The Flood

• Michael Pascoe, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2013

Finally! We had arrived after working and saving hard for seven months and travelling for fourteen hours. With the car full of our gear and Mum, my friends and I squashed in the car like bananas, we jump out of its boiling hot interior and smell the fresh, salty air. Oh, what a feeling! Mum drives onto the motel and parks in the car park right beside the beach.
For five days we relax, surf and play. Then it came, the rain that had been forecast. After three days of non-stop rain we were forced to clear out of the town and up the mountain. We looked back down at the poor old town. It was flooded.
The water falling from the sky wouldn’t stop. Even from here, we could hear the floodgates creaking, trying to hold back the water that was threatening to burst through like a wild bull charging. But to no avail. BOOM!! The water exploded through the gates, smashing everything in its path, rushing over roads and paddocks, spinning horses and cattle like a washing machine, back and forth. We could hear the distress calls of the poor tired cattle and see huge waves, in what was once a peaceful ocean, pulling down the sand and washing it out to sea. Then I also saw trees fall.
We stay on the mountain and watch the devastation that the ocean, like a crazy dog jumping over and over, was causing. The rain finally stopped and the three days of terror were finally over.
I slid down the mountain to have a look. Then it happened. I fell into the dirty, murky water and was washed out to sea. Panicking, I looked around, scared that the moving trees would smash into me. Clinging to a branch in the freezing cold churning water and calling out for help for half a day, I finally spy a little red and orange dot coming closer. At first I thought it was an illusion but it came right up beside me and many kind hands reach out to save me.
Back on dry land again I stared at the sea and a cold feeling passed over me. I imagined not hearing the alarm and all of us getting drowned in our beds. The water slowly crept out into the ocean, flowing like a silent slithering snake and once again I could see our motel and the other houses. All were water-logged. There were even cattle walking slowly and confused down the street. So many houses smashed by trees.
Mum called us to the car and as we drove away I looked back and know that it would take that town a very long time to rebuild.