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

ship leaving again had done it. They knew it would be a day and a half at least before it came back, and if they sat and waited for it and it didn’t come back when they expected, they’d eventually be running with the water at their heels and no time to stop for food or sleep.

“Hi, Adam,” Simon said, interrupting his thoughts.

“Hi. How’s it going?”

“Great. My feet are ready to fall off. My legs feel like someone set them on fire, and a very strong man appears to be smashing a sledgehammer into my back. But other than that, I’m great.”

“Tell me about it. Why did I ever do this for fun? I must have been crazy.”

“I was thinking about Barbara’s group. It was about the same size as ours, and that was the same ship, which means they can’t all have gotten aboard.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same.” How much harder had it been to find volunteers or to choose people with the water so much closer?

“Barbara will have stayed behind,” Simon said in a tone suggesting anyone arguing with that assertion must be a fool. Adam agreed. “I would hope Jones would have the decency to as well.”

“He’d better have.” Though Torres might not want him in her group. If the man who’d talked them into turning back and walking toward danger had escaped before all the rest of his companions, it would offend Adam’s sense of natural justice.

“They could be catching up to us faster,” Adam said. “Like we’ve moved faster without the kids and…” He stopped. “Sorry. I know you must be missing Ami and Visha.”

“I’d rather know they’re safe than have them with me in danger if that’s the choice. Vish only went because of Ami, you know. She’d have stayed otherwise.”

Adam nodded. He knew it. “You’re a lucky guy. She’s amazing.”

“I know I—”

He stopped as they heard the rumbling all around them. The group faltered to a halt, and everyone dropped to the ground. The dogs howled as usual, and though there was none of the screaming and crying there had been when they had the children with them, the faces around him were full of fear. Simon looked gray and sick. As the shaking started, he grabbed hold of outcropping rocks on the ground, as if they could help. Instinct, Adam knew, doing the same himself. And useless. When the ground itself trembled, what did you have to hang on to?

“Adam.” Zach’s voice, and Adam looked over to see him doing the same as them, hanging on to the shaking ground, grim-faced, frightened. What did he want to say? Nothing apparently. He didn’t say anything else after calling Adam’s name. Did he only want to see his face? Adam smiled, the kind of reassuring smile he used on the scared kids during a quake. Zach smiled back, and warmth suffused through Adam, rising up his back, down his legs. Oh yes, they’d definitely make up tonight. Maybe before then. Yes. As soon as this quake ended, he’d talk to Zach and get this crap sorted out.

“Aw hell!” Simon cried, voice unusually panicky as the shaking intensified. Adam’s teeth rattled in his head. The rumbling grew louder and became a roar. Shit, this was a big one, and it wasn’t stopping. An urge overtook Adam. One he could no more ignore than the urge to breathe. He wanted to get to Zach. Moving with the ground bucking under him like a bronco was crazy, a view Simon expressed when Adam shed his backpack and began to crawl toward Zach. But Adam had to get to Zach. He stayed on his belly, found a rock to push against with his foot sometimes, but otherwise pulled himself along with his hands, blood warm on his skin when the rock cut and scratched them.

He almost made it. Close. Only three meters separated them. Then two. Then…only centimeters from Adam’s face the ground cracked.

Time slowed as the crack widened. Adam flung out an arm, desperate to grab any part of Zach, who did the same, reaching for Adam. But they were too far apart to have a chance of connecting. Screams came from all around Adam as the ground opened up and fell away. People scrambled away from the edge, some almost falling before others hauled them to safety. But Adam couldn’t reach Zach to do the same. The piece of mountain Zach lay on slid away and fell, taking him away from Adam.

“Zach!” Adam screamed as the chunk of rock and Zach vanished from sight. “Zach! Zach!” He crawled toward the edge, trying to see over it. Someone grabbed his ankle, and he looked back to see Simon hanging on to him.

“Come back from the edge, for God’s sake!” Simon yelled. “You’ll go over too!”

He didn’t care. He wanted to go over, climb down, find Zach. But Simon hung on and, with a strength he must have only when life and death were at stake, dragged Adam back from the edge, far enough to grab him around the waist and pin him down.

Adam fought him, thrashing as violently as the ground, but Simon was heavier and stronger so held him, jaw set, grim-faced, like he would with Amina when she threw a tantrum. Fight all you like, the grim look said. I’ll just hold you until you’re tired.

The shaking began to ease, and Adam did the same, knowing he was hysterical and he couldn’t help Zach like this. Control, he thought. Regain control and figure it out. Zach is alive. Assume that until you’re sure otherwise. Until then, Zach is alive. The unholy terror diminished, replaced by an icy determination, already making plans. He had rope in his pack. He could climb down, see what condition Zach was in. The others could start on building a stretcher. He’d have Glyn climb down to administer first aid.

The quake finally ended, the noise and shaking dying away, the quiet broken by moans and crying from the group. How