already a few nautical miles from the east coast of the island..."

The governor kept talking and I turned to look over my little daughter Sophia, cuddled in her car seat, sweating profusely because of the high temperature. I felt scared, desperate, anxious. My little baby had convulsed some minutes ago. Her eyes went blank and all her body shivered violently because of a persistent fever of a hundred degrees. We needed to get to the hospital right away. It was only a thirty minute drive in normal conditions, but the torrential rain, the scarce visibility and the slippery pavement made it very difficult to advance at a higher speed.

"I think we could wait until tomorrow, Alejandra. I'm regretting this decision of taking out Sophia to the hospital in this storm. Some Advil would remedy the fever until the hurricane had passed." My husband told me. Marcos didn't sound mad, yet his broken voice denoted his fear and uncertainty.

I said nothing. Maybe he was right. But I was too desperate to think clearly when the emergency system collapsed and I couldn't communicate with the ambulance. My husband stiffened every time a branch flew and hit the car. Then I looked back to Sophia, sleeping... I touched her every other minute to make sure she was breathing.
I tried to remain in calm. The green road sign thrown on the road read 'Camino Viejo'.

"Just a few more miles Marcos and we will be there... We will make it." I spoke more to myself than to my husband. I really wanted to believe that. Believing gave me some comfort.

"This rain is heavy and the winds are too strong Alejandra. I only hope the bridge is still there. You know how that river floods spilling over the road sometimes. Pray it's not over the bridge or it will be impossible to cross."

I did exactly what Marcos said and began to pray. We needed to get to the hospital. Little Sophia was very ill and we will be a lot safer inside the clinic. All of a sudden something huge passed like flying in front of us. "What was that Marcos!" I cried.

"I think it was a zinc roofing sheet. This is getting nasty Alejandra! We should return home! Look at the trees along the road. They will fall down at any moment. Winds are increasing in speed tremendously!" Marcos was incredibly affected... And so was I.

"We will make it Marcos. We will take little Sophia to the hospital! It's only a few more minutes."

"Wait! Where's the car that was ahead of us? I saw the rear red lights a second ago and it seemed that it has just disappeared."

"Watch out Marcos!" I screamed.

He immediately hit the breaks. The road in front was gone! The car that was a minute ago ahead of us was carried away by the raging waters of the flooded river. The front lights of the floating and swirling car above the water surface were still on illuminating the impressive crater bore on the pavement by the violent currents of an overflowed river. The bridge had been tore off its basements and huge pillars and literally had disappeared. Both Marcos and I were astonished, almost left in a catatonic state.

"We will go back!" Marcos said. "This has been a terrible mistake!"

Immediately he put the car in reverse. Suddenly it was heard a loud 'boom!' and the car shook brutally. We both reacted immediately and turned to look to the front. A huge tree had fallen right in front of the car. A few inches to its left and it would had crashed us.

"Take us home Marcos! I want to be home!" I cried thinking that maybe it was too late for us. I feared for my daughter. Now she was not only ill, but exposed to the most extreme and dreadful atmospheric Titan: a hurricane.

I began waving my hands like a crazy woman and jumped on my seat. All I wanted to do was to grab little Sophia in my arms and hug her tight. I was really scared.

The car retroceded over the road covered with rocks and branches, bumping and tripping on its way. In the distance there were some lights that went off and on.. off and on. The white beams illuminated to the right and then to the left... On and off, right and left. And the lights approached getting bigger. It was when we could distinguish that the lights came from a car coming our way out of control spinning on the road. It was a cargo van that spun and swirled around. Before we could blink an eye it crashed against us. Our car shook with violence again. The van swept along with us dragging the vehicle forward sliding over the wet pavement a few meters.

Then it was another 'boom'! We stopped with the humongous tree that had fallen a minute before. We ended stuck between the tree and the van. We were not able to move.

"It's all my fault! It's all my fault!" I cried out loud.

"Calm down, please Alejandra. We must find the way to get out of this car. Try to use your cellular. See if the system is restored." Marcos insisted.

I bended down to grab my purse when I noticed there was water on the car's floor.

"Marcos! Water is getting inside the car!"

"What?"

"Look!"

Marcos illuminated my feet with a little flashlight in his keychain. The was water in fact. He said nothing. That scared me the most. My husband was smart, always positive and brave... He had always something to say. Not this time.

Tears ran down my face. I looked to the back seat. Sophia was still sleeping, now closer to death than she was before. I touched her face. Fever was gone.

The water level inside the car was increasing. Marcos was trying to open the door. He pushed and pushed but it was impossible. His door was blocked by part of the fallen tree on the road and if I tried to open mine, the whole car could be flooded inside. Then he tried to break the window but he couldn't.

"I'm sorry." I told him.

The water was up to my knees. I instinctively took out Sophia from the car seat and hugged her. Marcos hugged us. We cried and closed our eyes.

"I love you." Marcos told me.

"Hey! Sir! Cover your eyes! We will break the crystal to take you out!" A man dressed in a fluorescent waterproof outfit said.

They've come to rescue us. I was going to take my Sophia to the hospital that night.

Free theme short story created for the Short Story Contest hosted by @Nyhterides. Entry #1. 1.5k words. Hope you like it! January 8, 2012.