The Shaking

Chapter Sixteen

Something might have gone catastrophically wrong inside the reactor; but without accurate readings from sensors he could have coincidence in, Alan had no idea what or how badly.

Sandbeach Caravan Park.

"How do you feel now?" Sam Bicknall asked as he irrigated Irene Fenning's eyes with bottled water. "Can you see OK?"

"Oh yes." she replied, dabbing carefully at them with an industrial paper hand towel. She blinked again. "That's much better. Thank you dear!"

"How about you George?" Sam asked.

"I'll be all right." he said quietly. Fenning had been treated with the bottle of eyewash contained in the tractor's first aid kit. His eyes were still watering, and he lay propped up on his elbows, looking around in shock at the scene surrounding him. Where the neat rows of park homes had previously stood with their carefully tended flower beds and well varnished wooden decking was now a shambles. Though George and Renie's caravan had been the only one to be completely submerged, many others nearby were in various states of now fortunately arrested subsidence, tilted at drunken angles. Those which were inhabited had their doors flung open; the panic-stricken occupants throwing whatever they could grab into any cars which weren't bogged down prior to evacuating. The Fennings had no such choice; their eyesore pug of a Korean mini-SUV had had fallen victim to the mire as well. All that was left of it above ground was a white coloured rear left quarter cocking a defiant wheel into the air.

As if reading George's mind Sam said. "It must have been some sort of subsidence. I'll try to pull your car free when the ground begins to firm up again, but the chances are it'll be declared a write-off. But before I can get round to that I'll need to check everyone in the park is safe and accounted for. Are you both up to moving? I reckon the best thing to do is to cover you both with a tarp, then drive you in the trailer up to the site office block. You can have a good long shower there, and while you're doing that I'll pick out some clothes for you from the charity bundle we were collecting: Don't worry; they're all perfectly good and clean! Then, once you're clean and dried I can dress your wounds, though I reckon you'd be wise to get a tetanus booster shot from the local A and E; we'll get someone to take you there. Feel free to use the phone and computer in the office to contact your insurance company; we should have a copy of your policy in our files. Laurie will help you out if you get stuck. And if you feel up to eating I'm sure Babs in the social club will sort you out a meal as well as..."

Sam's monologue faltered as he saw the Fennings weren't paying him any attention. Like rabbits frozen into immobility by an approaching car's headlights he noticed they were staring out to sea, speechless and fatalistically absorbed by what they saw in the distance. Now Bicknall understood what it was they were looking at, and he too felt skewered to the spot by fear. But unlike George and Irene he was able to break free from his paralysis. "GET IN THE TRAILER - NOW!" he shouted at them.

Why, he asked as he scurried back behind the tractor's wheel, hadn't he realised what would inevitably follow the earthquake? Why had he turned off the unreliable ignition? he scolded himself as the engine struggled into life. And what hope did he think this ratty old clattering bucket of a machine had of outrunning a fucking tidal wave?

Eastbourne.

Miyahira Tsuki heard a loud spine chilling hiss as the tsunami broke over the nearby beach. She knew she didn't act at once it would sweep her, Ishi, and the grandmother they were trying to rescue away. It was far to late to follow the distant scuffling crowd retreating into the town, and they might be doomed anyway if they'd not got far enough away. No, her disaster readiness training instructed; if you couldn't evacuate inland, you must get up and out of the way of the wave.

But where and how? There were no steel framed and reinforced concrete high rises built to earthquake resistant standards here. The highest building nearby which might be at all suitable was a four story hotel - The Seaview - just across the road from them. Under normal circumstances Tsuki wouldn't have dared enter such a risky structure in the aftermath of an earthquake given the fact it had obviously suffered damage in the tremor and the certainty of further aftershocks, but she had no choice; a higher but unsafe building was a better risk than attempting to outrun a tsunami, and to stay here on the street was to die.

"Ishi, let's go!" Almost telepathically the girls picked up Erin between them and ran for the steep flight of stairs climbing from the street up to the hotel's lobby. In the time it took them to struggle their way up the tsunami had all but reached them.

As they pushed the hotels imposing entrance door open a young receptionist was rising from behind the shelter afforded by her desk. "I'm sorry but-" she stopped at the sight of the grey, ankle deep, foaming water which burst in along with the trio.

"We must go up!" shouted Tsuki.

Seeing what was happening the woman helped Tsuki and Ishi carry Erin as best they could up the plush carpeted stairs to the first floor. Out of breath they all paused at the landing.

"Thank God! I think the water's stopped rising!" said the receptionist, looking down at the foyer which had flooded to waist height.

"More waves may come." warned Ishi. "Bigger ones maybe. Everyone must go to the top floor. Do not use the elevator, only the stairs!" Gathering their strength once more the three women helped Erin along while directing the other guests milling around in the corridors to safety on the highest level. From there they could look out of a window onto the street below.

The scene resembled the news reports of distant foreign catastrophes, but this was real and here right now. Rough, tumbling water still flowed inland past the statue set in the centre of Cavendish Place, reaching up to the top of the stone plinth the figure stood upon. A small, frantically yapping black dog was swept past in the swirling current, and then quickly disappeared from view. This close to the beach there was little in the way of debris caught in the surge, but as it made its way further inland the wave would pick up all manner of vehicles and street clutter, transforming the debris into weapons with which to bludgeon the helpless pedestrians caught unaware.

Fortunately Ishi Nakagawa's prediction was proven wrong; there was only the one major tsunami, but it flowed as far into Eastbourne as the Arndale shopping centre, causing much damage and many casualties as it progressed. When the waters finally drained away leaving a mud slicked, litter strewn, tangled streetscape behind them the bodies of thirty-nine drowned people were discovered by the ad-hoc rescue services. Given the circumstances it was a remarkably low number; one which might have been far higher had it not been for the actions of the two students who were even at that moment busy instructing the stranded guests in the Seaview Hotel on the best ways to store the drinking water and improvise the emergency toilets they would undoubtedly need in the immediate future.