Cami cursed herself for not paying closer attention. She’d been so wrapped up in trying to keep Amber calm, she’d missed vital information. She vowed that was not going to happen again. Amber was an adult for all intents and purposes. She was an equal member of the team and should be treated as such. Cami decided right there on the sidewalk in Charleston that she wasn’t going to waste energy and time trying to protect Amber from the truth, no matter what. Since she’d gotten up, Cami could see now she’d made mistake after mistake, all in the name of normalcy bias.
Instead of wasting time shopping for school supplies, she should have spent the entire time at Walmart loading up on long term food. It wasn’t a totally wasted trip, but there was so much more she could’ve picked up…
“Come on,” Cami snapped, “we need to move faster.”
“There’s too many people and cars,” Amber complained. “Sorry,” she called after bumping into a young woman dragging a pair a kids behind her, loaded down with beach gear and a cooler.
“It’s fine,” the young mother said, red-faced and sweating. The two kids cried and struggled, tripping and pulling her arms.
They found themselves walking side by side for a moment. “Did you walk all the way from the beach?” asked Amber.
She nodded, sweat dripping from her nose. “Have to...the roads are packed, and we’d still be stuck way back there if we hadn’t started walking when we did.” She looked up, seeing nothing but a sea of heads. “Do you know how far it is to the marina?”
“Just another block or two,” Mitch offered. “Ma’am, you want me to take that cooler for you? Looks like you got your hands full. We’re headed that way, too.”
“Oh, thank you,” the woman said, gladly handing over the bulky beach gear. She shifted the diaper bag on her shoulder and got better grips on the kids. “When we left the beach, people were screaming that the tidal wave already hit up north somewhere. If that’s true—”
“Where up north?” demanded Cami. Fresh sweat broke out on her chest.
“New England or something, I think,” the woman said apologetically, “Sorry, I wasn’t paying much attention.”
“Mom, I’m sure he’s fine,” Amber said quietly, putting a hand on Cami’s arm.
“Yes…y-yes, of course,” Cami said, her voice tight. Suddenly it felt hard to breathe. Whatever had happened, Reese was living it right at that moment—or already had suffered through the impact. She closed her eyes and said a little prayer as they waited at the corner for the light to change. He had to be alive, he had to.
Several knots of people clustered at the corner around them, all looking at phones. Others strolled down the street seemingly without a care in the world. Tourists walked by with bags of souvenirs, locals strolled by carrying backpacks and briefcases. Like any other late summer day, most people walked to their destinations with heads down, staring at phones.
Cami immediately recognized the people who paid close attention to the evolving situation as the ones who’d stopped in their tracks and stared in disbelief at the alerts on their devices. She could hear buzzers and ringtones chiming all around them as the EAS messages went out.
She looked back over her shoulder at all the people behind them. The people further back looked panicked. She did not want to be trapped in a stampede if people lost their minds. Somewhere back there, the wave had to be about ready to slam into the shore.
A news chopper roared overhead, low and fast as it skimmed the skyline and raced toward the beach. The pilot slowed the aircraft’s forward momentum, and the helicopter rose straight up.
“What’s up with that?” asked Mitch as he watched the helicopter.
“I think they saw the wave. Look, I bet they’re getting higher to get a better view as…
“As it hits?” Amber asked, her face pale.
When the first person jaywalked, Cami jumped right behind them and dragged Amber and Mitch with her, setting off a cascade of people rushing across the street. Cars honked in vain, and Cami hurried across the street. The bridge was just up ahead, only a block away.
Living so far inland, Cami had never in her wildest dreams considered preparing for a tsunami. Butterflies tickled the inside of her stomach. All the preps, plans, and supplies that she'd so painstakingly collected over the last decade, all the work and foundations she’d laid to make sure her family survived whatever disaster might befall them—it was all in danger of being washed away like driftwood at the beach. None of it would be worth anything if they didn’t make it home.
She mentally kicked herself for pushing her luck and being greedy. She didn’t need any of the supplies she’d picked up at Mitch’s store. It was all nice to have…but as she glanced over her shoulder at Amber and Mitch, struggling to keep up with her frenetic pace, Cami realized she’d jeopardized more than her supplies by coming to town.
Stupid.
As they worked their way down the street, it became more and more congested toward the bridge, and their car, hopefully still safe in the Walmart parking lot. As they walked, her mood darkened.
Doggedly, Cami, Amber and Mitch worked their way, inch by inch, through the jostling crowd toward the bridge. Several people had abandoned their cars and fled on foot, carrying whatever they could, which only exacerbated the congestion and horn honking. Somewhere in the sweaty, cursing mess, the young mother and her two kids fell behind and were lost in the crowd.
Cami, Amber, and Mitch had almost reached the bridge when suddenly everyone fell quiet. Just like the others in the crowd, Cami came up short and turned to make
