Rayne

She heard a familiar voice calling out her name. After opening her eyes, she realized that she was still amid a tsunami. She must have hit her head because she didn’t remember the past few… Seconds, minutes? Hours?

“Alliyah?” She murmured.

She looked behind her and saw Alliyah on top of a floating car.

“Alliyah!”

“Rayne!”

“Stay there! Stay safe!” She tried talking, despite the tall water covering her chin.

All of a sudden, another enormous wave, maybe even greater than the one before, was blasting through everything once again. Water entered her mouth, and it tasted disgusting, not only because of the salt but also because of the dirt.

Rayne’s right side ribs and shoulder felt shattered, her knee was stinging, she was sure blood was pouring out of it. She wondered what the hell happened to her body while she was unconscious. This time she sought to stay afloat, but it was just so difficult with the pressure of the waves yanking her down.

“Rayne!” She heard from underwater again. It provided her strength, and she hauled herself up, taking a big gasp of air. Looking around, she saw Alliyah coming to her from behind. She felt so fragile as Alliyah grabbed her and dragged her away.

They held onto a tree, waiting for the water to slow down once again. Rayne noticed her pendant around Alliyah's neck.

“We need to find a roof.” Alliyah said. “Something short enough to climb but tall enough so waves won’t hit it.”

“I’m not sure I can climb…” Rayne nearly cried but tried her best to keep it together for the moment.

“There’s a car!” Alliyah didn’t let her finish the sentence. She pointed at a car floating in the water, in front of a house. ”We’ll climb on the car, then the house.”

Rayne didn’t believe she could even climb the car, let alone the house, but she just let herself go. Alliyah guided her to the car, and they rested a few seconds holding onto it. Then Alliyah propped her hands on the trunk of it, but as she climbed, Rayne saw blood squirting out of her abdomen, soaking her grey tank-top.

“Alliyah-” She took her hand to her mouth, her stomach twisting.

The other girl simply held her hand out to her:

“Hurry up before another wave drags the car away.”

She just wanted to cry and yell. Her limbs were once again becoming paralyzed.

“…I don’t wanna lose you…” She barely heard the words stumble out of Alliyah’s lips.

And I’m not going to disappoint myself now. If she believes in me, why don’t I?

With newfound determination, Rayne lifted her head and gripped Alliyah’s hand, who pulled her up, and she used her own feet to get up on the car. Alliyah hugged her, and for a few seconds, she fluttered her eyes shut and delighted in the safety of her embrace.

“Okay,” Alliyah panted. “now we get on the higher part of the car, and then we do the same thing to get on the roof. We have to be quick.”

Rayne just nodded.

“You go first, I’ll boost you from the bottom.” Alliyah paused. “No time for puns about that.”

With another nod, Rayne moved forward and carefully walked through the car, but not carefully enough. She stepped on the backglass, and it broke underneath her, sending her into a fall on top of the car.

“Tarnation!” She thundered. With a punch on the car, she drew herself up, with fire in her eyes, and threw herself at the rooftop. No assistance from Alliyah, no nothing. From the top, she looked down, Alliyah had her hands in her head:

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, your turn now.”

Well, the glass couldn’t break any more, so Alliyah steadily made her way to the higher part of the car and athletically climbed the rooftop.

“Why does it look like you have climbed roofs before?”

Alliyah smirked:

“Life hacks from the old days.”

“How did we just do that?”

Rayne was lying down, panting. The sea breeze blowing made her knee hurt even more than her ribs and shoulder.

“Survival.” Alliyah, too, lied down.

Rayne avoided looking down, afraid to see dead bodies and the havoc. The wreckage that was just starting to recover, it was now worse.

They tried not to but ultimately fell asleep.

With a gasp, Rayne was the first to wake up; the wound on her forehead hurt more than before. She had a nightmare. But the shrieks she heard were real. On the flooded street, people wailed for help. She peered down, but the car wasn’t there - they couldn’t help anyone.

She hugged her own knees and rocked back and forward.

“Why didn’t she stay on the car…?”

“I’d rather drown than watch you go down on your own.” Alliyah spoke with a husky, rough tone.

She was startled by the statement.

“Don’t say those things.”

“You asked… It’s how I was raised… And I made sure it was the foundation of our group.” She slurred the reply as she forced herself off the ground, Rayne turned away after looking at her blood on the floor.

“Yes, you have a rather stupendous group.

“The best thing in my life.”

“I might just stick around… If we get through this.”

“We will survive because I have to make sure Lamar is okay.”

A moment of silence followed, then Rayne started:

“I’m genuinely glad I got to know you…” She murmured, her soft voice just above a whisper. “I’ve grown so close to you. It’s scary. I’ve never been like this with anyone else. You make it feel like I can be myself around you.”

Alliyah was quiet. It was odd. She always had something to say.

Did I just screw this up? Rayne frowned. Then Alliyah’s thumb caressed her hand.

“That’s why I didn’t stay above the car. You call, I come to you.” Hearing the words made Rayne squeeze her hand. “We will also survive because I have to give you your birthday present.”

“You got me something? What is it?”

“No, I have something, and I’ll give it to you. You’ll see… When we get to New York.”

They remained on the rooftop, talking, and then sleeping for an undetermined amount of time until voices woke them up - help had finally arrived.

“Hey!” Rayne called. “There are people over there! Help them first!”

“They’re dead!” The rescuers informed, sending a shiver through her spine.

I just- I just heard them…

Alliyah squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. Well, it didn’t reassure anything, but she knew that was the intention.

The old hospital they helped clean up was serving as a place to take care of victims, instead of a spot for volunteers to stay at. And that’s where they were taken to. Medical staff took care of their injuries, and they were able to rest there for another day and night.

“You guys are no longer volunteers, but the airport should take a few days reopening, so you can obviously still stay here.” Kayla vaguely gestured towards the motel that had suffered minor damage, given that it was located on a second floor, and the waves weren’t high enough. The few volunteers that weren’t missing or dead looked around at each other, before limping inside.

Rayne did not have broken ribs or shoulder after all, but they were sore and bruised. Her forehead and knee needed stitches, so she had to walk with crutches.