فصل 65

chapter-65 My everything.

It was a full hour after the blast that Jack, Ostin, Ian, and five of the natives dug themselves out of the tunnel. They emerged from a small hole, cautiously rising like prairie dogs in a vast wasteland.

Jack was the first to climb out, his hair and clothes dusted white with fine sand. The rain had stopped. The heat of the blast had evaporated or emptied the clouds, and Jack just stood there, dumbstruck, looking around the scorched island in awe. Only Ian, who had watched the transformation from below, wasn’t in complete shock. It was as if they had gone into the tunnel, only to have been transported to another planet.

Then the rest of the tunnel’s inhabitants, almost fifty in all, began to emerge into the surreal landscape. All were silent, speechless, walking around as if in a daze.

Then the natives began wailing in the Tuvaluan tongue. Many of them knelt down, touching their foreheads to the earth.

“Unbelievable,” Jack said softly.

“It looks like Hiroshima after the bomb,” Ostin said.

Jack turned to Ostin. “Was that Michael?”

Ostin just stood there gazing out into the horizon. “It’s possible.” He turned to look at the tower. Only the clawlike metal supports mounted to concrete pylons remained. All but the bottom five feet of the tower had been incinerated. A lump came to Ostin’s throat. “I think it was Michael.” Just then Taylor and McKenna came up out of the tunnel. The sight of the melted world stopped them. “Where’s Michael?” Taylor asked. She turned to Ostin. “Where’s Michael?” She looked over to where the tower had been and saw nothing but the ends of scorched and melted beams. “Where’s Michael?!” she screamed.

“He’s gone,” Ostin said. He turned to Taylor. “He’s gone.” For a moment she froze. Then she ran to Ostin and shook him. “Don’t say it! Don’t say it!” “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Don’t say it,” she said again. She fell to her knees, then to her chest, overcome by the pain of loss. “Don’t say he’s gone.” Ostin sat down next to her, tears falling down his cheeks. “He was my best friend.” Taylor looked up at him. “He was my everything.” The two of them fell into each other and cried.

“What do we do now?” Tessa said. “We’re stuck here.” “What about the Joule?” McKenna said.

“I doubt they made it,” Zeus said.

Jack shook his head. “If they did, they’re probably halfway to Fiji by now.” All was silent again when Ian, who had been quietly looking out into the distance for a while, said, “No, they’re not.” Everyone turned. To the north, only about two hundred yards in the distance, the Joule was rising up out of the ocean.