Chapter 9

Chapter 9

We made it to town, one less now. My phone beeped. It was a phone call from Mum. I didn’t want to pick it up, but I had to. I wiped my eyes and took a long deep breath and answered.

“CASSI? Cassi, are you there?” she yelled through the phone nearly deafening me.

“Mum?” I sounded like I was crying. 

“Cassi? Why are you crying? What happened?”

“Mum, its fine, its just, Elsie.. she, uh..” I started getting teary again. “She’s gone”

“Gone? What do you mean?”

“MUM, SHE’S DEAD! SHE’S DROWNED. GONE” I couldn’t breathe. Everyone was staring at me. It was hard. The phone line went silent for a few minutes.

“Well, were coming to get you”

“Mum, theres no way you can get in here. It’s flooded and stormy and we can’t even get out”

“Then, if you want get out.. where are you?” She sounded worried

“It’s fine Mum, we’re in a tree”

“YOUR IN A WHAT?”

“We’re safe, but the water’s rising and we don’t know what were going to do next. We might have to swim ourselves out” A new tear dripped down my cheek. 

“Just make sure you stay safe. We will be down the when the water is low enough. I don’t care how long it tak-”

“Mum, I said were fine!” I hung up, not thinking. I couldn’t move. I was too numb.

                                        _______________________________

When I was calm and stable enough, I got up and had a look in the lone bag we bought. We had packed just enough for 5 meals each if we saved everything we had. 2 blankets, 6 cups, 3 bottles of water, 2 packets of biscuits and some left over chicken from dinner last night. I looked at everyone. Jeremy was the first to speak.

“Have anything you want. We can wait” I felt so guilty. 

“I don’t want it, you can have it” I offered, but no one took it up. “Come on guys, you have to eat”

“Cassi, you need it more” said Quinn. 

“Okay, guys, we need to get out of here. We have to swim. Elsie only went because she was too weak from sickness. We are strong. We can do this, I believe we can” I got up on my knees, nearly falling of the branch but Jeremy reached out and stopped me.

“Thanks” I grabbed his hands, so I could stand and I jumped. It felt like I was a piece of glass that shattered. I came back up and grabbed onto the closet branch and gripped on with my life. Everyone followed and this time we actually got somewhere. We got about 10 k and still wanted to go more, but I was to tired and it was dark and my arms felt like they were going to fall off. I was drenched and cold. So we camped in the nearest and biggest tree remembering how high the water was. It was rising fast and was nearly at the top on the branch below me. We had to keep moving. Before it got too high.