The faint sound of rushing water echoed through the empty car park, setting her nerves on edge as she waited for her ride to arrive. It hadn't rained for five months but the rumours of underground rivers in the area were commonplace enough that she considered it an option. Still, it sounded like it was getting worse, getting louder, getting faster and making all the pipes rattle with the sheer force of it.
Soon the entire car park was filled with the shaking pipes and water pounding against the turns in them like drunken fists on a plywood door. Everything sounded like it was about to split apart at the joints and shower her with whatever was forcing its way around her.
The sudden buzz of her phone nearly made her shriek in fright but it was only a brief text from the taxi company, saying that they'd be "understandably late". Honestly she wasn't too sure how she'd received the message as she hadn't been able to get a signal from the moment she set foot inside the car park's grounds. It had been declared a "dead zone" for years but it still unsettled her.
She did wonder what they meant by "understandably", surely it can't have rained at long last? The forecast said they'd be in their winter drought for another month at least thanks to El Nino buggering about with the local climate. Even if it was raining outside, she was too far into the car park to see or hear it, especially over the pipes.
After what felt like hours, but according to her phone was only forty three minutes, she caught sight of the taxi's headlights coming round the corner from her. The first thing she noticed was that the wipers were on full blast and the pipes slowly quietened as the driver pulled over to her.
He looked thoroughly spooked, his knuckles gripping the wheel white-tight as he confirmed her drop-off point, explaining he'd have to take a longer route to avoid the riverside areas. The storm had taken everyone by surprise, coming from nowhere and causing the river to burst its banks, creating flash floods like they'd never had before in all their recorded history.
It was a wonder she'd stayed so safe in there, he said, what with all the levels beneath her having flooded. She was lucky to have waited on the ground floor and right at the back - too far from the slopes to have even seen or heard the cars crashing into each other as they all tried to escape at once.
He slowed right down as they pulled over to the entrance, showing her the carnage left behind by the sudden flooding. Bodies floated inside their cars, already bloating from the water that had ended them. It was like this the entire journey back, every now and then where a road sloped down into the water, cars and bodies alike bobbed gently away with an otherwise unseen current. Being drawn out to sea, presumably.
Perhaps they'd come to rest there, she wondered.
Soon the entire car park was filled with the shaking pipes and water pounding against the turns in them like drunken fists on a plywood door. Everything sounded like it was about to split apart at the joints and shower her with whatever was forcing its way around her.
The sudden buzz of her phone nearly made her shriek in fright but it was only a brief text from the taxi company, saying that they'd be "understandably late". Honestly she wasn't too sure how she'd received the message as she hadn't been able to get a signal from the moment she set foot inside the car park's grounds. It had been declared a "dead zone" for years but it still unsettled her.
She did wonder what they meant by "understandably", surely it can't have rained at long last? The forecast said they'd be in their winter drought for another month at least thanks to El Nino buggering about with the local climate. Even if it was raining outside, she was too far into the car park to see or hear it, especially over the pipes.
After what felt like hours, but according to her phone was only forty three minutes, she caught sight of the taxi's headlights coming round the corner from her. The first thing she noticed was that the wipers were on full blast and the pipes slowly quietened as the driver pulled over to her.
He looked thoroughly spooked, his knuckles gripping the wheel white-tight as he confirmed her drop-off point, explaining he'd have to take a longer route to avoid the riverside areas. The storm had taken everyone by surprise, coming from nowhere and causing the river to burst its banks, creating flash floods like they'd never had before in all their recorded history.
It was a wonder she'd stayed so safe in there, he said, what with all the levels beneath her having flooded. She was lucky to have waited on the ground floor and right at the back - too far from the slopes to have even seen or heard the cars crashing into each other as they all tried to escape at once.
He slowed right down as they pulled over to the entrance, showing her the carnage left behind by the sudden flooding. Bodies floated inside their cars, already bloating from the water that had ended them. It was like this the entire journey back, every now and then where a road sloped down into the water, cars and bodies alike bobbed gently away with an otherwise unseen current. Being drawn out to sea, presumably.
Perhaps they'd come to rest there, she wondered.
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