Busted Flush

“Hold on to this,” I said as I slid the bubble into his hands. “Lay back like you’re in an easy chair. Yeah, that’s perfect. I’m getting the rope and we’ll get you out of here. Okay?”

He gasped, then squeezed the bubble for dear life. “Yeah, okay.”

I swam to the rope, grabbed it, and swam back.

“What’s your name?” I asked the man.

“Dave,” he said.

“Okay, Dave,” I said as I began to ease the bubble from his hands. I got one hand off and gave him the rope. He grabbed it and let go of the bubble with the other hand. The zombies pulled him up.

As they pulled him up, I noticed that the water had gotten much deeper. The railing was closer now.

He rose out of the water like a landed fish, water sluicing off him in a sheet.

The zombies had just gotten Dave hauled belly-first across the railing when it gave a rusty moan. He squirmed himself the rest of the way home, kicking off the railing. It tottered for a moment, and then it came down on top of me.

Of course, it didn’t hurt, but it did shove me underwater. I sank, thinking I would be able to push myself away from the railing. But it was moving faster than I had expected. I couldn’t get out from under it. And I couldn’t see anything.

I banged into something and a whole pile of stuff fell over on me, pinning me facedown on the warehouse floor. One of my hands was palmup, so I let some bubbles go, but I missed whatever was on top of me.

And then my stomach clenched with fear. I didn’t know if anyone else could swim, but I wasn’t optimistic. Who could get all this crap off my back anyway? I thought about bubbling downward and blasting through the floor, but odds were I’d hit either more water or just dirt.

My breath was running out. I tried to twist around, but I was stuck.

Don’t panic, I thought.

Too late.

Yellow blotches bloomed in my vision. The urge to breathe was too great. I gasped and water rushed into my mouth, down my throat, and burned in my lungs. The yellow blotches went red. And then there was the endless blackness of the water.

It was really a relief. I didn’t have to think about the people who’d died because of me, or little girls who’d been raped, or Ink, or John Fortune, Niobe, or Drake, or anything anymore.

“Is she all right?”

I opened my eyes. Crap. Zombies. Then I rolled onto my side and started coughing and puking up water.

Someone wrapped a blanket around me. “I thought you were fucking indestructible,” said Hoodoo Mama, holding my hair back.

“I’m like the Wicked Witch of the West. Water can kill me,” I croaked.

My throat was sore and my sinuses burned. I pushed myself onto my hands and knees. “How did I get out?”

“I don’t swim,” Hoodoo Mama said. “But the zombies don’t breathe. So I sent them in for you.”

My throat and lungs were on fire, but in an “Oxygen Is Our Friend!” way. I never thought stale, fetid, sewage-tinged, flooded-warehouse air could smell so good.

“Did we get everyone out?”

“Yeah, every one of them.” Hoodoo Mama smiled at me. That surprised me. “I’ve got Dave and Floyd setting up the cots in each office. C’mon, we’ve got one for you.”

I stood up, but I was still a little unsteady. “What about everyone else? Is the water still rising? Are we safe here?”

“Jesus Christ, the water has stopped rising. This place is a dump, but has good enough bones to make it through this. That’s why I chose it. Fuck all, stop worrying and come lie down.”

“I smell terrible.”

She rolled her eyes. “Tell me, Jesus, what did I do to deserve this fucker? I think we’ve got some wet wipes.”

“Bubbles.”

I woke with a start. I was never going to get a full night’s sleep again. “Yeah, I’m here. Anything wrong?”

“No,” Hoodoo Mama said softly. “I just wanted to talk.”

I rolled over to face her and pushed my hair back. “Okay, what’s up?”

She was sitting on the floor next to the cot, hugging her knees. “I guess, I, I just wanted to say that as fuckers go, you’re not too bad.”

“Mmm, high praise indeed.”

“Now why the fuck would you go and say something like that? I was being sincere.”

I pushed myself up onto my elbow. “I’m sorry. I’ve been dealing with some stuff lately. And my God, it smells like ass in here.”

“You know what ass smells like? I find that mighty difficult to believe.”

I stifled a laugh, but it really did smell awful.

“C’mon,” she said as she stood up, grabbed the blanket off my bed, and went to the door.

I got up and followed her. We went toward the back of the building where we’d come in. She opened a door and led me into a stairwell. We went up to the third floor.

I’d thought there would be offices, but it was just a big unfinished area. There were windows around the perimeter of the room. Some were broken and let in the air. It wasn’t a lot cooler than downstairs, but it didn’t stink as much.

Hoodoo Mama went to the window closest to us and opened it. We were in the eye of the storm, and things were oddly quiet. We both leaned out of the window, sucking in the fresh air.