Higher Ground by Becky Black (notion reading list txt) 📗

The shaking lessened and stopped. Other sounds came back. The dogs still howled. Children cried in long, terrified wails. Zach’s mind came back and with it the horror of the certainty he was right, almost as overwhelming as the terror of a moment ago. The two of them unfroze and started scrambling into their clothes.

“Shit!” Adam gasped. “Shit, shit, shit.”

Zach said nothing, just dragged on his pants, grabbed a sweater, and put it on as he exited the tent. He found the camp in chaos. Many of the tents had collapsed. People were standing around looking stunned, some holding crying or frighteningly silent children. The rain still poured down.

“Is anyone hurt?” he yelled. Adam climbed out behind him and stood up. “Find Dr. Howie,” Zach said. “Check all the tents in case anyone is hurt and can’t respond.”

“Right.” Adam sat down, heedless of the wet grass, and pulled on his boots. “God, Zach. You’re really right, aren’t you?” Boots on, he ran off without waiting for an answer.

Zach turned back to the campsite. What did they do now? Check for injuries, treat any. Get the tents back up. Try to calm everyone down. Make the damn dogs shut up! Calm yourself, he ordered. Injuries first. Then tents. Re-erect the collapsed ones to get people warm and dry. The pouring rain could only make things worse. The night had barely started, so nobody had had any rest yet.

It seemed dogs were not the only animals upset by the quake. Korrie approached, Tuzo in her arms clinging to her like she was a lifebelt and he was drowning. Zach had never known what to make of the phenomenon he’d read about, of animals knowing of an approaching earthquake. But they’d known here all right. When she reached him, Korrie and Zach stared at each other for a long moment, rain pouring down their faces. They’d both believed it would happen, but having the ground shaking under them had moved things into a whole new category of real. After a moment, she nodded and spoke. Only two words needed.

“It’s started.”

Chapter Seventeen

Nobody got much sleep the rest of the night. Some people wanted to continue walking right away, but the rest of the group persuaded them otherwise.

“Too dangerous,” Adam argued. “There’s too much risk of someone taking a bad fall. And carrying an injured person would slow us down too much.”

“You’re right,” Zach said, almost reluctantly, as if he’d liked the idea of continuing the climb even in the dark. He gave way to Adam’s common sense, and Adam was surprised he’d even considered it, would have thought him too smart. The quake must have shaken him in more than a literal sense.

Everyone helped to re-erect the collapsed tents. The ground had gone as still as if it had never done anything as ridiculous and un-ground-like as shaking. But the quake had changed everything. When they finally settled for the night Adam fell asleep quickly, but woke again with a feeling of emptiness at his side. He found Zach sitting up, looking through the open flap of their tent, down into the basin. Far off, the lights of Arius glowed dimly. What were the people there doing? Had they decided Zach was right? Were they heading for the hills too?

We’ll know in the morning, Adam thought, reaching out to place his hand on Zach’s back, slipping it under his shirt to feel warm skin. Zach reacted with a sigh.

“Try to sleep,” Adam said.

“I won’t sleep. Useless to try.”

Adam sighed too and sat up beside him, putting an arm around Zach for shared warmth and comfort. Zach slid his arm around Adam’s waist and held him close. They stayed that way until dawn.

* * * *

There was no trouble getting everyone out of bed when morning came. As soon as the dawn light began to creep over the mountains, people were up and moving, eating breakfast, striking camp, packing their gear. Everyone knew they had to make the most of the daylight. The packing was almost done when someone shouted.

“Hey, they’re coming back up.”

Zach looked up to see the man pointing back down the slope, looking through binoculars.

“Jonesy’s group,” Adam said.

“Barbara’s group,” Zach corrected him. “I doubt Mr. Jones is still in charge of the group.”

“Good point.” Adam passed him the binoculars. “Take a look.”

Zach found the group after a moment, well down the mountain. They’d made good time—going the wrong way. Impossible to make out individuals at this range, but they were clearly moving upward, not down.

“Should we wait for them?” a woman in the gathering crowd asked. Some others called out agreement that yes, they should. Others protested. Should they wait? Zach tried to assess how far back the group was. It would take them longer to climb back up the same distance they’d climbed down.

“They might have injuries,” Dr. Howie said. “We’ve got a few minor injuries ourselves. If they have worse—”

“No way!” Korrie said. “Don’t you people understand what that quake meant? The subsidence is starting. The island is going down, and we can’t sit around waiting for it to happen. They’ll have to catch up.”

“They’ll never be able to catch us up if we’re still moving too,” Howie said.

“They made their choice.”

“God, Ann, have some humanity.”

“That’s not helping,” Adam said. He received a couple of stern glares for telling off his elders.

He hadn’t given his opinion yet, though, Zach noticed. He must be waiting for Zach. Zach relied on Adam for practical advice about the climbing and the environment, but this wasn’t a practical matter. This was a judgment call. And once again, everyone waited for him to make it. As if he had some special knowledge of how fast the sinking would proceed, so whether they were safe here for a couple of days or should rush on and only hope Torres’s group could stay ahead of the water if it came.

Fear and resentment warred in Zach’s mind briefly. Why did he have to