He pointed in the direction of a cell a few down from mine. Following him, I saw a hole in the wall.

"Don't forget us!"

"Come on, we're good people!"

It took everything in me to ignore them as I looked at the cell door we reached.

"Is this one going to break and trap you underwater, too?"

"The first shouldn't have. If them damn guards checked these doors like they are supposed to, that wouldn't have happened," Peace grumbled moving for the lock. "I have a key for this one."

I went to nod before pausing. If he had a key, shouldn't it have also worked on mine? I had only noticed the woman guard carry around one key when she came down to check on us in the hours before. Was the key she carried just for looks?

"No time to waste. Through the door and up the wall." He waved his hands at me to hurry up. "It's lucky it caved in so much or we wouldn't have been able to get out."

"What about the others?"

Their cries continued to be hard to ignore, but their safety was less of a concern then my own. If I knew they were innocent of their crimes, if I could believe they didn't do whatever it was they're charged with, the guilt of leaving them would become to much.

He looked at them as they hollered. "They'll be fine. If this prison lasted the last 50 storms, it'll last this one. Ain't the first time this place flooded."

I stared at those trapped like I had been. A few of them didn't look like they belonged for their clothing — even after spending time here — looked as if they were made from fine material. A part of me knew I was giving up to quickly. knew that if this was any other time, I would have helped them.

But this wasn't any other time. This time, I had been arrest and taken to the prison. This time, it was more then just the threat of being hanged, but a promise that couldn't be unbroken.

Would it be alright if I helped them?

"Let's go."

Peace words had me tearing my eyes from them and moving to the wall. I could barely see out of the hole as I reached it and I knew the climb would be just as hard. Taking a deep breath, I placed my arms on the cold, rough stone and pulled with everything I had. I struggled to get my body over, my arms scrapping against the stone as water sprayed into my face.

Just as I reached halfway, I stopped to wipe at my face to see where I would be falling. I spotted a thin ledge that went around the building. It surprised me that the prison had ledges that could help one escape when a wall collapsed.

Rain continued to fall from above, making it difficult to see too far out. Digging my elbows into the rough stone, I positioned myself so that I could get a leg over. Just as I did, I fell, my shoulder bashing onto the edge blow.

Pain exploded as I fell into the roaring seawater. It was colder than what was inside the prison.

I struggled, my feet and arms moving so I could get back to the surface. Breaking free, a wave crashed into me pushing and pulling me in all different directions. I reached for the sidewalk, blind from the waves and rain.

My hand felt nothing but air.

Then warmth. Warmth and hope as someone grabbed my hand. It had to be the dwarf.

I felt him tug me closer. Pain shot through my arm as he pulled, the bones feeling like they were grinding. My knees dug into the stone as I was pulled up, the ground feeling steady and nice.

A hand was placed against my back as if to hold me there as another wave hit against us.

"Are you okay, Rachel?"

I didn't expect him to be here. I didn't expect him to be working with Peace.

"Why the hell are you out in this storm!" I demanded, glaring at the man. "It was you, wasn't it?"

Why did he have to do this and for someone like me?

George nodded, looking up towards the hole. "Not the hole, but Peace, he was all me. He'll be fine," he said.

Right, the dwarf. I looked up as well. How did he plan on getting out? The same way that I did? Could he even reach the hole?

Or maybe, he had a different way. One that didn't require climbing and then nearly drowning in the open sea.

George helped me stand up, before pulling me along the ledge to the front of the building. I looked towards the wall, seeing only how giant it looked with the rain coming down. How did George even make it to the prison when it was outside of the walls of Carlisle?

The prison was on the westside of Carlisle and not protected by the wall like most of the city was. It was all alone until someone walked further down. There, they would find abandoned buildings that no one could hope to survive in during a storm.

Living outside of the walls during a storm was a death sentence.

The sea was a cruel mistress, taking from those that loved her.

Her waves crashed into Carlisle, causing the wall to collapse under the heavy force. The wind screamed as if it were a bunch of harpies coming to take away children from their beds for misbehaving.

I stood beside George, on the highest building we could find in Carlisle, watching as the rain continued to pour. We weren't the only ones, though I doubted the others knew that I had broken out of prison. The boys were there as well, hiding with the others under a small roof that had been used for planets so they didn't die from sun exposure.

I watched as the waves once more slammed into the East walls. The waves only continued to get bigger and bigger as the night slowly passed.

It didn't look like there was an end in sight for this storm.

"How long do you think we have left?"

George turned, heading back to the others as he answered me. "I don't know."

I followed him, feeling the hard wind lessen some as I took cover with the others. A feeling twisted in me as I knew the storm wasn't ready to give in. Below us, the waterways were flooded, reaching the first two floors of each house. The water was known to rise doing storm, but never this high or this fast. The level was becoming alarming.

I lowered myself to the ground, now out of the run, and leaned against the wall. I knew that I could think about being arrested at that moment or think about those I had left behind. Instead, I needed to focus on that moment and figure out how to continue to survive.

"Are you cold?" Jacob's question was filled with concern.

I looked at the boy. "No."

A shiver passed through me but my answer was true. I didn't feel the cold at that moment.

My eyes moved from him and too the sleeping form of William. He's been fast asleep ever since we arrived three hours before. It really did seem like he couldn't be awaken by anything, including this raging storm that was slowly destroying a city that's stood for a long time. I didn't understand how it could feel comfortable enough to be able to rest.

William was between Jacob and I, while the eight others fitted themselves on the other side of him. George stayed a step out in the rain, having complained earlier there were too many people for such a small spot. I couldn't disagree with that.

Charlotte de Berry stood just barely under the roof, and said nothing the whole time she had been there. Her arms were crossed over stomach and if I could have seen her eyes, I was sure I would see her thinking hard about something. With her being a captain, it surprised me that she was even there that night.

There were whispers that officials and navy personal had a secret place where they would be protected against any storm. Though I somehow doubted that. I knew almost all the places in Carlisle, since living there the knowledge would help. It gave me places to store the goods someone wanted to smuggle in or out, though none of them was a good place to hide people that needed gone.

Unlike the rest of us sane people, Charlotte was wearing what she would call her "normal clothing", but with how tight-fitting it was, there was nothing normal about it. As if feeling my eyes, Charlotte turned to look at me.

I doubted she was aware of what her Lieutenant did.

I looked away first, to find Sakura working on a gadget not too far. She was paying little attention to what was happening around her, her attention on the strange box she stationed between her links. Her pink hair was spiky that night, the tips a different color from the last time I saw her.

I couldn't be bothered to ask about the object that she cared so much about. What I did want to ask her about, was how she could see what she was doing when there was so little light. It had been hard enough to see the waves crashing against the wall without lightning, and here she was working on her box without a care. I swear, she could see in the dark.

The lit lamp we had was next to Nonek, who had his hands folded under his head as he laid there. It was brought by him and his wife, Margry. The low yellow glow spoke of warmth if it could become big enough, but instead we were surrounded by the cold. It surprised me the wind hadn't blown it out yet.

Margry looked as if she was freezing as my eyes fell onto her. Her hands were shaking as he folded and unfolded a small blue blanket. It reminded me of what a baby would have, but I was sure they didn't have one yet.

From the few times I had hanged around Margry, I knew that she had wanted one. Just one, and no more. I couldn't say the same for her husband.

Hiriko was the last of the group I knew that was up there with us. She huddled closer to those I didn't know, though it seemed she knew them. She was one of the few stevedores I knew who worked on the west docks in Carlisle. She's the one I kept telling George he needed to talk to so she could repair his ship. It was her dream to build them, something she was now learning to do.

Though she was young — around Jacob's age if I remembered right from when she last told me — she was still a brilliant girl. She never failed to be doing something with her hands, usually with a scowl on her face.

Looking over the edge I was sitting next to, I noticed something strange. The water. It was disappearing.

A calmness slowly settled around us, the rain fading into nothing. The clouds above moved, allowing moonlight to slip through. I watched as the water in the city slowly disappeared.

"The rain," Margry said as she looked around. "It stopped."

I pushed against the wall to stand up, a sharp throbbing pain hitting my shoulder. Wincing, I walked along the edge using the moonlight to guide me as the wind died down.

It was strange. This storm was strange.

It was like it couldn't decide what it wanted to do. Swallow us whole or take all the water away. I'd never seen or even heard about a storm that took water away.

"What is it?" George called out.

I looked over my shoulder and towards him, the lamp illuminating him. The fire flickered before it went out, tossing us in complete darkness.

Something strange was happening. Something unnatural.

"That water is disappearing," I said.

This brought the others, except for Jacob and William, to the edge of the building. I couldn't read their faces but I felt it in the air. The fear of what was coming.

"That's not good," Charlotte said.

"What? What does it mean?" Hiriko asked.

"You ever wonder why some ships come to the docks in shambles?" Charlotte asked as she looked forward. "The lucky ones at least make it with a few crew. The unlucky ships, they're swiped up and swallowed whole by the sea."

"Charlotte, what is heading towards us?" George asked.

"Destruction." A shiver passed through me at that word. "Chaos. Who knows. Maybe we'll be lucky and the crumbling walls will protect us," she said.

Crumbling walls? What did the walls have to protect us from? What was coming towards us? What more than waves could the sea throw at us?

"A tsunami."

Her words wrapped like a cold hand around me.

"I thought tsunamis were only myths," Hirkia said as she took in a sharp air of breath. "Something saylors talked because it was a spooky tale like Davy Jones' Locker."

"They are very much real. It doesn't happen often. Hell, I didn't even think this storm could cause one. They come out of nowhere, caused not by storms but something else." Charlotte ran a hand through her hair. "Shit, I've only ever seen one before and it was in broad daylight. No warnings. No storms. Nothing."

"What does that mean for us?" I asked.

A grim look appeared on her face as she answered.

"If we are hit, Carlisle and everyone here will be no more."

[WORD COUNT: 22,711]