Monica dreamt of something, though she wasn’t sure what it was. She always had a lot of control on her dreams, but not this time. Everything was blank for a moment before a bright flash filled her eyeball as she was pulled back into the world of living. Monica found herself gasping for air, coughing helplessly as she tried to spit out all the water from her lungs. Her throat clutched up from the hard coughing. She felt terrible but alive.

“You are alive!” a man shouted in amazement.

She looked up to see a man in dressed in a blue raincoat standing over her and looking at her in amazement. He crouched down and put his hand on her back, tapping gently. “There, there. Get all that water out.”

Monica coughed some more, puking all the water out. She wiped her mouth and said, “thank you.”

“It is amazing you actually survived. When the boys told me they saw you get washed away, I was certain we were looking for a dead person,” he said.

Monica didn’t want to hear any more of that story. She quietly tried to get back up, but her joints were aching and refusing to bend; in fact, every muscle and bone in her body felt as they were thoroughly thrashed. It had been quite a while since she had received such severe beating. The man held onto her arm and helped her get up. She took a second to steady her footing. She was drenched, beaten, and freezing cold. But it wasn’t something she would struggle to recover from. She found herself clutching onto her handbag, her grip hadn’t loosened. The zip on the bag seemed to be intact, but Monica didn’t have the energy to check it.

She took a moment to look around. She appeared to be in a forest, surrounded by thin tall trees. The foliage covering the ground seem to have been washed away, leaving the ground bare and soaking in water. “Where am I?” she asked.

“You washed up quite a bit inland,” the officer replied, “we will take you back to the city. Don’t worry.”

Looking around her, she saw several other people searching around the forest. The rain had finally reduced to a drizzle, but the thick black clouds had not dissipated yet, meaning it was only a matter of time before it would start pouring again.

“You can walk?” the officer asked.

Her steps were uneven. She felt a bit dizzy but nothing she couldn’t handle. “Yeah. No problem.”

“The vehicle is just over there. Come on. I will help you.” He held on to her shoulders and guided her to the vehicle that stood about fifty feet away. Another man sprinted over to them and took over the officer. He walked her to the van and opened the door. She looked in to see the van filled with a few people already. Most of them looked hurt even worse than her. She hoped in without asking any questions. ‘Maybe I should help them?’ she thought. There was a woman already in the van attending to the others. She noticed Monica get in and immediately walked over to her.

“Here. Take a seat,” she guided Monica to the front seat.

“Is there any way I can help?” Monica asked as she set her handbag aside. Her voice had sunk really low, and her face was pale as though she just came back from dead.

“No. It’s alright,” the woman replied with a smile, “you doing alright? Feel any pain anywhere?”

Her entire body ached, so wasn’t sure what part of her body was broken. “I am not sure…” Monica replied.

“No problem. Let me quickly check…” she said and quickly began to assess her. She did not find any bleeding, so she pressed around various parts while asking Monica if anything hurt. Monica replied a simply no to all. “Looks like you are all fine. We will have you go through another quick check-up when we reach the city. Meanwhile, please take rest. You look like you were completely knocked out.”

Monica couldn’t disagree. She quietly nodded and fell back onto the backrest, shutting her eyes while relaxing her breathing. The nurse went back to her patient.

Monica remembered the moment before everything went blank. It was raining heavily. So much so, she never noticed the sea line that had receded into the sea. She remembered the terrifying tsunami that she had witnessed crash into the coast. She remembered the two men who helped her and how one nearly died saving her. She began to wonder if they survived. She never even saw if the man, whom she had risked her own life saving had survived.

***

They drove for about an hour and half. They drove through the forest that Monica found herself washed up in, whose treeline had been completely destroyed. They drove through farmland stripped off the grain and through small patches of village where there wasn’t even one house left standing. The road that ran along the coast was destroyed, with part of it under water. Waves continued to batter the coastline as the storm picked up where the tsunami had left, drowning the land along the coast in heavy rain.

By the time they reached the city, she couldn’t recognize much of it. It was pure destruction and chaos. Water that had entered the city and never retreated, leaving much of the city under a foot of water. Several buildings had collapsed, and debris covered the streets. Much of the workforce spent their time cleaning up the streets to allow emergency vehicles to drive through. She looked at the chaos that had swept the city and her heart sunk even low. The nurse had given her blanket to warm herself. She gripped it hard as she watched the destroyed building being cleared, hundreds of people out in the street, many of whom were injured. The van stopped every now and then picking these people up and soon it was filled to the brim with patients. She saw the van drive past more people who were injured. She even requested the nurse several times that she get off and give these people place but the nurse always responded with, “thank you but don’t worry, there are other vehicles coming for them.” Monica wasn’t sure many would make it. It was the first time, in a long time, Monica felt this helpless.

Eventually they made it to the hospital. It sat quite far from the shore and thus it seemed untouched by the waves. It was, however, overflowing with people. The van stopped right before the gate where the passengers were made to get off as a group of nurses appeared and escorted them. A male nurse guided Monica through the crowd of injured people. She, for the first time, witnessed what mass devastation really meant. People with bandaged limbs, missing eyes and ears, deep gashes, and many such injuries littered the corridors. Every now and then several nurses carried people on stretchers, whose fate Monica did not know, and neither did she want to know. Eventually she was led to a doctor who quickly checked her pulse, blood pressure, and her temp. She was then taken into a makeshift tent by a female nurse who quickly checked for any physical wounds. She found several of them littered all over Monica’s body. Much of them where gashes, which were quickly patched up with a quick band aid. Her should blade, however, had a giant red spot over it. When the nurse touched it, Monica felt a sharp pain.

“It wasn’t there before,” Monica said, remembering when the nurse in the van had checked her.

“It doesn’t look bad. We will give you some medication for now, if pain persists, we might have to x ray for any fracture,” the nurse replied.

Monica, however, knew it would heal fast even if it was a fracture, so she quietly nodded and took the slip of medicine from her. She soon was out in less than ten minutes, while another patient walked in. She took a glance at the slip as she walked down the crowded corridor. Three tablets, one was antipyretic, to reduce fever, another was an antibiotic, but she couldn’t recognize the last one. Must have been to treat the bruise in her back. There was no pain, but she didn’t really move that arm around much.

“Madam!” someone called out. Any normal person would have never heard it in the noisy corridor, but Monica heard it, at the same time she had no idea they were calling her. She simply assumed it was for a doctor or a nurse and ignored it. A hand reached out and grabbed her by her left shoulder. She turned around to see two familiar faces looking at her. “Hi,” the man in front said panting.

She remembered them, though now it was much easier to see them without all the rain. “Oh. It’s you guys…”

“Yes. You saved my life,” the man in front said.

“Well… you actually saved mine first,” Monica replied with a smile, “hope you two and the others are okay.”

“Those of us on the tree survived, the others weren’t so fortunate,” he replied.

Her smile vanished, “oh… my name is Monica.”

“Gowtham,” the man in front introduced.

“Ganesh,” the man in the back introduced.

***

“I wanted to ask you something for some time,” Ganesh started.

Ganesh and Monica were seated on the floor as they waited for a transport to pick them up. They were almost completely dry, but the cold atmosphere was still lingering in the air. Rain continued to pelt the pavement outside. Gowtham was off to get treatment for his shoulder. Monica seemed have caused a bit of discomfort when she yeeted him out of danger. He would, however, gladly take a mild injury over drowning in the water any day.

“What is it?” Monica asked.

“You… well…” Ganesh hesitated to ask.

“Go on…”

“You appear small, but you are really really strong.”

Monica broke into a smile; she had lost count on how many people asked that question to her. “Yes. I am freakishly strong.”

“How? Do you mind sharing your secret?”

The simple answer was for him to get the cool superpowers like her, but that isn’t something you could acquire just like that. “When I was small,” Monica began to lie, “I was really fat. People used to call me a buffalo. One day, I made up mind I would change that. So, I exercised every day until I was thin and sexy. As a side effect, I became really strong and was able to toss all the boys in my class around.”

“Oh…” Ganesh wasn’t sure what to make of it, “are you sure it is just exercise?”

“Yes… and also plenty of juice.”

“What juice?”

“Protein shakes!” Monica had never had a protein shake into her life.

“Which brand?” Ganesh continued to pester.

Monica was left speechless as she had no idea of any brand names. Just then Gowtham arrived and sat in between them, giving Monica an opportunity to change subject. “How did it go?”

“No bone injury, just muscle tear,” Gowtham said.

“That’s good,” Monica replied.

“Yeah…” he wasn’t really that happy with the result, “now I just have to pay for it.”

“I told you to not bother with it,” Ganesh said.

Monica couldn’t really say much about it. Though she never faced money problem in life, she could understand how hard such situations can be for penny pinchers. Though even if she understood, she couldn’t do much about it. Years ago, she tried to be charitable until one day it became a noose around her own neck. She learnt the hard lesson that being charitable and helping someone are two different things. One is making someone’s life better; another one simply makes them lazy and unable to stand on their own two feet.

“Whatever,” he replied, folding up the report up, “this is nothing new.”

Monica couldn’t help by sympathize with their situation. “So, what now? I am guessing you guys must be working on the farms.”

“Yeah. We own them, but the crops are completely decimated by the tsunami,” Gowtham replied. He bowed down, staring at the floor as he kept running his index finger in an imaginary circle.

“And sea water too. No way anything will grow on it for a year now,” Ganesh added.

Monica never took into account about the sea water making inland. Nothing grows in salt. Nothing edible at the least. The mounting misery made her stomach churn. Monica, aka Arora, the woman who punched all her problems away could do nothing but stand and watch nature sweep away countless lives and leave those who survived in misery. For the first time ever, she felt a force that she had no control over, and it frightened her.

***

The auto drove through the city streets. The further she got away from the coast, the lesser chaos and destructive she saw. Eventually she reached a part of the city that was completely saved from any destruction. The roads were still busy, flooded with traffic as people made their way around. Monica wondered why where there so many private vehicles on the streets. It would be far safer to stay indoors right now. She never guessed that people were actually trying to flee the city and head inland. The jammed roadways were blocking the emergency vehicles whose loud sirens filled every corner of the city. The unease continued to poke her in her heart. All she wanted to do was head back to her room and hide. Hide from the all the troubles the world was in right now.

The room was tiny, but she had gotten used to them. One bed to sleep on and a bathroom to groom herself is all she wanted. Luxury was good but she never got it till now. This room was no different. It was size of a matchbox, one single bed tucked to the corner with a window peering outside sitting just beside it. Underneath the window was a table that stretched from the bed to the other wall. The bathroom sat right across the room opposite to the table. The door to the room sat next to it, nested in a short corridor. On one of its sides was the wardrobe that had been mounted into the wall. Inside it lied Monica’s baggage, haphazardly stuffed in. Had she stayed for more than two days, she would have taken her time setting up everything for a comfy stay, but she didn’t find the need today or for the past three months. Why bother with all the work when she was moving every other day, she thought. Carrying the bags around would have been a pain in and itself had they not given the allowance to get the bag delivered to wherever she went.

It was close to four in the evening. The rain made what should have been beautiful sunset evening even more dark and dull. It felt like the sun had already set, forcing Monica switch on the lights early. The tungsten lit the room in bright orange.

Monica walked out of the bathroom drying herself up after a cold shower. She had gotten rid of her dirty clothes and finally put on some dry ones. The cold air made her shiver, but she was always resilient to the cold. Tossing the towel aside, she looked into the mirror that had been stuck onto the bathroom door. She carefully analysed the bruises and cuts she received. The nurses were right, there wasn’t a lot of them, she had been very lucky. Turning her back, she took a look at the wound on her right shoulder blade, it was hard to see, but the dark red spot was too big to miss. She cringed just looking at it. She knew very well that it was going to turn blue before it could heal, but that wasn’t a problem. She put on a dry shirt before turning to the table upon which her handbag sat. She hadn’t taken a look at even once. It simply slung around her other shoulder all this time. A part of her was afraid at the horrors she might uncover but the other part simply did not care. She finally unzipped and took a look inside. It had some semi-important contents. A phone, a water bottle, and a few documents. She removed all of them and placed them across the table. The edges of the documents were wet from some of the water that must have seeped through, but they were perfectly intact. The phone, however, had a giant crack running across the screen. She felt it cold to the touch and it appeared to be wet, though she could not be sure. Trying to be cautious, she quickly dismantled it, separating the back plate, the battery, and the sim. She found a few water droplets hiding on the inside. She wiped away as much of the water as could with her t shirt before laying them on the table to dry. ‘Not bad,’ she commented, looking at how most of the content was safe.

She at last fell onto the bed without a care in the world. After the day she had been through, she was finally able to breathe easy. Rain continued to pelt on the window, yet it was now calm and soothing to hear. For a moment she forgot the world around her as she rested her eyes and fell into deep slumber.

By the time Monica woke up, she had lost track of time. It was dark outside the window, but the rain hadn’t stopped. Sleep had left her, and she simply rocked side to side trying to fall asleep again. The wound on her right shoulder stopped her from falling asleep. So, her mind began to wonder. She tried to distract herself from thinking about the day, but it didn’t help much. It was one of those day she would remember for the rest of her life, but for all the wrong reasons. Retracing her day back, she finally remembered about the two people she spent the whole day.

Monica had no idea what had gotten into her, for she had completely forgot about her colleagues with whom had spent the entire day. She immediately got up on her feet and turned to the table. The parts of her phone looked dry. She wondered for a few seconds before deciding to take the risk. She didn’t have much of an option as it was only way of contacting them. She quickly assembled it and pressed the power button with her fingers crossed. The screen lit up and in no time the logo appeared. She breathed a sigh of relief as the phone booted into the home screen. The crack did not seem to affect the functionality of the screen, she guessed it was only the screen guard that had cracked.

Thinking for a moment, she quickly opened contacts and called her boss, Dinesh. It rang only for a moment before the call was received.

“Monica?” Dinesh asked.

“Yes. It is me…”

“Thank god!” he interrupted her, “we were scared when we heard the news and your phone was switched off.”

“Sorry. It got wet and switched off,” Monica said.

“Are you alright? Where were you when the wave hit?”

“No problem. I just got some bruises here and there. Doctor took a look and gave me all clear,” she reassured.

“That’s good.”

“What about Shilpa and Mohan?” she asked.

“They were far from the shore. Both their homes were inside the city, so they weren’t anywhere the wave hit.”

Monica let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Yes. Glad to see all you guys are okay,” he said, “where are you now?”

“I am back in my room.”

“Alright, take rest. I will ask one of them to get in touch with you tomorrow.”

“It’s alright, I will meet with them tomorrow.”

“No problem. I will inform them, you rest up.”

“Thanks Dinesh.”

“No problem. Take rest,” he said before cutting the call.