• • •
Down in Fifth Ward, the streets flooded over an hour ago before they had at Deltech. Anticipating this, Sineada and Mia had swept through the house, shoving towels under doors and taping windows. They worked feverishly, as if fearing something more significant than mere water damage would come from the rising tide.
Sineada had picked up on the “presence” within the water right away. She avoided looking out the windows as she worked, but was struck time and time again by what could best be described as a psychic scream when her neighbors were consumed by it. This included poor Viola, who’d been huddled next to a candle perusing a months-old National Geographic when death came for her.
There came a point, however, when the screams began to recede and the attention of the monster on the other side of the door turned its focus on Sineada and Mia.
“We need to head into the attic,” Sineada calmly informed her great-granddaughter. “You don’t have to be frightened.”
Mia nodded.
“We went up to the attic in our old house, too.”
“It’s not going to be like that this time. The floodwaters will recede a lot faster.”
They moved into the hallway to pull down the attic door. Sineada shuddered at the idea of climbing up the rickety wooden ladder but then chuckled at the thought that that’s what the voice meant by it being her time. Death by ladder.
“What’s funny, Abuela?”
“Not a thing. Just had a funny thou…”
Sineada was about to explain further when she heard a gurgling in the bathroom. The faucet over the tub sputtered, then spat liquid into the bath.
“Oh, Lord,” Sineada said, fumbling for the porcelain bird Christmas ornament that hung from a chain on the attic door.
She finally grabbed it and pulled but had little strength after a morning filled with activity. The sputtering had become a steady stream in the bathroom, and neither she nor Mia needed to be told it was bad news.
“Help me, Mia.”
Mia reached for Sineada’s hand and helped tug the bird downwards. The springs let out a metallic groan as they finally managed to lower the door. Sineada drew down the hinged ladder and planted its wooden feet squarely on the hallway carpet.
“After you,” she said, nodding to Mia.
Mia scurried up the ladder and then looked back down from the darkness of the attic.
“Hurry!”
Sineada nodded and slowly began her ascent. She looked over her shoulder at the bathroom and could hear, with terrifying clarity, thousands of voices calling in unison to strip the flesh from her bones.
Chapter 15
People in the factory building had no idea which way to run.
Before Dennis had even fully disappeared behind the solid curtain of black tar, the day-shifters began to scatter. Some ran back onto the line, others made a beeline for the parking garage, while still others continued up the stairs to the second level. As the pipes above the rest of the factory floor burst, water poured directly onto the heads of many on the line, inciting even more panic.
Zakiyah had chosen the stairs. Mandy was two steps ahead of her and reached the catwalk just as one of the garage doors gave in to the water building up on the other side. It was bent then torn from its moorings, sending it clanging against a forklift and a concrete column on its way to the water below.
“We’ve got to get to the parking lot!” Mandy cried.
But Zakiyah wasn’t so sure. Big Time was still pointing people towards the second-floor offices past the catwalk, and a number of them were taking his advice. Of anybody in the factory that she felt would make the right call, Big Time was it.
“Come on. Let’s go to the conference room.”
“And get trapped in here with that thing? No way.”
Mandy’s words seemed to resonate with several others around them. They all moved quickly down the catwalk towards the parking garage.
Meanwhile, Big Time had just reached the break area. There were now several tendrils of black pouring out from the men’s room. They were moving quickly towards the steps leading up to the factory floor and seemed to ride up the current to chase down the people fleeing towards the back of the building. Big Time had no idea why they were choosing them over the handful splashing through the water to the stairs leading to the catwalk but postulated it was because those on the stairs were far fewer in number.
“Come on, Elmer!” Scott yelled.
Big Time whirled around, not realizing how far back Elmer had fallen.
“Shit!” Big Time yelled. “Elmer! Move your ass!”
But even as Elmer reached the steps leading down to the break area, he was in water up to his knees. He didn’t see the tendrils of black racing up from behind him.
“Elmer!”
What surprised Big Time wasn’t that Elmer flew face-first into the water. Instead, it was that he did so before the tentacles even reached him. It was as if he’d been struck from behind by a pipe, just nailed between the shoulder blades, pitching him forward.
“What the hell…?” murmured Scott.
Elmer was just trying to find his feet again when the tendrils lassoed him around the feet and dragged him under. Elmer screamed and struggled to get to the surface, but the black liquid quickly swept over his entire body. The large black-covered mass got smaller and smaller as his body was dissolved until it finally became a tentacle again
Big Time couldn’t believe his eyes. A rapidly expanding circle of blood was spreading around the spot where Elmer had been only seconds before. He’d seen Dennis taken down but for some reason, it hadn’t registered in the same way. He’d been attacked by the black tentacle creature. Elmer had been slapped down by some invisible force first.
How did THAT work?
Scott clapped him on the shoulder.
“We have to go, man.”
Big Time nodded and allowed his friend to lead him up the
