Chapter 4
“We’re clear!” Dobby yelled, staring out the back of the four-wheel drive at the dark wave of destruction, searching for the two people who had disappeared.
“The next wave might be bigger,” Axle called. “We’ll turn back and search for him when we get Vance to safety.”
“No one would have survived it.” Vance didn’t seem cut up that the woman he’d been planning to marry had been swept away.
Arsehole.
Tension gripped every muscle in Dobby’s body, but he couldn’t turn around and face the front. He scanned the water, looking for any signs of life, even though they kept getting further and further away.
Finally the car stopped. “Joker, you and Radar take Vance into the jungle. You should be safe from any waves there,” Axle said.
Dobby blinked and turned back. He should be giving the orders, but Axle was keeping his wits about him. Dobby nodded and the men got out.
“Don’t go. Agus might come after us,” Vance said.
“He’s tucked up in his house,” Dobby said. “He won’t leave until the danger is over.”
“Aren’t you all supposed to be protecting me?” Vance asked.
“One of our team is back there,” Dobby said. “You can either stay in the car and join us searching the village or get out and stay with Radar and Joker.”
Vance scooted over the seat and out the door.
Axle did a U-turn and Dobby sat in the middle of the back seat so he could see ahead.
Neither of them spoke as Axle tore back down the road, bumping over potholes.
The village finally appeared.
Or what was left of it.
Dobby stared out the windscreen at the devastation. How could anyone have survived?
He wanted to vomit. He’d had Hawk’s hand in his and he’d let him fall.
A figure stumbled out of the jungle and the headlights illuminated her.
“Well shit,” Axle said.
Dobby couldn’t agree more. Mila was bedraggled, her clothes filthy and wet, sticking against her skin, but she was on her feet. If she had survived, then maybe Hawk had too.
She waved her arms, moving to the centre of the road so they couldn’t drive past.
Not that they were going to.
“Have you seen Hawk?” Dobby called, pushing open the door.
“Ethan’s through here. He can’t move. He needs help.”
Dobby leapt out and Axle turned the car around so it faced the other way before joining them.
They needed to get Hawk out of here before the next surge hit. Sometimes the second wave was worse than the first.
“This way.” She shuffled into the jungle, one foot bare, the other still wearing a sneaker, and a soaked shoulder bag hanging across her body. “Did you get Vance?”
“Yeah.”
“Is Agus coming after you?”
“Not until the tsunami clears.” The man might have more vehicles at his disposal, but he was smart and wouldn’t risk his own life to come after them.
“He’s here.” Mila crouched down next to Hawk.
Dobby squatted down. “Are you injured?”
Hawk opened his mouth but only a moan came out. He’d take that as a yes.
Mila had already cleared the debris from him. “He said he might have a broken pelvis. I found a door to transport him on. We have to go.” She glanced anxiously towards the ocean.
Axle strode over. “Let me examine him.”
“Pain,” Hawk gasped.
Axle dug in his pack and pulled out his med kit.
Dobby cleared out of the way. He was impressed Mila had kept her wits about her and found a way to transport Hawk safely.
Axle examined Hawk for other injuries and gave him a shot of painkiller, while Dobby monitored the surroundings and cleared the area around Hawk so they could lay the door next to him.
No reaction while prodding his arms or his torso, but when Axle got to Hawk’s hips, the man bellowed.
Axle snatched his hand away.
“Fuck off,” Hawk gasped.
Dobby grinned, glad he was talking.
“Is that all that’s broken?” Axle asked.
“Yeah.”
“We need to get him on the door.” Dobby collected some large palm leaves to work as a sheet to help drag Hawk.
Axle looked up. “Let me get a splint around him first.” He swung his pack off his back and reached into it, pulling out something he unwound and then slid under Hawk’s knees and pulled up towards his hips.
Hawk stuffed something back in his mouth and bellowed around it as Axle tightened the splint in place. “Sorry. Let’s get him out of here.”
The car engine still purred nearby and Mila hurried to open the back doors.
As he and Axle carried Hawk to the road, he heard another sound. A dull roar.
The second wave was coming.
“Go.” Hawk pushed him away.
“No chance.” Dobby cleared their way through the jungle towards the car. Hawk gritted his teeth and moaned.
“We’ve got to move,” Axle shouted.
“Copy.”
As they reached the car doors, Mila ran to the other side so she could push down the back seats.
The roar grew louder.
Dobby placed Hawk’s head and shoulders on the back bumper and then shifted to the side so he and Axle could push him the whole way in.
The wave was rolling towards them, picking up everything in its path.
The door just fit. Dobby slammed the back doors as Axle jumped into the driver’s seat.
Dobby grabbed Mila’s hand and dragged her on top of him as he slid into the passenger side. “Go.”
The door hadn’t even shut as Axle accelerated up the road.
Behind them the wall of debris was moving fast, getting closer.
Dobby’s throat closed over. This was not happening again.
Axle slammed through the gears and squealed up the road into the mountains.
Water sprayed from their wheels.
“Faster,” Dobby barked.
The car lost traction and slid before Axle got control of it again.
Mila flinched and he realised he was squeezing her. He relaxed his hold. “Sorry.”
“I get it,” she whispered.
She must be terrified. She’d already been caught, but instead of fleeing to safety, she’d stayed to save Hawk.
The car surged forward and left the wave behind. It took another thirty seconds before Dobby stopped looking in the side mirror. He exhaled. “Good work.”
“Thanks for coming back,” Hawk murmured.
“I wanted to the first time…” Axle’s voice held regret.
“You did the right thing,” Dobby told him. This job was all about making the hard decisions and it was his fault Hawk had fallen.
“Thank you for saving me,” Mila said, her voice soft. She trembled in his arms. He shifted so she could lean against his chest, ignoring her soaked clothing, and stroked her arm. She flinched.
“Are you injured?” He hadn’t thought to check her.
“My whole body feels as if I’ve been in a washing machine on fast spin, but aside from bruises and scratches, I’m relatively unscathed.” She started coughing, her body wracking, and she fumbled with the button on the window.
Dobby hesitated, wanting to stroke her back, but not wanting to hurt her any further. She seemed so fragile and yet so strong at the same time.
She spat water out of the window.
“How much water did you swallow?” Axle asked.
“A bit.”
“Stomach or lungs?” Though Axle’s question was casual, Dobby heard the concern behind it.
She finished coughing. “Stomach I think. I vomited a lot after the wave receded.”
“We’ll get you checked out by a doctor when we get back to the ship.”
“Thanks.” She shifted, peeling her shoulder bag from her body and placing it on the floor.
Her fragility sparked a flame deep in his gut and with it came anger. “What were you still doing down there? I told you to get out.”
She flinched. “People needed help.”
He opened his mouth to challenge her, but she beat him to it. “Should I have forgotten about Hawk and left him behind?”
The guilt hit him and he bit his tongue. “What happened to your moped?”
She squirmed and the movement came dangerously close to his crotch. He shifted slightly as his body reacted.
“Well?” he demanded, trying to keep his mind off the fact that her very thin sleep shorts weren’t much barrier to her bare skin.
“An old woman stole it as I ran back to get a crying child. I got the child on the bike before the woman took off. The tsunami was almost on us.”
He growled.
“My thoughts exactly,” she said. “I had no choice but to run.”
“You’re lucky you survived,” Dobby said.
“I know.” Her soft words made him clutch her a little tighter as if he could protect her from the memory of what she’d been through.
“I’m Axle by the way,” Axle said. “I’m guessing you’re the ex?”
She nodded. “Mila.” She glanced at Dobby.
“Dobby,” he said and then winced. “At least that’s what everyone calls me. My name is Damien.”
Her smile lit up his world and then she glanced at Hawk in the backseat. He was silent, but his eyes were open, and he was watching them. “Have you got extraction planned?”
“We did,” Dobby answered. “But it was by sea.”
She winced. “Zodiac?”
He nodded. “We’ll look for it when the waves subside.”
Axle glanced over. “The ship was heading this way. Maybe we can get the chopper to come here. It will be incredibly painful to get Hawk out on a water extraction.”
Good idea. The chopper wouldn’t have as far to fly and now they could come to the island under the guise of aid.
“We’ll get Radar to call.”
Up ahead someone dressed in black stepped out on the road and flagged them down. Radar.
“Hawk’s alive?” he asked as they pulled up.
“Yeah, but he’s broken his pelvis.” Dobby opened the door and waited for Mila to climb out before he joined her. “Where are the others?”
Radar gestured to the jungle. “Through there.” He shook his head. “Vance is a piece of work. Keeps demanding we call a helicopter to pick us up.”
Mila sighed. “That sounds like him.”
Dobby scanned their surroundings. They hadn’t passed anyone on the way and there was silence aside from the occasional bird call and the buzz of insects. “Get comms up.”
Radar set up the antenna while Dobby found a survival blanket in his pack and wrapped it around Mila’s dirty, scratched shoulders.
Mila smiled at Dobby. “Thanks.”
“I can’t offer you a shower yet,” he said.
“I’m just thankful to be alive.” She glanced to where Axle was examining Hawk in the back.
Dobby kept his arm around Mila’s shoulder as Radar spoke with comms.
“Sun God, this is patrol six six, do you copy, over?”