I staggered and grabbed a nearby tree.

  “Run. Earthquakes mean tsunamis, and we need to get out to sea,” I said. “Tell Soph to get everybody aboard. You and I can swim.”

  “This bond isn’t bloody telepathy, you know!” she said as we started crashing through the bush.

  It didn’t take us long to reach the top of the crater overlooking the bay. I saw Soph standing on the beach yelling and Ata on the boat with the dinghy, getting ready to head in to pick up Soph. She had two small birds flying around her. They might have had to wake her up.

  “Tide is going out. Soph needs to get to high ground and Ata out to sea,” I said.

  Soph seems to have seen the same thing as she yelled more and took off up to the bush. Ata left the dinghy tied with a rope, started the Cat’s two engines, and then went to pull in the anchor. The Ocean Blue started moving directly out to sea. We needed to help Soph up the hill and hope we were high enough. Carla was already running to where Soph would go. Rich will have trouble climbing the slope.

  I don’t think Ata will have to go far to avoid the tsunami, as the ocean is deep. We are the ones in trouble, especially Soph, Rich and Murray. I raced after Carla. I couldn’t see the ocean anymore, so I couldn’t tell how long we had.

  Then I stumbled as a stronger quake hit. I looked over my shoulder, and a plume of smoke/steam/gas rose from one of the crater lakes.

  What worried me even more was the sudden change in the colour of the essence in the area to bright orange. We weren’t in the zone, but the electroreceptors that picked up the broader general flavour were now orange.

  I picked myself up and ran after Carla, yelling, “An anomaly has appeared and is in the volcano!” Because that is the only reason I could think of putting the events together. The first job is to survive the tsunami—or tsunamis plural.

  Tremors were frequently happening now, and I ran the path I had slashed and worked my way down the slope. I could hear Carla yelling for Soph to hurry.

  “Rich can’t get up here!” Soph was panicking.

  “Move dirt,” I yelled. “Make steps!”

  I was scrambling down, which was precisely the wrong thing I should have been doing.

  Then, I heard a crashing and continuous roar. “Hold on!” I yelled, but I doubt I could be heard.

  I was halfway up the slope, and it reached me. I was able to hang on to the tree I grabbed, and while it moved, it wasn’t ripped out. The water receded from me pretty quickly, so I must have been near the top. I scrambled, looking for the others.

  “Carla! Soph!” I could feel Carla. She was the toughest of us all. It is the others I was really worried about.

  I scrambled down the ruined and torn slope. I didn’t think it would be easy to get back up this.

  “Bob!” I hear Carla yell.

  I slide in that direction.

  Carla had an unconscious Soph in her arms. I checked her, and she was breathing. Then Rich was limping up, and in his mouth, he had a limp Murray.

  “Carry her up. I will check these two,”

  I had no idea how Carla would get Soph up the slope, but I would have even more problems with Rich.

  “Let me have him, Rich,” and I took Murray from his mouth, where he had been very careful in carrying him. “Follow Carla,” I told him as I checked to see if Murray was breathing.

  I glanced out to sea and could see it easily as everything was flattened. The tide was going out again. Shit. “I put my mouth to Murray's nose, trying to give him breath, but I was up and running and trying to resuscitate a rabbit at the same time.

  I catch up to Rich trying to climb the slope and not being very successful. Bloody hell, Murray, we need you. I gave him another breath.

  Carla was higher and steadily climbing with Soph draped over her shoulder. That woman was amazing.

  “Come on, Rich, let's try and find an easier slope.” The lower half of the slope was much clearer, so I moved along to where I thought Rich would be easier to climb. He was still limping, so I don’t actually know what is wrong, but it takes a lot to break Rich.

  He was ahead of me and slipped, and I put my shoulder against his behind and shoved, but my feet just slipped. Then, we all lost our footing as another quake struck.

  Then, the sound of rushing water drowned everything out. I tucked Murray in my shirt, grabbed Rich as tight as I could, and hung on for my life.

  Rich and I were picked up by the wave and tumbled up the slope. He sheltered me from the worst, but I had ribs crack, and I can now see what it takes to break him. I lost the ability to see which way was up, and while I didn’t need to breathe, Rich did.

  Then we were dragged back down the slope, and I managed to deflect us against a tree, and we stopped. We were higher than before. I felt in my shirt. Shit, no, Murray. First, Buck and now Murray. This is going to break Soph.

  Rich is alive but struggling. I move around him, and he coughs up salt water.

  I start to yell, “Car..” shit, that hurts. Hopefully, it's only bruised, but may be broken.

  I pulse her.

  “Here!” comes a yell to my left and up the slope a bit. I help Rich manoeuvre over and see her giving Soph mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I check Soph's pulse.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “She has a pulse. Let me check her airway.” I was a trained surf lifesaver. The training is only twenty years old.

  Carla leaned back, and I put my finger deep into her mouth and hooked her tongue forward. She coughs, and I hurriedly roll her onto her side, and seawater is sprayed everywhere. She takes a breath and coughs again. We wait a few minutes for her to settle.

  Carla pats her gently on her back, “Are you OK?”

  She nods, still not able to speak.

  “We need to go higher,” I said.

  “You help Soph, I’ll help Rich?” Carla asked, and I nodded, grabbing Soph’s arm. She is very unsteady, but we can’t stay here.

  We work our way at an angle rather than straight up. We get to the top this time, and the waves have yet to make it this far.

  “Wait! Murray!” is the first thing Soph says. Then she bursts into tears as she realises the bond is gone. Carla comes up and puts an arm around her, and they cry together.

  I look around. We need to get back to the boat and as far away from here as we can. The ground shakes again. A massive plume of gas is released from near the lakes, and I see another one offshore. Suffocation in these gases is a real threat, along with the fact they are superheated and will burn us to death. The orange is growing.

  The ocean has massive swells, and I spot the Ocean Blue motoring offshore. Ata will be looking for us, and she has good distant vision and binoculars. The dinghy is still being dragged along behind instead of up on the winch, but that doesn’t matter. The Ocean Blue is our lifeline, and she kept it in one piece. Now, we have to get to it.

  Suddenly, Eliza appears and lands on Soph’s shoulder.

  “Where’s Barb?” I asked.

  “Ata locked the birds in the cabin,” Soph said.

  “I would assume she was trying to keep them safe,” Carla added.

  “Both Rich and I could use some healing, mostly Rich, but you first,” I said. I was boosting my skin to heal what I hoped were just bruises. I could feel Carla taking a steady stream, so I assumed she was not as well as she acted. Soph may be using her skill on herself, as I am sure she needed it. She almost drowned, and although she looks OK, I know she may not have cleared everything from her lungs.

  Rich trotted over to Soph, and she patted him while healing him.

  “We are going to have to swim out,” I muttered to myself.

  Carla heard me, “I will change into my Shark form. It is best in the water, and Soph and Rich will both need help.”

  I nod, and she goes over to talk quietly to Soph. I don’t listen in, but I am worried about Soph. She is not herself. I hope she only needs time to heal.

  Another strong quake shakes the island. This one doesn’t seem to have triggered a tsunami, or at least not in this direction. Then, I noticed a huge bubble of steam rising from the surface of the bay. An underwater vent must have cracked open. There must be lava just under the surface. The ocean is not safe. If we were caught in that, we would have been cooked.

  I felt very tiny, like we were ants on the surface of the earth, and this part of the earth was angry. It wouldn’t even realise or care if it squashed us. Did the emerging anomaly make it angry, or is this just an effect of what was probably a lava-type anomaly? I don’t know. What I did know was we needed to get a long, long way away from here.

  The strange thing was it was a perfectly fine day with a light breeze. The clouds of steam and sulfur marred what was otherwise a clear autumn day. I saw the Ocean Blue basically stationary close to us, but half a kilometre offshore. Ata must have seen us and was waiting at the safest distance she could estimate.

  “Ata is waiting for us,” I said, interrupting Carla and Soph.

  Carla got up and started stripping off her clothes, “Let's do this,” she said.

  Soph turned her attention to Carla, and the draw on my Essence grew. The change went smoothly, and we were only rocked once by a quake. The quakes were getting more frequent.

  We looked down the slope, the flat area to the beach and then out to the Ocean Blue. Debris was everywhere, including floating in the ocean.

  I shrugged, “We will just have to make a dash for it. How is Rich’s leg?”

  “Better, but it will take time and effort to heal,” Soph said.

  “What about you?” I asked.

  She shrugged, “Not feeling the best, but it is not like I have a choice.”

  “I will help Rich,” Carla said, “you help Soph?”

  I nodded. Rich would need help to swim without a leg, and that would be tougher than helping Soph. I was used to swimming and towing someone with their head out of the water from my surf lifesaving days. Well, it has been a couple of decades, but I remembered the technique. Soph might make the 500m on her own.

  “If the next quake doesn’t cause a tsunami, then we go for it,” I said.

  They nodded as the next strong quake hit. We waited a minute, watching the beach. Being at the epicentre meant we didn’t need to wait for the wave to travel far.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  I waited to follow Soph down as we started down the slope. Rich was half sliding, and the footing was treacherous. About halfway down, Soph lost her flooring and tumbled before I could catch her. She rolled and then caught herself. Her boosted fur would have buffered her, but she needed a moment to catch her breath. She raised herself to her feet as I approached and then almost tumbled again as she tried to stand, and her left foot gave way. I caught her this time and helped her limp to the bottom of the slope.

  Carla and Rich were entering the water, and we were halfway across the flat when the next quake hit. We weren’t turning back now. It was all or nothing. Ata was bringing the Ocean Blue closer. She was still only using the engines as she couldn’t manage this with the sails on her own.

  Carla was helping Rich swim out, and we got to the edge of the water as the water started retreating. Fuck. I grabbed Soph and tried to speed up as I saw the Ocean Blue rise on a wave.

  “Hold your breath,” I yelled as I grabbed Soph, dove under the water, and swam for our lives.

  I hugged the bottom of the ocean floor as it went down steeply, and the deeper we were, the less the wave would impact us. I felt the surge of the water around me drag me out and push us back to the shore. I kept swimming deeper, glad I didn’t have to breathe but conscious that Soph did. I was the one expending most of the energy.

  Soph started struggling, so I headed for the surface. I was sure the wave had passed. We surfaced about halfway to the Ocean Blue. Soph coughed and took some deep breaths as we tread water for a bit. I looked to the shore; the wave was only a small one and only got as far as the base of the slope. It probably would have still killed me. Soph would have a better chance of survival with her boosted fur.

  Carla had got the harness around Rich, and Ata was winching him aboard. Carla turned toward us, and her dorsal fin cut through the water as she sped towards us. I handed Soph off to her and showed her the best way to pull her. Then I paced alongside them. Eliza appeared above us and then flew to the boat.

  When we arrived, Ata had Rich out of the harness and was pulling in the dinghy to winch it up. Carla and I helped Soph aboard and then climbed up.

  “Bob, take the helm. Carla, let's get the sail up,” Ata ordered.

  “You rest, Soph, and check on Barb,” I said as I moved to the helm and steered away from the Island, putting power into the engines until the sail could take over.

  Carla and Ata had the sail up quickly, and even with the light breeze, that was better than the engines, so I stowed them up out of the water.

  “Where to?” I asked. “Fiji, Tonga, or home? I vote Fiji.”

  Carla and Ata looked at each other and nodded. Soph was in the cabin with the three animals. She was outvoted anyway.

  Raoul Island exploded in a geyser of lava behind us only half an hour later. I saw Ata capturing it on her phone camera. That was close.