The Atlas of Us

by Tracy Buchanan

  Claire and Milo exchanged a smile. She was so much like a child sometimes, innocent and easily excited. She’d been through so much and had such a journey ahead of her, but, like Milo, Claire too felt like things might just work out.

  ‘Let’s not keep Nora waiting,’ Milo said, standing up. ‘We ought to—’ He paused as a flock of colourful-looking birds flew over their heads, wings flapping frantically, squawks shrill.

  Someone nearby shouted something in Thai. A plate crashed to the ground, chairs scraping back.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Claire said, slowly rising from her chair.

  People around them peered up from their meals, eyes widening as they looked out towards the sea. Claire followed their gaze and let out a gasp as she saw a line of white foam rapidly approaching in the distance.

  ‘What is that?’ Holly asked.

  ‘A wave,’ Claire whispered, heart pounding with fear in her chest.

  The Thai people working behind the counter started talking in urgent voices, one grabbing the phone.

  A couple came running through the trees, their movements frantic, faces white. One of them was dressed in just their underwear as though they’d got straight out of bed.

  Claire grabbed the arm of the passing girl. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked her.

  The girl said something in German and peered behind her, a look of horror on her face. A roar like a jet engine echoed around them and for a moment Claire wondered if a plane was crashing.

  ‘Tsunami!’ an American man shouted out from behind them, jumping up from his table, knocking over a glass of water. ‘She said it’s a tsunami.’

  People screamed, jumping up, tables overturning.

  ‘Oh God,’ Claire said, not quite believing what she was seeing as she watched the frothing wave work its way towards shore, eating up a small boat in its path.

  She’d written about the Papua New Guinea tsunami that had killed over two thousand people a few years ago. Could this really be happening here?

  Milo grabbed Holly’s arm, pulling her from the table as he put his hand out to Claire. ‘We need to get to safety.’ Claire took his hand, stumbling out from behind the table, looking around for Alex. He was standing nearby, his camera to his face as he took photos of the emerging wave.

  ‘Alex, for God’s sake, come on!’ Milo said, reaching across the table to grab him.

  The wave reached the beach, gushing over abandoned sun loungers, knocking over a small cart selling souvenirs. People screamed, running from the water as it seemed to surge higher and higher, swirling around the base of palm trees, gobbling up beach bags and tables. People darted between the five of them, knocking Claire off her feet. She managed to stop herself from falling and frantically looked for Milo among the stampede.

  ‘Claire!’ Holly screamed. Claire shoved her way through the crowd of people and grabbed hold of Holly’s hand, somehow keeping her balance as a huge man thundered into her.

  Claire twisted around, standing on her tiptoes to try to see Milo and Alex above everyone’s heads. But they seemed to have disappeared from sight. Holly tried to run back to their table to find them but Claire yanked her back. ‘We have to get to safety.’

  ‘No!’ Holly screamed. But Claire pulled her back again. It would be stupid to run towards the water. They had to get away.

  She pulled Holly away from the beach, aware of the thunderous noise in her ears, the hysterical panic in the air, the elbows digging into her sides as people shoved past her. She focused on Holly’s hand in hers, praying Milo and Alex were running too.

  Up ahead was one of the island’s only hotels. Claire peered up to see people on its main balcony, looking out at the approaching sea in horror. Others rushed into the hotel’s reception, some slipping on the concrete stairs, crying out in pain.

  ‘Come on,’ Claire said, hauling Holly towards the hotel. They ran inside, their flip-flops slapping onto the marble floors, and headed towards a small crowd of people trying to scramble up the narrow flight of stairs and away from the oncoming water, which was splashing into the reception area now.

  ‘There won’t be space for us,’ Holly said as she peered up the crowded stairwell.

  ‘We’ll make space,’ Claire said, squeezing onto the first step and pulling Holly with her.

  Claire quickly turned again and saw people succumbing to the wave, simply disappearing under its depths as it flooded the reception area, speeding towards them. She tried to spot Milo and Alex but couldn’t see any sign of them.

  She turned back to the stairs, using all her strength to drag Holly up them before running with everyone else towards the balcony she’d seen earlier. There were dozens of people on there, huddling close, eyes wide with panic. Holly and Claire pushed their way on then both fell silent as they took in the view over everyone’s heads. It was like they’d been dropped into the middle of the ocean, water as far as the eye could see, the tide continuing on past the hotel into the mainland. Below them, a terrible process line of broken palm trees, boats and debris swept past … and people too, so many of them.

  A terrible sound of creaking rang out in the air. Claire turned and saw the roof of a small shop nearby collapsing, the man who’d been standing on it disappearing into the building’s belly.

  ‘What if this doesn’t hold? What if the water keeps coming?’ Holly said, clutching onto Claire’s arm as she looked around her.

  ‘It will hold.’ But she wasn’t sure. She stood on tiptoes, scouring the water below. ‘Milo!’ She screamed. ‘Alex!’

  Her cries triggered a chorus of other cries, the people around them calling the names of their loved ones over and over. It felt unbearably hopeless.

  She wrapped her arms around Holly, squeezing her eyes shut.

  Milo would be fine, Alex too. They had to be.

  Someone screamed, pointing out to the ocean.

  ‘Another wave!’ Holly gasped.

  ‘Oh God,’ Claire whispered, watching as it swept towards them, crashing into trees, sending the people hanging onto them flying off in its whirlpool of horror. Claire watched, helpless, as the wave approached the small balcony of a nearby building, its fragile structure crumbling, sending the people standing on it toppling into the waves. The hotel they were in seemed to shudder as the wave smashed against it and she imagined the same happening to their balcony. She braced herself, pulling Holly even closer to her.

  ‘I’m scared,’ Holly said, pressing her face into Claire’s neck.

  ‘We’ll be fine,’ Claire said to her even though she didn’t believe it herself.

  Somehow the building held and Claire and Holly stayed on that balcony for some time, clinging onto each other, eyes scouring the water for Milo and Alex. Time seemed to pass in a blur and Claire wasn’t sure whether it was a few minutes or an hour before the water started to recede, bringing with it more debris, more bodies. People appeared, wading through the water, many helping badly injured people. This prompted some people on the balcony to make their way down too, the waters calm now.

  ‘I’m not sure it’s safe up here any more,’ Claire said through chattering teeth as she looked towards a new crack that had appeared in the balcony wall. ‘We have to try to find Milo and Alex. And then we have to get away from here.’

  They carefully made their way down the stairs, pausing before they got to the bottom. This close, the view was even more harrowing. Though the water was only shin-deep now, sinks lay on their sides, clothes tangled around fallen palm trees, suitcases swollen alongside mattresses and old kettles. And then the bodies – people lying face down, others slumped against what remained of some of the structures nursing terrible injuries.

  ‘I’ll go first,’ Claire said, carefully lowering herself until her feet found ground, crunching through the dirty water and debris.

  Water rushed in between her toes, gritty and warm. She looked down, saw it was a filthy brown colour.

  ‘It’s fine,’ she said, putting her hand out to Holly.

/>   A man floated by them then, his arm clutched around a bag of beach balls, his leg at an awkward angle, face bloody. He reached his hand towards Claire, eyes desperate. Claire tried to grab him but his fingers slipped through hers. A woman a few metres away managed to get hold of him, stopping him from floating further as he looked up at her with grateful eyes.

  Claire hoped someone would be there for Milo or Alex if they were injured too.

  Over the next few minutes, they trod through the shallow water, pushing debris aside and calling Alex and Milo’s names out, Claire’s heart stuttering each time she considered the possibility that they might be dead. It was eerily quiet compared to when the wave had hit, just the occasional sob and crunching sound, the air stinking of brine and gasoline.

  Other people limped past, many having lost their footwear, yelping as they trod on jagged debris.

  After a while, Holly shouted out, ‘There! Look!’

  Claire followed the direction she was pointing in to see a man floating face down nearby: dark hair, long limbs, tanned arms … and a purple T-shirt just like the one Milo had been wearing that day.

  No.

  Could it be him?

  Claire stifled a sob and limped through the water towards him. ‘Please, please, please,’ she whispered to herself, tears running down her cheeks, leg aching from the searing pain of her cut. When they got to him, Holly let out a sob and turned away as she took in the blue tinge of his skin.

  Claire closed her eyes, seeing all those moments she’d spent with Milo flash through her mind: those quiet few moments in Nunney Castle as the sun set; the feel of his skin against hers as they sank into the grass the next day; the way his eyes turned bronze in the sunlight as he rowed them down the Danube; the feel of his cold lips against hers as snow fell around them in Finland …

  She reached her hand out, whole body trembling and—

  ‘Holly! Claire!’

  She looked up at a tree nearby and caught sight of a thatch of blond hair through the leaves. ‘Alex!’ He was sitting astride one of the branches, his arms around the trunk. Holly started crashing through the debris to get to him as Claire looked back at the body.

  If that was Alex, was this …?

  There was the sound of splashing and she turned to see Milo wading through the water towards her. He was limping, a bloody T-shirt tied around his thigh.

  Relief flooded through her.

  ‘Oh God,’ Claire sobbed, grabbing hold of him. ‘You’re alive.’

  Milo looked down at her, brown eyes filled with tears. ‘Told you I’d never leave you.’

  Claire surveyed the scene before her, unable to believe her eyes. They’d eventually made their way to higher ground, finding themselves at a large hotel full of survivors, a handful of medical staff trying their best to help. People were sobbing, rocking back and forth. Others cried out people’s names in forlorn voices. Children wandered about, asking for their mummies and daddies. Families hugged each other like they’d never let each other go again.

  The scene laid out below was one of complete devastation, once smooth white perfect beaches a tangle of debris, corpses and filthy water. It was how Claire imagined a bombed beach might look. Every now and again, rumours spread of another wave so the four of them huddled together, eyes on a now-calm sea as they braced themselves for what might come next.

  After an hour there, a gruesome convoy started to flow in – bodies on rickety old trucks, people with missing loved ones looking on in horror. Claire thought of Nora then. If she’d been waiting for them at Claire’s bungalow, she wouldn’t have had a chance.

  ‘What do we do now?’ Holly asked, leaning against a wall and wiping her grimy face. ‘We left all our phones at the café so we can’t call anyone. Do we just wait?’

  Claire looked at Alex, thinking about how frantic her sister would be. And what about Jay, arriving in Bangkok to discover the island Claire had been staying at had been devastated by a tidal wave?

  Claire looked towards the children and the injured. There’d be people worrying about them too. At least the four of them were together and mobile.

  ‘We help,’ she said simply.

  So that’s what they did over the next couple of days, hardly aware when day turned into night then day again. They spent the hours searching for the injured, using plastic pool beds that floated upstream as temporary stretchers. Some of the injuries were horrific, and at first, Claire struggled to cope – they all did. But as time went by, she grew stronger, even arranging for water and supplies to be handed out to the injured as they waited for transport to either the makeshift hospital on the island or the mainland. She saw Holly grow in strength too, distracting children desperate to find their parents by playing games with them. And Milo and Alex were pulled in to help carry the injured, working well into the early hours despite both of them looking exhausted, especially Milo whose limp was getting worse. Claire had tried to get him to have his leg seen to, but he refused, saying it was clear the doctors were overwhelmed with injuries so much worse than his.

  All the time, Claire looked out for Nora, scared every time she saw a woman brought in with dark hair and a long, sea-drenched skirt. She looked for Jay too, wondering if he was searching for her and thinking the worst. She wished she could call him and Sofia and tell them she was fine. But the times when someone was kind enough to offer them their phones to call home, there was no connection, the networks struggling to serve the devastated area.

  But after Claire borrowed a nurse’s phone to call Sofia, she managed to connect. ‘Alex is fine,’ she said as soon as her sister answered.

  ‘My God,’ Sofia said. ‘I’ve been frantic. And you? Are you OK?’

  ‘I’m fine. Bit shaken up, but fine.’

  ‘Can I talk to Alex?’

  Claire gestured to Alex who was helping lift a man onto a truck. ‘He’ll be over in a minute. I’m so sorry, Sof. It’s been impossible to call until now.’

  ‘Is Alex really okay, no injuries?’

  ‘He’s fine, just a scratch to the head.’

  ‘A scratch? Could it become infected, could—’

  ‘Sofia, really, he’s fine. They got caught up in the wave, but Milo saw Alex as he was being swept inshore and grabbed him. They clambered onto the roof of a building. Milo got hurt in the process but he’ll be fine.’

  Sofia let out a sob. ‘Oh, thank God. Please thank Milo for me.’

  Alex started jogging over. ‘Alex is here now so I’ll hand him over. We’ll get him home soon, Sof.’

  ‘Thank you, Claire. And – and remember to thank Milo, won’t you?’

  Claire looked towards Milo who was helping a Thai man carry two young boys to the concrete building. ‘I will.’

  ‘Wait, before you go!’ Sofia said. ‘Your friend Jay called yesterday to see if you’d called me. When I told him you hadn’t, he said he was in Bangkok but he’d try to get over to the island to find you all. I took his number but when I tried to call this morning, it said the number didn’t exist. I must’ve taken down one of the digits wrong, I was so frantic, Claire, I couldn’t do anything right really. Do you remember his number?’

  Claire sighed. ‘No, I don’t. Poor Jay, he must be so worried. Look, if he calls again, tell him I’m fine, won’t you?’ Claire looked towards Holly who was hugging a little girl. ‘There’s not been anything in the papers about me or Milo, has there? Or Holly?’

  ‘No, the tsunami’s the only thing people are talking about. It’s affected a huge area, the images are just horrible.’

  ‘I’d heard it wasn’t just here. How awful. Look, as soon as flights are available, we’ll get Alex to you.’

  ‘What about you?’

  She thought of Nora. ‘There’s a friend we haven’t found yet so I might be back a little later than Alex. I’d like to find her before I leave.’

  ‘A friend?’

  ‘I’ll explain when I get back.’

  Claire could hear her sister’s breathing on the
other end of the phone.

  ‘Something else, Claire.’

  ‘Yes?’

  Sofia let out a sob. ‘I love you.’

  Claire leaned against the concrete wall, trying to hold back her own tears. ‘Love you too, sis.’

  That evening, just before the sun set, the four of them made their way back to the shore. As they drew closer to the sea, there were more bodies, more debris, more smashed boats and flattened roofs. People walked down the dusty road, faces bloody and dazed, eyes wide. Claire tried to find Nora’s face among them, Jay’s too. But nothing.

  As they headed towards Claire’s bungalow, they passed Nora’s resort. There was almost nothing left, though Nora’s distinctive painting was just discernible, lying against a palm tree in the distance, wrecked and broken.

  A man was walking through the debris with a little boy, calling out a woman’s name. In the distance, volunteers loaded bodies onto the back of a truck.

  Claire could hardly believe she’d been there on Christmas Day, the sea so calm and beautiful nearby, no clue of what was to come.

  ‘Your bungalow might not be so bad,’ Milo said, squeezing Claire’s hand as he noticed the look on her face.

  But when they drew closer to the complex of bungalows where Claire had been staying, it was even worse. The huts were mostly flattened, victims laid out nearby covered in plastic sheets , volunteers looking over them with clipboards in their hands.

  ‘Jesus,’ Alex said. ‘Nora wouldn’t have survived this if she was here when the wave hit.’

  ‘If she ran she might have,’ Holly said, her voice trembling. ‘We did.’

  ‘Wait here a minute,’ Milo said to Holly and Alex. He took Claire’s hand and they walked over to the volunteers, trying not to look at the bodies, their hands over their noses, still not quite used to the smell.

  The volunteers looked up as they approached. Their eyes looked exhausted over the top of their masks, red-rimmed and glassy.

  ‘We’re looking for our friend,’ Claire said. ‘A woman called Nora McKenzie? She’s British, dark curly hair, in her late forties or early fifties, I think.’

  One of the volunteers, a woman with a shock of red hair, shook her head. ‘We haven’t come across her,’ she said in a German accent. ‘She doesn’t fit the description of any of these people either,’ she added, looking down at the bodies laid out before her, her eyes sad.