Rogue Wave

Chapter 35

After Brad finished filling Rachel in on their situation, she had a last word with Kai and then signed off to deal with her latest problem.

There was no way a helicopter could land on top of the Akamai Tower to rescue the family across from Rachel and Max. The architects had made sure of that when they designed the spire topping the building. The only way for the family to escape was to go down. But with the dredging barge impaled in the building, probably blocking the stairwell in the center of the structure, they might not be able to make it all the way to the ground.

"Do you think they can get out?" Max said.

"There's no way to know from here," Rachel replied. "They'll just have to try it."

"Even if they get all the way down, can they get to safety? You said there's another wave coming, and it's even bigger than the last one."

"There's one other possibility," she said. "They might be able to go across the skybridge."

They searched for signs of the sixth floor skybridge, but the water level was still well above it. The skybridge, designed like a suspension bridge, hung from cables that extended up to the eighth floor. Sixteen cables, eight anchored to each side of the bridge's floor, held it in place, with half the cables attached to the Moana Tower and the other half attached to the Akamai Tower. The cables were still intact, but it was impossible to tell whether they still connected to anything substantial enough to walk across.

"The skybridge?" Max said. "Do you think it's still there? That would be convenient."

"Convenient? You think anything about this morning is convenient?"

Max dropped his head in embarrassment. "I just meant that it would be lucky for them," he said sheepishly.

Rachel sighed. "I know, Max. I'm sorry. I shouldn't take it out on you. Look, we won't know about the skybridge until the water recedes, but if it is still there, they might be able to get to it and get across. It'll take them a few minutes to get down 20 stories."

The family didn't budge. They just looked at Rachel and waved frantically, not knowing what to do. They were in a panic.

"We have to tell them to move now."

"But how?" Max said. "With the power out, we can't use the hotel phones."

"We'll write it on something." Rachel looked around, and then realized what they needed was right in front of them. She ran over to the maitre d's desk and grabbed the grease pencil he used to mark the seating plan. She took it to one of the dining tables, threw the glasses and utensils on the floor, and began scrawling on the white table cloth in huge letters.

In a minute, she completed the crude message.

"Help me," she said to Max and whipped the table cloth off. They carried it over to the window. It said, "Go to skybridge 6th floor."

"Wait a minute," Rachel said, keeping the tablecloth out of view of the window.

"What?" Max said.

"We need to make sure the skybridge is actually there."

The water had begun to flow back toward the ocean, carrying anything that floated. In another minute, the level was down to the sixth floor. They held their breath to see whether the skybridge was still intact.

As the water dropped further, the debris started to get caught on something. When it began to pile up in a line between the buildings, Rachel knew the skybridge had survived.

"OK, let's put the sign up," Rachel said. "And let's hope they speak English."

They held the tablecloth against the window so that the family could read it. After seeing it, both the man and woman nodded furiously and gave a thumbs up. In a second, the whole family was gone.

"Looks like they got the message. Max, you need to get everyone here up to the roof. It won't be easy because of the stairs. You'll have to leave the wheelchairs behind. Keep calling for a helicopter. And take some of the tablecloths to wave as a signal."

"You're not going down there, are you?"

"They may need help getting across. Besides, once they get over to our building, they may try to go down instead of up. I think that would be a bad decision. Max, do whatever you have to do to get that helicopter."

He nodded. "Be careful."

"You too. I'll see you in 20 minutes. If I'm not back by then, that means…" She let it trail off, not wanting to actually say that it meant she and the others hadn't made it.

"You better be," Max said.

With that, Rachel ran to the door marked by the emergency exit sign and started down the stairs.

Over the skies of Honolulu, Kai saw more types of helicopters than he even knew existed. Army Blackhawks and huge Navy HH-53s were the biggest, but there were news choppers, scenic tour helicopters with their logos emblazoned on the side, and everything in between. At one point, he counted over a dozen helicopters buzzing around the city in all directions. All seven of Kai's group waved their arms wildly, but even with that many helicopters, not one of them came in their direction. There were just too many other people clamoring for their attention.

The only other option was to go down. The water swirling below made that an unpleasant prospect. Along with the inorganic wreckage, Kai now saw bodies being drawn back to the ocean. Most of them were face down, so he was spared looking at their last expressions, but he could see the tsunami had been indiscriminate.

In the short time that the water had begun to withdraw, Kai saw at least 30 bodies of men and women, some still in their flowered shirts or bathing suits, others stripped completely naked. But the most horrible sight was the children. The first one was a girl about Lani's age, her long blonde hair floating next to her. Kai felt the urge to jump in and pull her out, but he restrained himself, knowing it would be a pointless gesture that would not only get him killed, but would also mean he'd no longer be there for Lani. Each time he saw a child float by, Kai looked for signs of life in the hopes that he might save one of them, but each of them remained still. He told Lani not to look, but he knew he couldn't protect her for long. Eventually, they would have to go out in that.

Almost as horrible was seeing the pets that had been taken by the wave. Dogs and cats mixed with the people. Some of the dogs even still had their leashes on. It made Kai wonder for the first time how Bilbo was, but he realized with relief that if Reggie was OK, his dog was too.

Then they saw another carcass, one so out of place amidst all of the other carnage that Kai blinked several times before realizing what it was.

"Is that what I think it is?" said Brad.

"Dead giraffe," Kai said.

Below them, swirling next to a Volkswagen Beetle was an enormous orange and white giraffe, floating on its side, obviously drowned by the wave.

"What on earth?" Teresa said.

"The zoo is right over there in the park," Kai said, pointing in the direction of Diamond Head. "It must have gotten swept away by the wave and pulled over here."

"Poor thing," she said. "They must not have had time to get the animals evacuated." Kai shook his head. Every animal in the zoo must be dead.

On the building behind them, the water level was now half a floor below the high water mark. It was definitely receding.

"Come on, everyone," Kai said quietly. "We need to make our move now."

He led them to the stairwell and went down to the main stairwell, where he peered over the side to inspect the damage. The surface of the ninth floor landing dripped with water and silt, but the steps looked otherwise intact. Pieces of trash were caught in the railings and wrapped around the pillars that held up the outer part of the stairwell.

A pungent smell surrounded them. The bodies hadn't begun to decay yet, but the tsunami had mixed sewage, gasoline, garbage, and assorted chemicals into an odor that Kai had never before experienced. He coughed at the stench.

The water drained surprisingly quickly off the eighth floor platform. The flow past the building must have been greater than 10 knots, much faster than a person could swim, even faster than the flow of many rivers. Occasionally, a large object would bang off a pillar, startling them.

Instead of following the receding water down the steps, Kai opened the door to the tenth story of condos, the only dry floor left.

"What are you doing?" Brad said.

"With all that debris outside, Mia and Lani are going to need shoes."

"You mean, we get to bust down some doors?" he said, a little too delighted at the prospect of Kai's proposed thievery.

"This building won't be here in an hour, so we might as well help ourselves. Teresa, you stay here with Tom and Jake. Lani, you and Mia come with us."

"I want Mia to stay with me," Teresa said with a hint of fear.

"She needs to try on the shoes," Kai said calmly, trying to ease her mind. "And I need Brad to help me break down the doors. If Reggie gets my message, someone will need to run up to the roof as fast as possible to flag the helicopter down. It's OK. We'll be right back."

The hall was dark from the lack of power, so Teresa held the fire door open while Tom and Jake went to the mid-story landing to get a better view outside. Kai walked down the hall to the first condo door on the left, 1001, facing the ocean. He lashed out with a kick, but the solid door just rang from the impact.

"Let me try," Brad said.

Brad threw his weight into a kick, and the door frame cracked. Two more kicks, and the door swung open with a crash. Kai shot him a curious look.

Brad shrugged. "Karate classes," he said.

They passed a kitchen whose sink was piled high with dishes and into a living room that held little more than a massive leather couch, a coffee table littered with Maxim magazines and Xbox controllers, and a big screen television. Kai immediately thought bachelor, but they headed straight to the bedrooms and looked in the closets anyway. Just as he thought, all the shoes were men's size 12.

Frustrated in their search, Kai and the others emerged into the hall for another try.

"Any luck?" Teresa said.

"Dude's apartment," Brad said.

"The water's down to the sixth floor now!" Jake yelled from the stairwell. He and Tom followed the water farther down.

"This is taking too long," Kai said. "We need to be ready to run once the water reaches the bottom. Let's try two apartments at a time."

Brad nodded, and this time they both kicked at the condo 1002, opposite the bachelor pad. It opened right away, and Brad went to the next condo with Mia. Lani trailed Kai into 1002, the look on her face betraying her tension.

"Remember," he said to Lani, trying to lighten the mood, "were not looking for cute strappy heels. Just sneakers."

She gave a look that said his attempt at humor was not well-received.

The patio door to the balcony was wide open as was the custom in Hawaii to let the breeze ventilate the condo instead of the air conditioning. Kai heard Brad yell through his condo's patio door.

"Looks like a family lives here! We might get lucky."

"Mine, too!" Kai yelled back.

Lani had already passed Kai into the bedroom, and he found her rooting through the closet.

"Find anything?" he asked.

She held up a pair of white sneakers. The rest of the shoes were either high-heels or sandals.

"Are they your size?"

"Close enough," she said.

"OK, get them on."

Kai went back out to the living room to let Brad know they'd found some. When he got out there, he heard a strange hissing sound coming from the direction of the patio balcony. The high-pitched whine of escaping gas was unmistakable and was soon supplemented by the roar of fire. Kai dashed out to the balcony to find out where it was coming from. He skidded to a halt at the railing when he saw what was causing the noise.

Directly in front of him, the 20-story high-rise obstructed the Seaside's view of the mountains. On the eighth floor of the structure, a giant propane tank jutted out of a window. It looked like the tank had plunged through one side of the glassed building and then got stuck in the side closest to the Seaside. A jet of gas six inches across shot out of a hole at one end where it instantly transformed into a torch of fire.

"BLEVE!" Kai yelled.

"Who's Blevy?" Brad said, racing out to the balcony to see what he was talking about. "Oh my God!"

Without thinking, Kai had used the term he had learned during the emergency drill earlier in the year. BLEVE stood for boiling liquid/expanding vapor explosion. When a flammable tank was punctured, the pressurized liquid usually shot out of the hole as a gas. Sparks or fire ignited the gas, heating the metal around the hole. If the fire got hot enough, the liquid in the tank would literally boil. The tank wouldn't be able to contain the increased pressure, and when the pressure became too great, the metal would fail. The tank would rupture, releasing all of the liquid at once. When that happened, a tremendous explosion would rip through everything around it. Because it was so dangerous, firefighters battling a potential BLEVE would simply evacuate to at least half a mile away and let it either burn itself out or explode.

This propane tank was no more than 75 feet from Kai.

It had probably been ripped from its spot at a gas station and pierced as it was swept along by the water. Then any spark could have set it off. The receding water brought it here and lodged it in a corner of the window, leaving it hanging high and dry, with no chance that the outflow of water would dowse it before the next wave came in. It could blow any second.

"Propane tank!" Kai shouted out the door of the apartment. "It's going to explode! Run!"

"Mia!" Teresa said from the stairwell.

Without answering, Kai ran back to the bedroom and grabbed Lani's hand, yanking her to her feet without letting her finish tying the other shoe.

As they ran out, Kai saw Teresa flash past the front door of the condo heading toward Brad and Mia.

"Teresa! Come back!"

She ignored Kai and flew through the door of the next condo down to find Mia. Lani and Kai ran to condo 1001 across the hall, and he slammed the door behind them. He pushed Lani over the couch and dove after her. As they hit the floor with a thud, the tank blew up.

Despite the several walls separating them from the tank, the noise from the blast assaulted Kai's ears. The building shook from the impact. The door to the condo ripped from its hinges, flying over them and out the window. He instinctively covered Lani with his body. Pieces of debris and shrapnel from the tank peppered the wall. A tremendous heat wave singed the hairs on Kai's arms. He felt a sizzling burn crease his thigh and screamed in pain and shock. A chunk of white hot metal had ricocheted off the wall.

"Are you OK?" he said to Lani as the noise subsided.

"Oh my God, Daddy!" Lani said, pointing at his leg. "You're bleeding."

Kai looked at his pants. A five-inch gash was drawn laterally across his thigh. Blood dripped from the wound, but it wasn't deep. The shrapnel had just grazed the skin. A few inches to the left, and it would have gone right through his leg, tearing through the femoral artery.

"I'm fine. It's nothing to worry about." Once the adrenaline was gone, Kai knew the pain would come, but it didn't look like he'd bleed to death, so he ignored it. "Are you OK?" he repeated.

"Yes," Lani said. "But where are the others?"

"I think they were in the other apartment."

They ran back into the hall, and the sight that greeted them was appalling. Part of the hallway wall had disintegrated, spilling bits of plaster and drywall all over the floor. Through the doorway of the condo on the other side of the building, they could see that the entire exterior wall had been shattered. Visible out of that gaping hole, the remains of the high-rise to the north burned, covered with what was left of the liquefied propane. The right side of the high-rise simply wasn't there any more. A jagged wound was carved out of the left side, but it wouldn't last long. As Lani and Kai watched, in seeming slow motion the remaining steel and concrete buckled, and in a hail of dust and a low rumble, the building collapsed into the water below.

It was like seeing their fate played out in front of them. The building they were standing in was stronger than the one that collapsed, but Kai was worried now that it also had sustained significant structural damage.

He and Lani began yelling for the others.

"Brad! Teresa! Mia! Jake! Tom!"

Kai heard coughing from the stairwell and ran over to it. The fire door was off its hinges, but the building had shielded the main stairwell from significant damage. The stairs to the roof were a mangled mess of twisted railings and pulverized concrete.

He looked down to see Tom peering from the doorway on the eighth floor. Tom's face was contorted in a rictus of confusion and agony. With his right hand he held his left arm, which hung at a grotesque angle at his side. His complexion was ashen.

"Tom!" Kai said. "Where's Jake?"

Tom nodded towards the hallway. "In there. I think he's dead!"

Kai wanted to comfort him, but they didn't have time. There were only 15 minutes left before the next tsunami.

"Are you sure?" Kai said.

Tom shook his head. "No, but he's not moving."

A yell came from the other end of the hallway.

"Help! Help!"

It was Teresa.

"Teresa! We're out here."

Teresa poked her head out of the condo Brad had been in. The look of alarm on her face was enough to tell Kai something terrible had happened.

"Are you OK?" he said.

"It's Brad and Mia. The wall fell down. They're trapped."