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

make this decision? And take the consequences if he chose the wrong course? But he pushed such useless emotions away. They contributed nothing. Things were the way they were. Useless to rail against reality. Deal with it instead. Be a man.

“We go on,” he said. “Waiting achieves nothing.”

It was a temptation, since they were all so tired. But to let temptation persuade them into the wrong choice, talking themselves into it by convincing themselves it was the moral choice, would be a mistake. Murmurs of both agreement and disagreement greeted his words.

“We should leave our friends?” someone shouted.

“They left us,” Adam snapped back. “Zach’s right. Waiting achieves nothing.”

“We must keep moving,” Zach said. “It’s the best chance we have.”

How many more days would it take them to climb to the ridge at the top of the mountain? Would they have to climb that far, or would rescue arrive first? And if it didn’t? If it never did? They’d climb, in pain and exhausted, to the bare rock of the ridge and wait there to die.

But at least we’d have tried.

“It’s time to go,” Zach said. “We have to use every minute of daylight.” He turned away. He had his pack on already and walked through the people behind him, Adam, the Franes, Korrie, Howie. The leadership, as he’d begun to think of them. And him the leader, whether he’d asked for it or not.

He walked. Uphill. In a moment, Adam caught up and walked at his side.

“Thank you for backing me up,” Zach said quietly.

“I happened to agree with you this time.”

“This time? Does that mean you’ve disagreed with me other times?”

“Maybe.”

“When?”

Adam shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I’m backing you. You’ve been right so far.” He took Zach’s hand and they walked on together. Uphill.

* * * *

This seems like madness, Adam thought as he refilled his and Zach’s water bottles from the spring and dropped a couple of purifying tablets into them. To keep walking up a mountain as it shook and sank beneath their feet. But what else could they do? Sit and hope for rescue? At least climbing felt like doing something to help themselves. What choice did they have but to go on? He walked back to Zach, stopping off and chatting to people here and there on the way as they sat eating lunch.

“People have started talking about the rescue ships a lot,” he reported, handing Zach a water bottle and sitting beside him. “It’s been days. Shouldn’t we have at least heard from the ones from the outposts by now? Where the hell are they?”

“Are you asking or quoting?”

“Bit of both,” Adam admitted. “They’re right. They should be here by now, at least from the nearest one.”

“I know. I don’t know what’s going on any more than you do. But I suspect the council or the Institute did manage to turn them around, legal or not.”

“Then those bastards might have killed us all.”

“Not so loud.”

Adam frowned. “Don’t scold me; you’re not my mother.”

Zach gave him a scowl right back. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t scare people.”

“I think the earthquake did that just fine without any help from me.”

“You sound as if it’s my fault. I’m damn well sick of this whole thing being my fault!”

His voice rose, and Adam’s irritation receded. God, Zach sounded so pained and tired. Looked it too. Pale, unshaven—too eager to get away that morning to take the time—the dark bristles harsh against his pale skin. Dark circles ringed his eyes.

“You should take a nap before we go on,” he suggested. “It’ll be good for you, but it will help everyone else too. Make it look like you’re not worried.”

“Only a fool wouldn’t be worried right now.”

“A fool or a hero.”

Zach snorted at the word hero but summoned up a smile. “Thank you. I—”

“Zach! Adam!” Simon Frane ran over and skidded to a halt beside them. “The distress signal is back on.” He held up the radio set, and they heard Colleen Johnson’s voice sending on the same frequency that Simon and Visha’s illegal signal had been transmitting on before. Adam and Zach stared up at the grinning Simon, but then one word Johnson spoke galvanized them into action.

Evacuation.

Adam scrambled up with his binoculars and trained them down into the basin, setting them at their maximum range. Someone came to his side, Zach, he knew from the scent of him. The thought made him smile. They’d know each other in the dark, no showers for days, only the unsatisfactory, though often enjoyable sponge baths.

“What do you see?” Zach asked.

“I think I see movement. It’s hard to tell.”

“Vehicles? Coming this way?”

“Still too far away to tell. We’ll probably have to wait a couple of hours until they get closer.” He lowered the binoculars. “If they are evacuating, do you think it’s too late?”

Zach’s face went white. He stared out at the basin and spoke in a tight, low voice.

“Adam, please don’t make me answer that.”

Adam was damn sure that was a “yes.”

* * * *

Late in the afternoon, Adam trained his binoculars back down at the basin again. He was sure the moving shapes he could see were vehicles heading in a convoy for the hills. The relief was almost painful. Late to the party, but they were coming. They’d start climbing, they’d be safe. The rescue ships would show up.

Even a minor quake they’d felt an hour ago hadn’t scared him—much. As long as the island didn’t rip itself to shreds, then the quakes might be no more than an inconvenience to be borne while they waited for rescue.

“We have another couple of hours of daylight,” Zach said, coming over to stand with him. “We should keep moving.”

“Maybe we should make camp here,” Adam said. He passed the binoculars to Zach. “It’s a good spot. Might not be such a good one farther up.”

Zach looked around at the group, taking a ten-minute rest break. “No. We should make the most of the light.” He raised the binoculars and looked into the