Prompt: It’s been raining for 40 straight years now. Your latest bunker is starting to get submerged.
We knew it was coming. You’d have to be blind not to know nothing can stop the forty-year deluge. Couple of us believed it was possible. A bunker with fortified tripled walls, weather sealed doors and hatches, every possibly entry filled with rubber, wax, silicone, and so many other materials. Their belief didn’t last long, and neither did their will to live. Better ways to go than drown, and I can’t say I blame them.
Alone in the most inner sanctuary of the bunker for no honest reason. Curved walls and overheard portal the only things between me and thousands of pounds of water. The point of it all is as lost to me now as it was when I flew down the ladders, sealing chamber after chamber behind me in the hopes the rain would break, just this once.
The gods didn’t listen then, nor do they currently.
Wish I could’ve grabbed Cassy’s photograph. My dog. She was all I had in the world, the only companion I’ve ever known. Never found solace in people, despite my best efforts, but with Cassy, it was easy, seamless. Those brown eyes and lolling tongue, the black shaggy hair, and the way she would jump onto me the moment I came home…
Couldn’t bring her, though. Didn’t get the chance. Rain was coming and in a blink, it was torrential and everything moved too fast. My mind scattered-brained, phone calls from relatives, from my mom; the town’s emergency horn blaring in the distance, jarring noises and buzzers sounding on the TV; men in boats with megaphones alerting everyone to abandon all that they’ve loved and built and cherished and join them, to let them take us somewhere safe and dry. Shouldn’t have listened to him—look what good it did?
Either way, the water’s coming.
Should’ve stayed where I was. At least I would’ve been washed away with the only thing who made me the happiest I’ve ever been, ever will be.
The portal creaks, fissures bolt through the walls. Metal moans and starts to swell.
I hold my last breath and—
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Micah Castle 