Naturally Buoyant
9-15-04
I have a crappy job in the supermarket. I'm not even real employee. Every time I walk by the front doors, I hear a microphone squeal. I notice a storm coming, and everyone comes outside into the courtyard. I go back for something when I feel a rumble and look up to see a tidal wave coming first over the mountain and then over the skyscrapers. I figure I'm a goner, but turn to run anyway. Some old man helps me over the wall and we all run back inside the store where we started. Nothing happens.
A big steel door in the basement keeps the water at bay. It's only a matter of time until it busts. I get into a fight with black kid and tell him he's gonna die. We climb to higher floors to escape the rising water. We all live there for a couple years, and I bring in some expert friends to help survive. At the top is a dark cave with hard floors, which we cut away to get to the foam underneath. Easier to sleep on it that way. We arrange a fancy dinner. A bum arrives at the door to the dinner, and I give him a quarter.
I get tired of the radio in the building and get into a gunfight in "town" with the radio speaker. I flee to the semi-flooded lower levels of the building and notice the water is starting to rise again. There are some people down there, foolishly trying to drag stuff up, like soaking sofas. Some people even get into a flooded elevator, hoping it will work. I figure they drowned. I make it up some steps and see the radio guy. I say our fights doesn't matter now since it's flooding again.
I go outside and see the rest of the world isn't flooded. I ride my bike through the city. I go to the roof of the tallest building and see the same bum there from before. I give him a quarter. A tidal wave hits and drowns everything but us. The water comes nearly to the top of our building. Other buildings pop up out of the water with survivors, as if they had been broken at the base and were naturally buoyant.
posted by Phlegm at 9/30/2004
