Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV by Borthwick, Finlay (book recommendations website .TXT) 📗

to do it. “Well, at least we’re not being beaten by the wind I suppose.” Nevertheless, she tried to maintain an optimistic view of things.

Mac shuddered, “It’s kinda cold though, isn’t it? Is there a gap in the ceiling or something?” He looked up, expecting to find a hole in the beams above his head; there was unmistakably a draught blowing in from somewhere.

‘CLUDD!’

A large, bold, and blunt noise thudded against the basement door.

Cora and Mac looked over to each other in a panic.

“What was that?” Cora asked distressfully.

Mac scurried up the small flight of stairs and pushed against the door. Turning the handle, he tried to open it.

But it wouldn’t budge.

He pressed his shoulder right up against, and using all his strength, he tried and tried and tried but the door just would not shift from its’ closed position.

“Shit.” Mac cursed under his breath.

“What? What is it? Mac?” Cora’s eyes widened in fear and her breath became irregular.

Regretfully, Mac slowly turned around and descended back down the stairs. As he approached the bottom, he leisurely took a seat on the bottom step.

“Mac?” Cora queried once again. There were tones of both concern and fear evident in her voice.

Mac rested his head in his palms, “I’m so sorry, Cora.”

“…For what?”

“I don’t know what it is, but there’s something on the other side of that door.” Mac explained, whimpering. “Cora, it’s too heavy to be pushed from this side—We’re trapped down here. I trapped us down here.”

It quickly became clear to Cora why exactly Mac was so sorrowful. “Oh, I see.” She took a seat next to him on the step. “Well, to be honest, I’d rather be stuck down here than free in the reckless hurricane up there.” She told him with a smile; clearly, there was no bad blood between the two.

“But Cora, what if nobody finds us?” Mac raised his head from his hands and looked over at his friend.

“They will find us!” Cora told him enthusiastically, having no doubts that the two of them would be fine. “Besides, this basement is so boring that it’s not like there’s anything down here that can hurt us, is there?”

And as if she had just tempted, Cora’s ears began to fixate on a quiet yet foreboding sound.

In the same moment, Mac had heard it as well. “Listen!” He ushered her.

“I hear it too.” Cora informed him with a solemn expression on her face.

“What is that? It sounds like… Water?” Mac was confused by this trickling sound.

But Cora had noticed where it was coming from already, “You know you asked if there was a gap in the ceiling earlier?”

“Yes…?” Mac affirmed, concerned about what she was about to tell him.

“Look over there.” She pointed to the far-right corner in the ceiling of the basement; a thin stream of water was flooding into the basement.

Although it was a rather low volume of water coming in, a small puddle had already formed in the corner of the basement. If the gap were to grow any larger, the basement would quickly fill up.

“Best stay on this side of the basement. Just to be safe, you know?” Mac remarked; the light-hearted nature of this comment appeared to come from a place of anxiety, as in the back of his mind, he knew that this situation could turn dire at any moment.

The floorboards above the ceiling beams were beginning to creak, as the sound of rain hammering down above intensified.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Cora shuddered.

“We must get someone to open that door, right now. Right this minute.” Mac stated as he reached for his walkie-talkie.

“There’s no point.” Cora tried to save him time and breath; two things which they may not have had much left of. “The rain’s too thick and the wind’s too heavy for any transmission to get outside this house.”

Mac ignored Cora’s tip and held down the button on the side of his radio regardless, “Kieran! Sandra! Are either of you there? Rylie? Can anybody hear me?” He was speaking on the open-frequency so that anybody within the safe-zone would be able to pick up his transmission…

…On a day when the weather is clear, that is.

Exactly as Cora had anticipated, the weather was indeed far too adverse for Mac’s transmission to go out.

The walkie-talkie blared static back at him in response.

“Hello? Kieran, Sandra! Anybody! Please!” Mac tried again as his eyes flickered desperately between the radio in his hand the narrow water stream that was continuing to pour in through the gap in the ceiling.

The wooden beams were beginning to creak heavily underneath the weight of both the floorboards and the mass volume of water above.

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Cora remarked with regards to the creaky beams.

The radio was still only returning static to Mac.

“For fucks’ sake!” Mac raged into the radio, “Will somebody please just answer?!”

“Mac, leave it!” Cora tried to take the radio from him, “They can’t hear us!”

In a fit of rage, Mac threw the radio against the wall at the other side of the basement, causing it to smash and severely damaging it.

Cora gasped, “Well, that’s done it.” She flippantly remarked.

Mac sighed, “It’s alright… We’ll just—If we pull the beams away, we’ll have enough room to swim up when the water rises!” He was desperate to come up with a plan to ensure his and Cora’s survival.

“If we tear the beams away, the entire room above us will give way and then we’ll be doomed for real.” She pointed out a logical flaw in his plan.

“It’s only the kitchen above us. There’s barely anything in there!”

Again, Cora had to be the bearer of bad news, “I’m afraid there is, Mac. There’s a table, a cupboard, several