The Flood

It's Noah all over again

Sayaka opens the door to be met with the driving rain that ceaselessly falls on the city since almost 4 months ago. She bathes in the pale green light thrown by a tired neon above the door. The sheet of metal stuck in the roof keep her dry for now. In front of her, the impenetrable wall of water hides the outside world from her. It has been months since the last ray of sunlight. There hasn't been one since the first drizzle.

It began a Sunday. Ironic, for the name, but fitting for a biblical-scale disaster to happen on the Lord's day. At first, it was but a light rain, expected and common at this time of the year. It was supposed to last a whole afternoon, preventing the kids from playing in the city's run down terrains.

The rain continued on for the night. And for the next day. And for the next week. And for the next months. The light rain turned into a shower, then into a storm. At first, people blamed the meteorologists. Of course, they are the first ones to blame for the whims of the weather. But it soon became clear that something was wrong. Obvious when the city's drain systems were saturated and water began to pour on the streets.

Early victims

The first to be hit were paradoxically both the poorer and richer. The first lived close to the ground, sometimes on the streets or inside basements. They were the first to be displaced. The lucky ones moved higher, finding refuge in uninhabited flats or exposed roofs. The others tried their chances floating on the water or hiding in the hermetically closed subway, with varying degrees of success.

As for the ones who never traveled by anything but their car or private drivers, they suddenly became stranded high in their ivory towers, or forced to mingle with the people they despised so much, using the underground.

Insubmersible subway

The underground subway is the only structure below the ground to resist the flood. All access at street levels have been walled and the interior structure reinforced to sustain the constantly increasing pressure.

Thanks to direct access in multiple buildings including residential ones, it connects a lot of places and the subway is still running, at least some lines. A new form of society has appeared in the passages, planting tents on platforms, selling artificially-grown fruits and vegetables next to a dead vending machine, sometimes even in the tunnels of shut-down lines.

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What now?

The water level is still rising, it doesn't seem like the rain is going to stop anytime soon. Each week, new people have to leave their homes to ascend ever higher or get stuck in the tunnels. With each floor the water conquers, the city shakes and crumbles. The wealthy now live in the highest buildings, contemplating their drowning ship, a glass of wine in hand.

Will it stop before it swallow the whole world? People have long stopped fighting. When they look toward the sky, it is for praying or cursing. What use would anything else be? The weather labs have drowned already anyway.