She looked up the alley across the street from her and her blood ran cold. In the distance, smoke rose into the air over the buildings. But much closer, a wall of brown water at least ten feet high rumbled forward and shot between the structures. A man stepped out of a side door just in time to be sucked into the wave with a splash and a stifled shout of fear. The door slammed shut with such strength the brick wall around it crumbled into the wave as it surged down the alley right at Cami.
People splashed by Cami, ignorant of the lumbering beast that bore down on them all. Cami tried to scream and couldn’t—her throat was closed tight with fear. She pushed off the lamppost and forced her way through the water, urged on by the fear in Amber’s eyes.
“Don’t wait for me!” Cami yelled in a ragged shout as she struggled through the swift water. “Go!”
Mitch made it to the church steps and helped the young mother and her children get into the safety of the stone building. He turned to urge Amber inside as the priest resumed his calls to everyone still in the street. Cami could barely hear him over the noise of all the debris propelled by the wave.
Screams erupted behind her, and she risked a glance over her shoulder. The wave had swept around the building behind her and flooded the street. A car coasted upside down into the lamp post she’d used to pull herself to her feet just moments earlier. The post wobbled, then bent over as if the base were made of butter on a hot day. Several people behind her were sucked under and swept away, arms still waving as they were carried off toward the river.
“Mom!” Amber screamed from the church, some ten yards away.
The water that swirled around her legs pulled her back as the wave approached from behind. Cami struggled forward but a sickening realization occurred to her: she wouldn’t make it. As her legs quaked and her exhausted body reached the point of collapse, Cami looked up from the futile fight against the raw power of the wave.
Mitch frowned and jumped back into the water with an immense splash and plowed through it like an icebreaker boat in the artic. He was much taller, younger, and stronger than Cami and reached her side in seconds. His strong hands gripped her arm. “Hang on, Cami-san, I got you!”
Mitch and Cami forced their way through the brown swirling swamp that encircled the church as the wave reared up behind them. The back of Cami’s neck suddenly felt cooler, as if she’d stepped into the deep shade of a tree on a hot day. The priest on the front steps yelled, then ran into the church with the last of the survivors.
Amber shouted something from the front steps of the church, then launched herself into the water. She latched onto Cami’s other arm and the three of them raced up the steps, trailing water as they pushed aside driftwood.
They reached the top step and without looking back, burst through the open door, passing from the world of blazing sunlight and danger to cool shadows and safety. The cold, hard stone floor of the church was the best thing Cami could recall feeling as she landed in a sopping wet pile of arms and legs with Amber and Mitch.
Cami blinked in the sudden darkness and hoped her eyes would adjust in time for her to see Amber before the wave hit the church. People rushed around them to reach the doors and shut them before the water arrived. The haste with which the refugees inside slammed their bodies against the doors to hold them shut told Cami how close they’d been to losing their fight against the tsunami. Mitch scrambled from the floor where he’d fallen through the door and added his mass to the group of desperate people who held the doors shut.
When the water hit the door it spurted around the cracks like a tiny hose. The entire door frame shuddered, and two people were knocked back from the heavy oak doors. They rushed back to their place as other people clambered through the crowd with heavy pews.
“Here! Prop them up here, put that end against the doors,” the priest instructed.
Cami wiped wet hair from her face. She grabbed Amber and pulled her to her feet. “Come on—Mitch! That door will never hold!” She looked around through the crowd of screaming, terrified survivors and saw a metal sign high up the wall that indicated a stairway to the belfry.
“Higher ground!” Cami said over the din. Mitch nodded and rushed for the stairs, while everyone else watched the drama unfold at the main door.
“We made it, why—” began Amber.
“That door will never hold! We only have a few seconds—” Cami replied, but her warning was cut off by the tremendous crash of the oak doors imploding. The sound reminded her of a rifle’s report as it echoed through the church. Dozens of people screamed in terror as the wave broke into the church
Cami ripped open the stairwell door and took the steps two at a time, Mitch and Amber hot on her heels. A few others followed their lead, but the water exploded into the stairwell by the time Cami reached the first landing.
“Don’t look down, keep going!” Cami said as she ran up the stairs.
“Still with you!” Mitch replied.
“Go faster, mom!” Amber yelled further down the stairwell. “The water’s coming up the stairs!”
The building shook with the pressure of the water as the wave tried to
