Page 86 of Sheltering Instinct

Levi didn’t want to be in the water with them; they might see him as a means of escaping the flood.

With a glance up at the clock, he realized the time frame he’d set for himself was up. He didn’t want to give up. But the water around the desks had reached the height that the teacher was all but floating.

For no reason other than a last-ditch effort, Levi climbed onto the desktop, straddling the woman. Raising his hands overhead, he interlaced his fingers, And with all his might, he slammed his hands down on her chest like Thor’s hammer blow.

The teacher suddenly sat. She puked water from her lungs out into the swirling current that filled the room.

The woman was in full fight or flight. Vomiting and swaying, she gripped at her chest and throat as she heaved air in and out like a locomotive.

Another wave of water came through the open door.

It was time to get to the roof. Now or never.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Levi

Between the two of them, Levi and Tess were able to get the teacher up to the roof. Then Levi clambered up after her, shutting the hatch door.

So far, they’d met every challenge.

Everyone was cold, wet, and tired, but everyone was alive.

Levi did a quick head count to make sure that was true.

Pulling the cans of white spray paint from one of the boxes he’d sent up. On one side of the black roof, he painted V/16, and on the other side of the roof, X/1. It was an international code that, when seen from the air, would be read as, “Sixteen people need help, and for one, it was a medical emergency.” With that, rescuers would know how to proceed.

Hopefully, this information would stay current.

The water pounded down like it was Armageddon.

The children had climbed under the tarp, sitting in a circle around the teacher, who lay in a fetal position. The lightweight plastic could keep the rain off them and not fatigue their arms as they held it over their heads.

They may need that energy later.

Even with that many little hands holding the tarp in place, the wind could easily snatch it from them. A rope threaded through a corner grommet was attached to the stove pipe. That had to be Tess’s foresight at work.

Levi pulled a dry bag from his kit and handed it off to Tess. Then he pulled another for himself. They opened them and put their day packs inside. He assumed everything inside was already damp, but that wasn’t the only point of these dry bags. Tugging the mouth wide, Levi swung the bag through the air tofill it before rolling the top. This way, their survival gear should stay watertight and could possibly float. The neon orange might signal someone as they moved about the roof.

As soon as the bag was in place across her chest, Tess grabbed his arm. Her eyes were wide and rigid. “Levi, we're floating.”

He stopped his chores and held his hands wide. Sure enough, the building bobbled.

“Velocity and debris,” her words barely whispered past the wind. “This is a cement building.” She stared out at the water as it rushed around them. Then, seeking out his gaze, she leaned in so her words weren’t whipped away by the wind or drowned in the deluge. “Parts of the school were sealed with paint, but this building is cement blocks. It will absorb the water. We’re going to sink.”

Levi reached for his binoculars to see if there was a possibility for escape up ahead. But nothing sprang into view.

How was it that he and Tess had been apart for so long, and as soon as they found each other, they were put into one life-or-death scenario after another?

As the school bobbled in the water, the children screamed and clung to the edge of the tarp. The teacher, still stunned by the blow to her head and near-drowning, could do nothing to calm her students.

Tess grabbed two of the jugs and squat-walked to the edge of the roof. She opened the top and poured the contents into the flood waters. After recapping the empty jug, she moved to the next.

“Get away from the edge,” Levi called. “The rapids can tip you in. “

“I have to do this here. The contents are caustic.”

But with a nod to safety, she lifted the rope, still attached to the stove pipe, and knotted it around her waist.

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