Joe turned away from the inferno. Somehow, over the past few hours, he had kept his grief and sorrow at bay. He was operating on pure adrenaline—or perhaps shock and denial. “We need to evacuate the rest of the town,” he said.
The village of Chenega, Kodiak Island, and Seward had been decimated by tsunamis, and Valdez was believed to be under threat.
Joe and Edwards split up, moving from one building to the next, knocking on doors, searching for anyone who might still be holding out, guarding property.
Houses near the water had been flooded during the first wave, but farther inland, the damage was mostly structural. Joe found a house leaning heavily to one side with the front door wide open. “Hello? Is anyone here?”
A faint cry reached his ears, so he stepped gingerly over a pile of books that had toppled out of a bookcase. He found his way across the slanted floor to the kitchen, where he heard another whimper. His gaze fell to a small white dog hiding beneath the table, backed up against the wall, trembling.
Joe approached and got down on his hands and knees, reached in, and scooped him out from under. With the dog in his arms, Joe stood up and rubbed the top of its head. “Everything’s all right. You’re okay now.”
Joe carried the dog out of the crooked house and walked to the next home. With any luck it had been abandoned hours ago. He stood at the front door, staring into the ravaged entrance hall and kitchen beyond, where broken plates littered the floor.
Joe stood for a moment, absentmindedly rubbing the small dog’s head while his thoughts drifted back to the moment when the shaking had begun and he’d taken too long to realize what was happening.
An earthquake. A major one.
He had just argued with Angie and fired three shots at Jeremy. Edwards had dragged him away and shouted at him to cool off and lower his weapon. Joe barely remembered discharging his sidearm. He mostly remembered Jeremy dancing in his skiff, laughing and taunting him.
When Joe finally let the gun fall from his grasp, Edwards bent to pick it up, and that was when the vibrations started. Joe stared at the ground outside the Village Morgue Bar, then turned and looked back at the town, where cars were rolling and crashing into each other. Utility poles swayed back and forth, and power lines snapped. Joe lookedtoward the far end of the dock, where Angie, in her bright-red coat, was running toward him, pushing Ethan as fast as she could in the carriage.
Joe’s father, Frank, spilled out of the bar. “Carol! Get off the dock!” He ran in zigzag fashion toward theChena, and Joe followed to reach Angie and Ethan.
At that moment, the entire dock started to collapse. The buildings broke apart, and everyone went down, sinking into the churning water. Joe was still on the earthen causeway and skidded to a halt when his father went down ahead of him and disappeared. Angie was farther out among the wreckage of the warehouses as they collapsed. He lost sight of her completely and ran forward, helplessly, just as an enormous wave rose up like a ten-story building and lifted theChenato a vertical position. Joe knew, beyond doubt, that there was no chance of saving anyone. If he didn’t turn around and run like hell, he’d be sucked under too.
So he ran. He sprinted up Alaska Avenue and barely made it off the causeway before he was knocked off his feet by the incoming wave and carried two blocks into town.
Gasping for air and flailing about in the current, he managed to stay above water until he grabbed on to the roof of a floating car. He held on until the wave slowed and began to retreat. Then his boots touched the ground, and he shook himself to regain his senses. A woman ran past him. He watched her stop and look around. Then the earth opened up, and she dropped into a giant fissure.
Joe had run to her.
Looking back on it, he realized he must have known he had half a chance of saving this person after failing to save Angie and Ethan. His parents too.
He’d reached the giant crack in the earth and looked down. It was Valerie, struggling to stand up on an injured leg, but water was flooding in, and the earth was still rolling and shaking. The fissure was already starting to close.
“Help me, please!” she cried.
Joe leaped into the chasm, lifted her up, and hoisted her high enough to crawl out. Incoming water knocked him onto his back, and he thought that was the end.
If it was, at least he would be with Angie and Ethan, and that would be okay. Better than okay. He’d disappointed Angie in this life. Maybe he could do better in the next ...
Suddenly, strong hands had grabbed him under the arms and wrenched him to his feet, and more hands had reached down from above and pulled him out of the flooding abyss, which had closed seconds after he’d climbed out.
Now, Joe stood in the darkness, in the doorway of someone’s house, with a little dog under his arm. All he saw was Angie in her red coat running toward him.
Joe’s legs gave out. He dropped to his knees in a fit of despair, hugged the dog, and cried into its soft neck. Its tongue lapped at Joe’s wet cheeks.
Angie. My love, Angie ...
He was so sorry for all the times he’d hurt her. Why had he acted that way, getting drunk and going off with other women when he loved his wife and couldn’t imagine his life without her? Why had he done things that caused her pain?
Now she was gone, and he could never make amends.
Their last words had been hostile and bitter, full of threats and accusations.
Joe cried and cried. If only he could go back and have one more chance ...
There was a rumbling suddenly—an aftershock that caused him to open his eyes. Panic gripped him. The terrorized dog squirmed and leaped out of his arms and ran back to the house where Joe had found him.
