told what to do by a woman. Whatever the reason, he gesticulated and nodded vigorously as he pointed down.
Rachel motioned to her badge, which was still attached to her soggy suit. It said 'Rachel Tanaka, Hotel Manager.' Under those words was an image of the Grand Hawaiian logo. She hoped that would lend her an air of authority.
She pointed at Jerry's inert form and tried to indicate that they needed help carrying him. The man, who was fairly burly, nodded and grabbed his arms.
'Good. He understands.' She turned to the Russian man. 'Thank you. Spasebo.'
Rachel grabbed one leg, and Sheila got the other. But instead of continuing up, the man rotated Jerry around and made as if to carry him down the stairs. Rachel immediately put his leg down and grabbed the man's arm. She shook her head.
'Nyet!'
The Russian became furious and practically dropped Jerry onto the cement. He made a rude gesture and took his girlfriend, who had been watching all of this silently, by the shoulder. They continued down the stairs, the man muttering to himself.
'Where are they going?' Sheila said.
'They're going to die,' Rachel said, the weariness evident in her voice. She was too tired to sugar-coat anything. 'They don't know another tsunami is coming, and that it's going to be bigger than the last one.'
'Shouldn't we try to stop them,' Doris said.
'How? That guy is bigger than any of us. And you heard all the Russian I know. If you can speak it, be my guest. Our bigger problem is that this is taking too long.' She waved her hand at Jerry. 'It would go a lot faster if we got some help.'
'From that guy? You just said…'
'No. From Max.'
'Who's Max?'
'He's my concierge. He's up on the roof with the other guests.'
'But if one of us goes,' Paige said, 'there's no way two of us can carry him.'
'No, but we can still make progress if Tyler goes. He can run up those stairs in just a few minutes.'
'Sure I can!' Tyler said.
'What if something happens to him?' Paige said. 'What if he gets lost?'
'There aren't many choices. They're either still in the restaurant or they're on the roof. He just needs to tell Max to come down and help us.'
Paige grabbed Tyler close to her, sheltering him from some unseen enemy. She buried her face in his hair, and then faced Rachel, her eyebrows arched in despair.
'I'm sorry about what I said earlier. About you being responsible for Bill.'
'Don't be.'
'When that building fell down, all I could think…' Paige broke down without finishing.
'It's OK,' Rachel said, placing her hand gently on Paige's shoulder.
'You saved our lives,' Paige said. Then she squared her shoulders in renewed determination. 'That's why I'm going to let Tyler go up there.'
Paige knelt beside Tyler.
'This is very important, honey. Do you understand what we want you to do?'
'Go and get Max.'
'Or any other adult up there. But you come right back down as soon as you find him, you understand?'
He nodded.
She hugged him. 'I'm so proud of you. I'll see you in a few minutes.'
Tyler padded up the stairs. They picked up Jerry again and renewed the slog upwards.
'How are you doing?' Kai asked Lani. Her breathing was a ragged rasp.
'Hurts a little.'
'I'll give you a lift in a minute.' Even though they were jogging, Kai needed at least a little bit of a break. He ached all over from being twisted and turned by the water. He had strained his shoulder when he was holding on to the doorway trying to keep from going out to sea. Not to mention the cuts and bruises too numerous to count. Still, it could have been much worse.
Teresa put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Kai winced but didn't pull away.
'Thanks, Kai. For Mia. If you hadn't gotten her free…' Her voice trailed off, the implications too much for her to bear.
Kai put his arm around her and returned the hug. 'I know. Same for Lani.'
'Where are we going?' Brad said. 'Isn't that building closer?' He pointed at the building directly in front of them about 300 yards away.
'It's closer, but it's only 20 stories tall. I'm not sure that's high enough. Besides, it's going to get the brunt force of the next wave. I'd rather be in one that had a little protection and doesn't get a direct blast. Remember, the next wave is going to be the biggest yet.'
'I wish you'd stop saying that,' Brad said. 'So which one are we going to?'
'To that one,' Kai said, nodding.
'Which one?'
'The one with the boat sticking out of it.'
On the ocean side of a 30-story apartment building, the aft end of a 60-foot charter fishing boat was suspended 100 feet above the street. Its twin propellers were easily visible from their current position about a quarter mile away.
'Man!' Tom said.
'If that doesn't show the power of a tsunami,' Kai said, 'I don't know what does.'
'Yeah,' said Brad, 'we sure haven't seen enough examples of that yet.' He jumped in front of Kai and led the way, Mia still clinging to his back.
Lani began coughing again from the exertion.
'That's enough jogging for you,' Kai said. 'Hop on.' She jumped on his back, and he continued to trot, albeit a bit more slowly. It wasn't that she was heavy. It was that Kai was beat. And the debris was getting treacherous; the terrain was literally post-apocalyptic. They continually detoured around large heaps of splintered wood, twisted metal, and dislodged concrete that impeded their progress.
They were still two blocks from their designated refuge when they found an intersection piled three deep with cars, buses and trucks that had gotten wedged against the bottom of a cement foundation. Brad skirted it and stopped when he rounded the corner of the pile.
'You've got to be kidding,' Brad said.
'What?' Kai said, coming to a stop beside him.
'There's a couple of people up ahead. They're heading this way.'
Sure enough, two young men were making their way through the debris towards them. Kai couldn't tell if they were high school or college students, but they couldn't have been older than 20. They looked like they were in good shape, and both had their shirts off and sticking out of the back of their shorts, as if they were on an afternoon stroll. One of them held a video camera.
'Hey!' Brad yelled. 'You're going the wrong way.'
The men angled toward them, appraising the motley crew.
'No we're not, man,' the one with the camera said.
'You are if you don't want to die.'
'Look, we're not stupid, you know. We're heading to that building on the beach.'
'You
'Why do you think we're taking this with us?' the one without the camera said. 'We're gonna sell the video. We've already got some good stuff of that building coming down over there.' He pointed at the remains of the Seaside condo.
'You idiots,' Brad said. 'We were in that building.'
