In the dead of the night, along the eastern coast of the city of Chennai, the sea line that had receded further back into the ocean began to churn.
Like a slumbering beast that lay in wait to hunt its prey, intermittent growls came out from the depths of the ocean as the raging waves on the surface billowed in a furious spree. The waves boiled like simmering dry ice, collided against each other and began to rise in height, volume, magnitude, and momentum; like the breathing patterns of a prehistoric beast from the legends.
Guided by the lay of the land or in this case, the sea bed, the gravitation pull of the moon, and the constant quakes of a tectonic plate on mother earth's crust; like an immortal army charging forth to vanquish its foe, the billowing sea waves rushed forward.
Some were small, some were large; some were thin but tall, while others were short but carried huge undercurrents. As the rows upon rows of billowing waves charged forth, like a chain reaction that had been triggered by some mystical phenomenon, they started to slowly fuse together, making them more deadly after each second had elapsed.
In an additive progression, as the number of waves decreased within the range of a few kilometres, the resulting tide increasingly grew in size and began to morph into the hideous gaping maw of a sea dragon that was on its steady march towards the soil on the edge of its vast territory.
'Roooaaarrr'
The rush of the tide created a long sonorous roar that shook the very sea bed as it slowly reached the end of its territory and encroached upon the land.
A Tsunami!
A huge wall of water that reached 20 metres in height as if it could swallow the very heavens itself approached the beach, like a raging sea dragon that was unstoppable in its path.
'B-Boom'
'Crash'
There was a series of 28-story sea-view apartments that spanned along the inner edges of the beach that was the first to face the brunt of Nature's undiminished might.
The peak of the tidal wave barely reached one-fourth of the high rise apartments, but like a piece of paper trying to withstand the impact of a cannonball, the pillars that were the foundation of the apartment gave out under the impact and the entire building caved in within an instance. The crash into the megaton structure also seemed to have broken up the tidal wave as its head crashed into the ground and subsequently crept forward like a torrential river.
As the first row of sea-view apartments broke down, the broken-down concrete that each weighed several tons of kilograms fell upon the unending tide, hindering its momentous flow.
The flow of water impacted upon the next row of apartments that were each of varied sizes, designs, and infrastructure, splashing into the air due to the resulting impact. Water attacked while the concrete tried its very best to resist the unrelenting attacks of water, each of which possessed an unimaginable amount of power concealed within them. Cracks immediately spread through the walls of the many apartments. Some barely stood its ground after the first wave while other weaker constructions eventually collapsed due to their own weight.
The torrential water passed through the gaps between different apartments like how a river flows around a rock, rushing towards a span of luxury villas. Though its height had already fallen to an all-time low, the mass of water still carried with it an imposing momentum, dragging with it huge blocks of concrete along its path.
The first row of the villas got submerged instantly under the flow while the second row of villas diverted the flow of water around them for a couple of seconds before getting submerged in the mass of water.
Within one of the villas that stood in the third row, Anita gazed in despair as she saw the massive water mass flow towards her.
'Boom'
A torrential stream of water gushed into the room through the arched window while the walls of the building rattled in response to the torrential flow, forming cracks in the relatively weaker sections.
'Swish'
As the stream of gushing water impacted the sides of the bookshelf during its flow downwards, the bearings used in the bookshelf gave out under the added pressure and broke into numerous pieces. This led to all the components that made up the bookshelf to come torn apart under the water flow.
The water level had already drowned their entire house as the stream of water uprooted Anita, along with the piece of wood she desperately stuck onto like glue.
"Guh…" A muffled groan leaked out of her mouth as the bones in her limbs broke the moment the torrential water impacted upon her.
Most of her internal organs were crushed into mush in an instant due to the water pressure which slowly tried to regenerate themselves as they absorbed the ambient seawater.
The seawater flowed in a turbulent manner, crashing into numerous buildings, destroying them in the process and carrying the wreckage along with it.
Blades, needles, tips of a pen, fragments of rocks, concrete, iron, etc. each of them brushed past the fragile body of Anita who currently looked small and helpless, creating various degree of injuries on her body and sending bouts of pain through each of her sensory nerves.
The water pressure was so much that Anita couldn't even open her mouth to let out a cry of pain as she was swept away along whatever direction the water chose to travel.
She couldn't breathe, she couldn't see in the darkness, she couldn't get a sense of her direction, orientation, place, position, and lastly, she couldn't think.
A sizzling sound followed by a stream of bubbles wrapped around her body as they healed her while new injuries constantly cropped up on her frail figure that felt like it would snap her tiny insignificant body into pieces any minute under the torture.
Something sharp pierced through her thigh on the back and instantly emerged out from the other side and disappeared in the sea of objects. Before her brain could even register the grievous wound, the surrounding water immediately congealed over it and began to heal the wound.
Similar wounds were occurring over all parts of her body but luckily or unluckily, her heart and brain hadn't been pierced by any sharp objects.
Each time the seawater seeped into her body and began to heal her, Anita's thought process slowed down. It was so gradual that Anita didn't realize it since her mind had been completely occupied by all the pain and suffering that she was currently experiencing.
Slowly but surely, her body was drifting along with the various undercurrents of water like a log of wood, sometimes hitting onto a piece of concrete, other times, aimlessly flowing while the water slowly healed the various new injuries that continuously popped up.
-------------------
'Rumble'
'Grrr'
As Prakash desperately kept dodging the attacks of Shaggy by repeatedly making use of the iron railings of the handrail, the floor began to tremor while a sonorous thunder accompanied it.
"Why does it have to be now…. Hope Anita has reunited with Akash." Prakash prayed for the safety of his lovely wife and adorable son, hoping for their survival. He had no other choice now but to pray, pray for their reunion, and pray for their survival.
"There is hardly any cover for me here to survive the Tsunami and I don't have the time to search for one with Shaggy here. It would gobble me up the moment I leave the protection offered by these railings." As Prakash muttered to himself in thought while his bloodied body continued to cunningly make use of feints and the cover provided by the railings to dodge the attacks of Shaggy that continued to get increasingly vicious, a random thought suddenly sparked in his head that completely stayed rooted to his mind.
"Insane!" Once the thought was rooted in his head, it easily overshadowed all other thoughts. It seemed as if this insane choice was the only possible method to ensure his survival, albeit barely, that too in the best-case scenario.
As his body revolved around one of the cylindrical railings, his hands suddenly let go of its grip as his body crouched down along the vertical railings until his face almost kissed the cold hard iron.
Prakash took a deep breath as he calmed his beating heart and patiently waited for the perfect time as his eyes slowly dilated. His perception of time speed up as the world around him slowed down to a crawl.
Prakash saw a gaping maw which was filled with a row of canine teeth that looked murky and full of blood and meat fragments. They were probably the leftovers of its previous meal that slowly enlarged in his vision as the gaping maw neared him rapidly even under his accelerated sense of time.
Like a bullet that was fired out from a gun, Prakash applied pressure in his legs and jumped into the air, forming a beeline towards Shaggy.
In its maddening state, the sharp nose of Shaggy picked up the source of that tantalizing aroma rapidly approach its face. In an instinctual response, the jaws of Shaggy opened, revealing its set of sharp canine teeth as it clamped on its target.
'Chomp'
Purple blood sprayed in the air, drenching the sides of its face as it leaked out from between the gaps of its teeth.