I…
I have difficulty processing what I’m seeing.
Where there should be a street and parking areas, there’s what looks like the Cumberland River.
Damnit.
I wonder if the knocking I heard in the middle of the night was emergency services warning us to get out. But if there was no car parked in front of a unit, chances are they wouldn’t have tried too hard.
I find my wallet and keys and dump those into a zippered baggy, along with the Rolex, and my official state ID badge. I opt to wear the Breitling. I move the clothes into a garbage bag, then tuck all that into my backpack, which I cover with a couple more garbage bags to try to keep it all dry.
I pull on my raincoat and head out, locking my door behind me.
I’m terrified to wade too deep and get swept away. It looks like there is a current, and I also don’t want to end up electrocuted. I can hear boats and sirens in the distance, but see no rescuers in my immediate vicinity.
My teeth chatter as I carefully slog through the water, staying as close to the buildings as possible, where the water is shallowest.
George and Casey are going to fucking kill me.
They’ve got to be worried to death about me right now. Except I don’t have time to think about that. I find my way blocked as the water deepens past the far end of the last building in the complex.
I know if I try heading toward the street that the water will end up over my head.
And, I realize, the water’s still rising.
Risingfast.
Obviously, trying to get somewhere else isn’t going to happen right now, so I need to vertically evacuate.
The building behind mine has a red maple tree on the back side of it that’s close to the roof, so I make my way over there. By the time I reach the tree, the water’s almost up to my hips.
I haven’t climbed a tree since I was a fucking kid, but you bet your ass I started climbing that sonofabitch. I nearly fall trying to ease my way along the lowest branch to reach the roof, and skin both my hands and my shins and calves hanging on in the process. But when I finally drop onto the roof, my legs tremble so bad they won’t support me, thanks to the adrenaline jolting through me.
I hadn’t had time to be scared before. I kept moving, instincts driving me.
Now, as I collapse onto that roof and lie there shaking from fear and shivering from being cold and wet, I realize I am in averyserious fucking situation.
And I’ve never felt more scared in my damn life.
* * * *
I don’t know how long I lie there, but the rain, which had eased up a little, pours down again, so hard I can barely see twenty yards around me. I don’t spot anyone else up on nearby roofs, but during a brief break in the rain my new vantage reveals to me something that makes my balls shrivel in terror.
I am in averyserious fucking situation.
The Cumberland has exploded from its banks, leaving me to wonder if there was a dam failure or floodgate malfunction somewhere upriver, or if this is due to all the rainfall. The parking lot of Nissan Stadium is completely flooded by several feet of water, and I’m assuming the stadium’s interior is, too. As far as I can see, there’s water.
There’s no way I was wading out of this.
In the distance, I spot boats running where there are usually streets, but none close enough to me that I can easily signal them.
The water’s risen another couple of feet since I’ve been on the roof. That’s when, below me, I hear a sound that fills me with dread.
A barking dog.
I locate which apartment it’s in, and realize the poor thing’s probably going to drown if I don’t figure out how to help it. I shuck my backpack and jacket and use the tree to lower myself into the flood waters.
Fortunately, I can kick out a front window in the apartment and call out to the dog. It barks at me.
