He told Gordon and said, “Pass it on, will you?” Some of the boys were playing cards. One was reading a book. One was sleeping. How could he manage it?
Anotherding.He sighed and lifted the phone.
We’re OK. Sheltering in Te Papa, but have to leave soon. Working on a plan to get back to the house. Are you OK?
It was Skylar.
His hand shook, and he dropped the phone, then picked itup and texted,Yes. Where are you exactly? I’ll come get you.It went through, but a moment later, another aftershock hit. A strong one this time, and he braced himself against the sofa as the house creaked and groaned, the light swayed overhead, and athud, thud, thudcame from somewhere.
“Bugger,” he heard when the shaking stopped. “Fridge walked across the floor.”
Three rugby players jumped up, clearly glad for something to do, but Zane wasn’t among them. No answering text came, but it would come soon. Surely it would come soon.
He couldn’t control his face anymore. He couldn’t control his hands. He put both of them over his face, put his elbows on his knees, and shook.
Gordon’s voice, sounding alarmed. “Zazza? Bro? What? What’s happened?”
“OK,” Zane got out. His entire body was shaking now, his tense muscles nearly spasming with the relief. “They’re … The kids. They’re OK.” Because they had to be. You couldn’t get that text and then not have them be OK. Too unfair. Too much.
He knew there was no such thing as too much.
He lurched to his feet, found the toilet, and vomited up his tea.
29
PLAN B
That had been a bad aftershock, but the kids had barely cried out. Georgia, cuddled between Duncan and George, looked to have fallen asleep. Forrest still sat beside Scarlett, blank and uncomprehending. Finlay was sitting with Olive, talking quietly. Discussing their book series, which was as good a way to pass the time as any. They seemed to have decided that it had all been very exciting, but now it was over. Scarlett, though … Scarlett’s quiet was more like “frozen.”
“Listen,” Skylar said loudly, once the shaking had died down all the way. “There’s news. Scarlett and Duncan? Your dad’s OK. I’ve heard from him. He’s OK.”
Scarlett’s face lost the frozen look between one breath and the next. Her face crumpled, and she began to cry. Duncan saw it and said, “What? What’s wrong?” Looking startled. Looking worried.
Finlay, though, got up, crouched before Scarlett, took her hands, and said, “It’s good news. It’s OK. He’s very strong. It was scary, that’s all. But he’s OK.”
Scarlett nodded, but kept crying. Skylar pushed tissues into her hand—thank goodness for a Year One teacher’seternal preparedness—and said, “It’s fine to cry. You’re relieved. You’re right to be relieved.”
Georgia woke up, not surprisingly, and the other kids explained. Georgia looked confused, as if her dad’s safety had never been in doubt. Which it hadn’t been, not to her.
Georgia didn’t remember losing a parent.
The head staff person again, then. The director? Assistant director? Manager in charge? Didn’t matter. She said, “It’s time to move you all out. If you don’t know where to go, walk north, toward the Beehive. The Parliament buildings. There’s sure to be an evacuation center to the north.”
“You can’t just kick us out, though.” That was one of the tourists Skylar had rounded up, a round-faced, middle-aged woman. “Not with no more help than that!”
“I told you,” the director/manager/whoever said. “We don’t have enough drinking water. Or blankets, either, and it’ll be getting cold. We need to get home ourselves, so we’ll escort you downstairs and out of the building.”
“There’ll be mud,” Skylar said. “On the stairs. There’s sure to be, at least between Levels 1 and 2. The water came in there. We need volunteers to escort people who need a hand.”
“Yes, of course,” the director said. “Help each other down the stairs, and take care outside, too.”
“Take care?” the round-faced woman said. “That’s the best you can do? How about some … some emergency response? Somehelp?”
The director said, “There are problems all over the city.” She didn’t say “deaths and injuries and people trapped under rubble,” but she didn’t have to. “First responders have their hands full. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to make your own way.”
“I’ll be making a complaint,” a man said. Another one Skylar had brought in. Some people had no sense of proportion. “You have a duty of care here, and you’re being negligent.” He had to be a lawyer, and American? Canadian?Somebody who thought officialdom would always be there to help. Somebody who hadn’t been born in a rugged island nation where the help came from your neighbors, because the official rescuers were too few and too far away.
The director didn’t even respond to that. A buzz of activity, and people were struggling to their feet, gathering belongings. And still no word from Zane. Not since before that strongest aftershock. Was he all right?
