The Day After Tomorrow

[MarieDavisRPs]

The Day After Tomorrow

After I establish the background,
which is slightly different than that of the movie,
writers are welcome to join if they would like.
But please ask to join, as opposed to simply posting.
Thanks. ​

New York Central Library
Day 2 (?) of New Ice Age

There was a knock at the closed door to the Senior Media Specialist's office, but before Marie Davis could respond verbally, it opened wide. The eyes of the young woman at the door widened and her mouth fell open at the sight of Marie in nothing more than her panties and a thigh length fur coat.

"What're you doing?" Chloe Barnes inquired with shock and a laugh. "What is that, and where are your clothes?"

Marie laughed, too, pulling the coat tighter around her torso as she performed a full spin to show it off. "Nice, isn't it? I found it in the librarian's closet with a bunch of other clothes that obviously aren't hers. I think it's a lost and found. I was looking for blankets and dry--"

"Where are you clothes?" Chloe asked a second time.

Marie pointed to her jeans, blouse, socks, and brassiere, now laid out over the back of an old, raggedy couch that seemed almost as old as the Library itself.
"They're wet, so I was drying them out."

She hadn't necessarily needed to explain about being drenched, because Marie and many others had become so in the same way. The incredible weather phenomenon that was tearing its way across North America had resulted in these two and 50 others getting trapped in the Library earlier this afternoon.

A climatic event of unimaginable ferocity was doing double duty damage to the City. First, happening just a couple of hours ago, a storm surge in the Atlantic had struck the Big Apple with a twenty foot high tsunami that grew to almost three times that height when it entered the streets and avenues and pushed its way through the buildings of Manhattan. And second, as the flood waters settled outside at a depth of more than 20 feet, a blizzard like nothing anyone here had ever experienced was sweeping in from the north, a snow storm so cold that it would freeze the top half of the flood waters in just a couple of hours.

Neither Marie nor Chloe knew things were going to get that bad yet, of course. No one did, not here and not elsewhere. They'd seen storms before, but never like this. They'd both been little girls when they'd experienced Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Marie and her family, which hadn't evacuated because of her stubborn father, had been trapped by floodwaters on Long Island. They'd had to be airlifted by a National Guard helicopter, for which the family had been billed because they'd been in the mandatory evacuation zone. (Marie's father was still fighting the charge in court all these years later.)

Chloe's family had fled to her grandfather's home, thinking it would be safer there, and yet at the height of the storm surge she'd wound up on the peak of the home's roof while her fire fighter father was helping to rescue neighbors.

And yet Sandy had been nothing compared to what they'd seen this morning. They, like others who'd seen the wave in time, had hurried into the century old building and climbed the stairs in haste. Marie had been knocked down by water when it burst through the second floor windows, only to thankfully be saved by a pair of men who dove in to rescue her. Chloe had already reached the third floor, but turned back when she saw an elderly woman in need, and the two of them had very nearly been washed away by the retreat of a later wave.

They were both lucky to be alive, and they knew it.

Marie snatched up a pair of sweats sporting a local college's mascot logo and began donning them as she told her new friend, "There's a lot of stuff in here. Clothes, blankets, coats ... I guess coats are clothes, right? We need to take it all out to the others. A lot of people got wet, and even if they didn't, it's getting fucking cold out there."

Without turning her back to the other young woman, Marie shed the fur to don a cotton tee shirt she'd found. Chloe's eyes widened yet again as she got a good look at Marie's firm, B-cups with dark nipples that were hardened by the chill of the room.

"You need to change, too," the nearly naked girl told the other. "You're trembling."

Chloe hadn't even realized that she was shaking, now chilled to the core. She looked at some of the clothes the other young woman had piled amid stacks of books on a working table. She picked out a tee shirt, a sleeveless sweat shirt, a windbreaker, and a pair of sweat bottoms; they clashes horrifically with one another, but Chloe knew that it was not a time to worry about such things.

She looked around for a place to change, only to then look to Marie and find the other woman smiling at her. "Shy much? You already saw my tits, so ... c'mon ... strip."

Chloe laughed as a blush flooded her fair skinned face. She looked around again, her modest self hoping at least for a screen or door to somewhat hide her. Then, a sense of bravery forced itself upon her. Chloe began to unbutton, unzip, and unsnap her wet slacks, beginning her best version of the 1962 song, The Stripper, "Da-daa-daaa ... DA-da-da-daaaa..."

"Oh, goodie!" Marie laughed. "A strip show."

The girl who'd again donned the fur joined the singing, swaying her body side to side in exaggerated movements, as was Chloe. The redhead playfully began pushing her pants downward, stopping to tug upward on the waistband of her panties which were threatening to drop as well. The tight fitting denim pants were difficult to shed what with being wet. But soon, after having pushed her shoes off with the toes of the opposite feet, the redhead was tossing the jeans aside, revealing a pair of sheer, black, lacy panties beyond which was flesh bared by a recent visit from a razor.

"Mmm, nice," Marie said with a sexy tone as she looked to the other young woman's groin.

Even though all of this fun and games was meant to be just that, fun and games, each of the girls was actually very much turned on by what the other was doing. Even though neither of them knew it yet about the other, they each had experience of the nude kind with other members of their gender. Neither of them considered themselves lesbian; they both had had their share of kissing boyfriends and male lovers during their relatively short love lives. But each of them had also found joy in the arms of another woman once, and despite the events taking place outside in the City, each was already thinking that if she survived this day, she just might want to find such pleasure in the other's hands in the very near future.

"Get out your dolla' bills," Chloe said between da-daa's as she jerked the lapels of her shirt open to give Marie a fuller view of her beautiful figure in a set of sexy, lacy undergarments. She laughed loudly before closing her shirt again; another blush filled her face, even flooding down into her neck. "Oh my God, I can't believe I did that."

"Don't hide yourself, girl," Marie told her, stepping forward and tugging at Chloe's shirt. "You're incredible."

"It's cold, though," Chloe said, holding her blouse even tighter as Marie urged her to open it. "Gimme those sweats."

Marie laughed as she retrieved the sweats. She lifted them to her nose, sniffed, and verified, "They're clean, I think, so that's good."

She moved close to Chloe again and handed them over. The beauty slipped into the sweat bottoms, then shed her shirt. She looked into Marie's eyes before and after slipping the tee over her head, wondering whether or not the brunette was thinking the same she was: I wanna kiss you so bad! Chloe pulled the sweat top over her head, too, laughed again, and asked with a wide smile, "Why are you staring at me?"

"You're beautiful," Marie said with a tone that hovered near hunger. "You know that, right?"

Chloe felt her face flush again. She was screwing up the courage to respond So are you when a knock at the closed door nearly caused them both to jump out of their skin. They erupted in embarrassed laughter, and as Chloe hurriedly donned her shoes, leaving the wet socks off, Marie went to the door and cracked it open, asking simply, "What?"

 

[ManInTheLoft]

Connor Lofton looked through the cracked door as Marie looked through as well, asking, "What?"

He laughed, trying to peer around her as he asked, "You okay in here? Whatcha doin'?"

He could see the other young woman arranging her clothing, and his often dirty mind was instantly filled with images of the two beauties naked and gettin' busy. His cock stirred in his jeans, which like Marie and Chloe's clothes were soaked.

"I wanted to make sure that that other girl was okay," he said, his body language meant to imply to Marie that he wanted to come inside the room. The door didn't open any farther, though, so he just pulled back. "I heard maybe you found a lost and found that might have dry clothes. Bunch of us are freezing our asses off out here. They're trying to figure out whether or not we can use the fireplace. We need to either dry off or change. You find anything?"

Connor was hoping that his heroic action earlier was going to get him somewhere with Marie, both in regards to a stash of dry clothes and maybe in regards to getting her out of her own clothes at some point. It wasn't really the time to be thinking about sex, of course. But he had after all saved her from drowning earlier, down on the second floor. So, maybe some time in the near future she might repay him?

The other girl he hadn't even spoken with yet. She was just as hot as Marie but even more a redhead. Connor had always had a thing for redheads. All that fiery hair and fair skin sometimes speckled with freckles. His first lover had been a redhead, and in between playing dot-to-dot on her back or even her tits with a water color marker, they used to fuck like there was no tomorrow.

Of course, now, there was a possibility that there might not be one. Climatologists had for decades been warning about global warming, but Connor doubted that anyone outside that field of study had ever imagined something like this happening. Four days ago, when he'd arrived in New York City for a chess championship, it had been 65 and sunny. By the next day, it was overcast and cold; by the day after that, it was raining cats and dogs; and then yesterday the snow had begun falling and the news stations were talking of a blizzard like nothing anyone alive today had ever experienced.

And now here he was, trapped inside the New York City Library by several feet or even yards of deep ocean water below and a fierce snow storm above. What the fuck? The good news, of course, was that there were at least half a dozen babes trapped here with him, including Marie and Chloe.

"So, you gonna let me in or come out or what?" he asked after getting no response from the girl now wearing what looked like a genuine fur coat.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

"We're fine," Marie told Connor when he asked if she and Chloe were okay. She could have said more, but instead just smiled at him flirtatiously, waiting to see if there was more that he wanted. He asked about giggling woman behind her, and Marie's smile widened as she said, "She's fine, Connor. Too fine for you."

Out of view, Chloe giggled again and said softly, "Oh my God, Marie, mean much?"

Chloe looked back, saying to her but meaning for Connor to hear, "He just wanted to see if you were still changing."

She looked back to the young man who'd saved her life. He was handsome, and in his wet clothes she could see that he was fit, just the kind of guy she'd let watch her change ... and more.

"Yeah, we found a lost and found that looks like a fricking Goodwill Store," she told Connor. "Probably got some stuff that'd fit you."

She didn't open the door for him, though, nor did she tell him to go away. Marie was torn between whether she wanted him here or wanted to be alone with Chloe for a bit longer. She had a sense that the beauty might be having some of the same thoughts as she was about how they could keep warm, and that had nothing to do with putting more clothes on.

"So, you gonna let me in or come out or what?" he asked.

Marie paused, then looked to ensure Chloe was decent, then backed up and pulled the door open. She gestured to the closet. "I haven't pulled out any of the clothes for guys yet. Take a look. I got no idea where all this shit comes from. I mean, how many people carry around that many extra clothes and then forgets it at the library."

"They're for the homeless," Chloe offered, and when the other two looked her way, she explained, "It's not a lost and found, its for the homeless. My mother works for the City. I heard her talking about it one day with a friend. They keep clothes that come from all sorts of places at the libraries, and when the homeless come in sometimes, 'cause it's a warm, dry place in the winter, the librarians sometimes offer them clean clothes. They change in the bathroom stalls. Usually downstairs."

Marie was a bit surprised by that. She'd always thought the libraries discouraged the homeless from hanging out here. "That's an incredible idea. Explains things anyway."

Chloe laughed suddenly, and Marie quickly realized why. Connor had pulled out a shirt that looked like John Travolta had worn it on the set of a 1970's disco movie. The redhead moved forward to snatch it from him, saying, "Jesus, Connor, let me find something for you. Men, you're all hopeless."

"C'mon, Connor, help me," Marie said as the other women was digging around. "Help me fill this book cart with blankets and stuff. We'll take'em out to the others."

They loaded a cart, then a second one Marie brought in from the hallway, and by that time Chloe had found a couple of halfway decent shirts, some warm overclothes, and a trio of pants that were close to Connor's size. She held each of the latter before his waist, looking them over a moment before picking out a pair of worn denim jeans.

"These'll do," she told him, giving him a little push toward the closet as she said, "Go change. We won't peak, I promise ... at least ... not much."

She giggled again and turned to join Marie. They both looked toward Connor wondering how he would handle this; the closet had no power and, therefore, no lights, so to change in there would mean having to leave the door at least partially open. Marie told him, "There's some underwear in there, too. Cardboard box in the back. None of them are open. Brand new. Hurry up. We got things to do."

If he told them he wasn't going to change in front of them, Marie would make some cracks about him being shy, but she would turn Chloe out of there and they'd give him some privacy. If he didn't demand privacy, well, Marie wondered what the show would be like.

 

[ManInTheLoft]

"He just wanted to see if you were still changing," Marie called to Chloe, though Connor believed her comment was meant to embarrass him, which of course it had been.

"No, I didn't," he said, leaning closer to the door to repeat loud enough for the other young woman, "No, I didn't!"

Connor didn't know whether or not the pair believed him, but then if he had been them, would he have? A moment later, he was inside the room getting a lesson about the libraries of the city had been quietly helping the homeless. Chloe took charge of finding him clothes that fit and, apparently, were fashionable.

"Go change," the redhead told him, pushing him toward a dark closet. "We won't peak, I promise ... at least ... not much."

She giggled again, and Connor laughed, uncertain of whether or not she was teasing or being truthful about taking a peak. Marie told him about underwear in the back of the walk-in closet, and he got lucky with finding an unopened package of boxer-briefs right on top that were just his size.

Looking out into the room that was lit only by the bright, white light flooding in through now-ice fringed windows, he asked, "Are you at least gonna turn around?"

He waited as they giggled together, and when they finally turned away, Connor began stripping out of his wet clothes. It was difficult; his fingers were nearly numb and trembling. He was almost tempted to ask one or both of the girls to assist him, but that sounded like a bad idea, at least right now. He thought, Next time maybe.

Connor glanced back to the pair before he pulled down his underwear, thinking that he'd caught them turning away after having peeked. He was naked only for a moment, struggling to raise the underwear against his moist skin. On came the jeans, his own belt, a tee, a sweat top, and a stocking cap with the logo of the 2020 Olympics, which of course had never taken place.

He found a pair of slip on shoes that were two sized too big for him and donned them, knowing he could use his own once they'd dried. Out of the closet again, he looked to Chloe, did a little spin as (unknown to him) Marie had done to her earlier as well, and asked, "Am I ready for my walk down the runway?"

Together, the three of them made their way back to Law Library in which the others were all assembled by now. Some of the other survivors had wandered about the unflooded portions of the library, checking it out, and they repeated to Connor, Marie, and Chloe what they'd learned as the dry clothes and blankets were handed out.

"Food is going to be a problem," pointed out the second man who had been part of Marie's rescue earlier. His name was Frank Evans, and he'd been a Navy SEAL for a number of years that he said he wasn't allowed to discuss. We found vending machines full of crap food."

"One wasn't that bad," an 18 year old name Willy Parker countered. "It's got sandwiches, milk, juices. I wouldn't put money on the freshness of them."

"There's a cafeteria in the basement," Frank went on. "If we can get some of the food in there--"

"The flooded cafeteria," Connor reminded him. "It's two floors down. That's twenty feet of freezing water."

"Thirty, actually," Frank corrected. He pointed upwards, and when Connor followed his gesture, he was reminded that the floors of the library weren't your typical eight foot high like in most homes. "But if I go now, I think I can do it."

Almost simultaneously, several people began arguing that that was a bad fucking idea. The sea water filling the lower floors of the building was barely above freezing; because it was surging about, there would be ocean-like currents; there was no artificial lighting and very little natural lighting on either the second and first floors; and Frank would have no scuba gear for what would like be a long swim through treacherous waters.

"I can do it, trust me," Frank said with confidence. "I'll need some help, though. I need to--"

"I'll help," Connor said without hesitation.

The young Willy sounded off, "Me, too. I was on the swim team in high school--"

"I don't need you to swim with me," Frank cut in. "I just ... well, I'll show you when we start."

There was continued discussion about how this was a bad idea, but as Frank spoke more about the need for food and others agreed with him, it was decided to give his idea a try.

"Okay, come with me," he said to the eight people who said they would do what they could to help. He assigned each of them with tasks, typically in pairs. Then, stripping down to his own boxer-briefs, Frank waded slowly into the now more still water on the second-to-first floor stairway, letting his body get used to the cold. Then, with one last look back, as his chest was heaving with difficulty at breathing in the 38 degree water, he said, "If I don't come back, don't come after me. I'll be dead, and soon you will, too."

And into the water he fully went.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

"Are you at least gonna turn around?"

The two girls giggled, after which Marie asked, "Do we have to?"

But Chloe grabbed the other young woman's arm and turned her. "Give him is privacy, can't you see he's shy."

As soon as they'd turned, though, Marie pulled out her cell phone which, while it had no service, hadn't been ruined by her swim in the shall but cold water. She activated the selfie mode of the camera, and a moment later they were looking over her shoulder at Connor stripping out of his clothes. They continued to giggle a bit, trying to keep it as silent as possible. Marie had to lower the camera once when she realized the man in his skivvies was looking back at them.

"What an ass," she whispered silently to Chloe as Connor stripped his underwear off and quickly changed into a new, dry pair. For just an instant, they got a look at his junk, after which Marie whispered about his apparent endowment, "Even in the cold!"

After asking if he was ready to be a runway model in his less than fashionable clothing, the three of them headed for the room where most of the others were. Marie didn't know who'd decided they should all hang there, but in the end it had seemed a good decision.

By now, there was a fire roaring in the old hearth on the inner wall of the room. Paper from the copy room had been used first, and broken wooden chairs and tables were being added now. Someone pointed out that the varnish from the furniture wasn't good for them all to be breathing, to which someone else asked, "What's gonna kill us first, the varnish fumes or the forty below temperatures that are gonna come inside if we don't burn this shit."

"When the furniture is all gone," someone asked with a concerned tone, "are we going to burn books to keep warm."

A trio of survivors immediately spoke up against it, but then a surprising voice -- Victoria, one of the librarians who'd been on duty and remained -- quickly chimed in, "Fuck yes we are."

There were shocked looks and laughs, too. She expanded, "I don't know about you folks, but my life is worth more than all the books in the Law Library, which if you were paying attention, is exactly where we are."

"No one's talking about burning the classics," another person offered, supporting the Librarian.

"So, who picks what gets burned and what gets saved?"

"It's your library, but I work here," Victoria said. She caught the expressions and reactions from some of the others and realized that not everyone supported her implied control over the Public Library's contents. She cleared her throat, considered her words, then said, "I'll pick out what to burn, and if anyone here has an issue with my choice, those books will be set aside."

One of the young teens added his voice to the conversation. "It's not like we're gonna burn them all, right? I mean, someone's gonna save us today or tomorrow, right?"

There was silence all about the room, as the others -- mostly adults who knew and accepted that they were all on their own -- just looked about at the others for the person who was going to set this kid straight. Marie could stand the tension and told the boy, "Someone's gonna come for us soon, Henry, but it won't be today and it won't be tomorrow. Here, help me hand out these blankets."

As she, Chloe, and three of the younger kids began disbursing the warm, dry clothing and blankets, behind them Frank Evans began talking about going for the food in the underwater portion of the building. She didn't want to see anyone take that kind of a risk, but she understood what the man was saying about that element of surviving all of this.

After the conversation-turned-argument had gone on a minute or so, Frank brought it to an end, saying, "I can do it, trust me. I'll need some help, though.

He got some instant help, and after a moment Marie said, "I'll help, too."

Chloe and Connor joined in as well, and soon enough they were all out in the chilly air of the second floor landing listening to Frank explain what he was doing. They all studied the map of the Library, and a plan for his route was made. Frank stripped down to his underwear and began taking exaggerated breaths, which Chloe explained was to help his body accumulate the oxygen it would begin losing once he'd gone underneath the water.

"How do you know this?" one of the others asked Chloe. As she began stripping her clothes off, she answered, "I used to free dive. I should go with him."

"No fucking way!" Marie snapped, trying to stop the other girl from undressing further.

But Chloe was insistent, telling her and Frank -- who didn't like the idea either -- that it made total sense. "I might not be a SEAL, but I'm probably as good a swimmer as one."

Frank was already in the water as Chloe got down to her sexy, lacy panties and bra and began making her way in. She looked to Connor and smiled, winking as she told him, "Guess you get to see me in my panties after all."

The water was colder than she remembered it from the first time in it, but she adjusted and told Frank she was ready. A moment later, they were both under the water and swimming downward, under the second floor staircase toward the first floor. Chloe began to quickly think she'd made a mistake, but the adrenaline rushing through her body kept her moving.

She followed his lead, and after a bit followed him upward into a pocket of air. She gasped for breath as she clutched at a wall figure. After a moment, she looked to him and said with confidence, "Ready!"

 

[ManInTheLoft]

Connor couldn't believe what he and the two girls found when they returned to the Law Library. There was a roaring fire in the fire place, and while it was still chilly, the temperature was noticeably higher than it was outside the room. There was a conversation about what was going to be burned to keep them all warm, and he tended to side with the librarian about burning the collections of law volumes and other such historically unnecessary books.

He was shocked and concerned about Frank's suggestion that he go back into the water again to search for food. Connor didn't swim well. Honestly, he didn't swim! He was a chess geek; he'd spent his youth indoors learning that game and excelling in other big brain stuff like math, science, engineering, etc. In fact, the first time he'd ever gone into a pool at 9 years of age, he'd very nearly drowned.

But his grandfather, with whom he'd grown up and who'd been an athlete all his life, had insisted that Connor needed physical as well as mental exercise. They'd had a basement gym with equipment, punching bags, and more, so Connor had spent time with Gramps down there, which accounted for his buff body.

Still, there while he volunteered to help with Frank's venture, there was no way he was going to swim into that roiling pool of cold ass water. Frank stripped down to his underwear, leading Connor to lean over to Marie and whisper playfully, "I dunno, which one of us looks better in his underwear?"

He didn't get an answer, though, as suddenly Chloe was stripping, too. Connor finally got to see what he's only been imagining earlier up at the head librarian's office. She would have looked incredible in a bikini, he knew immediately, so seeing Chloe in even more revealing, lacy undergarments once again had his cock coming to life within his new pair of jeans, enough so that Connor had to inconspicuously shift his stance and brush a wrist over his growing erection to better position it.

"Exactly what's the plan?" Connor asked Frank as he was standing in the water, preparing himself for a long underwater swim. "I mean, what do you hope to find that you can bring back?"

"There's gonna be lots of packaged food," Frank explained, his attention partially drawn away to the beautiful redhead's body, just as had Connor's. "Some of it floats, some of it doesn't. I dunno, we'll just have to see what's what when we get there."

"That's crazy!" one of those standing by said. "You're crazy. You'll drown, or freeze, or both."

"The water's temperature is not the problem," Frank reassured them all as Chloe was descending and practicing the same breathing technique. Looking into the eyes of the young woman whose tits were still drawing Connor's attention off and on, he told her, "It's the currents. You need to keep hold of something, a railing, a wall, a piece of furniture, me! Don't let yourself drift. We don't know if the water down there is stable and still or sweeping into one side of the building and out the other. Stay close to me, got it?"

And then they were gone. Connor and the others watched as the two swimmers thrashed their legs and arms about, twisting their bodies to circle around the staircase and downward. Connor leaned over the railing to see them disappear, then just stood there for the longest time, looking for some sign that they were changing their minds and coming back up. They didn't.



Frank had hoped from the building's construction that they might find some air pockets along the way, and when they found one after less than a minute of swimming, he twisted his body to go upwards and signaled Chloe to follow. They emerged from the water almost simultaneously, each of them gasping for air dramatically because of the effect of the cold on their bodies and lungs.

"You good to continue?" he asked her with concern, wondering at the same time whether he was. He'd trained in such situations, of course; he'd also participated in a multitude of Polar Challenges over the years, before and after his service in the SEALS. When she nodded, he asked, "Ready?"

He ducked his head into the water, looked around at the next leg, lifted his head to give Chloe instructions, then dove again. They hadn't run into any currents yet, but suddenly Frank found himself being pushed against his will through the library's first floor lobby in the opposite direction of where he'd been heading. He reached out to snatch a pillar, getting just enough of a hold that he was able to snatch Chloe's wrist as she, too, was being pushed on the wrong course.

With both of his hands busy, Frank jerked his head in one direction as best he could, and a moment later Chloe was pulling her way along anything and everything she could to get away from the current. He followed, and miraculously he found himself surfacing in yet another air bubble at the ceiling in which he found Chloe gasping.

"This is good, actually," he told her between deep breaths. "We'll crawl along the wall to the cafeteria, find what we find, and when we come back, we use that current to hurry ourselves back to where we came from, got it?"

Frank smiled, then laughed at Chloe's reaction. He told her, "You're one fucking brave babe. I think if we make it through this, we're gonna have to give you some sort of metal."

What Frank really wanted to give the beautiful young think was a good hard pounding with his currently shriveled up cock. But such thoughts were better saved for another time. "Along the wall, keep tight hold, stay right behind me. The cafeteria is two more rooms ahead of us. When we get to the next door or opening or portal or whatever you want to call it, between this room and the next, you have to watch for that current, got it?"

Frank got confirmation that she was ready, and down into the water they went again. There was no current here, as he'd hoped, but he had to fight it again as he'd warned Chloe when they moved from the library's foyer to one of the reading rooms. He searched for another air pocket but found nothing and instead pushed on. His body was beginning to ache from the exertion in the cold water, but he was confident he could make it. Looking back, he could see Chloe sticking close to him.

Finally, after diving down to the lower entrance to the cafeteria, Frank swam into their destination and was shocked at what he found: an air pocket reached almost 8 feet down from the high ceilings, leaving some of the highest most shelves and racks still dry.

He swam to a preparation table and rose out of the water on his feet, pulling Chloe up to him a few seconds later. He held her at arms length for a moment, then seeing her shivering deep to her core pulled her into his arms to hold her and run his hands over her body, hoping the friction would warm her.

"I wasn't expecting this," he told Chloe as he did his best to comfort her. "This is incredible, presuming we can get it all back there. Any ideas?"

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

Frank and Connor weren't the only one's on the second floor landing ogling Chloe's delicious body. Marie was amongst them. Seeing her in her undergarments for the second time in such a short span left Maria forcing herself not stare and give away her lust for the shapely beauty.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked the redhead one last time before she went into the water. When Chloe told her yes, Marie gave her a friendly hug, pulled back, and told her with a smile, "You come back quick, and I'll give you my fur."

"Your stolen fur," Chloe pointed out, adding, "You didn't get that out of the lost and found."

Marie laughed, whispering, "I think it belonged to the Head Librarian, though, I don't know how the hell she could afford it on government pay."

They laughed together one last time before Chloe went off into the water. Once the pair of them were gone, Marie grabbed Connor by the arm, pulling him close. "I can't just stand here, waiting. I'm going upstairs."

Then, possibly surprising him, she stood on her tippy toes and kissed him softly on the lips before turning away and hurrying up the steps. She gave him one last peek from the next level up before disappearing.

In the Law Library, she found an argument taking place by the fireplace. Two people, each supported by two or others, were arguing about the best way to heat the room: one argued they should rip books to shreds to produce heat quickly, while the other was saying the books should be tossed into the fire whole, to burn slowly as if logs.

"You're both right!" Marie cut in, ending the current arguing. She looked between them all, saying, "We rip the pages out of some of the books to get this room hot now, but we put whole books in also, to build a lasting fire and a base of coals."

It seemed like such a simple solution to Marie, and the others accepted it almost without further comment. The two who'd been the center of the fight debated the correct way to implement Marie's suggestion, and soon enough they were working together, deciding which books were easier to disassemble and which should just be tossed into the fire.

"You're name is Maria, right?" a soft voice sounded from behind. Marie turned to find a young teenager, corrected her regarding her proper given name, and asked if everything was alright. The teen, who Marie would later learn was named Carmine, said, "My sister's sick."

They went to one of the nearby leather couches where a young woman was bundled up inside a blanket but still wearing her wet clothes. Marie asked for the trembling girl's name, then said, "Josie, come with me. We need to get you out of those wet clothes."

Marie directed the sisters toward the restroom at the end of the room, then picked through the dry clothes until she found something appropriate. Joining the pair, she said, "We need to get you out of these clothes, Josie."

She and Carmine went to work, and as the older teen was stripped to her undergarments, Marie was shocked to see bruises and scars on the girl's body. She looked to Carmine to see if she might get an explanation, but the young teen only shook her head, indicating that this was not the time for such talk.

They stripped Josie to her birthday suit and quickly redressed her in several layers. The teen was shaking deep to her core, and Marie found her burning up with fever. "We need to get her back to the fire, and we need to find, I dunno, aspirin or some sort of fever breaking meds. I'm not a nurse, I don't know these things, but Josie, trust me, we're gonna help you."

A few minutes later, Josie and Carmine were bundled up together before the fire, with the latter holder her older sister tight to her. Marie looked over them for a long moment, then climbed upon one of the study tables and called out, "Hey, everyone! Listen up!"

Some people moved closer, while others simply turned to face her. Marie told them, "We have people here who are sick. We probably have people here who are injured. They need our help. But without knowing who here is sick or injured or who here has knowledge of how to care for such things..."

She could see on some of the faces that they agreed. Marie continued, "So, this is what I'd like to suggest. We need to take a census. We need to know who's a doctor or a nurse or knows about nutrition, so on and such force. We need to know who's sick and injured. We need to know if anyone has a medical condition that requires treatment, drugs and such, for diabetes or heart conditions and doesn't have enough or any of their prescriptions."

"Who put you in charge? a voice called out, alone but meaningful.

Marie looked to the speaker, saying, "No one. I'm not in charge. I'm only getting things started. Do you want to be in charge?"

There was no response by that person, but someone else across the room mumbled in the speaker's direction, "So shut the fuck up."

"We need to all get along!" Marie stressed. "I'm not in charge. Right now, no one is. I'm only asking that you help me get this going. We can talk about who's in charge later if we need to. Right now, I'd just like to ask everyone to meet me over at that table, and we'll start our census."

She gestured to a large table, then hopped down. They found some paper and pens, organized some lines, and Marie called out, "If you are a medical professional or have any medical field experience at all, please form up at this line here. Just list your name and main experience, please. We will give each of you a piece of paper and pen, sort of like a job application. We need to know how you can help. If you have any other sort of experience that you think is applicable to our situation, please line up here."

Marie could see that some of the survivors had not begun moving toward the table at all. She continued, "Some of you may have experience that you don't think is applicable here, but trust me, you're probably wrong! Each of us has something to contribute, I promise. Please, if you aren't lining up at one of these two lines, come to this one and and give us your name and take a card, and we'll find something you can do, even if its just feeding the fire."

More people started moving, but there were still at least a dozen who weren't. Marie climbed up on the table again, let some of the immovables see her, then said with a harsh tone, "Right now, one of my new friends, a girl I only just met today but who I know is brave, one of the bravest women I've ever met, is under thirty feet of water, trying to find food for all of you."

More faces turned toward Marie, and she continued, "And when she comes back with that food, the only fucking people who are going to get any of it are those whose names on these pieces of paper, I guarantee you that."

Even though some of them took their time, all of the 50 survivors who weren't on the second floor, involved in the food gleaning venture, were on their feet and standing in line to partake in the census.

Marie stepped down again and watched over the proceedings. A man wrote his name down and stepped out of line, revealing a little girl no older than 6. Marie looked to the woman behind her, saying playfully, "Don't forget to put her age after her name, so we know not to ask if she's a doctor or structural engineer."

"She's not mine," the woman said.

Marie was thrown off, asking the little girl, "Where's your mommy or daddy? Who are you here with?"

The little girl only shrugged as she picked up a pen, wanting to write her name but being to short to even see the paper, let alone add to it. Marie made further inquiry, and the little girl said her name was Paula, that she'd been with Gramma Bea, but that she didn't know where her grandparent was now. Marie had the woman behind Paula lift her up and over the table, and Marie took her over to sit at the fire.

"You wait right here, Paula," Marie told her, indicating to Carmine to keep an eye on her. To Paula Marie said, "I'll go look for your grandmother, and I'll come back, ok?"



In the Cafeteria:

"I wasn't expecting this. This is incredible, presuming we can get it all back there.

Chloe pushed up into Frank's body willingly as he wrapped his arms around her. She found it hard to even stand with the chill going deep to her bones, but the feel of the man holding her helped her suffer through.

"Any ideas?"

She pulled her head back to look at Frank, then at some of the open face cupboards that were more filled than empty. "Garbage bags. We use garbage bags. Fill'em up, double them if necessary. They'll float and be easy to handle. Even the ones with heavy stuff in them, the air will make them ... what's that word ... buoyant?"

Frank seemed to like the idea, and they went to work. They filled a dozen large garbage bags with all sorts of food, doubling up some as Chloe had suggested. The work helped Chloe ignore the cold; often, she had to go back down into the water to move from one place to another.

"It's rising," she told Frank after they'd worked quite a while. She pointed his attention to a high window that was now almost beneath the gently rolling water level. "When we came in, that window was mostly above water."

They decided it was time to get away. It wasn't quite as easy as they'd hoped, with a current coming into the cafeteria making it difficult to get out. But they managed it with only losing one bag, which had caught something sharp, ripped open, and dumped its contents into the ever deepening water.

They reached the second air pocket they'd used earlier, only to find just enough room to breath by tilting their faces back. Chloe was beginning to panic a bit, telling Frank, "I don't know if I can make it back."

 

[ManInTheLoft]

Marie surprised Connor with a kiss to his cheek before leaving, and for the third time in less than 20 minutes, his cock stirred inside his boxer-briefs with fantasies about the two women who he knew better than anyone else in all of New York City. He watched her head upstairs, lifting his eyes from her ass each time she looked back at him. With a wave, he bid her farewell for now.

Connor turned back to look down in the water but saw nothing but the waving shapes in the moving water caused by the current. He thought about the return of Frank and Chloe, then turned suddenly and said to the others waiting, "I'll be back, with blankets. They're gonna need them."

When he got to the Law Library, he looked for but didn't find Marie. He did find some of the others distributing blankets, and after explaining who he needed two of the for, he got them easily. He headed back downstairs and waited anxiously with the others.



In the Cafeteria:

Frank was glad to hear Chloe suggest garbage bags, as he'd been thinking the same but was unsure. They stuffed one plastic bag inside another, then as Frank held them open, Chloe filled the bags. He told her, "Start with stuff we can eat right out of the box or can or bottle without cooking. We have the fireplace, but..."

She understood where he was going with that, and in no time at all they had a dozen bags ready to go, all floating on or near the surface. Chloe alerted him to the rising water, something he'd already noticed but didn't want to point out for fear of panicking her.

"Let's get," he said, helping her off one shelf to another, heading for the door. "No since getting greedy. We might be able to get back here somehow. Maybe the water level will drop. Maybe we'll get rescued and won't need more."

The return trip turned out to be more difficult than Frank had imagined. They were both exhausted and chilled to the bone, making using their bodies as normal more difficult with every passing minute. The water had long since reached the top of the entry to the cafeteria, so they had to force the buoyant bags down into the water, letting them pop up on the other side.

"Worry about yourself first!" Frank told Chloe before they went under themselves. "The current will take the bags the direction we're going. We'll round them up later if we need to. You are more important that a bag of instant mashed potatoes and black olives, got it?"

She indicated that she understood, and Frank reached out to cup one of her reddened cheeks. "You can do this, and I'm right here. You're more important to me than potatoes and olives, too, Chloe."

He smiled, and under the water they went. Then made it to the next air pocket, only to find mere inches of air left. Chloe told him with panic in her voice, "I don't know if I can make it back."

"You can make it!" Frank reassured her, grasping her hand and squeezing it. "Forget the bags! I'll get as many of them as I can. The rest will just float around until we collect them."

Frank knew that wasn't true for most of them, of course. If they were floating on their sides, water could slowly fill them and they'd sink. But like he'd said, Chloe was more important than food that they might not even require.

"Go! Go now!" he told the redhead. "Get into the current. Use it to reach the stairs. Forget about the bags and the air pocket. It might not ever be there any longer. Go!"

Before she dove again, though, Frank moved up close to Chloe and planted a closed mouth kiss on her lips. He pulled back, smiled with trembling lips, and said, "I've been wanting to do that since long before I saw you in your underwear, by the way. Now, go!"

Chloe drew a deep breath and disappeared under the water. A few seconds later, she was gone. Two of the bags that Frank could see passing past a few feet under the water suddenly moved in the same direction as the brave girl, but from here he couldn't see whether Chloe had began pulling them or they, too, had caught the current.

With his head sideways to keep his mouth in the rapidly diminishing air, Frank drew several deep breaths, then dove. He snatched the plastic ties of one, two, three, then finally four bags and kicked his legs as hard as he possibly could. He caught the current as expected, but with only his feet to propel him, he wasn't moving nearly as quickly as he'd hoped.

He was beginning to fear he wasn't going to make it when he caught sight of the staircase. He kicked hard and fast, reached it, and aimed himself upwards. A couple of the bags were more buoyant than the others, and they actually aided him in ascending. Suddenly, they reached the surface, as did Frank a moment later.

He was surrounded by big black garbage bags and couldn't see much at all as he hollered out, "Chloe! Did she make it?"

There was a splash near him, then a gasp and a cry in shock as Connor -- again in his underwear -- surfaced near him. The chess champion who hated swimming cursed several profanities as he grasped at a very buoyant bag with one hand and Frank with the other.

"She made it!" he told the former SEAL as he pulled at the arm, directing Frank toward the stairs. Another male was standing in the water up to his chest, and as he helped the other two reach the stairs, Connor complained to the male half of the heroic team, "You two are fucking nuts!"

Frank, Connor, the other wet male, and a female who'd joined the New York Public Library Swim Team all finally made it out of the water. Floating bags were pulled out one after another; it turned out that the current had driven many if not most of them to within reach of someone going in waist deep on the landing. The others could be seen floating about, either on the surface or a bit deeper.

"Get these guys to the fireplace, now!" Connor demanded, ignoring the fact that he, too, was soaked in less than 40 degree water from head to toe. "Find someone to help with the food."

A couple of minutes later, the whole sopping wet mass of grocery shoppers was sitting in front of the fire, wrapped in blankets as they stripped their undergarments off under the privacy of the bedding. There hadn't been enough of them it turned out until some of those who'd already gotten them volunteered their newly claimed blankets. The show of concern made Connor very happy.

"What's going on over there?" he asked when he saw people lined up before a long working table. He was told a census had been started and what it entails, and again he nodded his head, saying, "Amazing. I think we just might survive this after all."

Frank, who was sitting very near the other free diver, leaned over to her and whispered, "I hope I didn't overstep. Kissing you, I mean."

He'd intended the question to be just between the two of them. But nearby, Connor had heard it, making him wonder When and where the hell did he kiss her?. He peeked out of the corner of his eye at them, eager to hear Chloe's response.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

As she was being helped up the stairs to the third floor, Chloe heard Frank's voice from below calling out, "Chloe! Did she make it?"

She tried to turn back, to reassure the man that she'd made it, but the two holding her blanket wrapped body insisted she continue upwards. A minute later, she was in the Ladies' Room on the third floor being stripped out of her wet undergarments by Marie, who was simultaneously chastising her for taking such a risk.

Soon, Chloe was back in the dry clothes she'd discarded before her swim, again wrapped in a new, dry blanket, and sitting in front of the now roaring fireplace. Again and again, people who'd learned of what she and Frank had done came by to thank her or ask if she was okay. She could barely do more than nod her head and force a smile.

One by one, the others who'd helped secure the group some food were all sitting side by side in an arc before the fire. Some of them were still stripping out of their wet clothes, which made the still trembling Chloe laugh. "Reminds me of a co-ed camping trip I took in 5th grade. We were in the wilderness with no cabins or outhouses or anything but sleeping bags, and everyone crawled into their bags and struggled to get out of their clothes so they could sleep in comfort."

Frank was beside her by now, leaning over to say, "I hope I didn't overstep. Kissing you, I mean."

"No, you didn't overstep," Chloe whispered back as she looked into this eyes with a pleased smile. She peeked past him and saw Connor pretending not to be listening. She said quietly, "Just surprised me."

"How are you two?" Marie said as she came to sit before them and the fire, quickly looking to Connor and correcting herself, "You three, I mean. I hear you took a swim, too."

They chatted a moment, with Marie moving to sit behind them after she realized she was blocking the heat. She asked about what might still be down in the cafeteria, only to be told it would likely all be under water within the hour. Someone had found a metal file box, tested to see if it would hold water, and filled it before putting it close to the fire.

"I don't know which one of you was the hero who snagged a bag of coffee, but you're gonna make a lot of people happy," Marie said as she watched the paint on their new coffee pot burn away. "We'll figure out ways to cook what needs to be cooked. You three, you're heroes. I'm serious. You're idiots! But you're heroes, too."

Marie leaned in and turned each of the three's faces to her one after another, kissing each on the cheek. One of the guys who'd also jumped in to retrieve bags playfully grumbled about his kiss, and Marie playfully gave him a smack right on the lips. "That's all there is, folks! Someone else can show their appreciation."



The next hours were very busy, with finishing the Census, recruiting people into little groups according to what they could do or what they could at least learn to do, and more. After some consideration about where everyone would sleep, it was decided to bring every couch and cushioned chair on this and the next floor up down to this room. It was the only one with a fire place, and it was plenty big for all of them.

Some argued for a need for privacy, but when Marie pointed out that they were free to go to the rooms that were now below freezing, they all pretty much shut up. But Marie understood what they meant, so she rounded up some beefy guys and even a couple of muscular women to contemplate a way to move some of the taller book shelves to create little apartments. It had been decided that most of the Law Library books were expendable by the Librarian put in charge of accumulating fire wood, so the shelves had been slated for emptying anyway.

Another of the survivors was put in charge of inventorying the food from the cafeteria and vending machines. Marie was surprised to learn that one of the women in their midst was a nutritionist and one of the guys was a personal trainer. Between them, they knew more about what the human body needed to survive than the rest of the survivors added together.

"We've got enough calories, vitamins, etcetera, here to keep us all healthy for maybe six to ten days, depending upon just how drastically you want to ration," the nutritionist, Eleanor, reported after they'd arranged all of the food in the Head Librarian's office, where it could be protected from hungry looters. The fitness guru, Winston, added, "It won't be enough to permit a whole lot of excessive exertion, though. We need everyone to reserve their energy and keep close to the fire. Warmth. It's important right now."

"So, we have ten days," Marie said with a serious tone, "to either be rescued, to find more food, or to start starving."

In the room with her were the recently dried out Frank, Connor, and Chloe; Eleanor, Winston, and another woman, Katie, who had said she was a chef and could help with creating relatively balanced meals; the three library employees who'd remained behind when the flood threatened them all, Victoria, Thomas, and Vance, who in order were a librarian, a custodian, and a security officer; and Lincoln, who was a NYPD beat cop who'd been directing traffic when the waters were pushing their way down the street.

Each of them had played or were about to play a big part in the future of the Library's population. They knew that the decisions made by them and by a few others in the days to come would be the difference between living and dying. And with some reluctance in some cases, they were ready.