The flow was tremendous and only increased as the rushing water quickly eroded the soil. The surface of the river was a good metre above the bore hole and it poured in with ever increasing volume like a burst dam.
Gunnymede and Saleem had fallen back as the boat had risen up but as it tilted over to one side, Saleem fell out of the shattered side door.
Gunnymede had rolled to a stop at the same opening door and saw the Arab flip over the side. He pulled himself up onto his knees and edged outside to see Saleem holding onto the twisted rail, most of his body in the water that was pouring into the bore hole. If he were to let go, he would not be able to stop himself from following it. The embankment continued to erode, increasing the flow which would only get worse as the river level rose. The sound of the water rushing into the hole was almost too loud to speak over.
Gunnymede dropped out of the bridge to the rail where he only just managed to stop himself from following Saleem over the side.
Saleem mustered all his strength to try and heave himself out of the water but it pulled at his body and it was all he could do to hang on. Gunnymede reached out and grabbed his hands in an effort to help keep his fingers wrapped around the rail.
They looked into each other’s eyes through clenched jaws.
‘Who did you speak to in Syria?!’ Gunnymede shouted. ‘In the desert! Who did you speak to?!’
‘Save me and I’ll tell you!’ Saleem shouted back.
Gunnymede looked into his eyes. ‘You don’t know, do you?’
‘I know who gave him the plan!’ Saleem shouted.
‘Who?!’
‘Save me!’
‘Tell me and I’ll save you!’ Gunnymede shouted. He could feel Saleem’s fingers loosening their grip. ‘Tell me!’
‘He’s British!’ Saleem shouted.
‘You’re lying!’
‘No! A politician!’
‘Who?!
‘Save me!!!’
The boat suddenly jolted heavily as a piece of it broke off. Gunnymede lost his footing. One of Saleem’s hands gave way and he hung on desperately with the other. Gunnymede fought to help him.
Saleem tried to reach the rail again with the free hand but the angle would not allow it. ‘Save me!!!’ he shouted.
It was a final desperate cry for help as he felt his grip fail. The hand left the rail but Saleem was still there. Gunnymede had a hold of his wrist. But he was never going to keep it for long. Seconds later, Saleem’s hand popped from Gunnymede’s grip and he shot away with the flow and into the yawning gap in the embankment where he disappeared inside a vast suction of water.
Gunnymede watched the point where Saleem had disappeared, his only regret he didn’t get the name.
‘Dear God!’ one of the station controllers called out and everyone looked at the monitor he was watching. Water burst into one of the platform access tunnels through a disintegrating wall that quickly eroded the ceiling along its length. Another screen showed a different section of tunnel with dozens of people hurrying along it as a side of it burst open with tremendous force slamming them back the way they were going. Within seconds the tunnel was filled with water and the CCTV camera submerged for a few seconds before it failed.
‘It’s happened,’ Bethan muttered.
‘How long before the rail tunnel doors are closed?’ the senior controller shouted.
‘Three minutes,’ came the reply.
‘We need to close the internal doors to level three,’ the senior controller urged. ‘Get those people out of the tunnels!’
‘Where are those children?’ Bethan asked, pointing to the monitor that showed them still walking along in ignorance of any danger.
‘That’s here,’ a controller said, pointing to a tunnel on a station map.
Bethan took a second to memorise it, ran out of the room, along a walkway and down a set of stairs. At the bottom she sprinted towards the barriers and scrambled over them.
‘Stop!’ one of staff cried out but Bethan barged past him, ran to the escalator that wasn’t moving and bounded down it, several steps at a time. When she reached the bottom she paused long enough to work out where she was and set off at a sprint along a tunnel.
Back in the control room, they watched various CCTV cameras showing people frantically wading through water. Some views showed people finding flights of stairs to escape. One group reached a stairwell only to be thrown down them by the arrival of a wall of water.
The river gushed into the tunnel the children were in and the adults quickly grabbed the smallest ones and hurried back the way they came. Everyone in the operations room anxiously watched the monitor.
‘How far are they from the internal doors?!’ a controller asked.
One of them indicated the map. ‘They’re here. The doors are here,’ he said concerned. It was not a short distance for children in those conditions.
‘Close the doors to half way,’ the senior controller ordered. ‘Start with doors A1 and A2. C3 and 4 standby!’
Bethan hurried along a corridor knee deep in murky water that was flowing towards her. She paused in shock as a section of the wall started to move before realising it was one of the watertight doors shifting out of its recess. She stood in the opening and shouted for anyone to head towards her.
The door was halfway across the tunnel when it came to a stop. She heard echoing screams along the tunnel. The water was rising to her waist. She pushed on beyond the watertight door and down the tunnel.
She came to a short staircase going down with
