by thedoctor, Captain Sammitch and Danny
Grimm was running like a madman. He was returning to the MBL Consulting complex to get Dr. Henry Quantos. Edulcore Cicciotto had collapsed on the beach, and the Doc would be the best person to figure out why.
Danny Hearn had decided a few minutes after Grimm left that the best thing to do would be to put Ed in the hovercraft. It was a tough decision. He didn't know if it was safe to move him, but it sure as hell wasn't safe right here on the beach. Chance was given the order to do it. His luck might just be the thing to keep this from going sour.
The self-appointed leader of the MBL also handed the swimmer they had fished out of the sea a towel to wrap around his naked body, although it was quite odd to go skinny-dipping during a hurricane. The stranger kept asking, as if to someone who was there but wasn't, why this had happened. It didn't seem to Danny as though he was enquiring about the storm, however.
Dirk Bell and Blackwulf made another quick sweep of the beach with their eyes. The Stormloader began to inch its way back up the beach to the interior of the island. The water that surrounded Blackwulf's and Dirk's ankles rushed back out to sea. "That's not good," Dirk said.
The roar of speeding water came to their ears. "Is not being sound good to hear," Blackwulf replied as both men began to run from the beach. Wet sand encumbered their feet, trapping them to feel the wrath of the wave. Chance forced the hovercraft to go as fast as it could, but it had not had enough time to build up momentum.
As the cloud of darkness began to overtake the team, Dirk uttered a phrase that had been passed down in the Bell family from generation to generation as a motto when everything seemed to be at its darkest: "Fuck."
The force of angered water pushed up against them. Blackwulf and Dirk were tossed within the wave. The force of impact of the waves and the ground below tried to force the air from Dirk's lungs, but he fought the pain and held his breath.
The giant Russian attempted to grab hold of anything that might anchor him. As the wave changed directions and began to pull back to the ocean, he used his mighty hands to force his fingers into the solid earth below the sand. Dirk's body was thrown against a wall of dirt. He pulled out his knife and forced it into the soil of the hill that bordered the beach.
The Stormloader was hammered by the wave. Everyone inside felt it shift and turn up on its back. Chance fell away from the controls as it fell to upside down, then to the port side. Tayden was snapped from his almost philosophical questions as he landed on the ceiling. Danny commanded Hal to give him octopus tentacles as he used one to grab onto something and the other keep Edulcore from flying about unconscious.
The hovercraft spun almost like a top. The seconds of the event passed like hours. Every detail and emotion at that moment was clear to all those who experienced it, though later the whole thing would seem like a blur. When it was all over, the Stormloader lay upside down and bent across a centuries-old wall of stone that lined the southern coastline of La Perdita.
Dirk painfully lowered himself to the beach. Blackwulf emerged from underneath a mound of sand with his arms still buried deep. Chance pulled Tayden from the craft as Danny had Ed in tow. Dirk had thought up a good smart-ass remark, but was too out of breath to use it.
By the time Phil Smith's head broke the surface of the churning sea, he was already a hundred yards from the shore.
Giving all his essential body parts a quick reality check, Phil decided he was pretty much in one piece, although quite frankly everything hurt like hell. His ribcage was still on fire from being rammed into that big rock, there was a gash on his forehead from who knew what, and all his limbs were going numb from the chilly water and from being tossed around by the surf. Time to call it a day, he thought to himself.
And that was when he saw it out of the corner of his eye, a wispy plume of black, oily smoke rising slowly from the shore. He heard familiar echoes in his head. Some of his friends were in trouble.
The waves were more ferocious than ever, and Phil could tell that everything that was getting washed out to sea was getting thrown back before too long. He guessed that his turn wasn't too far off. I could sure use some help right about now.
"Shit! The bloody hovercraft is totaled!" Danny yelled.
"We can probably fix it," Chance began. Danny indicated that he couldn't hear him over the roaring wind and rain. "WE CAN PROBABLY FIX IT! BUT NOT RIGHT NOW!" Chance yelled. Danny nodded.
"WHERE TO NOW?!" Dirk asked.
Dirk, Danny, Chance, Blackwulf, Grimm, Edulcore, and Tayden were gathered on the beach, or what was left of the beach. The sandy surface had been torn up and flooded until those unlucky enough to still be sanding there were knee-deep in mush. The trees that lined the top of the hill, where the beach led to the town, were under attack from the forces of the storm, and shedding branches in a dangerous fashion. Half of the buildings were seriously damaged. The lifeguard tower was now little more than a pile of firewood.
Danny pointed upward to the road that led from the beach to the town. The team quickly made their way up, Blackwulf carefully carrying Ed.
Grimm moved close to Danny. "The storm is closing in on the town," Grimm said.
"I know," Danny replied.
"What we did on the beach is going to be nothing compared to that. You know how many more people are up there than down there?" Grimm pointed forward to the populated area of Puerta Mibela, the city a few miles in the distance. The storm had already made its way there faster than the team could chase it. And it was growing in intensity by the minute.
"We have to get there, now," Danny said. Grimm nodded.
"Blackwulf! Can you get Ed back to headquarters?" Danny asked. Blackwulf nodded.
"Good! You -- go with him," Danny added, pointing to Tayden.
Danny looked at the remaining team: himself, Dirk, Grimm, and Chance. "The buildings need to be evacuated, starting here, closer to the beach... moving inwards..." Danny said, thinking out loud.
"I'd say the local authorities already have that well in hand," Chance said.
"Eagle eyes," Danny said softly. He looked into the distance and noticed the island's police and emergency services doing a sweep of all the houses, no doubt taking the citizens to safehouses further inland.
"Right. I'd still like to have some of us there keeping an eye on things... in case they need a hand. What do you guys think?"
"Right. The local keystones need someone to make sure they don't fuck up," Dirk said.
"Can you and Chance handle that? At least until the rest of us can get there?" Danny asked. Dirk and Chance both nodded.
Danny continued. "Grimm, I think you should--"
"...Find Phil," Grimm said, cutting him off.
"Right."
"And what are you going to do?" Chance asked Danny.
"I have to find M'xy."
This was frustrating. No matter how hard Phil swam in toward the shore, the surf and the waves kept him from getting any closer to land. Phil knew that the only way he was getting to shore would be as a passenger on the next monster wave. That one might scour the beach right off the island. It might hit the town, killing untold numbers of people. Or it just might be the one that sent La Perdita on a one-way ticket to Davy Jones' locker. What the hell kind of expression was that, anyway?
In any case, Phil was pretty much powerless to do anything about it from where he was. He knew the others were nearby, but there was no way they could hear him call to them.
Unless... Phil concentrated as hard as he could. He formulated a single message and pushed it toward the shore, toward anyone who might be listening. Help!
Continued in Chapter 12: The Start of a Beautiful Friendship