Rogue Wave

by Boyd Morrison

  He tried opening his eyes again, and although the water was still foul, it didn't scratch his eyes as much as before. According to the dim glow of his dive watch, little more than 30 seconds had passed. As the water continued to rise above them, the light from the sun became more and more indistinct until the gloom was virtually complete.

  Kai felt for the dive flash light that he had lashed to his wrist. It was still there. He turned it on.

  The murk of the silt did not obstruct as much of the view as he had expected, but it was still near zero visibility. The fuzzy outline of the light played over a scene that seemed unfamiliar to him, even though he had seen it in broad daylight not a minute before.

  He searched for Lani. Kai's chest tightened for a moment when he didn't see her face where he had been expecting it. He rotated the light over a larger area until he saw her floating above him. Her eyes were screwed shut, but Kai could see that her mouth was still tightly clamped around the regulator. Then a string of bubbles emerged from the mouthpiece, and he knew she had made it through the worst of it.

  Kai gripped her arm to let her know that he was still there. Her eyes fluttered open for a second, and Kai gave her the OK sign, which she returned.

  On the other side, Brad and Mia seemed to be all right, although Brad still had a look of terror on his face. Teresa and Tom were discernable at the edges of the dive light, but Kai couldn't make out their condition.

  He focused the light on the air tank he and Lani shared to make sure it was still intact. It was in one piece, but Kai found the source of the impact sound that he had heard.

  Just to the right of the air tank, the car jack that he had strapped to the girder dangled from its rope. Some unseen force had crushed it into a bent mishmash that now made it completely useless.

  They had no way to free Mia and Brad.

  * * *

  "Hello!" Rachel yelled through the closed elevator door. "Are you all right?"

  "Thank God!" A man's voice replied. "Yes. I'm fine. I'm on top of the elevator cab roof."

  The building shuddered from the tsunami impact.

  "Oh my God!" the man said, his voice rising an octave. "What was that?"

  "It's another tsunami. Are there others with you?"

  "My sister and my mother are still in the elevator. I climbed out through the hatch to see if I could reach the outer door, but I can't get it open. The elevator shaft is pitch black. I can't see a thing."

  "Hold on. I'll get something to pry the door open."

  Each hotel floor had two fire axes. One was hung just around the corner from the elevator. Rachel broke the glass and wrenched it out.

  She put the ax head into the space between the doors and used the leverage to separate them. When they were six feet apart, she wedged the ax under one door to hold them open.

  About three feet lower than her stood a bald man of about forty-five. He was portly and holding a metal cane. The man squinted and blinked at the first light he'd seen in 20 minutes.

  "Thank God you came. I couldn't get the doors open from here. Without any light, I couldn't tell what to do."

  Voices below him shouted. "Help us! Jerry! Get us out of here!"

  "Jerry, you all need to climb up and get out right now. Look!" Rachel pointed at the water shooting up the elevator shaft next to him from below.

  "Oh crap!" He began to babble. "They can't. It was hard enough for me to get out with their help. My sister isn't exactly thin, and this is my mom's cane. She's 78."

  "Listen to me," Rachel said, as the water continued to rise at an astonishing speed. "You're in an express elevator. It only serves the 16th to 28th floors. There are no doors for that elevator between here and the lobby. This is the only way out."

  "Maybe we should wait for the fire department."

  "Nobody else is coming. You're lucky I heard you."

  The water rose inexorably.

  "I already tried lifting them," the man said. "I can't do it myself. Please!"

  Rachel ran around the corner and shouted to the kids at the end of the hall.

  "Tyler and Hannah, stay there. There are some people stuck here. I'll be back in a minute. If the water keeps coming up, go up the stairs."

  Rachel came back around and dropped down onto the elevator roof. She peered through the emergency hatch. A plump woman in her forties and a frail elderly lady looked up at her.

  "Who are you?" the elderly woman asked.

  "I'm Rachel Tanaka, the hotel manager. The power is out in the hotel. We have to get you out of there immediately."

  "How? We don't exactly have a ladder in here."

  "The water is almost here," Jerry said.

  Rachel looked over the edge of the elevator. The water no longer shot up, but it was still rising. It looked to be to the 13th floor, only 20 feet below the bottom of the elevator.

  "Can you both swim?"

  "Are you kidding?" the younger woman said.

  "No," Rachel said.

  "There's water coming up, Sheila," Jerry said. "She's right. You may not have a choice."

  "Can you swim?" Rachel repeated.

  "Just because I have a cane," the older woman said, "doesn't mean I'm a cripple. Of course I can swim. If you kids had let us leave when I wanted to, we wouldn't be in this mess."

  "This is Jerry's fault!" Sheila said. "He's the idiot who wanted us to stay."

  "If we had taken the stairs like I wanted to," Jerry said, "you wouldn't be stuck down there!"

  "Shut up!" Rachel said. The last thing she needed was a bickering family. "What we'll do is wait to see how high the water gets. If it comes into the elevator cab, you'll float up and we can pull you out. If it starts to go down before then, we'll have to figure out something else."

  The water reached the bottom of the cab.

  "It's coming in!" Sheila said.

  But the water didn't stop rising. The level crept up the side of the cab.

  "How high is this going to get?" Jerry said.

  "I don't know," Rachel replied.

  "What if it comes over the top?

  "I don't know," she repeated. "Do you have a better suggestion?"

  He shook his head meekly.

  The water was over three-quarters up the exterior of the elevator cab, but the water inside was still only two feet high, trickling in slowly through the doors.

  Paige appeared at the doorway of the elevator with Tyler, Hannah, and Ashley.

  "Paige! Thank God you made it! Where's Bill?"

  Paige said nothing, but the stream of tears running down her face said it all.

  "I'm sorry, Paige. I'm really sorry, but we need your help here."

  But Paige could only stand there, crying. The children started crying, too.

  "OK," Rachel said. "You stay up there. There are three people down here. You can help pull them up to the lobby."

  The water kept rising. When it reached the top of the elevator, the water inside was only three feet high, still too shallow to float in. The sea water poured over the edge of the cab's roof and across the flat surface, where it lapped at Rachel's feet, drained through the emergency trap door, and filled the elevator at three times the previous rate. The rush of falling water was not loud enough to mask the screams of the two women trapped inside.

  Chapter 42

  11:50 AM

  22 minutes to Third Wave

  When the second wave hit the Moana Tower of the Grand Hawaiian Hotel, the sway of the building had caused a minor panic in the people still on top. The evacuation had been going smoothly, with a helicopter arriving every five minutes to pick up new passengers. At one point, an Army Blackhawk helicopter was able to pick up 15 of them, including the men who were the most disabled. Now just a handful were left.

  Max Walsh leaned over the edge and saw the surface of the water flowing past the 15th floor. Rachel had not come back, and they had heard the collapse of the skybridge.

  Another tourist helicopter landed. It had enough room for the rest of t
hem, including Bob Lateen, who had insisted he remain until everyone else was gone.

  "Adrian," Max said to Adrian Mendel, the remaining staffer, as they hauled Lateen into the chopper, "tell them to wait for a minute." He hopped out onto the roof.

  "Where are you going?" Mendel asked.

  "Rachel should have been back by now. I'm going to check the stairs."

  Max flung the door open and looked down the stairwell. He couldn't make out any movement between him and the water 100 feet below. He yelled down.

  "Hello! Rachel! Are you there?"

  No response. But the sound from the helicopter could have masked an answer. He closed the door, ran down two floors, and tried again.

  "Rachel! Are you there? Anyone!"

  Still nothing. Surely if Rachel had made it, she would be climbing the stairs right now.

  Adrian opened the rooftop door.

  "Max, the pilot says they've got lots of other people still to rescue. He needs to go now."

  With a heavy sigh, Max went back out onto the roof and got in the helicopter with Adrian.

  "What happened to Rachel?" Adrian asked.

  "I don't know. She must have gotten caught in it. I shouldn't have let her go. OK, pilot. There's no one left here."

  They took off, leaving the empty roof behind them.

  * * *

  When Kai saw the ruined car jack, he was crushed. It meant another trip down to find a jack in another car. Of course there was no guarantee they would find one, and they would have the same time crunch getting it back here and getting Brad and Mia out before the building either collapsed or a third wave came in.

  By this time, the water had reached its peak height. Kai could feel the water stop its flow away from the ocean and begin its inevitable slide back where it came from. Flooding Honolulu to a depth of 150 feet had taken less than three minutes.

  Kai felt something pulling on him. It was Lani. She grabbed his hand and pointed it and the dive light in the direction of the jack. She obviously couldn't tell that Kai had already seen it.

  He turned the light on his own face and nodded his understanding of the situation. But then she did something completely unexpected; she patted the life raft and then pointed at Kai.

  He shook his head, thinking that she wanted to use the raft to float up to the surface. She focused the light herself and made a wide gesture with her hands, mimicking the inflation of the raft. She then pointed at the girder and pretended to push it up.

  Of course! Leave it to a kid to think outside the box. Kai had been so fixated on their previous solution that he hadn't considered alternatives. She wasn't saying that they should use the raft as a boat. She was suggesting using the raft as a jack.

  Kai raised his hand and nodded. He needed a minute to think about whether it would work.

  The raft was attached to a CO2 cartridge, so it would inflate itself in seconds. Kai focused the light on the side of the raft. It was rated to hold eight people. That meant at least 1600 pounds of displacement on the surface. Underwater, it was at least twice that. If it was placed in the right location, it might be enough to lift the girder.

  But there were also great risks with that plan. First, they'd only get one chance; if it wasn't placed properly, the raft would inflate, pop out of position, and float right out of the building. Second, there was no guarantee that it wouldn't burst if it was pinned in one spot by the girder. To make matters worse, the inflation would not be controlled. Once Kai pulled the trigger, the raft would inflate completely. If the girder fell off or the raft exploded, the beam might fall on any one of them, including Brad and Mia. They would be pushing their luck.

  The water tugged Kai toward the ocean. The ebb tide of the tsunami had begun. They only had a few minutes left before the water finished flowing back into the bay, leaving them high and dry. Once the water was gone, the raft would be ineffective. If he was going to try it, it would have to be now.

  The building groaned under the changing motion of the water, indicating that it only had a few minutes of life left. It wasn't going to stand up to a third wave. The raft was their only option. Kai had to take the chance so they could get everyone out of this building as fast as possible once the water was gone.

  Kai pulled out the dive knife and sawed carefully at the rope tied around the life raft, making sure not to nick the raft. Even a pin hole would make the process futile.

  It took him about a minute to cut through. By that time, the pull of the water had strengthened, and Kai wasn't expecting the raft to come loose so easily. It dropped from his hands and threatened to float away.

  Lani had been watching him, and her hands shot out to catch the raft. Kai stuffed the knife back in its sheath and took it from her.

  The girder was horizontal, with each end embedded in the drywall on either side. It looked like the explosion had ripped both ends of the girder from its welds, but the end Kai was closest to-the end toward the demolished building outside-left no space between the wall and Brad. Inflating the raft there would risk crushing him. That meant Kai would have to place the raft under the girder on the ocean-side wall.

  But that side of the girder was out of reach.

  Kai thought he could explain what he was planning well enough with hand gestures so that everyone would be ready, but he didn't trust his signing ability enough to tell someone else where to place the raft. He would have to get free of the rope and place it himself.

  Kai tapped Brad on the shoulder and showed him the life raft. Kai motioned that he should be ready to get himself and Mia out when the girder lifted up. Brad gave a thumbs up. Kai took it to mean that Brad wanted to get the damn thing off of him.

  Since Teresa and Tom were the closest to where Kai would need to be to place the raft, he motioned to them to grab his feet. The flow of the water started to pick up, and he was afraid he'd be swept out to sea if he wasn't secured some way. Kai didn't want to take the extra time to tie himself up again when he was in place.

  Kai cut himself free, and as he was about to push off, he realized that the regulator hose wouldn't reach to where he needed to go. Even if he were cut loose, he would have to go without air. Then he saw that Teresa could just barely reach his hose. Kai proposed trading regulators, and she nodded. They each took a deep breath and passed their regulators to each other.

  With his ankles now held by Teresa and Tom, Kai paddled over to the other end of the girder, careful to make sure that he didn't let go of the raft. The outflow continued to accelerate, and the water tugged harder at his clothes. Only a few minutes left. He'd have to make this quick.

  The regulator attached to the tied-down air tank abruptly snapped his head back, still two feet short of the corner where he thought the raft would be secure as it inflated. He had to hold it in place as it inflated, or it would pop out of position. There was no other way of keeping it there, no way to do this without leaving his air behind.

  Kai took a last puff of fresh air and dropped the regulator. He pulled himself even with the wall, shoved the raft into position, and ripped the inflation cord.

  The sound from the rushing gas filled their chamber. The raft inflated asymmetrically, pushing one end out toward Kai while the other end was still flat. He had to push it farther in, or all this would be for nothing.

  He braced his shoulder against the wall and pushed with his right hand until the raft was directly under the girder. With the dive light strapped to his wrist, Kai could see that the raft was beginning to compress as it reached the heavy steel above it.

  At first, nothing moved. If Kai wasn't already holding his breath, he would have done it then.

  Then, the miracle happened. The girder groaned and began to move ever so slightly. Kai had no idea how far it had to come up to let Brad and Mia get out, so he just kept his eye on the raft to make sure it didn't come out. Not that there was much he could do if it really wanted to squirt out.

  As the raft continued to inflate, the girder moved up and up, guided by the sla
sh in the wall that it had made. When it had risen a foot, Kai heard a grunt from Brad's direction. He was struggling to get free.

  Kai was almost out of breath, but his work was complete. The outflow was now as strong as the incoming tsunami had been. He struggled back to Tom and motioned for the regulator. Kai felt around for the tank and then followed the hose up to the mouthpiece. He stuck it in his mouth, and just before he couldn't hold his breath any longer, he pushed the button to clear the regulator. Clean, dry air filled his starved lungs.

  Kai took several deep breaths, holding on to the tank with one hand. Tom clenched his arm with his good hand. But before Kai could grab on to Tom's rope with his other hand to steady himself, a huge piece of debris struck him on its way out of the building. Kai couldn't tell what it was, maybe something freed when the girder had been lifted up. But it hit him in the butt, and the impact was enough to jar him loose from Tom's grip.

  His body swung around, and the regulator ripped from his mouth. Kai was about to be swept out into the ocean, over fifty feet underwater.

  * * *

  With the waterfall coursing through the elevator's escape hatch, the cavity filled quickly. Just as Rachel and Jerry could finally reach the outstretched arms of Jerry's mother, Doris, the water level began to drop. With the two of them pulling, they were able to carefully drag the drenched woman up onto the roof.

  "Are you all right?" Rachel said.

  "I'm fine," Doris said, panting. "Just let me catch my breath for a second." Her feet still dangled over the edge of the hatch, blocking access to Sheila, who splashed in the dark elevator below.

  "Get me out of here!"

  "Momma, move your feet," Jerry said.

  "OK! I am 78, you know."

  "I know. You won't let us forget it."