Chapter 12: Evacuation.
"Bella. Bella! Wake up! Now." I opened my eyes blearily to see Alice shaking my shoulders. "Hurry. They aren't giving us much time!"
"Alice, what are you talking about? What time is it?" I sat up and brushed the hair out of my face. I noticed Alice still had her clothes on from last night.
"It's nearly 11:00 and they're moving us out of here." She was still shaking my shoulders.
"Okay, okay, Alice. I'm getting up. Who is moving us out and why?"
She quit standing over my bed and started changing out of her fashionable clothes and into a pair of loose jeans and a tee-shirt that said 'Seattle University,' something I had never seen her wear. I thought tee-shirts were against her religion. Even when she was working out, she had a cute designer tank top designed specifically to wear when exercising and such. Something must have been wrong, very wrong.
"Alice, what is going on?" I slipped out of bed and began to put on a pair of cargo pants and a tee-shirt of my own that had the logo of my favorite band – Muse. Ever since my eighteenth birthday, I had loved listening to their music.
Alice began throwing toiletries and a few spare sets of clothes into a small backpack and I mimicked her, still unsure as to why she was in such a hurry. She seemed to be almost panicking. "We have to evacuate. They're giving us an hour before the helicopters move on to somewhere else."
"You aren't making any sense, Alice! Evacuation? Helicopters! What is happening?"
"Look out the window." I did as she said. I opened the blinds and gasped. It was raining lightly like it normally did in Seattle – but dirty water was swirling around the buildings of the campus, and it was halfway up the first story of the neighboring residence hall. I could see some cars – the pickups had the cabs above water, and the only thing I could see of the smaller cars was the occasional roof or antenna. The rest were completely covered. I was suddenly glad I had left my rusty Chevy in Texas. I had no use for it here, anyway.
What astounded me more than the height of the water, though, were the helicopters hovering above two of the three dorms that were within sight. Students were standing on the roofs and climbing up rope ladders into the choppers.
I looked down again, and saw motorized rafts patrolling what had been streets, but were now canals. Far in the distance I could see one such raft pulling someone out of the water. "How did this happen?" I whispered. I remembered the raging storm from earlier this morning, but I couldn't believe this amount of water had come from the skies. This was too much. I turned back to Alice, who was tossing her cell phone and wallet in a large purse. "Does Seattle have levies I don't know about? And did they just break?" Images that I had seen on the Internet of Hurricane Katrina's effects swirled around in my head like the broken branches that were swirling three stories below me.
Alice sighed. "Yes, and now half of Puget Sound is coming into the city. There's a little bit of flooding to the north and south of Seattle, but we got the worst of it. And the rain from the storm only made things worse."
I gaped. "So now Seattle is basically a drainage basin for the Sound?" She nodded. I finally understood the enormity of it, and I began panicking a little. Slipping on some tennis shoes and throwing my hair up into a quick ponytail, I said, "Let's go."
We stepped out of our room while slinging our bags over our shoulders, and walked into a madhouse. Everywhere in the halls, people were running from room to room, clogging up the stairwells trying to reach the roof, and shouting at everyone else. One girl was screaming at her roommate, who wouldn't leave her lap top behind in order to save time. I had never seen such chaos before, even at football games against our rival school. At least that madness was organized. This wasn't organized. It was as if some malignant harpy of fate had poured a tonic of confusion and panic over the entire building.
Alice latched on to my hand, making sure we wouldn't get separated, and we squeezed past the crowd. We reached the stairs and claimed our spots in the queue. I was glad we were so close to the top, with only one story above us. Otherwise we would have been stuck in line for ages. The people behind us began pushing us up the stairs, ramming both Alice and me into the stout guys ahead of us.
"Hey! Stop pushing! We'll get out soon enough," one of them yelled over our heads in an incredibly authoritative voice. The pushing stopped, and I had room to breathe again.
I knew this floor of the dorm was only for girls, but apparently the guys from the floor above had spilled over onto this stairwell. Trying to relieve some of the stress of the situation, I tapped the guy who had calmed everyone down on the shoulder. "Hey," I said in a friendly way. "Thanks. For a second I thought I was going to be an evacuee sandwich," I joked. He didn't have enough room to turn completely around, so he just craned his neck to see me.
"No problem," he replied. "Those guys behind you were being jerks." I looked behind me, and sure enough, nearly half of the hall was lined with boys. How Alice and I had managed to get in front of them escaped me. But we were there.
"You know, all the ones in front of us are guys, too," I looked up to see the friend of the authoritative one speaking to both of us. "I bet we could let you two get ahead of us and on the roof in no time."
"Thanks," Alice replied with genuine gratitude, "but there's not even enough room for you to take a step up or down. How are we going to get past you?"
They both smiled. "Have you ever gone crowd surfing?" the first one asked.
I laughed. The idea of two girls being manhandled up two flights of stairs was incredibly funny.
"What? It could work. It's not like you are both carrying suitcases or anything."
"Yeah," I agreed, "but what if some of the guys ahead don't agree to this? Some unfortunate person could be stuck holding us above his head all the way out!" I laughed again. I didn't know if it was the effect of the confusion and stress, but the mental image was just too hilarious.
"We'll take care of that." Both of them turned their heads to the guys in front of them and said something. Then those guys said something to the ones ahead of them. It continued around the corner. Alice and I looked at each other for a moment. I didn't know whether to be grateful or horrified. It looked as though I was literally about to be manhandled up two flights of stairs, which would give a large number of guys the ability to touch me in ways that could be considered inappropriate. The thought was kind of scary.
I guessed consent for the idea had come back down the stairs, and the two big guys turned their heads again. "Nobody objects. Come on, we'll get you up there."
"Well, Bella, let's do this. If we don't, we could be stuck here nearly until our hour is up."
I carefully weighed the need to get to the helicopters and my fear of being carried by strange men. I looked up the stairs again, and looked at Alice. I decided. My fear was impractical. Getting up to the roof as soon as possible was practical. I took the first guy's extended hand.
I went first. Each of them took one of my arms arm in one big hand. The guy on the left grabbed my calf while the one on the right lowered his hand for me to step up on like a stirrup. I hoisted myself onto his hand, using their shoulders as supports, and I was swung above their heads, facing the ceiling. One of them shouted, "Here they come! Get ready!" I giggled to myself at the situation. Chivalry mixed with absurdity was just too amusing.
I started floating up the stairs, and I watched as Alice was heaved up after me. I could feel the hands of strangers pressing against my shoulders, back and legs. For some reason, they avoided pushing me forward by getting a hold on my butt. I questioned this. My hips, after all, were the fulcrum of my body, and so my rear would be the best place to support me. I was glad, though, that all the guys managed to keep their hands on places that weren't so awkward. Perhaps the feeling of emergency prevented anyone from getting dirty ideas. I guess college guys really do have some noble blood in them after all.
I rounded the turn in the stairs, halfway there, so I couldn't see if Alice was having the same good fortune as I had with the strange effort at chivalry. I finally reached the top the stairs, and I was graciously, if roughly, put down by two guys that were not quite as brawny as the two who had picked me up. I kind of fell down off of them, landing harder on my left foot than I did on my right foot. I was glad that it didn't hurt. I guessed my ankle had healed itself.
Alice had an easier time getting down. She was lighter than I was, and I helped steady her when she stepped to the ground. We stepped across the landing and through the industrial door that led to the roof. Under normal circumstances, the door was locked and only maintenance people could get on the top of the building. But since these were definitely not normal circumstances, the handle turned easily.
Alice and I stepped together onto the roof. The shingles were slightly slippery from the sprinkling rain, but the roof wasn't very steep. We walked carefully over to the group waiting for the next helicopter, holding hands in case one of us should slip.
I scanned the grey sky, wondering from what direction the chopper would come. Below, the brown-grey water was swirling and foaming angrily down the streets and bright orange rafts were still motoring around the residence halls. Someone was standing on top of a pickup, waving her arms as the wind whipped her wet hair across her face. She looked familiar, like one of the graduate students who taught my English section. One of the orange rafts sidled up to the swamped vehicle and she jumped on board.
I was so engrossed in watching the events taking place on the canal-streets that Alice had to tap me on the shoulder when she spotted the helicopter coming. Everyone on the roof started pointing, and as the chopper came nearer, the wind from the blades made my hair and clothes fly backwards. Alice gripped my hand harder.
I squinted up at the helicopter as the first of our group started climbing the rope ladder with the assistance of a broad-shouldered man in an orange vest that said 'Coast Guard.' The aircraft was fairly large for a chopper, had no windows except at the front, and it looked like it could carry at least eight people as well as the people crewing it. Since we were directly below it, I had a hard time reading what was on the side of it, but I eventually made out the words 'U.S. Army.' Of course. For an evacuation this major – they had to clear out all of the campus as well as all of Seattle! – every resource possible would be put to use.
Finally, Alice's turn came up. She was quickly climbing up the rope ladder, and I knew there was no way I could get up there that easily and that gracefully. For one moment, I was jealous. Then I saw something black fall off of her wrist, and I stepped forward to catch it. Right as my hand closed around a leather band, my foot slipped on the wet roofing. I fell forward and landed on my knees, sliding ever so slightly towards the edge of the roof. In trying to get up, I only slipped further.
Looking back I saw there were only eight inches between my feet and the edge. I remained still and waited for someone to help, figuring that if I moved more than necessary, I could very well end up plummeting six stories into a deep, angry river. I barely managed to keep from hyperventilating as I tried my hardest to keep a death-grip on the roof. Or would that be a life-grip?
I praised the stars when a pale hand appeared in my line of sight. I looked up to see the Coast Guard man reaching down to me from the point of the roof. Calming down almost immediately, I took his hand and he gripped my forearm harder than necessary, enough that it hurt a little. I didn't mind, though; a grip that hard meant I wouldn't fall to my death. Still clutching what I guessed was a wristband, I clambered back up to the top of the roof. Well, mostly the man pulled me.
"Thanks. A lot," I shouted over the noise of the chopper. I looked at his face, which seemed very young. He must have only been in his late twenties at most. He had kind, boyish features and short-cropped dark hair. I lowered my eyes in slight embarrassment at my clumsiness, and it was only then that I noticed how big the man was. His proportions seemed almost bear-like.
"It's no problem. That's what I'm here for," he shouted back in a kind, but businesslike tone. Looking up again at the helicopter hovering above me, I put the black band in my pocket and grabbed the rungs of the ladder, hoping hard that I didn't lose my grip.
The man must have seen a bit of fear in my face. He placed his hand on my shoulder in a comforting way, and said, "Don't worry. You'll be okay." Smiling in gratitude, I looked in his eyes quickly and began climbing up. It was about fifteen feet up to the helicopter, and though I was not agile about it, I went up without any major mishaps. There was a man at this end of the ladder as well, and he hauled me up into the cab – if that's what they call it – of the helicopter. Another man gave me a pair of headphones and gestured toward the empty seat beside Alice.
Sliding the bulky apparatus over my ears, I sat next to Alice. I was grateful for the massive headset; though they were goofy-looking and unattractive, the noise of the helicopter was reduced immediately to nothing but a murmur. Alice took my hand again, and I squeezed it reassuringly. She didn't see my fall, but I think she was worried enough about me even getting up the ladder.
After everyone had arrived safely in the helicopter, it flew away from the roof and headed east. We were in the air for ten minutes, then the chopper touched down, and we got out one by one, returning the headphones to the huge man who had saved my life back at the dorm. On my way out, I looked him in the face again to give him a 'thank you' nod. It was only then that I noticed.
His eyes were gold.
-X-X-
Authorities had not been able yet to determine the cause of the break in the levies. Sitting in the high school gymnasium, though, I didn't really care about the cause of the devastating flood. I was trying to figure out if Edward and the big Coast Guard guy had some sort of connection. His skin was pale and his eyes were gold like Edward's, but I didn't remember his skin being that cool. It could have been the rain. It was already pretty chilly outside anyway, I reasoned. And if I was under enough stress from nearly falling, whether his skin was marble-hard like Edward's could have gone unnoticed. I just didn't think it would be possible to meet two vampires in the span of a lifetime. I mean, usually if someone met a vampire, the person's life ended, right? Apparently not in my case.
Could it have just been a pale person with gold contacts? That seemed like too much of a coincidence. What if it was another vampire with no relation to Edward? That seemed unlikely, too. Vampires take lives, they don't save them. Edward saved yours.
Ugh. This was all too confusing. The back-and-forth with myself was giving me a headache, and if I hadn't solved it in the last six hours, I wouldn't solve it now.
The helicopter had dropped us off at some sort of holding area, where all the evacuees from the college were gathered. After a couple of hours sitting in some sort of warehouse in a town I've never heard of, Alice and I were flown, along with about fifty others, to a town that had volunteered the use of its school gym for the evacuees. I had already called my parents, who had been following the news of the flood with incredible amounts of worry. I reassured them that I was fine and that right now I was supposed to wait in the gym until temporary homes could be found for us.
Everything was so jumbled up and confused that I wasn't sure when I had been having a conversation with one person and when the conversation had been with someone else. Between Alice, my parents, military officials, and other evacuees, I totally lost track of any sort of sequence of events for that day. And the puzzle of the golden-eyed guy certainly didn't help. At one point, I had been sliding down the roof of my dorm, and then now I was waiting in this small-town gym, not exactly sure in what order things had happened in between those two points.
I remembered specific events, like talking to my parents, but what order they came in was completely mixed up. On our arrival, we walked in the gym and saw that the school was actually in the town of Forks, and Alice called Rosalie to come see us. She came, talked for a while, then left because she had to work in Port Angeles. We met an interesting evacuee who was also from Seattle University. His name was Eric, and he was pretty dorky, but in a funny way. He left us after a while.
I think after Eric left, Alice and I were sitting basically alone, since many others had decided to try to sleep on donated pillows and blankets. Everyone was scatted on the floor, in the foyer, and in the bleachers. I guessed some of them might have been taking showers in the locker rooms. I had been listening to Linkin Park on my iPod, but I had happened to glance at Alice and she seemed particularly sad or upset. I didn't know what for, exactly, and I wondered if she was concerned for some of her friends.
I pulled the ear buds out of my ears and put my hand lightly on her shoulder. "Alice, is something wrong? You seem really sad about something."
She had been staring at the same spot on the gym floor for a while, but she raised her head at my voice. She glanced at me with moist, but not overflowing, eyes and sniffed.
"It's silly, I'm sure," she said lamely in a tone that told me it was anything but silly.
"Alice, I'm your friend aren't I?" She nodded slightly. "Then tell me, because I hate to see you upset without me being able to do anything about it."
"Well," she hesitated. I nodded for her to go on. "As you know, my parents died in a car wreck right after I graduated." I nodded again, not sure where this was headed. "So when you called your parents, I got a bit jealous. I have no siblings, and all my friends aside from Rosalie are evacuees, too. So I don't have anyone to call. I have no one to reassure that I'm okay. Nobody is going sick with anxiety over me. Nobody," she repeated.
I felt bad. I hadn't really realized how alone Alice really was. She had her friends at college, but no family connections whatsoever. Aside from Rosalie and possibly me, she had no real ties to anyone. Except…
"Why don't you call Jasper?" I suggested with a sudden brightness. "If he's been listening to the news at all for the past six hours, I'm sure he's fretting his head off." I thought my brilliant idea would have brought Alice out of her funk for sure.
But instead the tears really came on, and Alice sniffed again. "I don't have his number, and he doesn't have mine," she whispered. She began sobbing quietly, as if saying it out loud made it worse, since she would actually have to believe it.
"Didn't you exchange numbers last night?" She had said she gotten his number, hadn't she? I remembered her saying she had.
"Sort of," she explained while wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her tee-shirt. "I make it a point to never give my phone number to guys on a first meeting. It was a sort of safety trick my mother told me when I was in high school. But if he wants to give me his number, that's fine. When we left, he wrote his number with a silver Sharpie on the inside of his wristband. And I lost it climbing into the helicopter. So there's no way for me to contact him – or ever see him again!" She said this last with a desperate sob.
How stupid I was. I had completely forgotten in the wake of my puzzlement over the golden-eyed mystery man, and Alice was suffering because of my idiocy. Rotten friend I am.
Immediately I pulled the black leather band out of my pocket. It had silver fasteners on each end, and in the middle there was an emblem of some sort. Like a family crest. On the inside I could see ten silver digits written in slightly slanted handwriting.
"Here, Alice. I'm so sorry, but I forgot I caught it. I even slipped down the roof a little when it fell. I've had it all this time." She looked at the wristband in shock, then a huge smile erupted on her face and she nearly took me off the bleachers with a ferocious hug.
"Bella, you are truly amazing! I owe you huge for this!"
"No, please, don't say that. It's my fault that you were sad in the first place. If anything, I should owe you a huge favor to make up for it," I tried to argue.
"Nonsense. But we'll call it even if you want." Her eyes were glowing and she was bouncing with excitement and relief.
"Fine by me. Go call him." She squealed in delight and ran down to the foyer so she could get reception outside. I don't know what it was, but it seemed the gym had some kind of cellular reception scrambler. Mobile communications equipment was useless unless you took it outside the anti-technology barrier that seemed to exist at the entry to the gym.
About the time Alice made it outside, an official-looking man with a clipboard approached me sedately. I recognized him as the head logistician for this location. When we first arrived, we had to sign in with him and either tell him we lived nearby, or ask for temporary lodging with one of the local families. Since Alice and I both had nowhere to go that was close (they wouldn't let us go to Rosalie's place), we had to wait here for someone to take us on.
"Are you Miss Swan?" he asked in a calm, monotone voice. No wonder he was a logistician. It seemed he could be calm, and even bored, in a state of severe crisis. Kudos to him, I thought sarcastically.
I looked up at his balding, bespectacled, chubby face, and said, "Yes," trying to match his anticlimactic tone as well as I could.
I didn't seem to perturb him in the least. "You have been placed with a host family. Well, really a local couple who have no children. You and Alice Brandon requested to remain together?" he asked in a tone that was so flat it seemed to not even be a question. I just nodded. "The two of you will be relocating to the house of the local clinician and his wife. Please be sure you and Alice are ready to leave in half an hour."
"Do we even get to know their names?" I asked as pertly as possible. This man annoyed me.
I didn't even faze him. He only glanced at his clipboard and replied, "Carlisle and Esme Cullen."
And he walked calmly away. I got up to go tell Alice that we had a home. For now.
