Rogue Wave

by Boyd Morrison

  As she listened to Hannah tell a story about the waterfall they had swum under the previous day, Rachel leaned her head against the metal fire door, fatigued from running up and down the stairs and the ordeal at the skybridge.

  "…Then we jumped from this rock that was fifty feet high," Hannah continued.

  "It was not," Tyler countered. "It was only ten feet high."

  "It was too! Dad said it was."

  "He was joking."

  Rachel had been trying to raise Kai on the walkie-talkie and wasn't getting any response.

  "Kai, are you there? Kai, come in."

  "Who's Kai?" Tyler asked.

  "He's my husband. He's the one that warned everyone about the tsunami."

  "Where is he?"

  "I don't know. He's with my daughter. I haven't heard from them in a while."

  "Can I try it?"

  "Sure." She handed the walkie-talkie to Tyler. "Just press the red button and talk."

  "Kai, are you there?" he said. He waited for an answer. None came.

  "Try again, and make sure…" Rachel stopped in mid-sentence and cocked her head.

  "And make sure what?" Tyler said.

  Rachel raised her hands.

  "Shhh!"

  "What?" Hannah said.

  "Be quiet for a second. I think I hear something."

  Rachel turned her head so that her ear pressed against the door. Tyler and Hannah followed suit.

  After a moment of silence, a thudding sound was distinctly audible. Normally, the whirring of fans and the rush of air movement throughout the hotel's ductwork masked most sounds. But with the power off, the hotel bathed in an eerie stillness.

  The noise repeated at regular intervals. One, two, three, four. Silence for four seconds or so. One, two, three, four. The faint pounding rhythmically reverberated through the metal door. The sound was definitely man-made.

  "What is that?" Hannah asked.

  "I don't know," said Rachel, "but it sounds like it's coming from the hallway."

  She sprang to her feet and opened the door. The sound was louder now and more distinct. It seemed to be emanating from somewhere in the deserted corridor.

  "You guys wait here," Rachel said.

  "Where are you going?" Hannah said, her voice tinged with fear after the trauma of seeing two people die only minutes before.

  "I need to find out what that sound is. I will be right back. Don't go anywhere unless your parents come back. And keep the door open."

  Rachel walked down the hall, stopping every few seconds to get her bearings on the noise. As she went farther into the building, the pounding got louder, until she was able to zero in on it without stopping. About halfway down the corridor, she rounded the corner to the elevator lobby. It was now obvious where the sound was coming from.

  The sound of a voice accompanied the pounding.

  "Help! Is anyone out there?"

  Someone was stuck in the elevator shaft.

  * * *

  Carrying all of the equipment slowed them down more than Kai thought it would. Time was short as they hurried out of the Seaside's tenth floor stairwell and into the condo.

  "We were beginning to think you forgot about us," Brad said. His voice had a faASSade of cheer, but Kai could sense the despair just underneath the surface. He was trying to keep up Mia's spirits.

  "Not a chance, Haole," Kai said. "We're going to get you out of there."

  Teresa showed him the jack.

  "That's a beautiful sight," Brad said.

  "Let's try it," she said.

  "Wait," Kai said. "We don't have time for that yet."

  "What are those for?" Brad said, noticing the scuba tanks.

  "For us. All of us."

  "Why don't you get us out first?"

  "We have two minutes at most," Kai said as he cut the rope into ten foot segments with the dive knife. "We need to get ourselves tied down first."

  "Kai, you're kidding, right?"

  "No." Kai didn't have time to cushion the news. His mind flashed back to Brad trapped in that shipwreck and the panicked rapping at the door before Kai had been able to free him. Brad hadn't been diving since, his fear of the depths approaching phobia.

  "I'm not staying here," Brad said.

  "Unfortunately, Brad, you're going to have to."

  "Kai, get us out of here!" Brad began to struggle against the girder. "I can't stay here."

  "Stop it!" Kai said, trying to calm Brad. He gave the ropes to Teresa. "Start tying yourselves to the girder. Tightly! It's the strongest thing here. Don't forget Brad and Mia."

  "Why didn't you tell me!" Brad yelled.

  Kai leaned closer to speak softly into his ear. "Because I knew this is how you would react, and you're scaring Mia."

  "But the water!"

  "Yes, we're going to be under at least 50 feet of water. I know it's not what you want, but it's going to happen."

  "I can't!"

  "You can and you will because there's no other choice. Now are you going to be quiet, or do I have to stick the regulator in your mouth right now?"

  Brad's weak nod did nothing to hide his terror.

  "What's his problem?" said Tom.

  "He had a bad experience scuba diving one time."

  "What happened?"

  "He got trapped under water and almost drowned."

  Kai took some of the rope and lashed the tanks to the girder. Only now did it occur to him that they should have also brought buoyancy compensators-the vests that support scuba tanks while diving-to strap the tanks to. He hadn't thought about it while they were in the dive shop even though he remembered seeing some. The nylon rope was certainly strong, but his technique for tying them down was lacking. He had never been in the Boy Scouts, so he was just winging it on the knots. He didn't really care if they would be easy to untie. They could always use the knife to cut themselves free.

  Kai was more concerned about the building's structural integrity, but there was nothing he could do about that. Either it would withstand the wave or it wouldn't. All he could do was make sure that if it did stay put, they would too.

  "I've got Tom and Lani secured," Teresa said.

  Kai quickly inspected her work.

  "Nice job," he said. "Those should hold. Let's get Mia and Brad tied up too."

  "Why? They're already stuck there."

  "You don't understand the power of water. The pressure alone might drag one of them out. If that happens, they'd be swept away."

  They rapidly tied the ropes around Brad and Mia together.

  "Now it's your turn," Kai said.

  He threw the rope around the girder and encircled her midsection with it.

  "What about you?" she said.

  "I'll do my own. I want to be next to Lani."

  Tom had already screwed the regulator hoses onto each tank. Each hose had an octopus hose with a second breathing regulator attached to it. In scuba diving, you always had one regulator for yourself and a spare one that dragged along behind you to be used by your buddy if his air ran out.

  In this case, that meant they only needed three tanks for the six of them: one for Brad and Mia, one for Teresa and Tom, and one for Kai and Lani.

  "Test them out," Kai said to all of them. "Make sure they work."

  If they didn't, the only thing they could do was share a regulator, but buddy breathing with the water pulling at them would have been difficult, if not impossible. Fortunately, all of the regulators worked and were delivering air.

  Kai secured the dive light to his wrist and snaked the last of the rope around the girder and the life raft. Since they hadn't had time to get Mia and Brad free, they wouldn't have a chance to use the raft with the coming wave. He snapped the nylon strap from Reggie's dry bag-which still held Brad's cell phone, the walkie-talkie, and the photo album-around one of the ropes.

  As they finished tying themselves down, Kai heard a sound that was both uplifting and heartbreaking.

  "Just in time," Brad said. />
  Through the open windows came the sound of beating helicopter rotors hovering directly above them. The chopper Kai had requested from Reggie. He had come through for them, but the timing couldn't have been worse.

  Kai wouldn't have left Brad or Mia anyway, even if the helicopter had come earlier, but he briefly considered sending Tom and Lani up. With all of them tied up, it would take them minutes to get untangled and attempt to climb the blast-shattered stairs to the roof. He dismissed the idea, no matter how tempting the helicopter sounded. They'd certainly be caught by the wave before they got to the roof.

  After a few seconds, the helicopter crew must have seen that no one was there to be rescued and went on to another building.

  "They were so close," Lani said.

  As depressing as the situation was, there was no reason to dwell on it. They had more pressing issues.

  "OK, everyone," Kai said. "The current is going to be stronger than anything you've ever felt. The important thing is to keep your regulator in your mouth. Keep it clenched tightly between your teeth, and use your hands to hold it on. We don't have masks, so keep your eyes closed. There's going to be a lot of debris flowing past us, so try to protect your head as much as you can. This is going to be tough, but it's not impossible. We can do it."

  "And we'll jack them out when the water recedes?" Teresa said.

  "Absolutely." Kai patted the jack, which he had lashed against the girder, just next to his tank.

  Everyone grew silent as they sensed something change in the air. In the distance, Kai could make out the first inklings of the now familiar roar they had heard only 25 minutes before.

  He strained against his ropes and could barely see through the blown-out door of the condo on the other side of the hallway. The window frame 25 feet away perfectly framed the blue sky. Normally, this far from the ocean-side window ledge, he'd be able to see the water only at the distant horizon. But even from his awkward vantage point, Kai could see that the crest of the second tsunami, rushing across Malama Bay at 40 miles per hour, was already higher than they were. Although the first-hand sight of a tsunami was no longer novel to him, it was breathtaking nonetheless.

  Kai gripped Lani's hand tightly.

  "Here it comes!" he yelled. "Everybody brace yourselves!"

  Then Kai clenched the regulator in his mouth and steeled himself for the impact of a billion gallons of water.

  Chapter 41

  11:47 AM

  Second Wave

  The remnants of the skybridge swayed in the breeze, screeching where the metal rubbed against the side of the Moana tower of the Grand Hawaiian. Bill Rogers had been able to hold on, but he struggled to pull himself up onto the pillar that he was dangling from. Paige looked down helplessly from the safety of the building not more than ten feet away.

  "Mommy, help Daddy!"

  Paige's daughter Ashley had wandered away and was now standing at the edge of the broken skybridge. Paige yelped and snatched the girl back from the six-story precipice.

  "Honey, wait over by that door." Paige pointed at the stairwell exit sign.

  "But Daddy…"

  "You have to do what I tell you so that I can get Daddy, OK?"

  Ashley grudgingly nodded and retreated to the door.

  Paige returned to see Bill clinging to the tenuously attached remnants of metal. The pillar warped from his 250-pound weight now that it was not firmly anchored at both ends. It was all he could do to keep from falling. There was no way he'd be able to climb up on his own.

  "Bill, I'm going to find something to lower down to you."

  "Is Ashley OK?" Bill yelled.

  "She's fine."

  "Good. Hurry. I can't hold on much longer."

  Paige went to find the only thing she could think of that would be both strong enough and likely to be found somewhere nearby. A fire hose.

  "Stay there!" she told Ashley.

  She ran toward the ocean side of the building, hoping to find a hose still in its hallway glass storage case. Given the extent of damage from the previous wave, it could be in any state, which was obvious from the condition of the business center lobby windows blasted out on the ocean side of the building.

  That's when she heard the tsunami. Paige saw the foamy white line building and cascading across the bay and realized that she had no more time to find something to lower to Bill. She would have to do it herself.

  Paige ran back to the skybridge. From his vantage point, Bill had already seen the tsunami.

  "Did you find anything?" he said.

  "I didn't have time. I'm going to climb down onto that pillar above you and grab your hand." She began to lower herself over the edge.

  "No!" screamed Bill. "The skybridge can't take your weight, too. We'll both go down."

  "Then what should I do?"

  As the freight train roar of the wave got progressively louder, Bill gave Paige a look that was both sad and loving.

  "Go."

  "No!" Paige sobbed when she understood what her husband meant. "I'm not doing it!"

  "Paige, you have to get Ashley to safety. You have to be their mom."

  "No! No! You're coming with me!"

  "Paige, I won't let you die trying to save me. Go!"

  "You don't have a choice. I'm not leaving you!"

  The wave was no more than 500 yards away. It would cover that distance in seconds.

  "I'm not leaving you!" she repeated.

  "I understand. It's not your fault. I love you!"

  And with that, he let go.

  "Bill!"

  The six-story plunge was mercifully short. His broken body lay motionless on the debris below. Paige stepped back, wailing in anger and grief, not wanting to see her husband that way. She leaned against the wall, rooted to the spot as she sobbed.

  The riotous sound of the wave shook her loose. The water was almost upon them. She had to make sure that her daughter was safe, that her husband hadn't sacrificed himself in vain.

  Still crying uncontrollably, Paige swept Ashley up in her arms and dashed into the stairwell.

  * * *

  The view from Wheeler Army Airfield was far removed from the action, but Reggie Pona had a front row seat courtesy of a TV hastily set up at the front of the crowded office. He was talking with Frank Manetti, his contact at the Alaska/West Coast Tsunami Warning Center, on his cell phone.

  "You seeing this?" Reggie said, absently patting Bilbo, who panted beside him. When the ride had been offered to Reggie, his only condition was that Bilbo would be allowed to come with him. The dog remained calm, but eagerly watched the commotion going on around him.

  The TV showed a helicopter view of the second tsunami coming in. The TV stations, who weren't going to let a little thing like complete destruction of their facilities get in the way of covering one of the biggest disasters in history, had quickly moved their satellite uplink vans to high ground. Any cameras still operating in the islands were now broadcasting via those vans.

  When Manetti didn't respond, Reggie said, "Frank, you still there?"

  "Yes. I just can't believe what I'm seeing."

  "Believe it. Kai's still somewhere out in that." I hope, Reggie thought. The news from the Blackhawk that Colonel Johnson had sent wasn't encouraging.

  "You found him?"

  "Not yet. I haven't heard from him since his last message. The helicopter didn't find anyone on the rooftop. The building next to it was blown to hell. Maybe they got out in time and made a run for it."

  "If they did, they've got a bigger problem headed their way."

  "Right," Reggie said. "The third tsunami."

  "That's not what I mean."

  "What could be a bigger problem than a 200-foot tsunami?"

  "There's a fourth wave."

  "A fourth wave!" Reggie blurted out. "Are you sure?"

  "We just got the reading from the DART buoy a minute ago. But the really bad news is its size. The wave is going to be over 300 feet high."

  "Dear God!"<
br />
  As Reggie said that, the second wave slammed into the buildings lining Waikiki.

  * * *

  Kai closed his eyes as the seawater bashed in the front windows and engulfed the condo. The noise bombarded his eardrums, and it got even worse as the water found them. It crashed into the hallway from multiple directions, converging on their position where it smacked into them with tremendous force. It was at that moment that Kai cursed himself for not thinking about securing their shoes.

  Anyone who has ever ridden one of those water slides that plunges hundreds of feet in seconds has experienced the discomfort and indignity of having their bathing suit ride up during the deceleration from 60 miles per hour to zero at the end of the ride. Although tsunamis only travel at 40 miles per hour on land, the effect from the current would be similar. And their shoes were the most easily stripped items they were wearing. They'd be lucky if they weren't stripped completely naked by the water, as the man Kai had seen earlier had apparently been.

  Because they were inside the building, the current was not a steady flow past them. Instead, it was a turbulent mess that would flow in one direction one second, then reverse itself. The effect whipped them around like they were in a washing machine.

  Pieces of debris pummeled Kai. Most were small, but a sharp piece of glass stung his cheek as it tore by. He heard a bang as something large hurtled past over his head and struck a hard surface. Somehow, it missed him. It suddenly occurred to Kai that many deaths in a tsunami were not the result of drowning, but from people being crushed by large objects. Their respirators wouldn't protect them from that hazard.

  Kai braced his feet against the girder in the hopes that he could keep his shoes on. He would definitely need them to clamber over the debris in their escape from the building, if they made it that far.

  His ears popped several times as the water above them got higher and higher. Every 33 feet under the water equaled one atmosphere of pressure, and they had been submerged to twice that depth in a matter of seconds. Kai just hoped none of them suffered punctured ear drums. They didn't need to add to their problems.

  Kai opened his eyes and shut them again immediately, the filth in the water stinging them. After what seemed like forever, the worst of the current eased, although it continued in the general direction away from the ocean. To Kai's relief, the building had been able to sustain the initial impact, but that didn't mean much. It could still collapse at any moment, undermined by the ebb and flow of the wave.