Robert woke up with a start. The date was September 26, 2009 and Robert had a deadline to meet.

Rain was falling outside, but Robert didn’t mind. He found that the sound of rain calms him when he’s feeling pressured. Like he was feeling at the moment. His deadline was make-or-break. It would mean getting out of the call center industry finally. It would mean that he is one step closer to his dreams.

Eleven o’clock in the morning, Robert decides to get an early lunch. He leaves his apartment to see that the rain wasn’t letting up. But it wasn’t heavy rain. Robert didn’t even bring an umbrella, thinking the rain would pass soon.

He grabbed his wallet and headed out. Grabbed lunch at the local carinderia, and watched television with the regulars. In the middle of Pia Guanio telling a studio contestant the mechanics of a game, the power went out. Robert took that as a sign that he should be heading back home.

On his way back, he saw that it was starting to flood. A neighbor was dragging her two children out of the house. Robert thought she was being paranoid. It always rained, it always flooded. He shrugged it off. He didn’t want to involve himself in other people’s business.

When he reached his apartment, the flood water had considerably risen. Robert was starting to think that the neighbor had it right when she left with her children. But he had a deadline to finish. And once the rain and the flood are gone, he can’t very well tell his professor that he was afraid of a little water. So he persevered with his deadline.

It was late in the afternoon when Robert looked out of his window. His unit was on the third floor, and the flood had reached the second floor. Or at least, that’s how it looked from the window. Robert was about to turn back to what he was doing when he saw her.

She was a kid, holding a wet puppy close to her arms. They were floating. Or rather, the girl was doing her best to float. Robert looked around—there was no one there to help the girl. He glanced at his project, and decided that he could get back to it after helping the girl. So he left his room, ran towards the now-flooded second floor and jumped out of the window.

Robert swam after the girl. The wet puppy in her arms was already dead. Robert coaxed the girl into letting the animal go, and it took a while. When Robert looked up to see how he was going to go back to his apartment, he realized that the flood water had taken them down the street already. And the current was strong.

Lucky for them, a makeshift raft was making its way to them. Robert called their attention. And they took the girl from him, and helped him up to the raft. The person in charge of the raft told him that they were taking them to a nearby evacuation center. Robert just nodded, his mind still on the project he wasn’t able to finish.

The girl he saved started crying, asking for Brownie. The puppy. Robert glanced to where the raft had picked them up. He could still see the wet fur glistening off the dead animal’s back. He decided that he was going to stay with the girl, and took his mind off the project he was never going to finish.

At the evacuation center, Robert started to look for the girl’s parents. Or any family member. But instead, he found a fight. A man was being restrained by a medical crew as he tried to leave the center. He was shouting that his mother was still somewhere outside, and that he wanted to go and find her.

The man broke loose. He grabbed at one of the people trying to restrain him and threw the person towards Robert’s direction. Robert didn’t know what to do. He tried to catch the person, but instead they both went down hard. Robert felt something near his right ear pop, but he shook it off.

He left the scuffle and started his search for the girl’s family again. A couple of hours later, he still couldn’t find anyone who knew the girl. And he was already feeling tired. Robert thought he could just lie down for a bit. So he did.

After how many hours, he didn’t know how long he was out exactly, but Robert could see blurred shapes surrounding him. His hearing was much better than his sight.

“This one looks dead.” He heard one of the blurred shapes say.

“Make sure,” the other blurred shape responded.

Robert couldn’t see what they were doing. If they were doing anything at all. But the next thing he heard was, “he’s not responding.”

And, “throw him with the other dead guys.”

He wanted to shout. He wanted to scream. But, Robert couldn’t do anything. And his mind wandered back to his apartment. Where his project was waiting for him. Robert wished he never looked out the window.

In his head, he told the blurred shapes: “I’m alive.”