After a mostly restful night of sleep, Nancy and I awake to the sound of a blaring siren. It is so loud that I immediately cover my ears and still think it is the loudest thing I have ever heard in my life. I motion to Nancy to look for where the siren may be coming from and notice a red emergency light flashing and a siren horn next to it. Nancy sees it at the same time and hits the siren with a frozen herring. Just kidding, she presses the silence alarm button, but the whole frozen herring thing sounds much better,
“Nancy, any idea what the alarm was for?”
“I think it is the alarm indicating the frozen herring are thawing.”
“What?”
“Just kidding, a frozen herring thaw alarm sound more like an English police siren, you know bee bo, bee bo. This is more of a constant ear splitting banshee wail.”
“Oh, so does that mean a captured banshee is escaping on the back of a Whale?”
“What? No it is an alarm indicating the tunnel has water in it.”
“On a good bad scale, that would be pegging the bad end of the scale.”
“It shows that the water alarm is for the Treasure Island to Piedmont loop.”
“Let’s check the water tight door for that section and make sure it is shut tight.”
We check the door and it is shut tight. Looking through the high pressure glass viewing window I see that there is water in the tunnel and it is slowly rising.
“Nancy, let’s get packed up and head towards Los Trampas Regional Wilderness, it looks like it is about a ten mile tunnel walk to there on the map.”
We pack up the essentials, water, some ready to eat military rations, thankfully none had frozen herring in them. I pick a couple of the ones with a high energy protein bar, some dehydrated bananas, strawberries and pineapple, granola and an energy drink mix. Nancy picks the same and we both grab some water and two small portable oxygen tanks..
Nancy and I head East out the watertight door toward Los Trampas Regional Wilderness and close it tightly behind us. We still don’t trust the doors to hold up to the water filling the tunnel behind us, so we start walking at a rapid pace.
After an hour of walking, it looks like we have gone about 4 miles and expect to make the Los Trampas Regional Wilderness in another hour and a half.
“Nancy, do you want to take a short break, so far the tunnel has remained dry and I could use a protein bar and some water.”
“I agree, I think we are safe, but being in these tunnels so soon after the earthquake yesterday is making me nervous.”
After a short break with amazing no one mentions herring; frozen or otherwise, we continue heading East in the tunnel. Nancy and I continue to make good time and after another hour and four more miles we take another break.
“Nancy, does it smell like sea water in here?”
“Now that you mention it, I do smell something oceany and I am pretty sure it is not a frozen herring.”
“Right, I wonder if that means we have some water coming this way. How good are you at swimming?”
“Yes, let’s head out.”
As we turn to head west, water slowly trickles from the west and our shoes are wet on the bottom.
“Nancy, run!”
“You too!”
We run east hoping we get to the Los Trampas Regional Wilderness section of the tunnel and hope there is a water tight door or a ladder up to the surface.
After 5 minutes, we are running through water slowly rising to the depth of our ankles.
“Nancy, do you remember when you told me that math story problems would never have a practical application, well here is a prime example of how important math is.”
“What, seriously, we are running away from rising water in a tunnel that we hope has a working watertight door at the end of it and you want to give me a life lesson on the importance of math?”
“Well, we are traveling at about five miles per hour, in the last five minutes the water has risen six inches and the ceiling is eight feet high. Will we get to the Los Trampas Regional Wilderness tunnel section before or after the water reaches the ceiling?”
“Ok fine, one time in my life I need to be able to answer a math story problem and we don’t even have the time to stop and figure it out, because that would slow us down and we definitely would be stuck in this tunnel.”
“Well, I just did the problem in my head while you were once again complaining about math. It will take us about 75 minutes to reach the watertight door at the end of the tunnel. In 75 minutes the water will be approximately 7.5 feet deep. I am guessing at that point we may be swimming and aided by the flow of the water, we should just make it.”
“I think I can run a bit faster, how about you?”
“I can try.”
After 30 more minutes I have a stitch in my side and think I must slow down my pace. Nancy seems to be having less difficulty.
“Nancy, rush on ahead, I cannot keep this pace. Get to the door and open it, this will slow the rise of the water in the tunnel and give me a chance to yet reach the door.”
“Dad, I can’t leave you behind, I won’t.”
“You ,must, it is our only hope.”
After another 30 minutes, Nancy must have reached the end of the tunnel as the water makes a sudden drop allowing me to pick up speed. Twenty minutes later I see the end of the tunnel and the watertight door. I make it to the door and go through. Nancy shuts the door behind me and we tighten the hatch together. Unfortunately, the door is leaking.
Calmly, ok maybe not so calmly after all the room is filling up with water, I take stock of the situation and survey my surroundings. Maybe I am over reacting, there is a ladder going up with a sign that indicates exit. I presume that means to the surface.