Breakout by Paul Herron (notion reading list .txt) 📕

I sigh and lean down, holding my arm out too. Castillo tries to swim toward us, but the surging water keeps pulling him back. He eventually stops fighting the current and just relaxes, letting the water take him round in circles until he’s passing directly below us.

He grabs Sawyer’s hand. I shift over and take hold of him too, the both of us dragging him up into the ceiling. Other members of the Kings have seen what we’re doing and are trying to swim toward us. But one guy—Silas, I think his name is, one of the biggest guys I’ve ever seen—decides not to even bother trying. He jabs upward with a meat cleaver he’s holding, pushing out a ceiling tile about ten feet away.

I straighten up. Castillo hesitates, his gaze lingering on Sawyer. Then he turns and moves across to where Silas is now struggling to pull himself up into the ceiling space.

Sawyer kicks in more ceiling tiles, leaning over and pulling up any of the Kings she can grab from the room below. I hesitate. I should just keep moving. I don’t owe Castillo anything. He’d kill me as soon as look at me any other day. And Sawyer… well, it’s becoming obvious that’s she’s actually insane. Or terminally naïve. Either way, she’s going to get me killed eventually.

But I don’t move on. I sigh and join her. The quicker it’s done, the quicker we can get moving.

When it’s clear there are no more inmates in the room below, I gesture to Sawyer that we need to go. We managed to rescue nine inmates in all. I’m not sure how many there were to start with. Sawyer pauses, but then nods. Good. So she’s not entirely stupid. We set off. I leap from strut to strut, heading in the general direction of the uphill corridor that leads into Admin.

I know I’m close when we reach a brick wall in the roof space that blocks any way through. That means we’re moving out of the staff areas and into the prison proper. I kick in the ceiling tiles below me. The water doesn’t look as high here. Maybe just above my chest. There must be a few closed doors stopping the flood. They won’t last long, though.

I drop into the water, Sawyer following right behind me. Castillo’s men do the same, sticking with us in the hope that we have some kind of plan. Joke’s on them. I’m probably leading us all to our deaths.

I start swimming and wading, pulling myself toward the doors that lead into the corridor. Sawyer is right next to me, her hair plastered to her head. I look behind me and see Castillo and his men still coming. There are others too. Inmates from A Wing taken by surprise by the flood, all following us in the hope that we’re heading to safety. The water is rising fast. It’s almost up to my shoulders now. The roaring is growing louder again, like we’re standing beneath a massive waterfall. I wipe my eyes as we arrive at the door and I try to open it.

It’s locked.

Sawyer moves in front of me and fumbles with her keys. The inmates are crowding behind us now, pushing us against the door, shouting panicked questions.

I try to shove them back, but they’re too tightly packed. I have to turn and lash out. Punching those closest to us, yanking them by the hair, just to give Sawyer room to try to get the keys into the lock.

She’s fumbling beneath the water, trying to insert the keys by touch. I hear a deafening crash from somewhere behind us, followed by screams and a sudden increase in the sounds of surging water. What the hell was that? Another wall going down? The roof caving in?

I look at Sawyer. She is pale and struggling with the lock. Then her face clears and she nods in my direction. She tries to pull the door open. It doesn’t budge. I grab the handle with her. Pull. Nothing. Other inmates grab hold, all of us trying to fight against the weight of the water.

The door finally shifts. Water surges into the corridor as we slowly pull it open. It’s absolute chaos as everyone rushes through, clambering over each other, fighting to get away from the rising water.

We’re all swept up in the rush. Nobody can stop. It’s either move forward or be crushed underfoot. I try to find Sawyer. I catch a glimpse of her up ahead, helping someone who must have been knocked over in the stampede.

We all move as fast as we can up the slanted corridor. It feels like it’s never-ending. I look back and see that even more inmates have joined the exodus. Jesus, there must be at least eighty now, all trying to funnel into the narrow passage leading up to Admin.

The door ahead is only about twenty feet away, but it doesn’t seem to be drawing any closer. The water level is rising rapidly, the floodwater entering the corridor and surging up the incline. The inmates are shoulder to shoulder. It’s getting difficult to even move.

Then the water starts to lap over the heads of those at the bottom of the corridor.

I can feel the shift, the rise of sudden panic. Inmates start to flail around, desperate to leave A Wing behind. We’re pushed forward by those at the back, some tripping and plunging beneath the water, trampled underfoot.

I’m shoved up against one of the small windows. A flash of lightning outside draws my attention. At first I can’t figure out what I’m looking at. The lighting seems to be reflecting off a wall about thirty feet high.

Another flash. I see a car tumble past, lifting into the air and skimming across the surface of the water like a skipping stone.

And behind it, lit by the lightning… a wave… a storm surge that looks like a tsunami, thirty feet high, cresting, coming