Bags, beers, coolers, fishing gear—it all flew forward with a terrible racket. A few people cried out in pain from the impact of so many bodies and items crashing forward at once, but most managed at least to survive without much harm.
Reese picked himself up from the jumble of bodies and gear in the middle of the boat, then helped others to their feet. They’d all have cuts and bruises tomorrow, but there was no time to complain.
"We have to go--we gotta get to high ground!" Reese shouted, already moving to the side of the boat and throwing one leg over.
"Hold on a second," Eddie's voice rang out, silencing the nervous chatter. He stood on shaky legs as he held a hand to his bloodied head. "Nobody's leaving until we get a headcount—we have to make sure everyone is accounted for -- we do this by the book," he commanded.
Reese looked over the side of the boat and watched the water flow past the hull, heading out to the open sea. The Charming Betty settled in the exposed muck and listed to starboard. As the water slipped away, the hull sunk further into the muck on the exposed seafloor.
An eerie silence enveloped them, marked only by the sighing of the water as it slipped past the hull, racing to meet the tsunami, still just a hazy smudge on the horizon.
Reese narrowed his eyes. It was a much clearer hazy smudge than it had been just a few moments before.
"We don't have time for doing things by the book," Reese announced. He leaned over the rail and dropped down into the muck. The water was shin-deep and tugged at his legs, threatening to topple him over, but in seconds. It dropped almost to his ankles. "Come on! We have to move!“
Ben landed next to him with a splash and a curse, perhaps the most ungraceful thing Reese had ever seen. "Go figure," Ben said sputtering as he stood. “I make it through all those waves on the way here, and I'm still pretty dry. Then we reach land, and I fall overboard and get soaked."
Reese helped him to his feet, then turned to leave. “You can dry off up there,” he said, pointing at the foothills of Cadillac Mountain.
"Lavelle! I didn't give you authorization to leave this vessel," Eddie yelled over the side. A line of heads popped up next to him, SafeTech’s top sales reps. Two of the crew hopped over the side and landed with splashes. Monty followed them.
Reese waved over his shoulder. "Suit yourself—I’m not dying out here.” He slogged through the water, about as hard as walking through deep snow. The mud and sand threatened to suck his shoes off with every step, but he clenched his jaw and pushed forward.
Eddie and the captain began arguing with each other, but Reese was gratified to see at least a few other people jump over the side, throwing nervous glances at the menace on the horizon.
By the time Reese struggled free of the water and was able to make better speed on the exposed seafloor, almost everyone on the boat had jumped overboard and struggled toward dry land.
Reese turned to catch his breath and spotted the true form of the wave. He was gratified to see that it wasn't some thousand foot monster, but still, a wave that reached at least 40 or 50 feet high and stretched the entire length of the horizon was nothing to sneeze at.
“That thing’s massive…" Ben muttered.
"Come on, we can't slow down now,” Reese warned.
“How fast do you think it is?” asked Ben.
“Tsunamis slow down when they get close to land, I remember that much from what Cami’s told me,” Reese replied as he struggled through the mud. He risked another glance over his shoulder. It was coming in fast, but not as fast as it would in open water. “I don’t know…maybe ten minutes?”
“What?” Ben blurted. “At this rate, it’ll take us that long just to get out of this muck!”
By the time they’d made it to dry land, clawed up the gravel beach, and smashed through the loose vegetation lining the shore, Reese and Ben were panting hard and soaked with sweat and saltwater. They’d used up more of the time Reese had guesstimated than he would’ve liked, but they’d made it to dry land.
Ben doubled over and gasped for breath. He looked up at those still mired in the exposed sludge. “We should…help them…”
Reese shook his head, unable to speak at first. “Can’t…” he wheezed. “No time!” He pointed at the wave in the distance. It was still perhaps a half mile out, but the shimmering, mirage-like quality had vanished. It was grew taller as they watched, foot by foot, the water piled up into itself and transformed into a massive, horizon-stretching wall of water.
Despite the calls for help from those who floundered in the mud behind them, Reese and Ben pushed forward into the undergrowth at the base of the hill just west of Seal Harbor. “Run!” Reese hollered.
Ben glanced over his shoulder and sprinted past Reese. “There it is!”
Reese looked—the wave was only a hundred yards behind the Charming Betty, and it was easily as tall as the beached fishing boat. People streamed over the sides now, though most were already half way through the mud on the way to the shore. Reese turned away. They’d never make it—his co-workers were doomed.
A low hiss rolled in off the coast with the Atlantic breeze, the sound of the tsunami as the wave grew taller as it slowed. Tsunamis didn’t hit with explosive power, they landed with sustained momentum and simply pushed, uprooted, or flattened everything in their path. Reese swallowed. The wave might push them right off the hill if they didn’t get higher.
Reese and Ben redoubled their efforts to scramble up through the pine trees and maple saplings jutting out from the side of the hill. They clambered over rocks and loose soil, and used branches and anything they could get their hands on to pull themselves up whenever they foundered. "Keep moving," Reese gasped, "It looks like we're even with the top of the wave," he said, pointing east. "But when this thing hits land, it's going to go way up—that fjord out there is going to funnel it.”
“Right…right behind….you,” Ben said around deep breaths.
As Reese pulled himself up another few steps, he strained to see through the tree trunks and bushes. The top of the hill was still hidden in greenery. That was a good sign, but bad news at the same time. The longer it took them to reach the top, the closer the wave came, and the closer it was to sweeping away everything in its path—including them if they weren't high enough.
Reese gritted his teeth and grunted through the pain in his back. Being tossed around the boat like a rag doll wasn’t doing his endurance any good. But he wouldn’t let a little pain stop him—he had to survive, he had to get on the road, and he had to make it home. Thinking of Cami and Amber, scared and alone, provided Reese with a second wind and a surge of adrenaline pushed him higher and faster.
As he climbed, he felt a target on his back. The monster was behind him and it was coming fast. His hands shook and his knees quaked. He’d never been so scared in his entire life.
That was when he noticed the dull roar in the distance. Faint at first, as if he’d only imagined, it, the sound grew with each passing second. Before long, he could feel it in his bones, and the way his ribcage vibrated with the sound, he knew there wasn’t any point in turning around to look.
“Here it comes!” Ben yelled.
Reese knew he needed to run, to climb higher, to keep going…but he couldn’t. The same way everyone slows down to look at a car wreck, he paused to watch as the tsunami claimed its first victims in American waters.
The white, frothy foam that roiled and jumped along the wave’s root first hit the Charming Betty. He couldn’t tell if there was still anyone aboard the doomed boat or not, but if they were, they had a wild ride. The big fishing boat was lifted up out of the sucking mud like a child’s toy and rolled once, then again, before it vanished into the wave, swallowed by the giant.
Those passengers who were still out in the mud had nowhere to go. They turned and watched their deaths approach as a relentless blue-green wall tinged with spray slammed into them at thirty miles an hour, with all the force of a freight train. The bodies tumbled, some were carrie
d up the wave toward the crest—Reese wondered if they might survive after all—and others just vanished in the briefest of splashes before the wave rolled forward.
In seconds the tsunami traversed the mud and crashed into the shoreline, crossing a distance that took Reese and Ben more than six minutes. Trees along the beach shivered and fell, others were snapped like toothpicks, the trunks exploding like gunshots. Boulders from the shore, broken and uprooted trees, and the bodies of TechSafe’s sales award winners crashed into the side of the hill with a roar Reese figured came straight out of the apocalypse.
The tsunami had arrived.
Chapter 6
Charleston, South Carolina
“Mom?”
Cami's chest tightened at the sound of Amber’s voice. She hadn't sounded like a scared little girl in a long, long time.
Just for a second, Amber’s voice sounded like that scared six-year-old. Cami turned, examining the surrounding buildings. They had to be on the very edge of the incoming tidal wash. If the water made it this far, surely it wouldn't go too much further? They were on the northwest side of Charleston, and had never gotten within ten miles or so from the coast when they stopped at Mitch’s store. The wave that rolled up the street behind them had to be at the end of its journey from the sea. And yet it was still tall enough to brush the second floor of most buildings. The wave crashed forward, pushing cars, parts of buildings—here and there a boat—and countless people forward without mercy. It moved deceptively slow, like a vision from a nightmare.
Standing there on the street jammed with thousands of other people who’d thought they were safe so far from the coast, but now desperately trying to escape the city was a recipe for disaster. She took Amber’s hand, and they pushed ahead. Cami had to get them to higher ground. She could try and wrap her brain around what she’d seen later, when they were safe.
“No time—go!” Cami shouted.
At the corner, one block from the bridge—which, just a few minutes earlier had been a two-lane road, and was now a pedestrian-only crossing—Cami saw her chance at safety. One block to the right, directly north, nestled against a gentle curve of the river Ashley, sat a squat rectangular church that looked more like a Norman keep than a place of worship.
Cami wiped sweat from her eyes and focused on the heavy stone construction as the panicked crowd surged around her. As she stared at the church, she blocked out the screams and the jostling elbows as people fought each other to get to the other side of the river. Solid slabs of granite formed the massive foundation on which the stone structure rose up toward the heavens. She didn’t know if the stones would hold up better than brick and wood, but it might be their only hope.
“That’s it! That’s our best chance.” She took one last glance around the packed intersection as people pushed and shoved at each other. All the surrounding buildings were new brick and wood constructs built in a modern colonial style to blend in with downtown Charleston some ten miles away. They looked attractive, but she knew they wouldn’t have the strength to withstand a tidal wave strong enough to make it so far inland.
The pitch of people's voices continued to rise as panic sunk its claws into every heart. Cami risked one more look down the street. The wave continued to force its way forward and carried the ruin of North Charleston with it. They had seconds to get out of the situation before all hell broke loose.
She tightened her grip on Amber's hand and forced her way sideways through the crowd. While everyone else tried to go west, she led Amber perpendicular and crossed the street headed north.
“Watch it!” someone barked as Cami stepped on a foot in her haste to squeeze through a gap in the crowd. The collision made her lose her grip on the bag of supplies from Mitch’s store. In the blink of an eye the bag disappeared beneath the churning legs of all the people fleeing the wave.
“Hey!!” she called over her shoulder, but the man who’d complained was already gone, swallowed up by the crush of people. Her other hand tugged back as Amber fell to one knee. Cami forgot the bag of supplies and pulled hard on Amber. “Get up, sweetie!”
Someone bumped into Amber and pitched her forward, and her bags fell, spilling rope and freeze dried food all over the road. Mitch propelled the cooler he carried into the chest of the closest person, which not only freed his hands to help catch Amber, but made the man right behind her pull up short. Ice and juice boxes flew everywhere and the man cursed, but three people slammed into him from behind and he vanished in a hail of curses.
Mitch hauled Amber upright and pulled her to the side to avoid the crush of bodies that stumbled forward. They awkwardly separated, clearing throats and looking away from each other, both blushing, they turned to retrieve what they could from the bags.
“No time for that! Forget the gear,” Cami ordered, trying to force her way into the crowd again. Several people, all bigger than her, blocked her path. “Mitch! Clear the road!” She pointed at the church. “We have to go that way!”
“Right on, Cami-san!” He grinned, a wolfish expression on his face, and lowered a shoulder. A man yelped in front of them, but the path cleared as Mitch bulled his way toward the church, cutting across the stream of pedestrians. Cami jumped into the clear space behind him, pulling Amber along.
The ground shook and glass shattered in windows as they passed buildings in their mad dash to the church. A wooden shutter dropped from an upper floor and exploded on the ground at Cami’s feet, which caused her to stumble and curse. She caught herself on the side of the building and pushed forward. Ahead, she noticed a thin trickle of water seep around the edge of the building.
“Hurry! It’s here!” she yelled over the increased roar and all the screaming behind them.
Once they got away from the bridge, the flow of pedestrians slowed to a trickle and Mitch led them at a run to the church. When Cami glanced over her shoulder to make sure Amber followed her, she noticed at least a dozen people had broken away from the main crowd and followed them as well. Water already lapped at the ankles of people in the intersection. The wave was only seconds away from unleashing its full force on the poor souls still struggling to get across the bridge around all the parked cars.
As Mitch approached the church, Cami felt a queasy sensation. The ground trembled. She’d never been in an earthquake, but it had to be similar. Her stomach rebelled at the suddenly unstable ground beneath her feet. Her mind tried unsuccessfully to comprehend the sheer volume of water it would take—and the speed at which it moved—to cause the ground to shake almost a dozen miles away from the ocean.
“Mom, I see smoke,” Amber called out.
"Don’t worry about it, we’re almost there!” Cami yelled over her shoulder. “Keep going—Mitch, don’t stop, get to the church!”
"I'm right behind you!" Amber replied.
New voices echoed down the street behind them. More and more people poured out of side alleys, looking for refuge. A few ran across the road in front of them, only to be pushed over the short retaining wall into the river below by the crowd that surged down the street. Cami took a quick look over the side as they sprinted the last hundred feet to the church to notice the river was flowing far faster than normal, fueled by the additional seawater pushed forward by the wave.
Those who’d been knocked into the river were pulled with the surge away from the ocean. It was an unnatural sight that made Cami’s skin crawl as she ran. The monster from across the Atlantic had arrived.
“Stay with us!” Mitch yelled.
Cami glanced over her shoulder to see him urge forward the woman they’d met earlier and her two small children.
Cami raced to her, the trendy, but not very utilitarian flats she wore slapping on the pavement. Amber was right behind her. "Follow us! We’re going to that church. It looks like it'll hold."
The young mother didn't hesitate at all. She followed, and with Cami and Amber shepherding the kids, as Mitch took the lead and ran toward the church. A couple teenagers sprinted past them,
and shouted that the wave was right behind them.
A priest dressed all in black opened the church’s double doors as they arrived. He stepped out onto the porch and urged everyone in, standing aside as the first refugees rushed past. "Hurry! It’s all over the news! The floodwaters will be here any second!" It was only as the priest called out that Cami noticed the buzz of several news helicopters in the distance.
Water poured into the street ahead of them and cut off the route to safety. It was ankle deep, brown and choked with flotsam, but moved fast. In the suddenly water-logged street, Cami’s shoes were next to useless. She tripped and splashed to her hands and knees.
The force of the water immediately grabbed her, and she fell on her side. Filthy water hit her in the face and Cami flailed her arms, coughing and sputtering as she felt herself pushed across the street.
“Mom!” Amber screamed from nearby. Water splashed into Cami’s face and muffled sound to a muted roar in her ears.
Cami’s back hit something hard and she was able to pull herself upright against what turned out to be a lamp post. She coughed and wiped water from her face and adjusted the purse on her shoulders. The water was already up to her shins.
She looked up the alley across the street from her and her blood ran cold. In the distance, smoke rose into the air over the buildings. But much closer, a wall of brown water at least ten feet high rumbled forward and shot between the structures. A man stepped out of a side door just in time to be sucked into the wave with a splash and a stifled shout of fear. The door slammed shut with such strength the brick wall around it crumbled into the wave as it surged down the alley right at Cami.
Broken Tide | Book 1 | Overfall Page 7