Then Cami heard it, too.
A low rumble in the distance, it sounded like the noise coming from a sports stadium or a major social event. An indistinguishable, muted roar, the mixing of thousands of voices. Cami swallowed, her mouth dry as her face dripped with sweat.
Her heart quickened its pace and a wash of fresh heat spread over her body. The first screams erupted out of sight at the back of the crowd, around the curve of the street. The sounds of voices raised in panic echoed on the wind and drifted closer. Rippling closer, the screams and cries of alarm stretched along the side streets, alleys, and avenues as far she could see to the east.
Toward the ocean.
“Cami-san…” Mitch murmured, stepping closer but still looking back the way they’d come.
"Mom?" Amber whispered in the ghostly silence around them. "Mama? What do we do?"
Smoke, a misty haze in the distance, rose up down the street and rolled forward like a fog. Cami couldn’t see anything at first, other than people who turned and ran from what chased them.
Then the crowd parted and a car came into view, spun sideways and carried along by the angry brown water. It bowled over several people who vanished in a horrific spray of seafoam as the tsunami gained speed. Cami saw the driver moving behind the wheel a split second before the car turned on the whim of the wave and vanished.
More cars, abandoned in the road, joined the rolling, tumbling nightmare at the leading edge of the relentless, unstoppable wall of water that continued forward. Lamp posts swayed and toppled, adding to the impressive amount of debris that churned down the street. People scrambled and climbed over each other to flee, which caused even more people to fall prey to the wall of water as it destroyed everything in its path.
Behind the front of the wave, the water built up and reached the second floors of most buildings that lined the street. A few shuddered and shook. The wall of a bank at the corner rippled and collapsed under the pressure of millions of gallons of water. The nightmarish sound of glass breaking and metal groaning—over the screams of thousands of voices—jarred Cami back to herself.
“Mom!” Amber screamed, her hand like a vice on Cami’s arm.
Cami’s mouth was so dry she was worried she wouldn’t be able to speak what at that moment felt like the most important thing she’d ever said to her daughter: “Run!”
Chapter 5
Mount Desert Island, Maine
As the minutes ticked by and the Charming Betty grew closer to shore, Reese noticed the waves smoothed considerably. The choppiness of the open water gave way to an almost glassy smoothness that allowed the boat to pick up considerable speed. They practically flew across the glassy smooth surface of the water, roaring toward shore with a rooster tail of spray behind them. Mount Desert Island loomed ahead of them. A green and brown mass containing the pointed peaks of Acadia National Park.
Reese's eyes were drawn to Cadillac Mountain—he'd been there as a child with his family, and they’d gotten a sticker to slap on the back of the car to prove it. Never in his wildest dreams did Reese imagine himself racing there on a boat with the intent of climbing as high as he could to save his life.
The question was how high did they have to climb? How high would the wave rise?
He clenched his jaw in frustration. They were still outside cell service, so no one had any answers. Other than the panicked squawking coming from the radio as other ship captains encountered the waves out on the open water, the sideband channels were filled with chatter back and forth between people requesting assistance and the Coasties trying to coordinate rescue efforts.
Behind them, Reese saw an odd lump on the horizon growing. At first it looked like a slight distortion caused by moisture in the air. Then as they grew closer to land, he realized that it was actually the water itself, swelling in the distance, creating a mirage-like shape that shimmered with movement. The tsunami was coming—and it grew larger by the minute. Visions of Hollywood special effects flashed through his mind, and he could almost see towering waves thousands of feet tall, roaring in to smash everything in their path.
He closed his eyes and gripped the side rail tight. That wouldn't happen. He and Cami had long discussions about the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004. As much damage as that one had caused, it'd only been 90 feet high at the highest point.
"I got cell service!" Ben yelled as he skidded across the deck and stopped next to Reese. "Holy crap, my phone’s blowing up with alerts. Look at all this!" he said, showing Reese the screen, covered in emergency alerts and text messages from friends, family, and co-workers.
Before Reese could open his mouth to reply, his own phone chirped and let loose with that irritating/scary wail caused by official emergency alert messages. He dug it out of his pocket and thumbed through the screens, like everyone else on board the boat.
NOAA and the National Tsunami Warning Center had changed their alert status from coastal advisories to a full-on tsunami warning. It looked like everything was centered around New England, but he couldn't tell how far south the warnings stretched. The damage was expected to spread, and for a moment, he was grateful that Cami and Amber were out of immediate harm’s way.
That would let him concentrate on
