The Tsunami Countdown

FIFTY-SEVEN

12:37 p.m.

Fourth Wave

The C-130’s propellers spun up to full speed in preparation for takeoff. “Are you insane?” Chuck screamed. “You just told him to take off without us!”

Kai ignored him.

“Listen to me, Captain,” he said, not only for Wainwright’s benefit, but for everyone in the Humvee. “We’re going to come up behind you and jump onto the cargo door, so keep it lowered.” They couldn’t drive onto the plane because, although the door was lowered, it couldn’t contact the runway during takeoff. “That way, you can take off as soon as we’re all on board.”

“I get it. A running start. I’ll keep the speed down as long as I can, but I’ve only got about six thousand feet of clear runway, and there’s a big-ass hole at the end. We’re on our way.”

The plane lurched forward and started moving down the runway. The Humvee was now only two hundred yards behind and closing quickly.

“Let’s change places,” Kai said to Brad.

“No way! You know I’m the better driver.”

“I don’t care. Move!”

“It’s too dangerous. And you’re crazy if you think I’m stopping.”

Kai lowered his voice.

“Brad, someone’s got to be at the wheel to hold it steady while the rest of us get on. And I don’t see a cruise control.”

Brad let it hang there for a second without answering. “I’ll figure something out,” he finally said.

“What?”

“I’ve got an idea.”

“What?”

“Dammit, Kai! I don’t have time to explain. Let me concentrate.”

The huge tail of the C-130 loomed in front of them. An Air Force crewman stood at the back of the plane, hanging on to a strap and beckoning them to get closer.

To their left, the tsunami grew to gigantic proportions, heading at them on an angle. It wouldn’t swamp the runway all at once, but would hit the part in back of them first. Because of the angle, the wave would be chasing them down the runway at an effective speed of about 150 miles an hour, far above the Humvee’s top speed of seventy.

Their closing speed with the aircraft slowed, but Brad had the accelerator floored. Kai could see the airman in the plane talking into a headset, and the plane decelerated a little, allowing them to catch up.

When the Humvee was within five feet of the plane, Chuck jumped up from the rear truck bed. He scrambled over the cab and onto the hood directly in front of Brad.

“You idiot!” Brad yelled. “I can’t see!”

“Wait until he’s closer!” Kai yelled to Chuck.

But Chuck didn’t listen. In his impatience to get on the plane, he couldn’t wait until they got closer than three feet. He ran forward, and just as he was about to jump, the Humvee hit a piece of debris on the runway.

The jolt sent Chuck reeling sideways, and before the airman in the plane could grab him, he fell off the side of the Humvee and tumbled onto the runway.

Denise screamed as she watched Chuck’s cartwheeling body. Kai didn’t say what he was thinking, which was that even if Chuck survived the fall, there was no time to turn around and get him.

The Humvee rammed against the back of the C-130.

“Now!” Kai said as he crawled into the backseat. “Hurry!”

Denise, Peabody, Tom, and Stan, who were in the back of the Humvee, climbed onto the roof. Kai followed Teresa and Lani out the open back window, then pulled Mia through.

Tom and then Denise quickly crossed to the plane without incident. Peabody was next. With his blurred vision, he misjudged the step onto the cargo door. He lost his footing on the front of the hood and dropped onto his back, his butt suspended in a space that had opened up between the C-130 and the Humvee.

There was no way Peabody could pull himself up. The airman inside the plane let go of his strap, but he couldn’t reach Peabody’s hand. Stan pulled Peabody up by his shoulders. Together they stood, and with Peabody’s arm around his shoulder, Stan ran and jumped onto the deck of the C-130. They both went down spread-eagled, and the airman pulled them out of the way.

Teresa grabbed Kai, who now had Mia on his back.

“Be careful,” she said.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got her.”

“Okay. I’ll take Lani with me.”

Kai looked at his daughter. He saw no fear, only determination. “I can do it, Dad,” she said.

Kai’s thoughts flashed through everything she’d accomplished today—towing Mia to safety, coming up with the idea for how to use the raft, showing such stamina after nearly drowning—and realized she was right.

“I know you can,” he said. “Now, go!”

Using the wide rooftop rack as a brace, Teresa and Lani pulled themselves over the Humvee’s roof.

Kai stole a quick look behind him. Chuck, who was futilely chasing the plane, slipped in the muck and fell. As he pushed himself up on his knees, he turned to see a wall of water three hundred feet high tower over him, blocking the midday sun. Chuck raised his arms as if he were Moses trying to part the Red Sea, and then he was absorbed by the wall as it surged onto the runway. He was gone.

Kai, numbed by the day’s experiences, couldn’t bring himself to feel sorry for Chuck.

Once Teresa and Lani were on the hood, Kai clambered over the Humvee’s roof, pulling Mia sloppily with him. Holding Teresa’s hand, Lani jumped onto the plane’s cargo door, where she grabbed the airman’s outstretched arm. She tottered for a second and then collapsed with Teresa to the deck, out of harm’s way. Kai breathed a sigh of relief.

The airman frantically waved to Kai, so he knew there was little time left before the C-130 would have to take off. He stood and hoisted Mia onto his back. Even with the plane blocking the wind, the current of air was strong enough to push him to the side, and he misplaced his foot on an edge of the hood. He heard Teresa’s scream faintly over the rush of air and the airplane’s engines.

Mia tilted her body to the side, helping Kai right himself before he fell. With a last burst of adrenaline, he leaned toward the airplane and made a dash across the hood. He leapt onto the cargo floor, and the airman caught him.

Kai retained his footing and passed Mia to Teresa. He grabbed a strap that the airman handed to him and spun around to see what Brad had planned.

The tsunami was so close to their flank now that, with the tail of the aircraft blocking Kai’s view, he couldn’t see the top of it unless he looked straight back. The solid mass of water dwarfed the Humvee.

Brad was talking into the radio transmitter. He had a big smile on his face, but it belied the sadness in his eyes. The plane pulled away from the Humvee. That was his plan all along. Kai locked eyes with Brad and shook his head.

“Don’t do this,” he mouthed, knowing that Brad would never be able to hear him.

Brad pointed at Kai and gave him a thumbs-up. As Kai continued to stare at him, the plane lifted into the air. He could see Brad’s smile grow even bigger when he saw the plane take flight. That was Kai’s last image of Brad—smiling, his eyes shining with tears—as the tsunami overtook him and swallowed the Humvee.

They had barely gained the required three hundred feet before the tsunami passed underneath them by only a few yards, the turbulent air causing the plane to buck. The wave was so close that Kai tasted the salty spray.

“Are you Kai?” the airman on the plane asked.

Kai nodded dumbly, completely drained.

The airman handed Kai the headset.

“The captain wants to talk to you.”

Kai put the headset on.

“Yes?”

“Kai? This is Captain Wainwright. Your brother told me that it was more important for you to get on the plane than him. I talked to him right before the end. He had a message for you. He said, quote, ‘Kai, don’t worry about me. I’m not afraid of the water anymore. Take care of my niece for me. I love you, brother.’ End quote.”

Captain Wainwright paused, but Kai didn’t have anything to say.

“I’m very sorry for your loss,” he said.

“Me too,” Kai said, and tore the headset off.

He sagged to the deck of the aircraft, and for the last time that day, he cried.