Cecily had been absorbed in her studies after class. She had been studying in the library until the librarian had to come in and tell her that they were closing. After a quick smile and a thank you, she hurried out. She hadn't noticed while she was in the library, but it had quickly become darker than normal, due to the large storm clouds that shrouded the sky. The gusts of wind threatened to push Cecily in its wake, but she leaned against the wind, trying to prevent herself from falling over. There wasn't a shred of doubt, she needed to get back to her apartment and quick, before the storm had completely set. Now the question was whether to wait for a bus like normal (and wait an hour or two for it to arrive), or to take her shortcut home on the beach?

She figured that her best option was to take the shortcut. In this storm, she doubted any sane bus driver would work in this storm. She pulled her jacket tighter around her, trying to keep herself from shivering from the bitter, howling winds, and protect herself from the pounding rain. She walked briskly on the sidewalk and eventually found herself on the beach, steering clear of the water, and the fenced off region where the sea turtle eggs were buried. 

Normally, she would've lingered on this beach, thinking about life, about how sad it was that humans were causing the destruction of the oceans (with dying reefs and the Nitrogen bubbles, which caused strange behaviors in some species of fish), and about how people were trying to amend their mistakes. But now wasn't the time for such pondering! Not with a storm coming. She kept on walking as fast as she could. However, she never noticed a larger wave coming onto the beach until it was too late. She gasped, taking in a breath of air, right before the wave hit her. 

She felt herself tumbling in the salty water, and despite the stinging caused by the salty waters, she opened her eyes and swam upwards. She saw that she had been washed out far from the beach...and she was still floating away from the beach. She was in a riptide! She started to swim parallel to the beach (knowing that swimming against the riptide wasn't going to help at all) in an attempt to get herself out of the riptide, before she could start swimming towards the beach. However, Cecily wasn't the fastest swimmer, and she had no idea if she would be out of the riptide or not...