I remember looking for a place to stay, and then we found this charming little sea side restaurant. The owners were this family of five: mother, father, their daughter, grandma and grandpa. They allowed my friend and I to stay on a room upstairs in exchange for service as waiteresses. It was a perfect set up. Until the floods came, that is.

Apparently, it wasn’t something new to the family, this flood. My friend was caught outside when it came and it dragged her away and I never saw her again. They calm about it while I was freaking out. How could they be so calm, I wondered… then I saw it, this huge column of water reaching the heavens that was coming straight at us from the sea. I asked them why were we still here, that shouldn’t we evacuate? They answered no. It was useless to go. This was happening everywhere. I told them that I didn’t believe them, and that I wanted to live, that’s why, I went out. Braved the tumultuous waters. I don’t remember why I came back. I think coz I saw the restaurant being swallowed by the sea. I got out just in time.

But I had to go back. I don’t know what propelled me to do so. I got in the water, swam down, and down… till I found the restaurant amazingly still in one piece.

There was air inside, but everything had a different feel now. The daughter of the family, who was around five years old maybe, greeted me when she saw me. She was alone I asked her where her parents and grandparents were. She pointed upstairs. She didn’t want to accompany me there to look for them. She was so frightened.

So I went upstairs alone and to my horror, there they were… the two couples floating in midair looking bloated like they have drowned. How is it possible then that the child downstairs didn’t? how is it possible that I didn’t as well? Drown, that is. I don’t know. The next thing I remember was that I was downstairs again, and the child was asking me what I did with her parents. I said buried them. And then I took her outside.

We were underwater, true, but we got out somehow. We walked, going as far inland as possible. Trying to get away from the water. Trying to find higher ground.

Then I saw this train track, then a man running towards something in the train track. It was a train, of course. One of those electric ones. Only one car was there. The man saw us and told us to enter the train. He started it and we left hundreds of people behind us, all clamoring to get in but the man was too afraid of them. I guess he didn’t like mobs or something. I was just thankful that he let us inside. We traveled all the way to the other side of the country. The man told us that we should find shelter somewhere in the last city stop of the train. I agreed and left the train with the child.

I noticed a certain something in the air. People were all bunched up and running towards somewhere. It was only then that I noticed that this city was near the sea. We went too far and now here it was again. The water. It was still rising. The sea level was too high as it was. And the people of this city were only treating it as a curiosity. But I knew better. It was coming. That column of water. I told the child to climb on my back and we ran. We ran back to the train track. The man still there. He told me that he was sorry that he brought us here. He thought the farther from the first place, the better. It wasn’t. We should have stayed in the middle of the country where the mountains were. Climb the mountains, yes, that’s what we should do. But this time the train wouldn’t start. That was when I woke up.