Boarding School Waters

Hephzibah Ohihoin

The sound of voices singing hymns, alongside occasional claps that matched the rhythm of the song, drift through the early morning air. A large group of female students are sitting on a raised cement platform in the middle of the girls dormitory, the only one standing is the dorm mother who leads the hymns. 

She suddenly stops clapping and her eyes sweep across the circle of girls that surround her. 

“Girls! Why the attitude?! This isn’t good enough for our group's morning devotion.”

The response, grouchy muttering that matched the obvious displeasure on their faces.

“Is it because of this morning’s emergency drill? But the school warned you that it could happen at any time! Enough of this foul mood, Anita comes and says the closing prayer!”

It’s 10:10am and the students of The Apostle Catholic highschool are having their short break, students sit idly in each class gossiping and snacking. 

“I say we cover our heads with our pillows and forget the bloody rules next time they try that drill” Penny says with a slap on a desk.

Anu sighs, sweeping Penny's hands off her desk. “And then what happens if it’s actually an emergency? What's going to happen to us ‘oh WISE Penny’?”

“I’m just saying, do you know how many people tripped from all the chaos? I was sleeping so peacefully but you just had to wake up and start shouting emergency! Didn’t you even hit your head on the top bunk from the shock?” 

Anu glanced away in embarrassment. “E-xactly!” Penny yelled, drawing out the ‘E’.

“God! Penny, can you keep your voice down?!” she gritted through her teeth.

Penny, now a bit frightened by her friend’s aggressiveness, sat down and lowered her voice to a whisper.

“Anyways, they told us the drill was going to happen twice this month so we still have one more to go, can we really go through all that stress again. It's so exhausting to think about!”

There's a brief moment of silence and Anu stares out the only window on the left wall of the second floor classroom. She stares hard, right into the eyes of the giant statue of Mary that stood in the middle of the field next to the building.

“I don’t care what you think Penny, I will not take the drill lightly even if it happens fifty million times.”

Penny’s eyes bulge, “Fine! You're just going to make a fool of yourself, nobody is going to come out except the freshmen; they’re stupid like that, just like you!” Her tone is scratching with agitation.

“Penny!” Renay exclaims, she had been silent throughout the argument, sitting beside the desk that stood in between her two friends. Penny had gone too far this time. Anu was visibly hurt but continued to prove her point, there was a shakiness to her voice.

“You never know what's going to happen, and what of the flood. It's been on all the news channels, the latest victims being the people of Duna town and that’s just four miles away from the school. It could literally be us next Penny!”

Penny and Renay gasped. “God forbid! Don't say things like that Anu, what if it actually happens just because you said it?” Penny exclaims.

“If it’s meant to happen, it will happen either way.” she replies with a roll of her eyes. Anu tilts her chair backward slightly, ruminating over her next choice of words.

“Even worse, our school is in the middle of a small forest and is built into a large bowl like grassy clearing with no human contact nearby. If the flood is really as bad as it seems, we would literally be submerged in water.”

There’s a short period of tense silence among the trio; Penny breaks it to no one’s surprise. “I'm still not leaving our room during the next drill”, she was just as stubborn as ever.

“Penny, Jesus Christ! Have you even been listening?!”, “Renay tell her she’s stupid and wrong!”

Both girls looked at Renay. “I… don’t know?”, an answer that she wasn’t a stranger to.  Her friends looked at her in disappointment, “Look” she said, sounding a bit miffed, “let's just finish our snacks, cause short break will soon be over, okay?”

RIIIIIIINGGG!!! Anu woke up with a gasp. Her head hit the top bunk again, hopefully Penny didn’t see that. Breathe she told herself, she had a dream that she was drowning, a nightmare rather. It took her a few more seconds to realize that the emergency bell had been ringing for over five minutes, it even seemed that there was some slight commotion outside.

She jumped.

“Emergency!!!” she screeched into the room. Among the six girls residing in it, only Renay got up, and she didn't look like she was ready to jump outside in her thin nightdress. 

“Seriously Anu shut up! You can go emergency yourself on your own” Penny called out from her bed. 

Time was wasting. “Fine! I’ll go by myself, if you decide to join me Renay you know where the door is…, Jesus?!?!”

Penny finally opened her eyes, “what happened?” Renay asked, going quiet the moment she saw what Anu saw. 

“Water! There's water everywhere?! The hallway is full of water!!” All the girls gasped.

“We need to get out, the hallway is filling up faster and faster…, Penny! For Christ sake get the hell up!” 

There was panic everywhere as girls ran across the room, their noise woke up the inhabitants of other rooms which caused even more chaos when they saw their rooms filled with ankle length water. The girls hostel sat on a raised platform where each hallway led to four rooms with six girls each. If the water had already gotten to their room then there was definitely a problem, the platform was three feet high, the water must be nothing less than four feet and it only continued to increase.

“SILENCE!” The command came from the ‘timid Renay’ to the surprise of all of them. 

“Everyone carry your pillows with you”

“what ? why?” a girl asked. The school drill demanded that everyone drop their pillows in front of their doors for easy counting of students and to make sure everyone was out of the room. But this only worked in the case of a fire, not a flood.

“They're practically plastic” she replied calmly, “they might help us float if things turn out worse”. Everyone agreed that it was a good idea, “I almost forgot, let's take our bathrobes, only God knows when someone will rescue us and we might be in the rain for a long time so it’s going to be cold”. Penny was amazed by Renay’s new  found boldness and could only follow after the others. 

Two of the girls decided to stay back so the remaining four girls set out with their pillows in their arms and wrapped in their bathrobes. Stepping outside, the water was now at waist level. They waded towards the Hostel mother who was trying to help students up the roof, many students remained in their rooms unaware of the danger that loomed. 

The water continued to rise steadily, only ten of the girls had responded to the bell on time and now they watched from the roof as several screams rang out. They watched as people drowned, gasping for air but only taking in more murky water. Eyes wide and desperate, splashes violent and painful to the ear, one by one girls would sink to the bottom only rising when they had bloated from death. 

Just like human floaties, Anu said to herself as she stared into the still, discolored eyes of one of the girls they left in the room. 

It had been a day and a half since they took refuge on the roof, the hostel mother had been trying to contact the other teachers to no avail and they were all extremely hungry. Surrounded by bloated bodies with inexplicable smells, they had to leave this place as soon as possible. 

“I think we should try and swim to the cafeteria, there’s a lot of food there and it's the tallest building in the school, the water is still rising as we know it”. The trio sat away from the others discussing among themselves the next thing to do, “That's a good idea Renay” Penny added. Ever since Penny had recognized Renay’s quiet but strong leadership, she had become more humbled and less headstrong. “Let’s tell the hostel mother our idea tomorrow then.” said Anu, and the conversation ended there.

 The girls awoke to a ruckus, the hostel mother was nowhere to be found. “Does anyone know where she is?” asked one of the now nine girls, one of them had ended her life just the day before. 

“I heard her discussing on the phone with some of the teachers about a refuge tower near the teachers quarters” whispered a timid freshman, all the girls gathered around her eagerly. “Something about a hidden canoe nearby”, a new realization dawned upon them. “That backstabbing witch! She left us for dead just like the other ‘adults’!” screamed Penny.  

After some brief discussion, they all decided to follow the original plan, they would swim to the cafeteria. “We can't,” Penny abruptly said, “only Anu and Renay are strong swimmers and even then it’s way too far for anybody to last.” 

They're pillows were in ruins so they couldn’t float on them either, they were truly stranded. Renay had an idea but it wasn’t going to be a pleasant one, “We can…. actually use the bodies around us, you know?” she only got looks of disgust. She took a deep breath in, “I know it’s traumatic but they can float, as long as we hold onto one each and paddle with our legs, we could actually get to our destination.”

They looked at their still eyed classmates reluctantly, there wasn’t a lot of time left and the roof was almost enveloped in water. “Let's start this journey then” Anu said quietly. 

They had been paddling for fifteen minutes and had already lost one life, she was too tired to continue and had thus slipped into the murky depths of water never to see the light of day again. Twenty-five minutes in, and the girls decided to take a short rest. Mina, a bright eyed junior had mistakenly drifted into a naked wire, Anu didn’t think she would ever be able to look at a light pole the same way again, in her head she would conjure up images of Mina’s terrifying movements as the electricity shocked the life out of her very soul. It had been thirty-five minutes of paddling when another girl suddenly had an asmathic attack, the dusty wind combined with the bone freezing cold water had been too much for the poor girl to bear. This time Anu closed her ears, she refused to hear another schoolmate struggle for her life. 

Forty-five minutes later and they finally arrived on the roof of the cafeteria building. After eating from food supply boxes that floated around them, the six of them looked around for anything that could be of any help and by chance they happened to find a raft. For two days they settled on the cafeteria roof until the rain began to pelt down harder. 

“This is the tallest building in the entire school, we’re really stuck now.” sighed Penny with a look of despair. Anu thought hard, there had to be something taller right? What could possibly be bigger than all the buildings, “I got it!”, she yelled. Everyone looked at her in confusion, “I know where we can go, but it won't be easy.”

Their school was an all girls catholic highschool, so there was bound to be a statue of Mary somewhere, theirs just happened to be extremely large, one of the biggest in country actually and taller than any building in the school by far. They had checked the raft and were almost ready to go until they heard a shriek close by. One of the girls was trying to pull another out of the water but the red pool surrounding her showed that it wasn’t a simple fall . 

There was a crocodile in the water, maybe two. Just a mile away from the school lay a river that was known for the wild-life surrounding it, crocodiles included. The girl trying to drag her friend out of the jaws of the crocodile stared at the others panicking on the roof, it was a look that said help me, but not a single soul stepped forward. Like an open secret, everyone knew that despite being a group, it truly was an ‘every man for themselves’ situation; and with one last look at the ‘team’, a look that would hunt anyone that remained alive after this ordeal, she succumbed to the same fate as her friend. In just a few seconds both girls were gone…for good. “Get the raft out of the water NOW!!” ordered Renay, they all struggled to waddle with the heavy raft back to the roof but something had gripped the timid freshman’s leg before she could get to the roof. It was like time moved slowly as they watched her swirl in the water, the murky brown water turning murky red-orange. Penny in a brief act of braveness jumped into the water, landing right on the head of the crocodile. After some moments of struggle they were able to crawl back to the roof with the help of Anu and Renay, they would try again in the morning. Both girls had serious injuries especially the freshman, the mood was bleaker than ever and no one knew what to do. 

“I won’t go with you guys again”

“What do you mean?!” Penny asked in shock

“My injuries are bad, worse than yours Penny and I'm tired of everything, i would rather wait here on the roof even if the water swallows me” she continued, “I’m truly tired”.

The trio had been on the raft for fifteen minutes now. Wary of crocodiles and sick from the cold, the sight of several dead bodies of their teachers, including the hostel mother, didn’t shock them as much as they thought. “Wow, the refuge tower plan must not have worked” Penny mumbled sarcastically, the others laughed. “I'm surprised you still have some humor despite all the bleeding from your leg” added Renay with a light giggle. 

They looked at the statue eye to eye; Anu couldn’t believe that they had finally arrived. The climbing part took longer than they thought but they were able to sit on the head of the statue after a while. Despite arriving at their destination, there was no relief. Penny was losing consciousness fast. “Just hold on for a bit Penny” Anu whispered to her dear friend, the wait began.

An hour had gone with no sign of help and the cold had now become unbearable. Renay whispered another prayer under her breath, solemn and desperate she was on her last straw. Just as she ended the prayer with an ‘amen’, they heard the whirring of a helicopter. In the blink of an eye they began to scream for help, waving their hands and bathrobes in the air. Fortunately the helicopter saw them immediately and sent a ladder their way. Anu smiled with hope as she held onto the bleeding Penny, her blood ran across the head of the statue making it seem like Mary had cried tears of blood. Tears of blood for the people that died in this horrifying flood, both the ignorant and the selfish, had fallen into the hands of the boarding school waters.