Higher Ground

Water glistened above their heads, soft beams of sunlight reaching past the surface to the city stretching below. Silver flashed as a school of fish passed by.

Mel watched Vinny readjust his air tank before signing to her.

Look.

She followed his pointed finger to the ruined capital below their feet and smirked at the mermaid statue lying on its side, covered in algae save for a single eye and patch of hair.

After paddling their borrowed boat to the submerged city and settling by the single remaining skyscraper, its upper half emerging from the surface, the two treasure hunters dove down to explore what was left.

Several dozen fallen skyscrapers littered the city as far as they could see, decorated with decaying coral and crushing desolated brick buildings. It was hard to imagine this ever being a booming metropolis just several hundred years ago before sea levels rose and claimed it their own.

Vinny signed again. I don’t see any openings. We should try the front door.

Bubbles spewed from Mel’s face as she snorted through her nose. This wasn’t their first underwater expedition, but usually the buildings were so corroded from salt water they didn’t have to swim low to find an opening. Glass was different though; glass lasted.

Flashlights in-hand, they made their way down to where the building remains cast shadows over each other and more fish swarmed the streets. Mel eyed a fallen billboard, its faded message just bright enough to make out.

“Show the planet a little love with our all-natural shampoo, containers now made with 100% recycled plastic.”

She snorted more air bubbles.

They ignored the revolving door at the building’s foundation, approaching one of the normal doors on either side. Vinny tugged at the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. The hinges were red.

He opened his pouch to dig out a window-breaking tool. Surrounded by a reinforced door frame, this thin glass would be the easiest and safest to break.

It cracked all at once, fractures webbing to the edges. He then anchored himself with the frame and kicked in the glass with his flippered feet, shards caving in to drift down and settle on the floor. Vinny swam through first, Mel close behind.

They didn’t take long to find the directory in the dark lobby, miraculously still intact and readable.

This way, Mel signed, motioning to the nearest hall.

The informant had promised to tell them the location of an untouched jackpot if they agreed to settle his government debts with their haul. They said they had their own debts to pay. He didn’t care.

Leading the way to their destination, Mel nearly spit out her breathing tube when she rounded a corner and almost bumped noses with a shark. Her flashlight fell from her hand as Vinny collided with her back. Mind racing and eyes welling hot with tears in the face of its open jaw, she flailed her limbs in an attempt to swim away.

Vinny grabbed her arm to stop her, and through the fog that had formed in her goggles she saw him sign, It’s dead.

As her goggles slowly cleared, she realized the shark was lying, unmoving on the buckled gray carpet in the glare of her fallen flashlight. She wondered how it had gotten in.

Breaking free of her partner’s grip, she swam forward, kicked the shark twice in the nose, and picked up her flashlight. Vinny circled around her and made the sign for laughing. She made the sign to fuck off.

Like the exterior, the doors at the end of the hall were tinged red on the hinges. After Vinny broke the glass they entered the shadowed jewelry store and assessed their findings.

The room was broad enough to fit a small house and a half, displays of precious metals and jewels curving around the floor. Treasure hunting on land was easier than underwater, but Mel was surprised this place had been untouched until now.

Jackpot, she signed, swimming towards the center display to claim her prize.

Shining her flashlight through the glass, her eye caught a monstrous gold locket the size of her palm. Two of those could cover a month’s living expenses, with enough leftover for her sister’s lung cancer treatment.

Pulling out her own glass breaker, she cracked the top and smashed it in with the butt of the handle. Fishing the scanner from her pouch, she pressed it against the locket and it flashed green. 24-carat.

She stuffed her pouch like a Christmas sack, cramming in strings of gold until the display was empty. She should have brought a bigger bag.

The recent earthquakes plaguing the region had been mere miles from desolating her family home, but thankfully had done no more than shatter a single vase. Had they lived closer to a fault line, Mel would have had to make several trips to both pay the informant and cover the devastation. Despite the rise in homelessness, the news continued to favor stocks. Any real world news came from word of mouth.

Mel sneered at the shark after passing it on the way out with her hoard, Vinny lugging a bag of his own.

Outside the building, the water was more active than before, tugging them from side to side as they swam up and broke the surface. Spitting out their breathing tubes, they realized their boat was nowhere in sight.

“What’s with these wild waves?” Vinny shouted over the roar. Water splashed him in the face, and he sputtered out foam before getting splashed a second time.

Mel did not respond. Instead, with wide eyes and a gaping jaw, she pointed to the horizon with a shaking finger.

Vinny turned, and his face mirrored hers.

A towering wave could be seen in the distance, growing in height with every passing second.

“We need to get back in the building!” Mel half screamed, half choked.

“But my tank is almost out of air,” cried Vinny.

Mel’s was too, but all the air in the world wouldn’t matter if they got caught in that tsunami.

Shoving the breathing tube back in her mouth and choking down the sea water that had gotten inside, she dove back into the depths. Her muscles burned with fatigue after two hours of paddling and swimming.

At the door, she pulled herself through the hole and looked back to see Vinny close behind.

We need to go upstairs where there’s air, she signed, fingers feeling slow and clumsy.

This building is too old! What if it collapses?

Mel’s heart beat rapidly against her chest. Would you rather be crushed down here?

Vinny’s eyes widened.

Hurry!

It was like swimming through gelatin, Mel couldn’t get to the stairs fast enough. Through the water she could hear debris slamming against the plexiglass outside. When she glanced to her left, the shampoo billboard spun by like a fan. After that she didn’t even process the shark as they rushed over it to the nearest staircase.

Up they swam, through halls cast in darkness with only their flashlights to guide the way. The building began creaking when they reached the sixth floor. On the thirteenth, the stairs ended.

Mel jerked her flashlight from side to side, lungs aching and head dizzy. Her air tank was almost empty. She held her breath as long as she could, waiting until her face burned before taking the shallowest of breaths to sustain her until the next one.

When her light landed on a sign pointing them in the direction of a second staircase, she kicked off the wall and shot forward, clock ticking in her head.

The second staircase hugged the plexiglass wall, looking out to the world beyond. Mel froze at how similar it looked to a tornado, jolting when a sea turtle was hurled into the glass, slamming its head three feet from hers, and flew out of sight.

She jumped again when a hand wrapped around her arm, and she jerked around to see Vinny move in front of her, pulling her up the stairs.

Now that they were next to the windows, they could see the surface of the water getting closer. They could also see that the tsunami was nearly upon them.

Taking another shallow breath, Mel followed close behind, doing her best to ignore the raging state of the world beyond the glass. Not that she could focus much on anything as the edges of her vision blurred.

It happened as they rounded a corner. Mel felt a subtle tug from her place behind Vinny, thinking nothing of it until his body was dragged from the staircase, limbs flailing, from a hole in the glass just big enough for a mid-sized shark to swim through.

Mel’s fading vision locked in on Vinny’s hands as they seized the broken glass, gripping with white knuckles, his body pulled back by the current and goggles ripped from his face. Red bloomed between his fingers.

Mel’s skin went cold, clinging to the railing just out of reach of the current. Behind Vinny, the wave had completely blocked her view of the horizon. She tried to gasp for air, but there was nothing. Her tank was empty.

There was no time. Her lungs felt as if they were about to cave.

Her sister’s face flashed behind her eyes. The desolated houses after all the earthquakes. The blank faces of homeless families. Her own family. Even Vinny’s family.

They needed one of the two of them, and if Mel died trying to save Vinny they would have neither.

Her stomach twisted, but she felt comforted by his eyes screwed shut as she dragged her body past the opening, past the current, past her partner, thighs cramping and arms aching. The water’s surface was visible just several meters away.

She didn’t feel her pouch slip from her waist until it was too late. She snatched at empty water, fingers grazing the handle before the current dragged it out of reach. Her teeth clenched around her breathing tube.

Eyes locked so intently on the pouch, she almost didn’t register the hand that clamped around it. Almost didn’t comprehend Vinny pull it to his chest and hold it as close as a child, eyes still screwed shut, red still blooming from his palms.

On its way out the opening the pouch had collided with his face, and he had not hesitated to release one hand from the precipice of safety to stop it from its descent into the depths. His own pouch was still tied securely around his own waist.

Mel spit out her tube, unclipped her empty tank and swung it around to her front. Her vision was going black, but she anchored herself with the railing and forced herself to stretch out the tube until it brushed against Vinny’s arm, still clutching her bag.

Slipping his arm through the handle to free up his hand, he grasped at the tube and tugged. Mel tugged back.

She almost lost her grip on the railing when he let go of the glass edge to hold onto the tube with both hands, his weight yanking her entire body forward. A sharp pain shocked her shoulder and she opened her mouth to scream.

When the wave hit the building, the current changed instantly and Vinny’s body was flung back through the hole, into the staircase, slamming into Mel’s. Water flooded her lungs, the world around her a rush of movement and limbs. Her vision flashed white.

She didn’t remember swimming up the rest of the stairs, but when she broke the surface it felt like being reborn. She retched out water, tears streaming down her numb cheeks and color slowly returning to the world. The building was still standing.

Silence. Heavy silence. It weighed on Mel’s shoulders heavier than any wave, wiping clean any sense of relief.

“I thought you had left me to die,” said Vinny.

“I did.”