Adventure

River of Ruin

By Brittanie

Spokane did not fall in a day. It took three weeks for the power grid to fail, a month for the last hospital to close, and a winter for the city to empty out. Those who stayed learned to live in the bones of what was left. The river still runs through downtown, but nobody swims. The bridges are broken or guarded. The old neighborhoods have become territories held by whoever was strong enough to claim them. Ten years on, the city is a patchwork of survivor camps built into parking garages, university buildings, and the old flour mills along the river. Trade happens at the public market on weekends, but trust is thin. Winter is coming, and the camps that did not stock enough are already eyeing their neighbors. You have survived longer than most, and people have started to notice. What is at stake is simple: the river is rising. Snowmelt from the mountains upstream has been heavier than anyone expected, and the lower camps are already flooding. The dam at Nine Mile Falls is failing, and if it goes, everything downstream goes with it. Nobody agrees on what to do. Some want to evacuate. Some want to blow the dam and take their chances. Some want to do nothing and hope. You are one of the few who can read the old engineering reports and understand what the dam needs. Who you are: You are a survivor who has lived in Spokane since before the collapse. You know the city's streets, its secrets, and its people. You have skills that matter now—maybe you were an engineer, a nurse, a teacher, or a mechanic—and people have started to look to you for answers.

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