Chapter Twenty-Seven

Levi

There was no easy way to the roof.

And both Tess and Levi knew that’s where they’d end up.

Already, there was a slick expanse of water that ran flush to the school’s threshold.

Levi fixed a rope with climbing knots to the stove pipe extending above the roof line.

With Mojo wrapping his neck, Levi climbed just behind Tess to keep Mojo as safe as possible.

Tess reached through the hole for the supplies they’d gathered. They moved water, food, ropes, wool blankets, and tarps to the roof.

Tess had insisted that Levi find every jug with a top and a handle that he could and send them up to her.

There wasn’t time for explanations or debate. So he did as he was asked. The teacher and the older children went off to search then brought the jugs to Levi to hand up.

Suddenly, a wave crashed the door open.

The children screamed and scrambled onto their desks.

As they were working, the flood waters had risen.

Without a barrier, muddy water raced into the school.

While the teacher worked to keep the children calm, one by one, Levi pulled a child off the desk and waded to the rope.

Hand over hand, they climbed.

Though it slowed progress, Levi didn’t let go of the child until Tess had their wrists and hoisted them from his hands. If a child were to fall, it would be difficult to find them in the churning, debris-filled current and save them.

Heck, it was difficult just moving from desk to rope with them in his arms.

Another wave rolled through the school, and now Levi was up to his thighs. Casting his headlamp around the room, Levi made his way back to the rope and called up. “How many do you have?”

“Thirteen children, two adults,” she called back, water gushing through the hole.

“The two adults are you and me?” he yelled. “Where’s the teacher?”

Tess took a moment to scan the scene, then looked back to Levi. “She’s not here.”

Levi was back down in the water, surprised to find it was now at his thighs.

Tess leaned over the hatch and shined her headlamp around the dark interior. “Oh!” Tess yelled.

He saw it. The floating white shirt.

Tess started down the rope. But Levi grabbed her ankle and told her to get back on the roof to protect the children.

For now, the kids were probably safe; Levi just didn’t want Tess to see what came next.

When Tess hesitated, he added. “Get to the top! I’ll get her and hand her up to you.”

How long had the teacher been floating?

The likelihood was she was dead, and Levi braced himself.

Grabbing the teacher, he pulled her to him. Dragging her from the water, Levi used his hip to press two student tables together and laid her out.

Struggling against the lifting tide, he rounded to her side to perform CPR.

As he pinched her nose and tilted her head back to blow the first life-saving breaths into her lungs, the only thing that happened was a rivulet of brown water streamed from the corner of her mouth.

Levi continued the compressions, watching the teacher’s face for any sign of rousing. He saw that there was a blow to her head and thought that she had been struck before she was floating in the water. Perhaps she had tripped as she was hustling the children toward this classroom.

He wondered what her name was.

He wondered what he should do with her body if this didn’t work. The family would surely want to bury her.

If she were dead, he'd have to leave her here. He wouldn’t bring her up to the roof. Maybe it was a Western mindset, but out of sight, out of mind might have power here.

There was no reason to heap trauma on top of trauma for the children when this crisis was ongoing.

Levi continued with the compressions, making sure that his thrusts were two inches deep and on the right cadence; for Levi, it was Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.” But in his lifetime, he’d only practiced this on CPR dummies during his periodic medic training classes. He’d never tried to save someone’s life this way, and most of the words evaded him.

He knew that Tess would be up playing mother hen to the students with Mojo as backup. But she’d be wondering, wringing her hands.

Focused on the battery-operated clock on the wall. He gave this another five minutes. Then he’d have to get up top and see what he could do to keep them secure. The rain was still a curtain of gray. And the brown flood waters slapped against the windows.

The thigh-deep water held small animals, rats, mice, and some things he didn’t recognize. Some swimming for their lives, some floating, already dead.

Levi didn’t want to be in the water with them; they might see him as a means of escaping the flood.

With a glance up at the clock, he realized the time frame he’d set for himself was up. He didn’t want to give up. But the water around the desks had reached the height that the teacher was all but floating.

For no reason other than a last-ditch effort, Levi climbed onto the desktop, straddling the woman. Raising his hands overhead, he interlaced his fingers, And with all his might, he slammed his hands down on her chest like Thor’s hammer blow.

The teacher suddenly sat. She puked water from her lungs out into the swirling current that filled the room.

The woman was in full fight or flight. Vomiting and swaying, she gripped at her chest and throat as she heaved air in and out like a locomotive.

Another wave of water came through the open door.

It was time to get to the roof. Now or never.