Introduction

We constantly find natural disasters across the world and the stories of them that often follow. One of the most common natural disasters we find in many myths and cultural stories is the flood. The flood has symbolism as a cleansing, as many stories use floods as a means to purify corrupt or wrong-doing people such as in the tales of the Bible and Ovid's story of Zeus. We are all familiar with the story of Noah, who found favor in the eyes of God and was preemptively warned about the flood that was to be sent by God. Ovid tells us of another god-sent flood, from Zeus, the god of gods, and the two survivors of Zeus' flood, Deucalion and Pyrrha.

I personally have always really liked dystopian stories filled with action and uncertainty, so I hope to introduce some new stories to you!

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"Don't you think the water levels are rising too quickly?!" Raj was on the verge of having a panic attack at this point. They were supposed to be on a wonderful excursion to a mostly abandoned island to explore its flora and fauna, so how had it come to this? Raj and eleven of his classmates had arrived on the small island of Flumen with their professor a week ago and were halfway into their trip when storms came raging one after the other. With the constant barrage of rain, the shoreline of the island was slowly being taken over by the sea. The students had evacuated to the top of a small mountain on the island, Superstes, where the locals had all gathered during the onslaught of the storms. At the top of the mountain was a large community center, which the locals say has been there since people first arrived on the island. The center is constructed from large stones and hardened mud, with hay used for insulation.

The island chief had started a fire in the center of the room. The chief gestured for everyone to gather around the fire and take a seat. "No, but really, are we going to be okay?" Raj once again voiced his concerns to the room. They were from Las Vegas, one of the driest cities not only in Nevada but in the entirety of the U.S. He could probably count the number of times he had seen rain since he was born on both hands.

"Stop being a worrywart," Collin, one of his close friends, said, patting him on the back. "Obviously floods are pretty common here, considering the island is legit named 'Flood' in Latin." All the students looked at Collin with an odd look on their faces. "What? I took Latin as my foreign language because I didn't want to do a language lab. Plus, this mountain we're on is called 'Survivor,' I think you are all going to be fine!"

"The boy is right." The chief spoke up, "Our island commonly experiences flooding, as we're quite close to the equator." The chief paused and stirred the fire a bit before looking back up at the students. "Since we have to wait this out anyways, let me tell you a few stories in the meantime . . ."