Nick glanced at his watch, four forty-five! At this time of year the sun sets at around five ten, so it would be on them just on dark. Nick snapped his head around to find the terrified group mesmerised, paralysed with fear. ‘Veronica see if you can find a torch.’ He barked, realising that action would help to alleviate their panic. ‘We’ll lose power.’
‘There’s a generator in the basement.’ Bill said. ‘It kicks in automatically.’
Nick knew there would be nothing left of the lower floors, maybe even the entire building. Veronica looked as if she was about to faint, her fair skin had taken on a death-mask appearance and the pupils in her eyes were enormous, reflecting the terror raging inside her.
‘It won’t be any good the basement will be flooded.’ He replied.
Nick knew this was just the first wave, there would be three, four, or more before it was over, each one larger than the last. He didn’t know when, or how soon the sea level would start to rise, or if the building could withstand the massive overpowering thrust of all that water. Fear crawled through his veins, nerves tingled as his adrenalin pumped rapidly, making him feel slightly light-headed. A tight knot developed in his abdomen and he had to fight the urge to run.
What would they say about this tsunami in years to come? Will they name them like they did tropical cyclones? Tsunami Ellen, Robert? No, he didn’t think so. Why not? That thing certainly had a life of its own. Life? God. How many lives will it destroy? Probably thousands, millions around the world. If he lived to be one hundred years old, he never would expect to see anything as evil or destructive as this again. He gritted his teeth.Christ! Pull yourself together mate, he thought.You’re going to have to be strong, or the others will never get through this!
Veronica returned with a small torch. Nick checked the battery before stuffing it into his trouser pocket. ‘There’s nothing we can do, is there?’ Veronica pleaded, wringing her hands.
‘I’m afraid not.’ Nick answered. ‘Even if we were to find a way out, it’s too late. We’d never make it before it hits us. Veronica, find something to tie us all together: tablecloths, anything. We can tie us to the revolving floor in the dining room. All of you, start tying yourselves together!’
He walked out on the balcony again. There was a strange and eerie feeling in the air and the sky in the east was darkening, deep purple clouds gathered their stormy heads as if in sympathy with the land about to be pulverised by a force unknown, and unexpected. The setting sun behind them illuminated the surrounding buildings with the soft glow from its failing rays, highlighting the stark outlines of several news Vetos flying out over the sea like a swarm of black bees hovering excitedly over a hive. The exposed sea bed glittered as the sun’s dim rays bounced off thrashing, dying, silver fish. An ominous green luminous band of colour reached up from the surface of the black sea in the distance, meeting the pale and darkening hues in the sky, staining them with its inky fingers. Looking around they noticed many people on the balconies of other buildings, unbelievers, recklessly waiting with cameras and binoculars in hand to capture their ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ shot.
‘Brian’s in one of those Vetos.’ Karen said wrapping the knotted line of table clothes, towels, and curtains they had stripped from the walls around her body. ‘Why don’t we try to signal for help?’
‘He couldn’t help us, we’re out of time.’ Graham said as he slid the makeshift line around the revolving floor. ‘Besides it’d be impossible to lower a rescue sling against the building in this wind. It would put their lives in danger as well as ours.’
Five minutes had passed and Nick estimated the distance now at fifteen kilometres. They could see the wave in more detail now, but it was hard to calculate the height from where they stood looking down on it, but he guessed it to be at least thirty metres and growing. Nick’s thoughts flashed again to the waves recorded in the North Sea, where eleven metre waves had destroyed high man-made breakwaters constructed of thousands of tons of rock, steel and concrete. This one was going to be five times bigger!
He drew in his breath and continued to watch in awe. They were all transfixed, not daring to speak. The line of Vetos advanced towards them, as if guiding the monster in its frenzied path. Five more minutes passed and it was only about seven or eight kilometres away. The distinctive roaring sound from the Vetos jets was hardly discernible above the unearthly roar from the sea, a continuous thunderous boom, sending chills up their spines and shaking the ground beneath their feet. It sounded like a dozen freight trains racing helter skelter down a mountain, screeching, wailing, deafening. A ferocious wind preceded the wave, bending everything in it’s path.
Nick turned to Graham and Bill fear contorting his face. ‘I don’t know if the building can survive this! There’s going to be extreme shaking. You better brace yourselves.’
The minutes ticked by as the great wall of thundering water advanced, slowing now. Nick guessed its speed at less than eighty kilometres. Trillions of litres of water were almost upon them, piling higher and higher as it neared the shoreline. The great green hulk curled its head like a swaying enraged Cobra as it hovered ready to strike.
The terrified group steeled themselves, cringing together on the floor by the revolving floor Karen felt her eardrums threatening to burst as the loud roar of the primal horror approached. Closing her eyes she prayed with a vengeance of a woman possessed.
Nick on the end of the line, looked down at the wave with a detached fascination, its crest loomed only ten metres below them. This meant it would take out everything below the twenty-second floor of the building. He prayed too, that the steel foundations of the building would hold. Time seemed to be suspended. He felt the earth shaking and suddenly, with a sickening wrenching thud it was on them.
Nick grabbed Karen’s hand as the floor beneath them heaved and swayed. There was a screeching smashing explosion as the Navilon windows behind and all around shattered instantly, sending clouds of debris inward. The blast of the wind hit them with force, almost sucking their breath away. The roar of the wave was now accompanied by the piercing sounds of furniture and objects around them exploding and shaking so violently, their bodies vibrated as well. Graham tried to stand but fell back as the floor rose up beneath him and the entire building trembled. Nick detected another sound. A high-pitched scream. He turned his head to see Veronica who was at the other end of the line lying among the shattered flying objects, blood seeping from cuts all over her body. He tried to call out to her, but the clamourous noise obliterated the sound of his voice.
Nick felt the building begin to sway, imperceptibly at first, then with a gentle rhythm. He watched fearfully as huge cracks opened up the walls, pictures jumped from their mountings and chandeliers quivered before falling to the floor, their shining crystals dancing excitedly before smashing into small pieces resembling crushed ice being dropped from a height. All around was carnage. Veronica’s beautiful furniture and artefacts were demolished like matchsticks. He had never known such terror, even when they had been trapped in the Bunyip by the volcanic blasts in the Bering Sea, and he had been threatened with a watery death. His mouth was dry, saliva refusing to flow, his throat ached and his heart pounded threatening to burst.
His eyes searched for Karen in the fading light. She lay only a metre from him, face down on the floor with her arms around her head, her body shaking uncontrollably. He edged toward her and reached his arm over her shoulders and she turned to face him, tears streaming down her white face as she clutched wildly at him in a frantic effort to stop the fear.
They lay huddled together; Nick protecting her from flying objects until eventually there was nothing left to fly, and there was only the sound of the pounding sea. They held their breaths as the building continued to move with a gentle rhythmic sway. Nick looked up at the ceiling, cracks appeared everywhere but it was holding! He sighed in relief and the blood in his veins began to flow again. The worst was over. Something jolted him and an emptiness filled his soul.
/> Brian! Something’s happened to Brian! He thought.
Darkness closed around them, swiftly throwing her blanket over the stricken group as they lay quiet, afraid to move and face the devastation they knew surrounded them.
‘Are you all right?’ Nick asked Karen, pushing the hair from her damp face.
‘Oh, Nick. I’ve never been so scared in my whole life.’ She replied. ‘Thanks.’ Her face was close to his as she gazed into his warm brown eyes, and just for a moment her heart skipped a beat. She pulled back abruptly. ‘What about the others?’ She asked, slowly rising to her knees.
‘Graham! Bill! Where are you?’ She cried.There was a groan from behind an upturned shattered couch lodged against the revolving floor where Bill lay. She stood gingerly, Nick rising with her, steadying her by the arm. He tore the makeshift line from his body, ignoring the howling wind that threatened to pull him into the sea.
‘Here, take the torch and look after Veronica over there.’ He pointed. ‘She’s got some bad cuts. I’ll see how the others are.’
Karen found Veronica whimpering and cowering in the corner now opened to the elements at the edge of the room, her arms wrapped around her knees. Blood was congealing in dozens of cuts over her arms and legs. Karen could see none were serious, so she simply pulled Veronica into her arms and consoled her.
‘It’s over now.’ She soothed. ‘It’s okay, we’re all right.’
‘My God, Karen. We’re alive! I never thought we’d survive. Where’s Bill?’
‘He’s over here.’ Nick called out above the wind. ‘He’s fine but he’s in a lot of pain. His wound’s bleeding again. Karen can you come and take a look?’
Graham was on his feet now and had also gone to Bill’s assistance. Together they slowly helped him to his feet. ‘I’m afraid there’s nowhere to sit you down.’ Graham said. ‘Over where the girls are seems the best place.’ They untied Bill and led him over and lowered him down against the wall, where Karen removed his shirt to examine the wound.
‘We’d better check around for structural damage.’ Nick suggested. ‘We have to get out of here before the next wave comes. I doubt the building can take another blow like that. It’s a miracle she’s still standing.’
‘The next wave!’ Graham exclaimed. ‘Bloody Hell! You mean to say there’ll be more like that!’
‘Yeah, ‘fraid so. Probably bigger! We don’t have much time before the next one. We’ve got to get up to the roof to Liberty, it’s our only escape now.’
‘If she’s still there.’ Graham said. ‘I anchored her down well on the Veto pad, but in all that shaking, anything could’ve happened.’
Nick walked to the balcony cautiously, afraid of what he was about to see. The strong wind howled around him, whipping his hair and stinging his eyes. A new moon had risen, giving just enough glow to see the lush parklands below gone, replaced by a boiling frothing, cauldron. Glancing to the right he was unprepared for what faced him. The south-east tower of the Phoenix complex was still standing, but in the gloom his eyes couldn’t make out any other buildings! He could not see his building nearby. He blinked in disbelief and rushed over the broken glass and debris to the other side of the room. The scene confronting him there was similar. The two western towers of the Phoenix were still planted firmly amidst the froth, but he couldn’t see any other buildings! Yellow shafts of light from Veto’s searchlight beams filled the sky to the west, he squinted but he was unable to distinguish any other details.
The sounds changed. The deafening roar of the tsunami as it beat it’s way inland was now replaced by a different sucking sound that Nick recognised as the murderous sweep of the backwash, as the ocean receded. The gentle sway of the building increased to a frantic tremble again, as the ocean roared back, stripping anything that remained in its path, lashing at the foundations, trying to pluck them from the solid rock that anchored them. Nick backed away from the yawning hole where the windows had disintegrated in horror.
‘The backwash! Down on the floor again!’ He yelled over his shoulder. He reached the group and flung himself down among them, grasping for their hands. The tortured building trembled and shuddered again, twisting defiantly, whilst the group waited breathlessly, afraid to move, demanding the building to stand its ground. After what seemed like an eternity, the tremble abated again to the imperceptible sway.
Nick scrambled to his feet. ‘Right. Time to move! We’ve got to get out of here.’ He yelled. ‘If we can make a sling, we can lower ourselves down the western side of the building onto the floor below. I hope the door to the stairs is not locked, then we can get through to the stairs to the roof. It’ll be dangerous but it’s the only way out.’
Veronica interrupted. ‘There’s a locked box on the wall in the laundry down there, in case our housekeeper lost her keys. She’s very forgetful. If we can smash that lock we can get up to the roof.’
‘Jesus Veronica.’ Bill said. ‘You didn’t tell me about that.’
‘You wouldn’t have let me do it.’
‘Thank God you did, then there’s hope.’ Nick said. ‘We just have to get to down to that floor. Where can I find some sheets Veronica?’
‘Uh? We took them all up to the roof.’
‘Get the curtains from the bedrooms, oww, they cost the bloody earth so they’ll be indestructible.’ Bill muttered.
Nick ran both hands through his hair. ‘It’s a chance.’ He said.
‘Are you sure?’ Bill moaned, nursing his wounded arm. Blood trickled from a cut on his face.
‘We can’t sit around here and wait for another wave, the building may not survive it. We’ve got precious time before it comes so let’s get cracking!’ Nick said.
Graham took the torch from Nick and set off to get the curtains, leaving them in the darkened cold room. A wild wind howled through the open walls, whipping at the stranded group who were so scared they hardly noticed it’s intrusion.
The strong salty smell of an ocean in turmoil invaded their nostrils, stinging the tender nerve ends. A tearing, flapping noise persisted in one corner of the room as the wind whipped at something loose. It was accompanied by the sound of the sea pounding against the building’s foundations, reminding them of their hazardous position.
‘Bill can’t be lowered in a sling.’ Karen said. ‘It’d be too painful for him. I’ll stay here with him.’
‘No, Karen, we mightn’t find the key and we’d have to leave you here.’ Nick said looking at Karen in a new light. She had such courage and strength, and her concern for Bill and Veronica before her own comfort impressed him. He thought of Brian, he was a lucky devil having a wife like Karen. That nasty premonition inside him wouldn’t go away. He wondered where he was and if he was safe. He wondered too how everyone else had fared, all those people who had remained in the other high-rise buildings would have most certainly perished. He thanked God Bill had chosen the Phoenix complex, and the engineers who had built this remarkable structure.
Nick walked to the balcony slowly, putting one foot before the other testing the flooring for stability. Part of the protective railing had pulled away but it felt solid. He examined the south-eastern building again, it was hard to make out details in the dark, but the lower ten floors looked different to those above. A heavier coat of darkness surrounded them. Could it be that they had been stripped of their walls, floors and ceilings? If the apartment they occupied had sustained so much damage, what must those who caught the full force of the gigantic volume of violent ocean have suffered? The criss-cross walk way was still in place but no longer encased in it’s Navilon-domed roof.
The eastern buildings shadowed the two western buildings from the low moon, but Nick guessed they would be in the same condition, ten or more floors stripped away! That must mean only the steel frames and girders remained. ‘My God!’ he gasped. ‘We’re standing on stilts!’
‘Come on Nick, I’ve got the curtains.’ Graham said as he returned to the huddled group. ‘Help us tie them together in a r
ope, your expert knowledge of knots may save our lives.’
Chapter Thirty-eight
Brian
It was four forty-five in the afternoon when Brian’s Veto swooped over the Phoenix building, and he had no idea his family was trapped in Bills’ apartment. Darkness was descending and the film crew readied their cameras. He scanned the horizon with his binoculars. The sea began to retreat from the beach and he watched fascinated by the spectacle, holding down the button on his Minolta while a series of continuous clicks confirmed the cameras capture of this startling event.
The Veto turned and headed out toward the horizon and Brian raised the binoculars, and was not prepared for the horrendous monster framed in the lens.
Of the three men in the Veto, Jim Sutton had been an old rival since Brian’s college days, but the other two were recent acquaintances and hard-nosed newspaper men willing to cut their best friend’s throat to get a story. There was no rivalry now. Each had seen some fairly frightening things in their time but this was the pinnacle. There never would be a story to equal this one. They all realised that nothing would ever be the same again. Then they saw the iridescent luminous lights on the horizon.
‘What in God’s name is that? Jim Sutton cried.
‘It looks like a ribbon of fire!’ Brian whispered in awe. ‘Is it in the sky?’
Nobody answered his question. Out of the blackness they could not discern where the sea ended and the sky began. The strange wavy line of fire was moving toward them at rapid speed. Brian likened it to the flashing ribbons that cheerleaders waved at football games. It fluttered helter-skelter in all directions, up and down, stretching the entire length of the horizon. It was a display of pyrotechnics that man could never rival.
Each man aimed their camera, night lens attached recording this awesome spectacle. They could do nothing but watch. Brian’s heart raced, beating against his chest in time with the thumping pain in both ears. He panned back and forth taking in the detail that he found hard to comprehend. It was impossible to judge the height from this perspective, but he guessed it was at least thirty metres high, and darker than the approaching night. The cameras rolled, capturing what would be the most terrifying event ever to befall man. Brian covered his ears to blot out the intensity of the sound from the Veto, and the roar of the approaching tsunami. He watched incredulously as it thundered over the coastline like a giant gaping mouth, sucking in everything in it’s path, attacking Surfers Paradise with a ferocity that Nick had predicted, but he had failed to understand until now, watching it with his own bewildered eyes.
2042: The Great Cataclysm Page 23
