Felicity was thrust underwater, upside-down, in less than a second. Her body wanted to float to the surface, but a large wooden structure - the boat - was in her way, capsized. Her lungs and stomach burned as if on fire, but she was smothered with water and unable to breathe, choking. In such a panicked state, she could not decipher which direction was up and which was down, and began to spin hopelessly and frantically.

Suddenly, mighty arms found her abdomen and pulled her out from underneath the boat in a single swift motion, and her body broke through the rolling surface of the water and into crisp, clean air. Well, really, the air was thick and hot with humidity; but after being submerged in water for so long, to Felicity, it truly felt crisp and clear. She hacked and spit up water, her body quaking and feeling sick from the waves that still rolled around her, roughly slapping into her body. Huan held her in his large arms, where she managed to find comfort and stay afloat, using his wide, heavy body as a sort of floaty. He smiled grimly at her, as if that could bring her comfort. Hanging on to the boat was Kiui (whom tightly held the poor dog in her arms), Marina, Zephyr, and Tati, all exhausted and yet still pushing through and managing to keep their heads above the water, clinging to the boat, their arms over the slick curved bottom of it, which was now facing the sky. Huan used his free arm to hold on to the boat, and his other arm to keep Felicity above the water.

Felicity had begun to hold a large amount of respect for Huan. Despite his occasionally hot temper, he was extremely protective of everyone on the boat, and seemed to genuinely want to help them. When problems arose, thus far, he always seemed to be some sort of solution, be it helping Felicity with defending them against the alligators, helping Marina and Kiui fish, rescuing Kiui after tumbling overboard, or rescuing Felicity just now. Felicity was too exhausted and light-headed to manage anything louder than a mumble, but she thanked him, and he responded with a gentle, "Save your energy." Felicity did just that, and either fell asleep or passed out completely. Either way, time skipped, and they awoke when the sun was high in the sky, early afternoon.

Felicity was familiar to this feeling of her skin feeling dry and wet simultaneously. Her skin was pasty and flaky, the salt water and sun beaming down drying it out, but most of her body was still submerged, resulting in wet skin that looked more as though it had been dried out. It wasn't necessarily painful, although it was very uncomfortable; her lips were chapped and cracked at the corners, her eyes crusted shut, and her skin tinged with sunburn and minuscule scrapes from the abrasive salt in the water. She could feel aching bruises or even cuts lining her back, shoulder blades, calves, and ankles, of which she assumed she had managed to get when the boat fell over on top of her. Her feet had gotten stuck for a moment underneath the benches of the boat as it was tipped over, and so her feet and ankles were especially sore. Her stomach growled desperately, and her muscles entirely ached with over-exertion and exhaustion. Despite having slept, she still felt very low on stamina, and her head felt heavy and throbbed like hell. By their sluggish and drowsy appearances, the rest of the ragtag crew felt the same. Marina and Kiui rested with their chins on the bottom of the boat, sighing heavily, the dog looking quite disturbed in the water beside them with wide, crescent moon eyes, his front paws lamely paddling despite Kiui's secure grip on him.

It was only after she had already been awake for about half an hour that Felicity's eyesight began to clear enough for her to see their new surroundings. The storm had seemed to knock them wildly off-course, and her sense of direction was officially gone entirely. And yet, as Felicity lifted her head achingly and looked around, she discovered that perhaps they had been blown in the correct direction, after all. The distant silhouette of shallow mountains was clearer than before despite the heavy fog, and the roofs of houses had begun to peak out from the water, signalling that the ground was getting higher, and the water shallower. In fact, in the close distance, some taller two or three-story houses had entire roofs and even floors above the water.

Felicity was filled with many emotions. For one, she was incredibly excited at the prospect of all scavenging buildings, finding survivors, and getting to higher ground away from so much water. She was also, however, overcome with an odd sense of sadness upon seeing the abandoned, water-logged houses, and she couldn't help but wonder about the persons who had lived there, and whether or not they had survived. Enough time had passed since the initial flooding that carcasses in the water had been picked clean and their bones sank to the abandoned town below, however Felicity knew, despite the lack of exposed or floating bodies, that there was plenty of death in these waters.

The water was eerily calm now, reflecting the blue sky with absolutely no imperfections. But, it wasn't long before gentle ripples from the boat broke that picture-perfect mirroring as it lightly bumped into what appeared to be the corner of a roof, waking up the few that half-slept while clinging to the boat.

They had been in the water long enough.

Zephyr was actually the one to gently suggest, "We need to flip this boat around." Huan was the first to agree. The hefty man let go of his grip of the boat, leaving Felicity to cling to it herself, and then he heaved himself atop the exposed roof. The roof was shallow, but slanted up in a pyramid shape, with greyish-brownish shingles layering the top. Even the guttering was exposed, and underneath the surface of the murky water, the house could be recognisable as white. Now, however, the textured exterior walls of the home were thick with green, spotty algae.

Huan heaved a sigh of relief and freedom, stretching out his back, pulling one foot up and then the other to stretch out his calves and thighs. Then, he helped the rest of them onto the sloped roof. Felicity took his hand, and allowed herself to be pulled out of the water and onto the rather slick roof. Despite the slope, it was solid, and comfortable to stand on compared to the boat. She stretched herself out, laid down, and then stood back up again. Then, she did a short little dance, hoping from one large foot to the other, admiring the way the solid, completely still roof felt beneath her sore feet and legs. Her body seemed unbalanced, wobbling as she walked on dry land, her hands stiff and her limbs swollen.

Once the entire crew was safely on the roof of the house, the men pulled the boat up and onto the slant of the roof as best as they could. The small boat floated halfway in the water, and halfway on the roof. Felicity was not eager to jump back into the water, although it was obvious by Huan and Zephyr's grunts that they were struggling to flip the boat over. Felicity slid herself back into the cold water, and pushed the rear side of the boat. It didn't take long for Tati to jump in and help her, while Kiui and Marina helped to pull at the hull. Once the boat was completely on the roof above the water, Huan and Zephyr were able to push it over right-side-up, and then let it slide back into the water with a plop.

There was a newfound issue that the crew then needed to discuss: their little supplies, food, and oars had all disappeared during the storm. With no net to catch fish, it would be impossible to survive for very long.

"One of us could push the boat from behind while swimming," Felicity had suggested, sitting on the edge of the house's roof, her feet in the cold water and the sun on her back. "Take turns, you know?"

"But we'd burn so much energy, and we don't have food," Huan pointed out, "How would we push the boat without energy?"

Zephyr sat down beside Felicity and sighed, "We just travel as far as we can without it. Maybe try fishing a different way. The water is shallower here, maybe we could scavenge from these houses?"

Felicity spoke, "Getting trapped underneath the water is way too risky. And remember what kinds of things are in this water?"

"How will we even get fresh water without our pans?" Kiui asked worriedly. Huan attempted to comfort her with soft words, although to no avail.

"We won't last long out here," Zephyr said gently.

To which Tati replied snarkily, "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"Hey," he hissed, "I don't see you coming up with any ideas for helping us."

"Oh yeah? And what have you done, oh mighty lord?"

Marina scolded, "Don't use His name in vain!"

And Tati snapped, "I'll say whatever the hell I want to say! If he was real, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"We have to overcome challenges," Marina said calmly.

"Challenges?" Tati spat, "Challenges like actual death?" Tati stood over Marina as she sat on the roof with both Kiui and Huan beside her. Huan stood protectively, nose-to-nose with Tati and his eyes gently narrowed as a warning.

"Everyone, calm down," Zephyr began, but was cut off once again by his sister's sharp remarks.

"Who the hell put you in charge, anyways? We didn't vote on that!"

"Nobody else seemed to take lead, Tati. I just wanted to help."

"You know, this ain't a goddamn democracy. What if I wanted to be in charge, huh? Maybe we wouldn't be in this goddamn mess."

Felicity hissed, "Tati, nobody could have saved us from the storm. Nobody could have predicted it or lead us through it any better."

"Yeah, that so? And you're just fucking psychic and know this?"

Zephyr spoke again, "We're all having a hard time here. How come you always have to make it harder?"

"Harder?" She scoffed, "I don't think it can get more difficult than being fucking stranded on a fucking flooded planet with no resources or supplies!" She let out another dry, passive-aggressive laugh.

Huan spoke then, with his usual gruff voice, "We have to make the most of what we have. We have a boat. We're in shallower waters that may provide for us."

Tati flipped around to face him, snarling almost like a dog, "We have nothing! These waters won't do jack shit for us!"

"There's a child here," he spoke slowly and sternly. He spoke it as a threat.

"I don't give a fuck about that child," she spat, "If Kiui died, that would be one less mouth to feed!" Kiui immediately began to sob, her mother holding her tightly. Huan's reaction was slow. His eyebrows furrowed, his eyes narrowed until they were mere creases in his already wrinkled complexion. His nose flared, muscles flexed as the group watched his anger bile, and bubble, and blow. And then, he lifted his arms and swung them both at Tati, shoving her with great force off of the roof and into the water, where she screamed as she fell and landed with a large splash, spraying the rest of the group with water. Tati pulled herself from the water and back onto the edge of the roof, scoffing angrily, wiping her once thick hair with her hands. Her black hair now appeared thin and clung to her face from the moisture, sheening in the sun, her top nearly transparent. She pulled herself up beside Zephyr.

"Zephyr!" She snapped, "Aren't you going to do anything?! Aren't you the leader?!"

"I'm not here to play politics," he sighed, shrugging, "And if you ask me, you got what you deserve." She growled at him, and then turned her sights to Felicity.

"And you," she hissed, "Just an extra mouth to feed."

"We're all extra mouths to feed, you dumbass," Felicity spat, officially sick of her bullshit. "If you want less, you're free to swim off." Tati only sneered again. Felicity was actually shaking a bit by now; she was used to being the shy and quiet one. Yelling at Tati, although had felt good, had also made her overwhelm and succumb to guilt. Although, the deflection of harsh words seemed to distract Felicity from her initial trauma, and thus, seemed to, overall, help. Though, she wasn't too keen on yelling at anyone else anytime soon. It was nerve-wracking. Still, Tati wasn't done blowing her top. She was like a wolf, teeth bared in a terrifying snarl, eyes flickering with rage. Then, like a wolf to its prey, she leapt upon Felicity, who fell back into Zephyr, and then all three of them fell from the tilted roof and into the water. Despite the short distance, the water smacked into Felicity like concrete, and her back burned.

She was thrust underwater, her eyesight blurred and then blackened by the green unruly water that washed over her. Thrashing wildly, her hands hit skin and other hands. They struggled beneath the water, fighting each other with muffled grunts and shouts, the water bubbling and churning over them, Felicity's head throbbing. Finally, after several unbearably long seconds, Zephyr pulled both hands around Felicity's middle, and lifted her up where her head broke the surface. She gasped for air, realising then just how absolutely sick and tired she was of water. Her eyes stung. Zephyr pulled Felicity to the edge of the roof, where she clung to the hot surface with her hands, coughing and recovering. Tati was then being held back by Huan, having been pulled from the water and now standing on the roof. Her face was creased with heavy malice.

Zephyr shouted now, which seemed uncharacteristic of him, "Tatiana, if you can't control your anger issues, then you'll have to leave." She spat, water running down her face and dripping from her chin in single iridescent droplets. He continued, "You're endangering the group! This whole fight is pointless and just wasting energy!" She scoffed, but as Huan relaxed his grip on her arms, she slowly slid to the floor on her knees, her face distorted in anguish. "We're all having a hard time," Zephyr said plainly, "But you don't need to make it harder for the rest of us just because you feel bad." He helped Felicity onto the edge of the roof. Felicity was beat, her spine and muscles all aching painfully, her head felt as though it were swelled. She laid down, sighing, barely breathing, and her stomach feeling sick.

The group calmed down, conversing gently for a while about how they could manage to survive. They had begun to run out of both hope and energy, the conversation seeming to go in circles and amount to nothing.

Well, why don't we fish? We don't have nets. Let's make some nets. Out of what? Out of materials we find in the houses. We can't get in the houses, it's too risky! Well, what about water? Let's find some pans for water. Where would we get pans? From the houses, of course. We can't get to the houses! What about scavenging food? From where? From the houses. We can't search the underwater houses!

The conversation bounced between all of them like banter, and yet it still appeared to be hopeless. All suggestions could only lead them right back to the houses they sat on. Resources, just waiting to be harvested from right under their feet! It seemed like the only solution. It seemed like an impossible solution, actually. It wasn't viable, and would mean certain drowning for whoever was stupid enough to decide to try it. Still, Felicity was curious. Could it be done? Was it possible for them to travel through a completely submerged house, gather materials, and then get out alive?

A plan began to take shape.