Kestral. Lynx. Abyss. Prairie.

The Storm

  -Lynx-

   I was cowering in a corner of the attic, like she told me to, and listening to the rain slam down into the roof. Gull, my older brother, was sitting next to me. Worry seemed to permanently be etched on his face.
   Every now and then, the boom of thunder would make me jump and it would wake me up from a restless slumber.
   I could slightly hear the rush of the water at is slowly began to flood our house. Our house had three floors, plus an attic, so we were hoping that it wouldn't reach us in the attic.
  By now, it was almost up to the second floor.
   We were cold, as we sat and shivered in that little corner. Gull and I were waiting for our mom to come back up the attic stairs. We were waiting for her to tell us it was going to be okay and that the water couldn't reach us here.
    She never did.
    I don't know know how long we shivered, waited, and sat there. The rain never ceased, and we somehow knew that we wouldn't have a house left after it did.
  Eventually, we heard a female voice.
  It wasn't mom.
  We also heard the distant hum of a helicopter.
   Suddenly, the door to the attic slammed up and a flashlight shone in. "Hello?" A feminine voice called out, the beam of the flashlight shining. She was wearing a life jacket. She was also soaked.
   "We're over here!" Gull called out, waving his hand wildly, and the beam snapped to us.
    "Oh, good!" The lady clambered the rest of the way in and tossed us two life jackets. "Put those on! We have a helicopter waiting!" She yelled over the booming thunder.
   We quickly slipped them on. Gull had to help clip mine on.
   We made our way over to the lady, avoiding the slippery spots on the floor. Her hand was already outstretched.
   "Where's our mom?" Gull asks, grabbing my hand, before grabbing hers.
   "Come on! We don't have much time!" She yelled, and then pulled us out of the attic. We splashed down into about an inch of water.
   "Where's our mom?" Gull asks again.
    "We already picked her up." She says, not looking at us. Little did we know: they didn't.
    Gull nods and he smiles for the first time in days. "Thank you."
    "Y'all's first floor is almost completely flooded." She remarks, sending him a nod. "It's not over my head, yet. Sweetie," She looks down at my six-year-old self. "I'm going to put you on my shoulders. Don't be scared."
   "I'm not." I lie.
   She nods. "You're a brave little girl."
   "I know." I remark, being my sarcastic self.
   We get to the stairs that lead down to the first floor. The water is halfway up the stairs. She hoists me onto her shoulders. "Hold on." She then locks hands with Gull and we descended into the water.
    The water brushes up against the bottom of my barefeet and it's cold. I shiver. She leads us out into the living room, where all of our furniture and our TV was underwater. I gasp, seeing the flooded kitchen. The front door is already open, and water was gushing in.
   We go straight into our front yard, which had about five feet of water. She fights against the current and the blinding pellets of rain as she tugs Gull and I over to a man holding a rope.
   She gently hands me to the man, who fastens me in a little seat attached to his chest. He then tugs on the rope and we slowly began to ascend. All sound but the whir of the helicopter is extinguished.
   It feels like forever, but happened to be only about 30 seconds, before we are at the entrance to the helicopter. The man unattachs me from his chest and slides me over to someone else waiting at the edge of the helicopter. 
    He pulls me inside and instantly wraps me in a blanket. He asks if I'm okay. I nod and ask where my mom is. He shakes his head, either because he couldn't hear me or because he didn't know, before turning his attention back to the slowly descending man.
   Before long, Gull and the lady are sitting with us- all wrapped in blankets.
   No one speaks, as most conversation would be drowned out by the roar of the engines. Besides, no one wanted to talk anyway. Why not save the energy?
   I was curious though...where was our mother? My little six-year-old mind thought that maybe she was on a different helicopter, or that she was already somewhere safe and was waiting on us. Somewhere, deep down, I knew that neither was true. Ignorance is bliss, at least for the moment.
  The men straighten up the rope and we are off. Rain pelts us through the open doorways of the helicopter. The blankets help some, as do each other.
  After a while, we are setting down in a drier area. It was still raining, but at least there wasn't five foot of water on the ground. We exit the helicopter, carefully and with help from the others. I look around, shielding my eyes from the oncoming rain. There's a church and an empty parking lot- except for about two inches of water steadily building on the ground.
   The lady leads us into the nearby church, quickly. "This is an evacuee camp." There were several people cuddling on cots for warmth. Food and water were being served nearby at a little station. Some people were just milling and wandering around, obviously restless and anxious.
   "Where's our mom? Is she here?" Gull asks, immediately.
    The lady looks between the two of us before sighing. "Listen...your mom...she..." She draws in a sharp breath before plunging into a sentence that would forever change the course of our lives. "She ran out of the house, screaming about helping y'all...we saw her, but she was suddenly underwater before we could reach her. We tried to save her...but she disappeared. I think that the current swept her up."
   My heart stops and my breathing shallows. I clench my eyes shut, hoping to wake up in my warm, dry bed. I open my eyes, as Gull starts to speak. It wasn't just a dream.
   "What?" My brother breathes, eyes wide. His breathing quickens, as does mine.
   "I'm sorry. She could still be alive. Maybe she made it to higher ground. We are going to go back out and check for her and any other survivors."
   "What?" He asks, again, in a daze, curling his hands into fists. He holds a fist before slowly letting his hands unfurl. He clenches them again.
   "We'll let y'all know if we find her. We are coming back here in a little while." She continues, trying to be as genuine as possible. "We will do our best to find her." She looks at us, momentarily glancing between us. "I'm Pixie. What are your..."
    "Gull. This is Lynx." He sighs, rubbing his nose.
    She nods. "Weird. Like mine." She chuckles. She straightens up, when we don't join in. "Anyway, where's your dad?"
   Gull shrugs. "No clue. Ran off when Lynx was four."
   "I'm sorry." She says, sincerely.
   He shrugs again.
   "Anyways, they have food and water here. There's clothes, too. If y'all want to change out of y'all's wet ones."
    "Thank you." Gull and I say, simultaneously.
    "You're welcome." She then looks back out the entrance, through the rain, to see if the helicopter is up and running again. "I've got to go. I'll be back in a little while."
  She's gone.
  She never did find mom, either, we were to learn a few hours later.
   We still held onto hope, but over the course of the next few days, when nothing turned up -except for what may have been a slipper of hers- and the rain kept coming, along with more refugees...our hope slowly began to dwindle.
   Then, when a month passed and the flooding had gone, we had a brief, fleeting moment of hope.
   A woman had been found, waterlogged and exhausted, but alive. Her description matched our mom's description; dark red hair, hazel eyes, and a birthmark on the right side of her face.
  We traveled with Pixie to New Roads, Louisiana just to see if it was her.
   We were all excited as we walked up to the woman, sitting on a cot in a local church. We tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around...and our hearts fell.
    They fell and shattered like a mirror off of a four story house.
   Don't get me wrong- they were similar, almost twins, but she wasn't our mom. The lady had mumbled a sorry, and said that she would ask around to see if people had seen someone similar to her appearance. We even kept in touch with her for a year or so.
   Her name was Jess and she was in northern New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. She lost everything, too; house, furniture, and even her pet dog was swept away in the storm. We visited for a few moments, before continuing our search with Pixie.
   But, after we left Jess, our hope dwindled to a dull spark that could be blown out at any moment.
   It was a blow to our efforts and left us at an all time low.
   But, we never stopped looking.