WAVE

Chapter 3

I wave my arms frantically, hoping to get someone's attention from below. "Hey! Hey! You need to get to higher ground! Please!" An elderly native bleeding from her head follows my voice. "You need to get away from here! There's going to be a wave! Please!"

The sirens go off.

Every muscle in my body tenses, sending goosebumps trickling over my flesh. Dread comes upon me quick. My arms drop as I look to my side, to the man frozen beside me. A stranger, a person I spent one night of my life with. Tristan gapes at me, looking as terrified as I feel.

Maybe it's the fact that we're facing death. Maybe it's that I need something to hold, but I rush into him, grasping his shirt hard enough to hear a tear. He crushes me within his arms, nuzzling his cheek into my hair. I feel his rapid heartbeat against my face.

"We'll be okay, Gen."

"We're not high enough." The sirens blare louder as horrified tears blind my vision.

We're going to die here.

In his embrace, I turn my head reluctantly to gaze at the ocean, the monster I could never really imagine. I always expected a tsunami to be this astronomical swell of water towering hundreds of feet in the air. But even though we can't see the threat, we know it's coming.

We know it's deadly.

There are still people by the shoreline, either traumatized or too entranced to flee. The noise is deafening, almost as if a train were chugging past my ear. Everyone is hearing this, though. It isn't just me. I'm frozen in place, unable to look away no matter how much I want to.

I watch the current build, growing stronger miles away from the beach, unable to do anything but wait. I've never seen anything like it before. I don't even see a rise until the last minute.

My heart plummets into my gut as the wave crests, toppling over the sand, the beach chairs, the docks, making people disappear before my eyes by the dozens. That's how fast it happens, how fast it murders.

People are dying. Trees are ripping out of the ground.

"We're not high enough," Tristan shouts, jerking me in the opposite direction. The top of this wave is going to consume this building. I can see it happening. We dive for the only cover up here, behind the wall of the staircase that led us onto the roof. I pull him down next to me, squeezing my eyes closed, hoping the cement will sustain, forcing the wave over and around us.

There isn't enough time to beg him to hold on, to grab the doorknob...something. There isn't even enough time to breathe. Just the wind force before the water touches the building and flings us off the wall, tearing me from his hands, and within seconds, I'm submerged.

I'm blind.

Flailing in water with no end, I'm cast into objects—hard and even harder objects. I collide with something that can only be metal and I swear, I feel my entire body paralyze at impact.

Excruciating. The pain is unbearable.

The weight of the incoming water is resilient enough to make it impossible to escape. I feel like I'm up against concrete, trapped. By some miracle, I manage to drag myself up, already out of breath.

I'm already out of breath. I'm going to die.

As soon as I heave myself over the object, I'm swept into the current again. Something breaks somewhere in my body, my torso, I think. I scream, swallowing only water.

Breaking the surface, I gulp at the air before I'm dragged back under. I can't even open my eyes to see where I am, where this deadly current is taking me. I flail, trying to grab something, anything that may stop me, but there's nothing but abyss. Debris and abyss.

I'm going to die.

The realization becomes the only thing I can focus on.

My throat constricts tightly, deprived and desperate for oxygen. Dizzily, I shake my head, feeling my body tumbling, crashing and colliding through the town of Phuket.

I don't want to die. I don't want to die.

Is Tristan dead? He's probably dead.

My flailing ceases. There's something in my hands, something to grip. I hold onto whatever it is with all the remaining strength I have, which isn't a lot, pulling myself up with my bare feet. I push until my head finds the surface of the flooding, sputtering. I try to steel myself after discovering that I'm clinging to what was once a farming tractor that's now completely molded into a street post. My hands are supported by the metal between the seat and roof of the machine.

I cower, bracing as objects crash into me, threatening to return me to the rushing water. I don't know how long the sea continues to come, but eventually, the rush slows. The current eases. Due to the lack of stream, the tractor groans, plummeting under the water, dropping me fast into the flood. Screaming in fear, I claw my way up onto the rooftop, choking from the searing pain in my chest.

The tractor halts and I deflate from my defensive stance, coughing.

Sprawled on my hands and knees, I stare at my bloody nails against the red rooftop, knowing I've never seen them twitch this way. Couches, cars, trees pass by me, floating by the machine.

Frantically, I glance at my surroundings, desperately searching for signs of life. I have no idea where I am. I don't recognize anything. There are no buildings...nothing but destruction.

Dark smoke plumes nearby, clouding the sky.

I cry out a terrified scream but no one answers.

I realize I'm alone. I'm completely alone.