Noah by Susan Korman Read Free Book Online Page A

grabbed Japheth and the three of them backed away from the porthole. A second later several soldiers pried open the main hatch in front of Shem.
    “Shem!” Ila screamed.
    But Shem was ready for the intruders. Moving fast, he speared one of them. As the man fell back onto the ramp, he pulled Shem out of the Ark with him.
    Ila watched in horror as two soldiers were instantly upon him.
    In the nick of time, Noah rushed up the ramp, startling Shem’s attackers and cutting them down.
    “Back inside!
Back inside!
” He thrust Shem into the Ark and then slammed the hatch closed again.
    Boom!
Outside, explosions rocked the earth and sky. Ila looked back out the porthole, and saw lightning flash in the sky again and again and again. One by one, the Watchers were disappearing.
    Tears streamed down her face. Sweet, powerful Og and fierce, brave Samyaza… The Watchers who had been their helpers and protectors for so long.
    Shem wrapped an arm around her, his head bent in sorrow too. “They’re gone,” he whispered. “But they’ve returned home.”
    They stood together watching the sky. Outside, the rain and wind pummeled the Ark relentlessly. Noah was still out there… Ila prayed that he was safe.
    She turned to Shem. “What of Tubal-cain? Where is he?”
    Shem shook his head. “With luck, he’s dead,” he answered gravely. “I saw no sign of him out there.”
    * * *
    For hours the men and the Watchers battled, and the storm pounded the Ark. Shem ushered them all up to the hearth, saying they would be safer up there. Then he went to look for Ham, whom no one had seen for hours.
    Ila huddled there in the darkness with Naameh and Japheth, waiting for the men to return, and for whatever was about to happen next. She tried to contain her fears, doing as her father had told her—filling her mind with things she loved: Shem, memories of the lush green forest where they had lived for the last ten years, Ham and Japheth, friendly Og…
    But still her fears seeped in. Noah had described how the water of the heavens would meet the water of the earth. And that was certainly how it sounded now. She pictured huge geysers of water shooting up from the earth as the heavens let loose their own rivers of water.
    If Noah were right—if the Creator’s message to him had been clear—no one outside the Ark would survive this monstrous storm.
    Ila was starting to wonder if anyone
inside
the Ark would survive it either.
    * * *
    Soon they heard loud frantic shouts from outside. Ila and Naameh exchanged glances, but they didn’t say anything, not wanting to alarm Japheth. The younger boy was calm at that moment, distracted by a game he was playing with rocks on the floor.
    Shem returned with Ham. And then, with a booming force, something slammed into the Ark—a massive wave. Its sound and its force were like nothing Ila had ever known.
    Naameh screamed, and grabbed Japheth. Ila struggled to hold on as the huge ark lurched, and then seemed to crest in the huge waves. When the ship settled, the family huddled again in the darkness, waiting for Noah. Naameh whispered prayers as water exploded all around them.
    At last the hatch opened and they all looked up.
    “Noah!” cried Naameh with relief as he tumbled into the chamber.
    Ila looked at him. Blood covered much of his face. What terrified her though was the look in his eyes. He appeared stunned, haunted, overwhelmed by all that he had just witnessed.

7
    “PLEASE, NOAH.” ILA STOOD IN FRONT OF HIM, PLEADING with him. “People sound desperate. Can you not hear them wailing outside?”
    Noah didn’t reply to her. Instead, with a chunk of tzohar, he ignited the great furnace. The chamber lit up.
    As the fire blazed, Ila paced back and forth in front of the hearth.
This is unbearable
, she thought.
    Outside the Ark, floodwaters had covered the land, rising almost to the top of mountain peaks. When she looked through the Ark’s portholes, she could see hundreds of survivors clinging to