Boyd Morrison - The Tsunami Countdown

“Hey!” Brad yelled. “You’re going the wrong way.”

The men looked in their direction, appraising the motley crew. “No we’re not, man,” the one with the camera said. “You are if you don’t want to die.” “Look, we’re not stupid, you know. We’re heading to that building on the beach.”

“You are stupid,” Kai said. “There’s another tsunami coming.” He kept going, and the others followed. He wasn’t stopping to chat with these bozos.

“Why do you think we’re taking this with us?” the one without the camera said. “We’re gonna sell the video. We’ve already got some good stuff of that building coming down over there.” He pointed at the remains of The Seaside.

“You idiots,” Brad said. “We were in that building.”

“Cool,” the cameraman said, and turned his camera on them.

Their comment got Kai to stop. He turned and stared at them, unable to comprehend how crass and greedy some people were.

“You two little shits look at all this destruction and death,” Kai said, “and all you can see is some money for yourselves?”

“Hey, the TV networks are making money off this. Why shouldn’t we?”

“You’re not going to make any money because you are going to die. That building is not going to stand against a wave two hundred feet in height.”

The two men laughed at that.

“You think this is funny?”

“Man, this is going to be great footage.”

“Turn that camera off, you asshole!” Brad yelled. He moved as if he were going to try to take it away from them, but Kai stopped him.

“Forget it, Brad. No one’s ever going to see that footage anyway. If they’re too dumb to take good advice, they’re on their own. We don’t have time for it. Let’s go.”

The two men stumbled off in the direction of the beach, talking in low voices and laughing.

Kai was angry at them, not just because they were cold opportunists, but because they made him see how futile his job could be in some cases. Kai’s job was to warn people of danger. The people could do with that warning what they wished. He couldn’t force them to get to safety. He couldn’t save them if they didn’t want to be saved. Now he was seeing that reality up close. And what made Kai feel even worse was that he didn’t want to save them. They deserved whatever happened to them.

As Kai’s group got close to the “boat building,” as he had come to think of it, Lani tapped him on the back.

“Daddy, I hear something.”

“What?”

“A voice, I think. It’s coming from your bag.”

My bag? Then Kai realized how stupid he had been. In all the rush, he hadn’t remembered to check the phone or the walkie-talkie. Someone was trying to reach them.

12:08 p.m .

4 Minutes to Third Wave

Jerry made it to the twenty-first floor before the women carrying him were too fatigued to continue. Even for three of them, Jerry’s deadweight was too much. They were spent. “What are we going to do now?” Jerry’s sister, Sheila, said, her voice strained from fatigue and worry. “We can’t just leave him.”

“He’s too heavy. We need some help. We’ll have to wait for Wyatt to get back.”

“What’s taking him so long?” Paige said. “He should have been back by now. I shouldn’t have let him go. I should have trusted my instincts. I’m going to look for him.”

Despite her exhaustion, Paige forced herself up the stairs, but before she could get to the next landing, a door slammed and the sound of light feet drifted toward them. She stopped.

“Wyatt?”

“Yeah?” Wyatt replied. They could hear him crying as he came down.

“Are you all right?”

“No!”

Paige quickened her pace upward, and Rachel followed. They met him on the twenty-third-floor landing. His eyes were red, his cheeks stained with tears.

“What’s the matter, honey?” Paige ran her hands over him, looking for injuries. “Are you hurt?”

Wyatt shook his head.

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I couldn’t find anyone,” Wyatt said between sobs.

“No one anywhere?” Rachel said.

“I swear, I looked all over. They’re all gone.”

He took out the walkie-talkie that Rachel had given him before the incident at the elevator.

“I even tried this. I couldn’t find anyone. I’m sorry!” He wailed, the experience too much for him. “I’m sorry! I tried!”

Paige held him to her. “It’s okay, sweetie. You did great.”

“They must have found a helicopter,” Rachel said.

“Why didn’t they wait for us?” Paige said, her voice pleading.

“I don’t know. Maybe they thought we didn’t make it.”

“So now we’re stranded?”

Paige was on the brink of hysterics. Rachel tried to soothe her.

“If they found one, we can too. We just have to let them know we’re here. Who knows? Maybe they’re planning on coming back.”

“So what do we do? We can’t carry Jerry.”

“We’ll have to go up there and try to flag a helicopter down. There’s nothing else we can do.”

A faint voice called from the walkie-talkie still in Wyatt’s hand.

“Rachel! Rachel! It’s Kai, are you there?”

Kai had stopped at the lobby of the boat building so that he could get at the dry pack. He lowered Lani and let her walk on her own. While Kai climbed the stairs of the apartment complex, he opened the bag to retrieve the walkie-talkie.

When he got it out, the walkie-talkie felt moist to the touch. He inspected the bag and found a tiny tear in the seam. It must have happened when he was battered by the wave. The bag wasn’t soaked inside, but it was damp. He didn’t bother looking at the photo album, the only thing he’d saved from his house. It was either intact or it wasn’t, and now wasn’t the time to see. The most important thing was the electronics. Kai opened the cell phone. The LCD display was cracked, another victim of debris impact. He tried calling 911, but there was no sound. It was useless.

Kai keyed the Talk button on the walkie-talkie.

“Rachel! Come in!”

He didn’t know if he was getting through because he couldn’t hear more than a crackling hiss. The voice that they had heard before sounded like a kid, so Kai wasn’t even sure whether they were getting the signal from Rachel or from someone else.

“Rachel! Rachel! It’s Kai, are you there?”

He listened carefully, trying to hold his breath as he climbed. The volume was turned up all the way. Then, loud and clear, Kai heard her voice.

“Kai, it’s me. Are you all right? How’s Lani?”

“We had a close shave, but she’s fine. Teresa, Mia, and Brad are okay too. But Jake, the boy you saw at the Grand Hawaiian? He didn’t make it.”

“Oh my God!”

“How are you?” he asked.

“I’m better now that I hear you,” she said, the relief in her voice palpable. “It’s been a little rough. I’m just glad you two are all right. When the other tower collapsed, I couldn’t—”

“What? The tower collapsed? You’re still at the hotel? I thought you would have caught a helicopter by now.”

“There were some people in trouble. It’s been crazy. We’re heading to the roof now. Where are you? Did you get out of Waikiki?”

“No,” Kai said. “It’s been crazy for us too. We’re about a mile from you. Of course, the tsunami has obliterated all the street signs, so I don’t know exactly where we are, but it’s a white thirty-story apartment complex. There’s a big boat sticking out of it, if that helps.”

“Okay. We’re on the roof now. I’m not sure if I see your building. I don’t see a boat sticking out.”