I don’t know what I was expecting from him after my outburst, but it wasn’t what I got. “You know what, Hayley.” There was heat in his voice. “Like Ava said, we’re close to Big Bear Lake. That’s what I know.” And then he walked away.
I watched him return to the rock where Ava was sitting and watched her reach out for his hand. To his credit, he didn’t take it—this time—but he didn’t look back at me either. Who are you? I shook my head. “I’m going to try to find where they landed,” I called out to Danny’s back. He didn’t reply or turn around. Fine. Stay here with your mistress and her pillows.
I was emotional—furious, nervous, scared, and hurt. I stormed down the hillside in the direction I’d last seen Flynn falling and that chute opening. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. The first gunshot marginally missed my head. The bullet tore into the tree right beside me. The second shot exploded the top off the boulder I dove behind. I dropped myself flat to the ground, looking frantically around for better cover. I glanced around the boulder and could vaguely see the outlines of at least six men making their way up the hill toward me.
It’s amazing how circumstances can change your feelings. As I watched the men close in, I could hear myself begging. “Please, Danny—please—come save me.”
FIFTY-FIVE – Mind Over Matter (Tara)
When Kate and I made it back to the cliff, we called down to make sure Jenna and Ollie were both still there. They were. The storm continued to rage around us, but either our eyes were adjusting better or the sky was somehow lightening. I could see the entire outline of the tree house hanging over the cliff, and I was even more amazed at how it was still hanging there.
There didn’t appear to be any way one of us could climb down to Jenna and Ollie. Our only chance was to throw the rope down close enough to where they could pull themselves up. After a dozen or so attempts, it finally swung close enough for Jenna to grab it. When she had a hold of it I took the other end over to the tree Kate and I had climbed down from—about fifty yards away—and tied the rope to the trunk. Jenna wanted us to pull Ollie up first and called out that she was tying the rope around him.
We waited for her to do so, and just as she yelled that it was attached to him, the tree house began to slide. No, no, no, no, no… The way the rope was wrapped over it, I knew if the house fell completely off the cliff, it would not only take Ollie with it, but the entire tree behind us we’d attached the rope to. I heard myself scream at Jenna to untie the rope, even though it was the last thing I wanted to say, and then I heard myself scream again as the tree house slid off the cliff.
The rope whipped out but didn’t snap, and the tree behind us remained where it was—somehow. Jenna had managed to untie the rope before the tree house had fallen, but the house had been what was holding them in place.
“Jenna!” Kate screamed as the tree house plummeted to the rocks below. “Jenna!” Kate yelled again.
“Help!” She’s still there somehow. How? And what about Ollie?
Kate didn’t waste any time. She grabbed onto the rope. “I’m going down.”
“Kate, no… let me.” She was drained and in excruciating pain. It made far more sense for me to try, but she shook her head. “No, I’ve got this. I can do this.”
“Kate…” I wanted to match her assertiveness but couldn’t. Not being able to hear Ollie’s crying anymore I assumed the worst. That pessimism took everything out of me.
I helped Kate lower herself over the edge and watched her quickly rappel down the side of the cliff. I lay flat on my belly and peered over the edge with the flashlight following Kate’s movements. At the farthest extent of the light, I could see Jenna holding on to a ledge about thirty feet below us. She was holding on with one arm, while her other arm was wrapped around… Ollie!
Dear God! No way!
I gasped but couldn’t say anything. I opened my mouth but again couldn’t get anything out. I watched Kate slide quickly down near them, and then she stopped. She screamed up at me, “I need more rope!”
I turned and pulled on the rope behind me, but it was taut. Panic tore at my chest. “There isn’t any!” I screamed. She wasn’t going to be able to reach them. She was five or six feet short. There should have been enough! I saw her reaching out toward Jenna, as far as she could reach. She wasn’t even close.
I watched, horrified, as the next ten seconds unfolded in slow motion. I saw Jenna push off from the cliff and shove Ollie upward toward Kate. I saw Kate grab my baby and Jenna fall away from the cliff—dropping into the darkness. I could hear Ollie crying again, but even his cry was temporarily drowned out by Kate’s loud long scream. I covered my mouth, swallowing my own scream, and listened to the rain mutilate the ground around me.
Please God… Where are you in all of this?
“Hang on, Kate,” I yelled. I pushed myself away from the cliff, and stood to begin pulling at the rope. At first it was dead weight—I figured Kate was too stunned to assist. “Kate, come on,” I screamed, grunting and tugging in futility. Finally, I could feel the rope moving a little.
“One second,” she yelled up. “Gotta… tie… Ollie… there. Pull!”
I pulled and she climbed. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through but knew she was doing this for Ollie.
As she reached the top, I gave her one last pull and then sprinted to drag her and Ollie up by hand. Even though she held my baby, and there was nothing more in the world I wanted than to hold him myself, I stepped back a little as she squeezed him closely and sobbed. I knelt beside them and wrapped my arms around both of them. I didn’t know which of them was crying harder, but I knew who was hurting more. “I’m so, so, sorry, Kate. So sorry…”
She was wailing now, and her hands tore into my back as she released Ollie and dug into me. I could feel tears streaming out of my own eyes and knew there was nothing I could say to make this better. I was pretty sure—at this moment—Kate was wishing she too were dead. She’d lost her baby. She’d lost her best friend. She might have even lost Danny. For Kate, there wasn’t any way she could imagine it could possibly get worse.
It was my turn to be the strong one. It was my turn to pull her through. Kate was screwed.
I found enough boards to build a small shelter, to at least keep us out of the direct rain. The wind—fortunately—had almost completely subsided. We huddled together under the random pieces of plywood—soaked, shivering, tired, sad, and angry. The sum of our losses was staggering. It was about this time I started wondering why the anti-tsunami system hadn’t kicked in. Shouldn’t that have saved us?
FIFTY-SIX – Back to Reality
When Damien powered the Hexagon back up and all the surveillance systems kicked in, he quickly realized the worst of his security fears had come to fruition. An enormous storm surge—perhaps combined with a meteotsunami—had slammed into the Hawaiian Islands during the three-hour outage. Nicole stood over his shoulder, pointing out the most impacted areas on the screen. Kauai had clearly endured the most structural damage, though the less inhabited island of Ni’ihau appeared to have been wiped clean. That didn’t bode well for Redemption.