The Wave

The wind at the shore was already quite strong when the plane approached for landing. I could see it fighting the turbulent air, which seemed dedicated to not let it touch down safely. It indeed did not. As the plane reached the ground, it was suddenly thrown to the side, tilting its nose forward. The cabin dug into the landing strip’s asphalt, tearing itself apart. The rest of the machine slammed down in an angle for which the landing gear certainly was not built. The wings burst into flames and the rest of the plane with them, resulting in a fiery mess of metal sliding across the airfield.
The pilots were dead the instant the cabin was crushed, except for them, there was nobody on board. The plane was coming to pick up the soccer teams that were supposed to play the cancelled game. They were more important than everybody else on the island. It did not matter anymore. They were now going to die along with us. Nobody cared about putting out the burning remnants of the plane. The nature was going to take care of it soon.
We were sitting on a balcony of the tenth floor of a tall apartment block overlooking the shore. Below us was a number of smaller houses and the airfield further to the west. The rest was sea, vast and deadly. We knew what was coming – we meaning me, my friend, her brother and the thousands of people around. They told us we had couple more hours before the wave hits, but I could already see the rage building up on the horizon.
There was nowhere to run and nobody was coming to pick us up. The rest of the world had their own trouble to deal with. “Is this the apocalypse?” I thought as I looked to the distance and saw a grey wall in-between the sea and the sky. I knew it was going to come sooner than expected.
I grabbed her hand. She looked me in the eye and I could see she knew the feelings I had for her. We pulled ourselves closer to each other. I ran my hand over her white cheek and through her dark hair. She was always pale, but now she was white as snow, scared to death. I wished I could just hold her tightly and fly away as I kissed her. She responded passionately, as if trying to compensate for all the time together we would never have.
The brother got up to get a bottle. One last shot before we go. He entered the room and we followed. We calmly got ourselves the last three glasses and sat on the floor of the empty apartment. The bottle was in the backpack on the balcony. I got up to go get it. As I stepped through the door, I saw the houses below getting flooded. The water was rising a couple of meters every second. I looked up and the only thing I saw was a never ending wall of steam and foam, speeding against the building.
“It’s here!” I shouted, running back inside. I wanted to be with her to the very last moment. The wave got me in the middle of a step, violently throwing me against the wall at the other side of the room. I felt crushing pain as my body hit the concrete. Everything turned into chaos. I curled up into a ball and closed my eyes, hoping for it to be quick. It was not. I was being tossed around the room like a ragdoll. The world turned upside down and inside out. The worst part was the noise, it felt like standing below a thousand meters tall waterfall.
To make things easier, I took a deep breath. To my great surprise, it mostly was not water what entered my lungs – at the exact moment I opened my mouth, my face entered the last capsule of air in the corner of the room. Right away I smacked my head on the ceiling and almost lost consciousness.
Everything stopped. I realised I was alive, floating around, running out of air. I opened my eyes. The salty and dirty water burnt them, but I could see light coming through the balcony door. There was not much left of it, the door itself was missing, windows smashed and the panes broken and bent inside. I swam out and noticed the outer steel railing was left undamaged. Grabbing onto it, I pulled myself up to the next floor and finally, repeating the process, got out of the water on the last one. With all the power I have left, I swung my body over to the balcony floor, laid down and let darkness take rule.
I wake up to a brave new sunny day. I slowly get up and look over the balcony edge. The sea is where it is supposed to be, only the wreckage gives it away. All the smaller houses are basically gone, along with the crashed plane. I go inside the room, only to find out a part of the building has collapsed and there is no way to reach the stairwell. The only way down is on the outside, by climbing on the balcony railings.
As I carefully reach the tenth floor and look down again, I notice something very odd. The ground is not wet nor dirty. Nothing is where it is supposed to be of course, but everything is covered in fresh growth of tall grass, bushes, flowers and whatnot. I can even see a buck running through the street. How long have I been out? Where is everyone? I need to find her body.