The Surface, page 14
Joule’s heart sank. The boats had seemed like such a good idea—an expensive one, but a good one. She still thought they would use the boats, but she was no longer confident she wouldn’t get cracked upside the head from a fellow dorm resident trying to steal her route to safety. She no longer harbored an idyllic dream of putting the boat in the water and pushing off. Even the water itself presented far more problems than she’d foreseen.
The group sat in a circle, ate some of the snacks, and worked on the “boat problem” as Marcus called it. Joule now felt the boats had turned out to be nothing but problems, but she tried to keep her disappointment out of her comments.
“There are emergency alerts going off,” Gabby added hopefully. “They will send rescue teams when they can.”
Everyone offered small nods at the slim hope. Gabby wasn’t wrong, but the current orders had been “Get to the highest point, stay dry, and wait.” Help might be coming, but none was coming yet. The crews couldn’t get out in the rain. Joule didn’t say that. None of them did.
She also knew that the crews would first save the people who were sitting on the roofs of the one- and two-story houses. They’d rescue the people clinging to the tops of trees—not the ones in the three-story building. Not first. Probably not even second.
But she didn’t say that, either.
The group talked the problem to death, until they gave up and decided it was time to get to sleep. The water was rising faster and despite all the issues, the boats were likely going to be their only hope. They needed to be rested.
Cage tucked his wooden desk chair under the door handle and Joule caught the look in his eye. This was reminiscent of last year, even though it wasn’t the same at all. The very sight of the chair jammed against a door gave her anxiety, but she laid down on her slim, designated strip of mattress and pulled a blanket up under her chin.
They’d set up alarms, so that someone was up every hour to look out the window, check the water level, and look for new issues or use a flashlight to flag any arriving help.
Three hours later, when Joule’s buzzer went off, she quietly peeled herself out of the bed. Slowly, so as not to wake anyone, she stood up and went to the window.
The air outside had grown darker. She had to focus one of the high-end LED flashlights out the window with her hand cupped around it to see anything.
The water was already several feet higher.
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Cage was awake before his alarm went off. Standing straight up from his spot where he’d curled up on the floor, he wondered if he’d even slept at all. He must have. He didn't remember the others getting up and checking at the window.
It was four a.m. now. Since no one had told him to wake up, that meant none of them had been too alarmed by the water level. As he stood peering out the window, flashlight in hand, he hoped the reflection didn't wake his cadre of roommates.
But once he caught the light reflecting off the dark surface of the water, it didn't matter. Either the water had been much lower an hour ago, or whoever was supposed to do the last check had missed their alarm. It didn’t matter how it had happened.
The water was past the point they’d agreed on. Sleeping was over.
Aiming the flashlight beam around the room, he hoped that would start to wake his friends up. It was Joule who popped up first. Not surprising.
She only asked, “Is it too high?”
He nodded. They’d made their plans, gathered their tools and food and stuffed it into their backpacks. They had bottled water and drinks, plus all their food, a screwdriver, pliers that Marcus had found, rope, and one big bowl.
Gabby had surreptitiously scrounged through the communal room on the floor and found it, thinking they might use it to collect rainwater. Surely, they could drink what came from the sky, if they caught it as it fell. There was no way anyone would drink the water that was swirling around the building.
Max popped up next, making eye contact with Joule first. She offered him a nod and slowly he uncurled himself before reaching up and shaking one of Gabby's shoulders. She, too, rolled awake. One by one, they moved into action.
They'd made their plans last night. They would find out now if it worked.
The chair remained wedged under the door, where Cage had shoved it earlier. Once again, the sight of it tightened his chest. The fact that he had to lock out his fellow residents was concerning, but they hadn't figured out another way to do this. If they started a riot, it was possible no one would survive.
Having slept in their clothes, all seven of them stood up, fully dressed and ready to go.
He leaned over and grabbed the oars where they had already been set aside. Putting them on the desk near the window, he watched as the group silently began pulling the boats from the box. Gabby found the switches and turned on the motors. Slowly, the vessels began to puff up with air. Cage took a little more solace in the fact that they started looking sturdier as more air went into them.
Max and Marcus were ignoring the boats, standing at the window. They'd opened the bottom sash, pushing it all the way up as they eyeballed the window’s dimensions. Cage stepped back as the cold air rolled in and watched from a distance as his friends wrapped their fingers around the sash. They pulled and tugged on it until it cracked loudly. By breaking the metal runners holding it in place, they’d managed to pull it free.
However, that didn't help unless they could get out the upper pane that still blocked half the window. Max quickly pushed at the screen, popping it outward and watching as it fell into the water below. Cage didn’t look. He didn’t want to see what might leap up to grab at it.
The temperature in the room dropped quickly, and Cage realized they’d all failed to consider the cold. Turning from where he was organizing supplies on the beds, he opened his dresser and pulled on a second sweatshirt before he began handing out his extras. They were going to be wet and cold. Hypothermia was going to become a problem.
Another cracking noise behind him made him turn and watch as Marcus and Max now took small pliers to the window frame. They tugged and twisted pieces until they snapped a piece of the metal molding. Eventually, they managed to remove enough to bust the last pane free. Marcus grinned as he set the window aside. They’d doubled the size of the opening.
Cage’s position was as director, and he was doing his best to watch everything. He turned to Roxie and Sky and ordered them to stop inflating the boats. “We still have to get them through that opening.”
He pointed at the window as he heard the motors shut off. His heart pounded. It was go time.
Luckily, Joule had bought boats that were sturdy enough for search-and-rescue operation. Reflective yellow rope tied to the rings made a steady pattern around the top edge of the boat. But the friends had scrounged up additional bungee cords, twine, and rope—whatever they could find. There was no telling how much they would eventually need.
Once they were in the water, they would tether the inflatables together. But first, they had to rig the boats up to push out the window and get lowered to the water.
When he had the cords in place, they all added their weight and rolled the sides of the boat up so it more resembled a hot dog. Even so, it was barely narrow enough to go through the open window. At least they didn't have to worry about slicing their rescue boat with broken glass. There had been a contingency plan for if they’d had to break the windows out.
First stroke of good luck, Cage thought. He hoped it held, but he kept his eyes on the boat as it was pushed through the opening and began to unfold on the other side now that no one was holding it tightly. They would never get it back inside.
The inflated boat caught the wind—another thing they hadn’t really planned for—but he and Max fought to lower it slowly, letting the far end just touch the water. Another problem occurred to Cage now: What if the boat flipped over? It was only five or so feet below them, but it was well out of reach.
Since it wasn't fully inflated, it floated like a lump. The rubber of the bottom was curling and rolling, not stretched out flat like it should be. Whoever stepped into it would sink well below the waterline, surrounded by tough rubber until the ring fully inflated and the boat formed its final shape.
“Alright guys,” Gabby said, her small backpack on and ready to go. Last night she’d piped up. “I’m the lightest, so I'm out first.”
Joule had protested, saying two people should go first, but Gabby had deftly countered with their current plan. “Tie the rope around me. It would be more dangerous to have more of us in it before it’s fully inflated.”
At least she would be anchored. As much as it would suck to drag her up the side of the building, they could if they had to.
With Marcus and Max slowly letting out the rope, Cage and Joule each took one of Gabby’s hands as they lowered her down the wall. Her feet slowly walked the outside stucco until she at last waved her toe into the open space below her, hooking the boat and stepping down in.
She almost fell anyway and would have plopped into the bottom if not for the rope. Cage was grateful they’d devised a bit of a harness rather than just looping it around her waist. As he’d predicted, her feet sank well below the surface of the water and they all watched, holding their breath, waiting to see if the partially inflated boat would hold her.
But it did.
Gabby found her balance and Cage watched as she crouched down and pushed at the outer ring until she found what she was looking for. Max and Marcus kept the rope harness taut in case something went wrong and they had to yank her back out. Cage hadn’t drawn a full breath yet.
“Got it,” she said as she flipped the switch and he heard the faint whirr as the motor once again began inflating the boat. Slowly it unfurled, forming its expected shape as Gabby worked to distribute her weight and not jostle anything.
Beside him, Joule stepped up and said, “My turn. Get the harness on me.”
His sister was next. Not his ideal plan, but they were going down in order of size. As tall as she was, she was second in weight, the more important measure in the boats right now. Putting her hand in his, she let him take some of the pressure as he helped lower her out the window.
The boat was almost fully inflated by the time she joined Gabby, who was now bobbing along the surface. Had the water risen while they’d been working? He didn’t see the difference, but the way the rain was coming down, it must have.
Cage watched from the window. Seeing Joule—his last remaining family member—sitting in the boat in the middle of bull shark-infested waters, tethered only by a single rope, was possibly the hardest thing he'd ever done.
33
The rain came down on her head, tapping a rhythm on the hood of the waterproof jacket. At least the gear is trying to be waterproof, Joule thought.
Though she wanted to look up and check out the state of the sky in the pre-dawn hours, she didn't dare. The rain would get in her eyes, hit her face, and run in little rivulets down the front of her jacket despite the hood. Instead, she reached out to take Gabby’s hand and wasn’t surprised when her friend’s grip was far too strong.
It was petrifying, sitting on the surface of the water in only an inflatable boat.
Though the motor offered a soft but high-pitched whine to signal it was working, the pitch was changing as the pressure increased. It was almost full.
She hollered up to her brother, “Start getting the next one out!”
Her eyes darted frantically along the side of the building. Rectangular windows, most dark, stared back at her. A few had blue or yellow lights showing. Anyone who looked out their window would see the boats. She and her friends had to get out of here before someone discovered what they were doing.
Just then, a surprising but familiar face popped out of the window above her.
“Joule!” Ginnifer's voice cut the air. “I'm coming with you.”
“What?” Joule asked, wondering how in hell had Ginnifer gotten into the room? How had she even figured out that she needed to follow them? Joule didn’t know.
But her brother always seemed to understand. He stuck his head out into the rain to say, “She knocked on the door. She already knew about the boats… She and Holly are both here.”
Joule felt her teeth grind. They couldn't have people barging in, demanding to get in the boats! They'd overflow before they even got the second one out the window.
Ginnifer popped her head out the window again, the rain plastering her hair to her head. For once, she didn't seem to notice. “I didn't tell anyone, Joule. I don’t want your operation to start a riot. But we've got to get out of here.”
No shit, Joule thought. But “we” wasn’t supposed to include you.
Again, Joule looked up to her brother, risking the rain on her face and down her jacket once more, but all she saw was a shrug. His voice carried down again, though she could tell he was fighting not to be too loud. “They pounded on the door and demanded to be let in. But we locked the door behind them.”
So Ginnifer and Holly were now in the group? It wasn't the time or the place, but Joule couldn't help it. Seven months. For seven months, Ginnifer had ignored her—and those had been the good days. Otherwise, she'd been a pain in the ass. Now, she wanted Joule to rescue her?
For a moment, her roommate’s expression changed and Ginnifer called out, “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been such a butthead to you.”
Butthead? That was how she was categorizing it? But Joule didn’t have time to dwell; it was all that Ginnifer gave her. Her roommate followed it up immediately with, “You need me. Holly and I are in programming.”
As the second boat came out the window, lowered via rope over their heads, she and Gabby had to move from their original position. Still tethered by harnesses stabilized by Max and Marcus, they reached up. Together, they pushed the other boat away and into a position beside them.
Joule switched off the motor on the boat she sat in and motioned to Gabby to cap the open vent as she reached out and grabbed onto the rope that ringed the edge of each inflated boat. Keeping the two rafts close together was of the utmost importance, but she still reached over and grabbed onto Gabby's hand.
Crouching low, she leaned out and maneuvered the other boat around, feeling the partially inflated ring mushy beneath her fingers. It was disconcerting at best, but she had to find the motor and start inflating it again. The longer they sat here, the more likely it was that someone would see them. Someone else.
She breathed out a harsh sigh of relief as her wet fingers brushed against the hard plastic of the black motor box. Tugging off the cap, she flipped the switch and listened to the motor start to work.
Her immediate task done, she looked back up at Ginnifer and, over the noise of the motor, the rain, and the people still in the room above her, she almost yelled. “In case you hadn't noticed, there's no power. There's nothing to program. We don’t need you.”
But Ginnifer was ready. “I can make your phones last twice as long.”
Crap monkeys. Joule couldn't help it. She did need that. Her phone battery was well below forty percent, and she'd been conserving everything she could. They had backups, but how far would they have to travel? How long would they need those phones to hold out? What if they got somewhere safe and dry, but no one knew where they were? The phones would be a lifeline. Maybe their only one…
“And your flashlights. I can make a generator work, if we find one. I’m disturbingly handy.”
Behind Ginnifer, Cage shrugged.
As far as Joule could tell, the argument was over. If they shoved Ginnifer and Holly back out into the hall, it would start a fight, and that would definitely start a riot.
“Fine,” Joule muttered. From above her in the window, the others seemed to agree.
She focused on her friends now getting ready to come down into the boat, even as she kept checking the second boat to be sure it continued to inflate properly.
The others weren’t tethered. Then again, they weren’t being lowered into a partially inflated raft. First, they dangled Roxie out the window and then Sky. As soon as they had dropped the last few inches in and were seated in the rocking boat, Gabby tugged at her own tether line and Max let go of her. They had to trust the boat, but they didn’t have to trust the sea. Gabby used the now loose rope to tether Sky to her, exactly as planned. Roxie waited for another person to drop into the boat. They wouldn’t tie them all together yet.
It was time for the next maneuver. They had this all mapped out and so far—aside from the arrival of Ginnifer and Holly—it was going according to plan.
This move was why Joule was still anchored by Marcus above her. Staying low, she prayed to any deity that might be listening before beginning to climb out of Gabby's fully inflated boat and into the second raft.
Joule didn't like the feeling of the rubber rolling loosely beneath her. It gave way under her weight and she sank below the waterline. She would feel better when it was stretched taut, the ring fully inflated. She muttered under her breath to the little motor. “Faster, faster.”
But then Cage was in the boat beside her. She almost chastised him, but quickly realized the ring was already solid beneath her touch. The thick rubber beneath her had stretched taut while she was muttering. The rain had changed, and she couldn’t quite hear the pitch altering in the motor, but she could tell it was still working. She lowered her ear closer until it touched the smooth, rubbery surface, listening for the telltale note that said the pressure was high enough.
Behind her, she felt Cage unlink her fingers from where she’d continued to hold onto Gabby and wrap his own hand around hers. As she looked up for a moment, she saw that he'd grabbed Gabby's hand. The two of them were now holding the boats in place together.
Ginnifer and Holly were lowered next, and by the time everyone was down, Joule and Cage’s boat was inflated to the proper pressure. She turned off the motor, snapped the protective cover into place, and looked up. With two extra people along for the ride, their division of people, supplies, and numbers had changed.
