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

“Yeah, that’s something I’ve got to talk to you about. People are getting—”

The barking of dogs and the all too familiar roar of the ground under their feet cut him off. Everyone instinctively dropped to the ground as it began to shake. Adam leaned in close to Zach and spoke into his ear.

“I love you.”

It has become a tradition already. An absurd one, Adam making a joke of it that Zach would only say the words during sex or an earthquake. But it had been welcome reassurance, even said as a joke. Until Glyn arrived. Now it mocked him.

“I love you,” Zach choked out.

But he kept his eyes locked on Adam’s, even when bouncing stones struck him. They didn’t need to hold on to each other. Their eyes did it for them. They became the only solid thing in the world for each other. An anchor as the world around them trembled.

A scream pierced the air even over the rumble, and they both gasped, pulled away from gazing deep into each other’s eyes. A woman’s scream. Zach saw a woman he knew only as Jan, a colleague of Adam’s from the Institute, holding her arm, blood staining her sleeve and splashed all over the ground beside her. A couple of people nearer to her scrambled over, one of them ending up swept past her on the rock sliding under him, stopping only when a couple of other people grabbed him.

“Shit!” Adam started to move her way himself, not getting far as the shaking intensified. Zach saw him start to slide and grabbed him in an awkward hold under one arm, while he threw his other arm around a solid—he hoped—outcropping. “Shit, shit, shit!” Adam yelled the words, channeling his fear into them. Zach swallowed his fear and tasted the bile of it.

“Hang on,” he called to Adam. “Just hang on!”

He couldn’t tell how much longer it went on. It felt like an hour but was probably seconds. Then the tremors began to ease, and at last they stopped. Adam pulled away and jumped up to run to the injured woman.

Zach didn’t chase him immediately. There were several people helping her, and Glyn—white with terror—hurried over, carrying only his medical kit, having dropped the rest of his gear. Zach let them take care of her while he stood up and looked around, assessing the group. There were other injuries. Mostly minor ones, cuts caused by falling stones bouncing past. Poor Jan must have caught a larger rock. Had it only cut her arm or broken it? How much blood had she lost?

He checked back down the slope, wishing he could see Torres’s group. Had they sustained injuries? They could afford to slow down even less than Zach’s group, with the water so much closer on their heels. He thought it had risen during this last quake; he’d chosen a reference point to look at to judge the depth of the water, and he felt sure they’d sunk another meter at least.

He watched Glyn treat Jan, leaving her with her bandaged arm in a sling before he went around to check on the other more minor injuries. Adam came back to him.

“How is she?” Zach asked. “Is her arm broken?”

“No, but it’s a deep cut. Glyn’s done his best.”

“Ah, good. Good he’s along.” Tasted bile again, first through aversion to Glyn and then from the self-disgust arising from feeling that way about a man who right this minute was ministering to Zach’s injured people. “Adam, we can’t delay moving on for too long.”

“I know. As soon as the injuries are treated, we’ll get everyone back on their feet and moving again.”

“Okay. Thank you. Oh, you were going to talk to me about something, you said, right before the quake started.”

“Yeah, I…” Adam stopped and looked around. “Never mind. It might not even be an issue anymore. We’ll talk about it when we stop for the night.”

* * * *

They kept climbing for as long as they dared until the light faded too much. Only after people began to trip and stumble in the darkness did they call a halt. Adam hadn’t called for a stop earlier. Unless Zach did something dangerous, Adam wasn’t going to argue with the need to cover as much ground as possible. Every time he slept, he dreamed again of the flood. And worse, he dreamed of the water catching them, of seeing Zach swept away from him. Failure. Loss.

He shook himself, looking up from contemplating the pan of water on their camping stove when Zach sat down beside him.

“You okay?” Zach asked, looking at him with some concern.

“Just tired.” He grabbed the coffeepot and spooned in the grounds. Not much left—they’d better be rescued soon. “Are people settling down?”

“Yes. Simon’s going to come over and sit with us for a few minutes to chat about how it’s all going. How people are managing.”

“We should bring Glyn in so he can report on the injuries,” Adam said, pouring the hot water into the pot. He saw Zach stiffen. Not the first time he’d done so at the mention of Glyn. “Come on, it makes sense. I know you’ve got some kind of problem with him—”

“I have no problem with Glyn,” Zach said quickly.

“He did good today. You can’t argue with that.”

“I don’t intend to,” Zach said, voice as stiff as his posture.

“Good. Give me a second.” Adam jumped up and went to look for Glyn. Zach was being kind of a jerk about Glyn. Like he felt threatened by him. That had to be evidence of insecurity. He claimed not to want the leadership but got funny about anyone who joined the leadership team. He asked a couple of people which tent was Glyn’s and found him sitting outside it, replacing a dressing on someone who’d been cut by flying rock earlier.

“Hi, Adam,” Glyn said, with a friendly smile. “What can I do for you?”

“When you’re done here, can you come over for a chat