Written for the weekly prompt of the I Am A Writer Facebook Group (I should probably create a tag or category for these at this point, right now they’re under the Flash Fiction category.
Photo prompt:
The sea had long risen above the coastal land, beaches had moved miles inland and coastal communities had long since submerged. Abandoned houses once home to dockworkers and fishermen lied a dozen feet beneath the ocean water the walls now shelter to the aquatic life that had moved inland to new bays and artificial reefs of swollen wood and mossy roofs. Multistory buildings still stood above the bay, what was once a bustling city center now functioned as a colossal barrier reef protecting the new coast’s inhabitants from the surging waves of the endless storms that plagued the coast. The colossals of the ocean were beginning to deteriorate after a century of protection, and a storm drew nearer.
Passing through the channels between the still-standing skyscrapers, their guts of steel and concrete exposed to the open water, the rusted rebar protruding like fractured bones, the red rust bleeding into the bay like the blood from a wounded animal, was a small fishing boat no larger than the city’s buses that once roamed the streets below. On the meager ship’s bow, the name of it was printed in white letters contrasting against the ship’s navy hull: Sea King.
On the Sea King’s usual voyage she would be fitted with a four-man crew, but today only the captain remained, for he was the only one capable to fulfill the voyage today. The new coastal cities had abandoned their settlements and moved inland, but the storm approached too fast. In a desperate attempt to slow the storm the captain of The Sea King volunteered his life to meet the eye of the storm within the old city, armed with the power of the atom, he would take up arms with the old colossal barrier reef of the city and stave off the storm with the giants of yore. For this will be the last voyage of the Sea King.
