Low Countries

A flood-stricken region in northwestern Europe where rivers swell beyond their banks and cities press against the edges of water. Dark clouds hang low over saturated fields, their sodden earth cracking under the strain of swollen streams. Emergency lights flicker from temporary flood barriers, illuminating the faces of exhausted relief workers—Czech engineers in mud-caked gear—who move between sandbag emplacements and hastily assembled pump stations. The air reeks of wet wool, diesel fumes from generators, and the iron tang of floodwater cutting through centuries-old dikes. Distant sirens wail as villages downstream prepare for impact, while the engineers’ radios crackle with updates from shifting disaster zones.