Boyd Morrison - The Tsunami Countdown

After two deep breaths, she pulled back and turned Lani’s head again. She pushed on Lani’s chest, forcing more water to gush out.

“She took in a lot of water. We’ve got to clear it.”

Kai was a wreck. There wasn’t anything he could do. He never felt more useless. He simply held his daughter’s hand and called her name.

“Lani! Come on! Lani! Can you hear me? Wake up!”

Suddenly, Teresa drew back. “We lost her pulse!”

Instead of slamming her fist onto Lani’s chest as Kai had seen done on TV, Teresa carefully placed the heel of her hand on Lani’s sternum and rhythmically pressed firmly but gently. After thirty beats, she breathed twice into Lani’s mouth.

“Come on, Lani!” Teresa huffed as she continued the compressions. “We’ve come this far.”

Kai felt the tears streaming from his eyes and mingling with the salt water still dripping from his hair.

“Please, Lani,” Kai said. “Don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me.”

As if answering him, Lani emitted a slight wheeze. Her eyes fluttered open. Then a small cough escaped her, and the cough became a fit. She turned over, gasping for breath. But Kai couldn’t have been happier to see her wracked with coughs. All that mattered was that she was alive.

Lani vomited about a quart of water amid the coughs. After the fit was over, Kai sat her up and gripped her shoulders.

“Feel better?” he said.

She nodded. “What happened?” Her voice was still a hoarse croak and talking started another round of coughs. Kai wiped her mouth on his shirttail.

“Your hose was cut. You inhaled some seawater.”

“Did the raft work?” she said.

“Just like you thought it would. I’m so proud of you.” Kai took her in his arms, relishing the warmth that was missing from her skin just a few moments ago.

“She’ll be okay,” Teresa said. “We’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t get pneumonia from all the seawater in her lungs.”

She turned her attention to her own daughter. Mia cradled her right leg but otherwise seemed intact.

“Thank God we got you out,” she said, holding Mia. “How’s your leg?”

“It hurts. Is it broken?”

“Let me look.” Teresa touched her leg tenderly. “I don’t see any broken bones. Can you wiggle your toes?”

Mia tried it and nodded. She repeated the same for her ankle. When she got to the knee, she winced and cried out.

“Looks like you might have a torn ligament in your knee. In any case, you’re going to need help moving.”

“Look, I don’t want to be a jerk,” said Brad, focusing the point on Kai, “but we’re currently sitting in the world’s largest game of Jenga. Can we go now?”

He was right. The condo building was precarious at best. It could collapse at any time.

“You,” Kai said, pointing at Brad, “are going to carry Mia.” He cut the dry bag loose and slung it over his shoulder. “Lani, can you walk?”

“I can make it.”

Kai applauded her guts, but he didn’t think she would get far without help. Her lungs would be raw from the near drowning, and the debris outside would make the walk anything but easy.

“All right, let’s move.”

They made it out to the hallway when Kai heard a squeal behind him. The life raft that had been pinned under the girder had been slowly sliding out, lubricated by the water. It finally shot out like a balloon from the pressure, bouncing around the room before going through the open wall and over the side of the balcony.

They all chuckled at the silly spectacle and then stopped when they heard a more ominous noise coming from all around them.

“Down! Down!” Kai yelled.

Leading Lani by the hand, he tore down the stairs, constantly sliding on the muck left behind by the water. Several times he slipped and caught himself with what was left of the railing.

When Kai got to the third-story landing, he heard Tom crash to the floor. Kai turned and yanked him up.

“No time for that.”

As they ran, the groaning of the building grew, and Kai knew they didn’t have more than a few seconds left. When they got to the first floor, Kai and Lani jumped through the open space where the windows used to be and ran in the direction that was most clear of debris: toward the beach.

Kai looked over his shoulder to make sure everyone was behind him; he wasn’t going to let anyone fall back. Brad carried Mia piggyback, with Tom in front of him and Teresa close on his heels. Out of the corner of Kai’s eye, he saw the condo building tilt at a strange angle. Lani ran too slowly, so he gathered her up like a baby and pumped his legs as fast as they would carry him across Kalakaua Avenue.

An immense bang of snapping steel erupted behind him, and Kai felt a whoosh of air pound his back. He dove into the sand of Waikiki, now covered with a slimy ooze, and shielded Lani with his body. Pulverized pieces of the disintegrating building pummeled his back, but nothing bigger than a small pebble landed on him.

When the sound died, Kai pushed himself up. His back and head were coated in fine powder that clung to his wet skin. Instead of seeing the building they were just in, all he could make out was a fog of dust and a pile of debris. The entire ten-story Seaside condominium tower was now a pancake of rubble twenty feet high.

Kai sat on the sand, surveying the now-unfamiliar surroundings. The landscape of Waikiki had been utterly changed in the thirty minutes since they had entered The Seaside. Shattered structures littered the streets like crumpled beer cans. Other buildings were nothing more than skeletons stripped bare of their innards. Massive piles of junk had been caught against the various mountains of wreckage that used to be hotels and condominiums.

But even without the landmarks, the outline of the mountains behind was familiar. Kai recognized the pattern where they had come ashore with the Jet Skis. Of course, the watercraft were nowhere to be seen.

“Nice job, Kai,” Brad said, squeezing the water from his filthy T-shirt. “We’re back where we started.”

12:04 p.m .

8 Minutes to Third Wave

Jerry had fallen unconscious, his head wound more severe than Rachel had first thought. After spending a few minutes trying to wake him, they decided to carry him up the stairs. Even though he was skinny, it took all three of them—Rachel, Paige, and Sheila—to pull him down the hall and up the stairs. At each landing, they stopped for thirty seconds to catch their breath. They had only made it up one flight to the twelfth floor. As they carried him, Doris kept the children occupied and told them about herself and her kids. Their last name was Wendel, and Doris had been widowed two years earlier when her husband, Herbert, had been stricken with cancer. Neither of her children, Sheila and Jerry, were married, so they had all come out to Hawaii for a family vacation. When the tsunami warning was issued, they had returned to their room as they were initially instructed. When the warning changed, Jerry had thought it was best to stay put.

After the first tsunami, they realized that staying was a bad idea, so they got in the elevator to get up to the roof. That’s when the power went out, and they’d been left stranded. As Rachel listened to the story, it dawned on her that she was risking her life for people who had blatantly disregarded her warnings to leave. She wanted to shake these people and say, Why didn’t you listen? But dwelling on their ignorance wasn’t going to help.

Their progress climbing the stairs was slow; at the rate they were going, they wouldn’t be on the roof until the next tsunami hit. They needed help carrying Jerry.