Hey everyone thanks again for the reviews. Some of you came forward and confessed that you live a short distance away from Johnstown. It's pretty cool to have some of you living so close to me. Ha Ha. Thanks again everyone, and please keep the reviews coming.

Christine's POV

I awoke, shivering and in complete agony. Erik's body was still up against mine, his slow and steady breathing making it obvious that he was in a deep sleep. Curious about if it was still raining or not, I carefully slipped out from under his arms, and untangled myself from the blanket to glance out the window. The water level was a few feet below the window sill, and the only thing visible for miles was the tree tops that were sticking out of the muddy water. I was afraid. Never had I ever seen something so terrible in all my life. There were household objects drifting by, doors, chairs and even a mattress.

"Christine…" the groggy call caused me to turn and see Erik sitting up. "You should be laying down."

"I just wanted to see how bad the flood was."

Erik crawled over to my side, and looked out the window with me.

"Christine, I don't wish to scare you, but I believe the worst is far from being over."

Erik pulled me away from the window, and wrapped the quilt around both of our bodies.

"I wish we were home." I shivered.

"Yes, me too."

"I wish we were home enjoying a meal together. I'm starving."

"Yes, for once I feel the same way."

There was a few moments of silence, and then I felt Erik shifting from behind me. He placed the quilt around my body, and began heading towards the closed doorway in the floor.

"Erik, where are you going?"

"To find us something to eat."

"What? No. You'll get hurt."

My husband kicked down the stairwell, and the sound of rushing water filled my ears.

"What are we to do? Starve?"

I got up, and threw the quilt aside.

"Then I'm coming with you."

"No. You must stay here."

I wasn't going to listen to him. There was no way I was letting Erik go down stairs without me. What if something happened to him? Erik was already halfway down the stairs, when I joined him.

"Christine. I told you to stay."

"It's better if we stick together, Erik."

My husband groaned in defeat, and helped me down to the second floor. The water level came up to my knees, and Erik held onto my hand as we began to head to the staircase. The dining room was on the first floor, which was completely flooded. We stood at the top of the staircase, looking down at the high leveled rushing water streaming through the house. Chairs were floating, the dining room table was lodged in the door way, and there was even a huge tree branch drifting around.

"There's probably nothing to eat, Erik. The water probably swept everything away."

"There has to be some cabinets above the water level."

"How are you going to get to it?" I questioned. "You could hurt yourself."

"You stay here, and I'll go check the kitchen."

"But…"

"No buts. Stay put and I'll be right back."

Erik then dove into the rushing water, and I watched him disappear. I was so afraid that he wasn't coming back. I stood there holding onto the railing of the stairs as the water swept about my knees. Moments later, I saw Erik swimming back, carrying a handful of canned food. He struggled to reach the stairs, and I reached to take the cans out of his possession.

"There's more." he gasped. "Take these up to the attic and come back."

I did as he told me to, and rushed down the hall to where the stairs were down. I climbed up the them, and placed the canned food down before coming back for more. Several times I continued this, until Erik came back with nothing. He was soaking wet, and shivering from head to toe. He helped me back to the staircase and once we were both back in the attic, he closed the passage way once again.

I needed to get him warm. He was soaking wet and cold to the touch. I instructed him to remove his trousers, and afterwards I placed a dry quilt around his body.

"I'll be fine, Christine. I assure you."

"You need to stay warm, Erik."

While Erik warmed up, I began going through the boxes, trying to find anything to use in order to open the cans of food. I was thankful when I came across a wooden case filled with a few spoons and knives. It took forever, and all my strength to open two cans of beans, but I was starving and didn't care how long it took. I stuck a spoon into both cans, and approached Erik once again. He was trembling beneath the quilt, and his face was turning a light blue color. Fearing the worst, I crawled in beneath the quilt with him, and pressed my warm body up against his.

"You were very brave, Erik."

"An…anything for you…ch..Christine."

I handed him his can of beans, and began to dig into mine.

"Erik, do you remember our wedding?" I asked, trying to think of things other than the flood.

"How could I forget the most wonderful day of my life?"

"Promise to never leave me Erik. Promise that even if we die that you won't leave me."

"Never, Christine."

Moments later, my husband laid me down in our makeshift bed that was nothing more than the floor covered in blankets, and kissed me passionately on the lips. My side was burning in agony, but if this was going to be the end of my life, I wasn't going to stop kissing Erik now…not for anything in the world. I groaned in ecstasy, and felt the quilt being brought over our heads as we continued to kiss. My husband rolled the nightgown down past my shoulders, and began kissing ever inch of flesh he could get his mouth on. The chill in my bones instantly washed away, leaving me filled with comfortable warmth and the feeling of Erik's bare chest up against mine.

"Erik…" his name ran off my lips like flowing water, never wanting him to stop what he was doing. "Make love to me."

If this was going to be the end of my life, then I wanted nothing more than to indulge myself into Erik's body one last time. My arms clung to him as his body connected itself with mine. Our voices sang in sync to the pitter pattering of the rain hitting the window. It was such a beautiful thing. His hands caressed each part of my body, reaching under my back, and pulling me closer to him. When it ended, Erik and I both fell asleep in one another's arms after dressing. We were both utterly exhausted, and no longer cold….

I would have stayed asleep for a long time, but awoke when I felt something cold and wet hitting my body. I opened my eyes to find nothing out of the ordinary, but could feel something hitting my hand. When I glanced down, I gasped and scurried to my feet when I noticed that the attic was filling with water.

"Erik, Erik! Wake up!" I shook his body, causing him to jolt awake. The water was already up to my ankles, and it was coming in through the closed passageway in the floor. When I looked towards the window, I also noticed that the water was now splashing against it.

"We need to head to higher ground."

Erik pulled me towards the window, and began to lift it open. Only when he did, all the water that was rushing by outside began to pour into the attic.

"Come on, Christine!" he demanded. "Climb out and grab onto the roof."

I was afraid, but I knew Erik was right. I did as he told me to, and slipped my thin body through the small window, and grabbed hold of the roof as the water continued to pour into the attic. It was hard to keep my grip on the roof of the house. One wrong move would have landed me right into the rushing water. I felt Erik push my legs higher, making it easier for me to pull my entire body up to the top of the roof. There I was, sitting at the highest point of the house in the pouring rain, with water rushing on all sides of the house.

Moments later, I saw Erik's hands grab hold of the roof, and begin to pull himself up. I grabbed hold of him, and helped him into the spot I was sitting in. We were trapped! The water was rising quickly, and we had no place else to go.

"What are we going to do, Erik?" I asked, frantically clinging to him.

"Just stay calm, Christine. We're going to get out of this….somehow." Erik assured, looking each and everyway for an escape.

It was then that my worst nightmare appeared. There heading towards the remainder of the house was an entire tree torn up from the ground by its roots. The water was carrying it towards us with lightning speed, and I knew this was the end.

"Christine, hold onto me."

"Erik, what's going to happen?" I cried.

"Just hold on."

I closed my eyes tight, and never held onto him with all my might. I heard a huge bang, and felt a shift in the roof. I opened my eyes to see the tree's roots pushing into the roof, the rushing water forcing the tree closer and closer. I knew eventually the house was going to give in, and the tree was going to keep on moving.

"Christine, we only have a few seconds before we're not going to have a house to sit on anymore." Erik said, bringing me closer to him.

He was looking around for anything that would help us escape, but there wasn't anything but a bunch of chairs floating by. I could feel and hear the tree forcing itself deeper into the roof, the roof cracking and getting ready to give way. And then, just as if it were sent from heaven, a huge door came floating by. It looked brittle and old, probably wouldn't even hold both our weights….But before we even had time to talk it over, the roof gave way, and just as I was about to crash into the water, Erik threw me onto the door.

I was alone, and floating downstream at a quick pace. Muddy water splashed me at ever corner, the door crashed into floating chairs and branches. I was so scared!

"Erik!" I called his name at the top of my lungs, not even caring if I destroyed my vocal cords. I lay there on my stomach, my head turning at ever point hoping to see him pop up out of the water.

"Erik! Answer me!"

Soon that same tree that had destroyed the house, was floating beside the door I was on. I looked over at it's largeness, and to my horror saw Erik hanging on the side of it. I believed him to be hanging on, trying to stay out of the water, but it only took a few moments to realize that his arm was caught on one of the branches. When it hit the house we were on, it must have hit Erik so hard that his arm had become impaled onto one of the branches.

"Erik!"

I reached my arm out to him, and his free arm tried to reach for me. Through all the rain, I could see red running down his impaled arm.

"I'm caught!" he cried. "I can't get my arm loose."

Without even thinking about myself, I stood up on the door, and jumped over to the tree, struggling to pull myself onto it. When I was able to do so, I crawled over to where Erik's arm was caught, only to look down and see that his fore arm was impaled on a branch, and the bone had torn through his skin. I had to do what was best for him. I had to save Erik's life! I reached down and pulled his entire body up onto the tree, and laid him on his back to figure out how to get him unattached to the tree. I knew the only way was to break the branch away from it.

"Erik, hold your breath." I told him. "It's going to hurt."

Erik closed his eyes, and looked away. Then, in one swift motion, I snapped the branch away from the tree, causing him to scream, and then I pulled the branch out of his arm…. My husband screamed ever so loudly as I did so, but I knew this was going to keep him alive. I thought everything was going to be alright, but soon, the tree smashed into another house. The impact was so great, that Erik slid off into the water, and I dived into save him. Only when I did, another large branch came crashing into the side of my head…..and I blacked out.

When I opened my eyes, everything was white and blurry. I thought it to be heaven… I thought that I had died, and I was now seeing the bright light everyone sees when they reach the pearly gates. Only when I finally came to, I realized that I was laying on a cot and draped in a warm blanket. I wasn't the only one in the room. There were thousands of other cots lines up all around. There were even nurses walking back and forth, checking on each patient. Some didn't have any legs, others had broken limbs….I then realized this place must have been a hospital of some sort.

I reached my hand up to my head, and felt a bandage in the place the tree branch had hit me in. I closed my eyes, only wanting to rest, but then Erik came into mind. I shot up from my spot, looking around to each cot, trying to spot him out, but he wasn't laying in any of them. One of the nurses who had seen my attempt to get out of the cot, came rushing over, and tried to push me back down.

"Deary, you must lay down."

"My husband." I gasped. "I need to find my husband."

"I'm sure your husband is just fine. You need to rest. You have a terrible bump on that head of yours. Pulled you out of the water barely alive, they did."

"Erik, where is he?" I cried. "Tell me where he is."

"If you don't lay down on your own, I'm going to have to get the doctors to put you out. We'll find your husband in time."

I didn't want to be forcefully put to sleep, and so I laid down like I was told to. I groaned, and turned my head to the side, wishing I could find Erik.

"A lot of us lost our husbands. You're not the only one." came a woman's voice.

I turned my head to the other side to see a woman laying in the cot beside me, her right leg elevated into the air, and wrapped in a bandage.

"I lost my husband too."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Our house became flooded like many others. We located to the roof… My little son fell into the rushing water, and my husband jumped into save him…I…I haven't seen either of them since." I could see the woman's tears, falling from her cheeks as she ended her story.

"I hope they're ok." I said.

"Do you have any children?"

I nodded, thanking God that Gustave was safe.

"Yes, a nine year old son. His name is Gustave."

"Is he ok?"

"Yes. He wasn't here. We're from Coney Island…"

"I hope all our family members are ok."

Indeed I wasn't the only one who had lost a family member in the storm. I found that mostly one out of every three people had been separated from a loved one during the storm. When I was well enough to walk around, I left the hospital ward, and walked outside. I had learned that those who had been found like me were brought to the incline plane, and taken high above the flood levels to the top of the mountain I was standing on now. It over looked Johnstown, and even though the rain had stopped, just looking down at the flooded town below brought tears to my eyes. After searching all over the mountain for Erik, I found out that he had not been one of the ones brought up by the incline plane. There were two hospital wards at the top of the mountain, and I searched each and every cot in both buildings, but came up short. One of the nurses had told me that there were other places he could have been taken to, but would have to wait a few days until the water flooding the town was completely drained.

What if Erik was laying somewhere, drowning or injured where no one could see him? I couldn't wait a few days. As each moment passed, so did another minute of hope for finding Erik alive. Later that day, they had set up a tent on the other end of the mountain where they had begun bringing up the bodies found in the flood. As the incline plane arrived and stopped to drop off the bodies every twenty minutes, I would stand there, praying that none would be Erik….. For hours I stood there, looking over the bodies, some children, some men, and a lot of women…but none had been Erik.

The bodies never stopped coming. Even as I stood outside of the tent where they were keeping them, I could hear the sounds of wives screaming over their husband's bodies… Orphaned children crying over their dead parents. It was horrible. But I thanked God that so far I was lucky to not have been one of the crying people. Seeing these bodies scared me. I was afraid that any moment from now I was going to see them bringing up Erik's body. I was told that I had to stay on the mountain with everyone else until the flood water was gone…Time was running out, and I wouldn't stay put any longer. If I was going to have any hope of finding Erik alive, I needed to do something….now. Oh, Erik, where are you….

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