.
A tongue of salt water stretched into the city licking the edges of the cracked asphalt as if it was tasting its next meal. Waves splashed into buildings that once stood proud but now we're half-buried in muddy water. The air smelled of everything that drowned with the flood. People ran with bags on their heads, screaming, pushing, fighting to reach the last evacuation ship. There was chaos in the city.
Lagos was sinking.
“Seyi, hold on to me. Don't let go” Mama shouted, her voice fresh with panic.
Seyi wrapped his tiny fingers tightly around her arms. A teenager who looked nothing like his age. He was smarter and more physically built. He stumbled severely as he dragged his slippers against the wet ground.
“Mama, are we going to make it?” he asked, panting. "Into the ship."
His Mama could answer. She didn't have the words to say. Already she had in her phone a text message from the commander in charge of the last military ship asking that they be let onboard immediately. The commander was her late husband's brother. But from the crowd pushing and fighting to be let into the ship, she doubted if they would be let through.
She stretched her eyes and in the distance stood the ship, its once-white body stained with rust. As they got closer, she could see soldiers holding back the crowd with batons. But the people weren't giving up. They screamed, pushed, struggled, cursed, cried, and even shoved money into the guards’ hands.
The scene was heartbreaking. Children pressed their faces against the rail, crying, and mothers wailed, pleading for their kids to be saved. Some cursed God. The city was drowning speedily. Some were praying but it was as if the sea did not care about their prayers.
In all this chaos a soldier kept shouting
"Only one seat left. One seat."
Mama’s chest tightened. But she didn't give up. She pushed through the crowd, her hands firmly holding onto his son and her phone. Someone pulled her wrapper, another shoved her shoulder. But she clung to Seyi like a woman holding the last candle in darkness.
“Please!” she kept shouting, dragging Seyi forward. “I have a message from the commander for you. He asks you to let us on board," She yelled, shoving her phone to a soldier's face who seemed to be the one in charge.
The soldier snatched her phone and squinted at the glowing screen. The message was clear with the commander's signature as a seal. A proof that it was legit.
"Let her through!" The soldier commander.
She tried pushing through with her son into the ship but another soldier blocked her with his arm. He seemed to be a higher officer than the first one.
"We are at the limit. We can just take one of them." To Mama. "You have to make a choice, you or him. I can't take more than that."
"Then please take my boy! He needs to leave!”
"No Mama!" Seyi protested..
But Mama paid him no attention. “My son,” she kept crying. “Let him go.”
The soldier’s eyes softened for a second, then hardened again. He turned to Seyi,
“Get on board now!.”
“No Mama…Come with me.” Seyi kept crying, refusing to get on board. Holding onto his mother's hand.
“I cannot, my child. Only you.” Mama replied with tears almost blurring her eyes.
“If you don’t come, then I won’t go.”
Mama quickly knelt to him at that statement. She grabbed his face, her wet wrapper sticking to her knees, her face filled with tears
“Son listen, I've lived most of my life but you, you have a future. This is your chance to survive and live where the sea cannot touch you. Start life anew and keep our lineage alive.”
Seyi sobbed. "Everyone deserves a chance to survive." He said. Clinging to her waist. His small body was trembling against hers. She felt every bone, every tear. A lifetime of love in one last embrace.
Mama nodded. She wished she had a reply to that. She could lie and say she would follow in the next ship, but she knew there wasn't another. That was the last ship. She looked around as the water was already here, rising, swallowing the city inch by inch.
A soldier barked, “Last call! One seat!”
Mama stood up. "Take him, please." She pleaded with the soldier. Then she turned her back on him.
The soldier picked up Seyi and dragged him into the ship. Seyi kept calling, pleading. Mama turned to take a quick last glance at her son. She could see the betrayal in his eyes as he called out the last time. “Mama!”
Quietly, Mama staggered back, her body shaking, her soul torn apart. She could feel his pain. But she had to do what she did. It wasn't out of the gate but pure love for her boy. She could feel her heart tear into two.
The ship doors were locked and the anchors raised. The engine roared to life. And gradually, the ship pulled away, its horn echoing like a mourning cry across the flooded city. People chased it into the water, splashing, wailing, clinging to the anchor as it was raised but soldiers kicked them off.
Mama stood alone staring at the ship as it sailed away until it became a dot. Behind her the ocean was swooping in on them rapidly. She wanted to sink with it. To let the water claim her. To be done.
Suddenly, she finally shook herself to life and turned. If she wanted a chance at survival, to see her son again, she needed to find a higher ground.
She scanned the city for the nearest tall building. Sighting one, she took off to its direction. The ocean was getting closer now but she didn't slow down. She kept running, splashing through water, panting, and swimming.
She reached the building's top just before the ocean caught up.
Soon silence fell. Lagos was gone. Buried under the flood. Only sounds of the waves splashing through the houses standing and the sobs of few humans who had made it to higher grounds could be heard.
She looked into the distance. She could still see the ship sail away. Happy her son was safe, she cried and whispered
“Go well, my son.”
When it's all over or maybe when help comes, she would find him again.
[Source](https://pixabay.com/photos/norfolk-ship-port-city-bay-sea-6278918/)
