As she drove through town, the people came out.
They were everywhere now. It was such a stark contrast from before, but as she saw people, she gave up a boat. She’d stall. They’d climb up into a boat and unhook themselves from the rope. The only thing she yelled was for them to help pick up others. They stayed with her, helping to pick people up as they all headed to the center.
A wall of people lined the center when they got there. They were standing at the edge of the water.
Dani knew these people were alive, but not in her mind. She was back there with the first storm. These people were waving. Those people had been floating in the water, already dead. The bodies were everywhere.
Dani was mixing them together in her mind. The dead were raising their arms now.
“Dani!” Jonah crashed through the crowd and ran to her boat. He jumped inside, crushing her to him in the next breath. He held the back of her head, holding her against his chest before he kissed her forehead, then her lips. “I thought you were dead. My God.” He went back to just holding her, wrapping as much of himself around her. “I tried the phone, but I couldn’t reach you and then Jake said you were in the town.” He was touching her pockets, but she forgot about the phone. His hand found it, and he pulled out. “The battery’s dead.”
Dead. She’d never get away from that word.
The town was gone.
Dani pulled away. The center would soon be as well. “We have to go.”
“Jonah!”
Hawk and Trenton were running toward them.
Hawk separated, leaping into one of the last empty boats. He revved the engine and swung next to where Dani and Jonah stood. He yelled, “We got a distress call!” He stopped, his eyes flicking to Dani.
She growled. “Who?”
“It’s Mae.” He said to Jonah, “We can get them if we go now.”
Jonah looked to Dani, but she was already pushing him away. “Go. Get her, please.”
He was torn, but grabbed her for one more hug. He crushed her to him, and said, his lips brushing against her forehead, “I will come back for you. I will find you. Do not die. Okay? Do not die.”
“I won’t.” She pushed him again. “Go. She’s my family.”
He did, tearing himself away. Hawk half-lifted him into the boat as Jonah grabbed the edge and swung himself up. He didn’t stop looking at Dani. He never broke contact. Hawk turned the boat and left.
Jonah was slowly swallowed by the darkness.
That wasn’t real. He’d come back. He went to save Mae. Dani kept reminding herself of that. Then Trenton leapt onto her boat. He was yelling at her. She wasn’t hearing him. She couldn’t. All she could see was Jonah heading away from her.
There were people streaming around her.
She recognized the looks on their faces. Fear. Uncertainty. Anger. Panic. They were all thinking the same thing: this wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening.
They were all wrong.
This was real. This was happening, and it was just the beginning.
She sat down, saying to herself, “They’re all going to die.” Everyone was going to die.
“Dani, come on!” Trenton was screaming at her.
She half-heard him. People were climbing into their boat. She just sat there. She was the eye of the storm now. She was the middle of the tornado. The winds would ripple. They’d snarl. They’d curse. They’d be angry with her, because it was her that they wanted. This whole storm was about taking back what was theirs.
Her. The water was coming for her.
“Julia.”
Dani heard Trenton say her sister’s name, then someone climbed into the boat. A second person was behind her. Trenton was saying, “Jake, who else?”
Dani looked up. Her sister was there, but she left? Dani remembered seeing her go…
Julia yelled over Dani’s head to Trenton, “The nursing home?”
“It was one of the first to go. It was crushed. I’m sorry.” He swept his gaze over both of them. “Sorry, you guys.”
Dani sat there.
People were swimming past them, but she didn’t know where they were going. There was no hope. For any of them. She was alive, and that meant they’d all die. The storm wouldn’t stop, not until it claimed her.
“We have to go!” Jake was yelling.
The boat was moving. They were gliding over the water. Dani knew it wasn’t peaceful. Waves and ripples broke over the surface, but she looked down. She saw the calm beneath. She could see them, the dead already. They were in the water, their arms and hair hanging loose. They were content. Their eyes were calm.
They were home.
“My house.” Julia collapsed beside Dani. Her hand covered her mouth.
She heard and lifted her head. There it was. Julia’s house was completely overcome, but one tree still stood up. It was a rebel, in the path of the water. It refused to sink below. Dani didn’t think. She moved, going to the front of the boat where the spotlight was.
“Dani? What are you doing?”
She turned it on the tree, and there was another. Mrs. Bendsfield was tied to a branch, one that Dani remembered swinging from as a child.
Julia gasped. “Mrs. Bendsfield!”
Trenton steered the boat over, and Jake grabbed the older woman. He had to cut away at the rope she used to tie herself to the tree. Hauling her into the boat, Mrs. Bendsfield looked vanquished and depleted. She was soaked. Her arms looked like twigs, and her lips were so blue. She was shaking from the cold.