Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Home for the Holidays ❯ Chapter 6

 Home for the Holidays

 

Chapter 7

 

 

For Darksquall.

 

All Characters borrowed without permission from SquareSoft will be returned, only slightly traumatized, upon request. Written for love, not profit.

 

I should mention that many of the events in this fic are real; the names have been changed to make it more interesting.

 

`Hero' Universe. Hints of Yaoi, much cursing and flailing.

 

 

*

 

 

I was having weird dreams of Helios and Shiva having a fistfight, which turned into a debate over the collapse of the Second Shinra Empire, mediated by Zell dressed as a wooly lamb. It was almost a relief to be jerked awake by a rap on our door.

"Guys, I think you better get up."

It was Zell, presumably sans lamb suit, and something in his voice had Squall and me rolling out of bed. I grabbed for my pants and medikit; Squall reached for Lionheart, first. We stumbled out of the bedroom still pulling on clothes and boots, tripping over each other in the darkness.

 

 

In the hallway, Zell was holding a heavy-duty flashlight up like a torch, trying to give maximum light. Irvine was there, sleep mussed but at least in pajama bottoms, and Quistis appeared in a very fetching peach colored peignoir, complete with Malibu feathers on the toes of her matching mules.

"Ok, Chicken, what's the deal?"

Zell grimaced at the nickname, but let it go, which worried me. "I woke up and decided to get something out of the truck..." He gestured to the front door.

Too impatient at being awakened at O dark thirty to wait for him to get to the point, I stalked over and wrenched the door open. There was a strange lapping sound, and the landscape was moving. Forlorn looking wicker snowmen bobbed by, and one plastic chicabo. "The fuck? The tide come in?"

The others followed me. "We're a hundred miles inland, easy," Irvine protested.

"But close to the river," Quistis pointed out.

 

 

Zell peered around my elbow and said "Shit, it was only to the walkway before!"

 

 

"The trains were washed out? Are we upstream or down from that?" Squall asked, about 12 hours too late. I knew we were all kicking ourselves for not thinking of it earlier.

 

"They lost a bridge, but the station master was confident the village would be safe; he said they'd been repairing the levees..." Quistis's voice trailed off. "If a levee breached..."

 

"Something breached all right, the front yard is a hynebedamned swimming pool." I went out to look and found the edge of the porch the hard way, by stepping off it. I flailed around and grabbed the porch support, doing a charming little two-step to regain my balance. Fortunately it was darker than Norg's heart and still raining steadily, so no one saw that.

 Or was jackass enough to mention it if they did.

Since I was already drenched I decided I might as well slog on out and see the lay of the land, pulling a Flara, which I held in my hand. Everything was gone, the landscape smoothed by water to a more or less flat surface. The trees along the road looked more like bushes, and wall was barely a curb, and all around us was nothing but black churning water.

"Shit, the car." I headed for the driveway, slipping in the mud, filthy icy water splashing about my knees.

 

 

"Seifer, wait!" Squall protested.

"You stay out of this, it will cramp your legs all to shit," I told him. Squall had been badly hurt in a wreck earlier this year; he was damn lucky to even be walking. He huffed and muttered something about Shiva, but obeyed.

"I'll go get Selphie and Tray," Irvine said, turning back inside with Quis, who murmured something about clothes. Zell handed the flashlight off to her, and splashed into the water after me. He is a lot shorter, of course, but made better time because as soon as it was deep enough he simply fell forward and swam his way over to the vehicles. Personally, I was trying to keep as much of me as possible out of that frigid water. Hyne knows what all was floating around in there with us.

He was standing back up when I rounded the corner of the house. In the light leaking through my fingers we could see the water lapping about mid door height on Selphie and Irv's van. All that was visible of the poor Torama was a bit of roof and the antenna.

"Dude, I hope your insurance is paid up."

"Squall is going to shit." I sighed. Not only was the car hist, but also gone were the gifts and luggage we'd left in the trunk. Too bad Squall had grabbed the damn fruitcake along with his bag. "Can your truck get through this?"

"Think so, but we won't all fit in the cab."

"We can brace Trabian's carry in the footwell, and Selphie can wedge in the middle..." Quis might fit in if she sat on Irv's lap, but... "Squall and I will just have to ride in the back. He has Shiva to keep him warm, at least."

Speaking of Squall, I thought I heard him calling something, but there were a lot of other noises drowning him out - the sloshing water, Zell yapping, cattle bellowing in the distance and a strange sort of rushing, cracking sound.

Zell turned, sliding in the muck, and said, "What's that noi-?"

I threw the Flara and we saw a wall of water tumbling towards us. It was momentarily stalled by the high wall along side the parking area, but it was cresting up and spilling over as I watched. The torrent snatched up trees like they were blades of grass, tangling them together into a battering ram, and the wall had no chance against that force. It crumpled and the water surged in, lifting Zell's truck and smashing it into the van.

An older, wiser instinct finally woke up and overrode my shear astonishment and I turned for the house. Zell's fight or flight response was in better working order; he was more than halfway to the porch, where Squall was shouting something incoherent, barely heard over the roar of the water. Frankly, I wasn't holding out much hope that the house was going to withstand that onslaught, but it felt like a safer bet than treading water.

It's damn hard to run in water up to your thighs, even with the current shoving you along; I knew I had no chance at beating the rush of the flood. The water hit the side of the house like Doomtrain on a tear and I could hear wood splinter. I had visions of the whole place coming down, trapping Squall and the others inside.

Suddenly I had more pressing issues to worry about as I was immersed in water so cold it literally took my breath away. I've been hit with Shiva's Diamond Dust; it had nothing on the paralyzing cold of the shit that surrounded me. I couldn't even thrash around uselessly; I was so intent on trying to get my lungs to work. The emergency kit on my back dragged me down, and the current was carrying me half way to Balamb. That damn plastic Yule King spun by, clipping me upside the head. Bastard never did like me.

Someone grabbed my hair, hauling my head above water. "Nose and toes," Zell shouted in my ear. It was standard white water rafting advice, and now that my brain was thawing a tiny bit, I rolled and obeyed, keeping my nose and toes as high as possible to prevent getting snagged and dragged under again.

 

 

Zell is a powerful swimmer, probably the best of all of us, but he wasn't strong enough to buck that current dragging me, and I couldn't get enough breath or force my muscles to unclench enough to swim. I worked on being a cooperative rescuee and considered jettisoning the medikit, but I thought if I survived this, we were going to need it, even wet.

We caught a break; the water was churning itself into circles as it crashed against the orchard wall and the motion threw us back towards the farmhouse, close enough for Squall to lean out and grab Zell's hand in his gunblader's grip. Squall was clinging the remaining support of the partially collapsed front porch with one hand, but he was strong enough to drag us forward. I finally got my feet under me again, although the current kept trying to knock me back down.

"Now I know what my socks feel like in the washer, Baby." Zell was panting, but managed a grin. Squall tugged him up onto the porch; I followed, gulping air.

Part of the house jutted out enough to give us a corner to avoid the water; it had been a fortunately blank, largely windowless side that had taken the brunt of the wave. Even so, the house was shuddering like and shaking like dog shitting a peach pit.

I clutched the wall and wheezed, "Fuck that's cold!" To quote the great Laguna Loire, it was colder than a Trabian witch's brass well digger.

"Are you alright?"

 
"Yeah, once I live down being saved by a chicken." If anyone is keeping score, that was a thank you from the great Almasy. Zell accepted my heartfelt expression of gratitude by flipping me off.

 I flashed Squall a reassuring smile, and tried breaking the news gently. "The Torrie's gone."

"Fuck the car," Squall snapped.

I knew he'd be pissed, but when I really looked at him, I could tell I had it all wrong.

"I thought you were gone." He shook his head and added in his usual tone, "I saw it go by. With the remains of Zell's truck."

"Shit, we're trapped for sure, now." Zell looked around. "And is the water going into the house or coming out?"

Squall shooed us inside, out of the rain, at least. Shiva protected Squall from most cold damage and Helios was warming me up again, but Zell was in danger of hypothermia. I grabbed a decorative granny square blanket off the back of one of the chairs and threw it over Zell's head, wishing I had a warming spell. He growled, and I shrugged. "It matches your outfit."

The blanket was wool, so it sucked as a towel but was warm even wet, so Zell tied it around his neck like a superhero cape. Meanwhile, Squall and I were trying to shut the front door, a mostly futile but instinctive gesture. Zell finally lent a hand; it took all three of us against the pressure of the flood. Already the water was about ankle deep in the front room.

Light flashed in the kitchen; it was Quistis, who in typical SeeD fashion had pulled on the minimum necessary clothing, secured her whip, and gone to check supplies. She was holding the night watchman's light for Irvine while he dumped bottled water and soft drinks into a makeshift carry crafted from a bed sheet or tablecloth. They were both calm despite the water splashing in around the tree limb jutting through the high kitchen window. I noticed Irv had his gun was on his back, carefully wrapped to keep it dry.

"May as well take the damn fruitcake," I called to them resignedly. "The container is waterproof and it has nuts and dried fruit, lots of energy." That shit is indestructible.

"Tastes like ass, though," Zell said. It always shocks me when we agree on things.

Squall mentioned, "Can't be worse than rations." He looked around, frowning, as the house groaned. "Give us some light, Seifer."

 

I nodded and powered up again, only to lose it when Selphie started screaming for Irvine. I ran down the hall after him, sloshing through water that seemed to be getting deeper by the second, crashing into decorations and furniture I couldn't see.

It took both of us to get the door to the master bedroom open and the water that rushed out took Irvine off his feet. He crashed back into Zell, who braced against the walls like living dam until they could both walk again. A light stick floated past us, it looked like Selphie had dropped her light source. I forged ahead, bringing up yet another Flara.

The farmhouse was on a kind of a hill, and the master bedroom was along the back, with it's own patio. The water was pressing in anywhere it could, and the glass doors hadn't been able to hold up against it. A veritable river was pouring in around the shattered remains. Selphie was standing in Trabian's crib, holding him to her chest. Even up that high, the water was to her knees.

"Holy halfassed Hyne!"

"Seifer, Irvy, you guys are the tallest, you have to hold him! I can't..." I'd never seen Selphie near tears before.

Irvine waded up and held out his arms. "You sit on my shoulders, Darlin, we'll be ok."

Except we wouldn't, Irvine could barely keep his balance as was. At least the ceilings in the old farmhouse were nice and high, so Selphie wouldn't brain herself on the beams.

Zell followed my gaze up, just as Squall and Quis appeared. They'd stayed behind to grab the supplies; it had taken both of them to navigate the heavy bundle down the hall.

"Where is the attic access?" Squall asked.

Zell hoisted himself up to the top of a highboy dresser. "Right here, Baby," he said, and punched upwards, breaking through the ceiling to the rafters above. A few more punches and kicks and there was a hole large enough for us to scramble through. Selphie handed Trabian to me and went first; as the lightest and smallest it made sense to have her scout. Zell got the flashlight from Quistis and tossed it up to her.

"Lots of big hairy spiders," Selphie called back. "But it's dry and I don't see any rats, and the beams feel ok. Come on up!"

We handed Trabian up, then Squall went next. He was strong enough to lever the pack up there, and then pull Quistis after him. Zell crouched on the highboy and held out a hand to boost Irvine up.

"It's not that I'm afraid of spiders, exactly..." Irvine drawled.

"But you hate them a lot." In a burst of comradely feeling I added, "I feel the same way about rats."

"Baby," Zell put in. "Seifer and I have already been swimming with friends tonight. We can't tred water while you think it over. C'mon."

Zell had a good point; the water was midchest on me and rising. Irvine took a deep breath and climbed up. I hauled myself into the attic last, after Zell.