TSUNAMI

Josh lay contentedly on his cot in the Holodome, where dozens of kids had been camping, relishing his first FunDay and the fact that he didn’t have to get up to meet with the Core. He stretched and let his eyes drift closed again. And then Maddie began shaking him by the shoulder.

“Come on,” she yelled. “You promised we could do all the coasters today. And my favorites three times each, you said. So we gotta get going now!”

“Jeez, Maddie, why does everything always have to be now? The coasters aren’t going anywhere.”

“I don’t care. Come on!” She kept pulling and prodding and nagging until Josh finally got up, yawning, and pulled on his shirt. He looked over to where Zoe and Sam usually slept and was surprised to see they were already gone.

“You know where Zoe went, Mad?”

“She said she had to get something.”

“They coming back?”

Maddie shrugged. “I dunno. So, we going?”

“Yeah. But let’s get something to eat first.” Just not too much, he warned himself. Or it would all reappear after three turns on the Maelstrom.

They headed over to the main dining hall on Atlantis, the morning so beautiful it might have been ordered as a backdrop. Along the way, they passed a dozen groups of happy, laughing kids who were already running toward the rides. Josh saw others heading toward Timescape, tossing balls to each other as they walked, and he remembered that the O’Bannion Boys had already organized the first set of Island games, including relays and soccer and a hoops tournament, using bottomless buckets nailed to wooden posts.

They reached the dining hall, and Josh led Maddie over to the serving tables where rolls and juice boxes had been piled. There was a mound of apples, too, and Josh grabbed at those, knowing that fresh fruit would be the first of the UnderGround supplies to go bad. He dragged Maddie over to a table, despite her insistence that she could eat and walk at the same time.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to,” said Josh. “Just sit down for five minutes, okay?”

“You’re stupid.”

“Mad! Sit!”

Maddie plopped herself down on one of the benches, grumbling, and Josh positioned himself across the table from her. Weeks without parents or rules were starting to take their toll. He decided it was time for a brotherly lecture.

“Listen, Mad. You gotta start listening to me a little better, okay? I have a lot of work to do, and I can’t be arguing with you all the time.”

“You don’t work. You just talk all day. I work,” she said, referring to her job at Little Wizards.

“I work. It’s just a different kind of work.” Maddie looked like she was going to argue some more, but then her face lighted up as she saw something over his shoulder. Josh twisted around and saw Zoe and Sam heading toward them. With Hamim.

Josh jumped up from the bench and ran over to them. “Look who I found,” said Zoe, proud of herself. Josh grinned, grabbing Hamim’s arm.

“Hey, man. How you doing?”

“I am fine,” the boy said softly. “Thank you.”

He didn’t smile. Josh let go of his arm, feeling a little awkward but not really surprised. Although Hamim had recovered from his physical injuries, this was the first time he had left Chelsea’s makeshift hospital. And there was a sadness about him that hadn’t been there before the riots. Apparently Zoe had decided enough was enough.

“I told him he wasn’t allowed to miss the first FunDay,” she said. “And that I needed him to save my life.”

“What do you mean?” asked Josh.

“I mean, if I have to visit those damn singing bunnies again, I’ll kill myself.”

Josh laughed, and saw a ghost of a smile drift across Hamim’s face. Then it vanished.

A moment later, Evan came up to them. Zoe’s smile disappeared, and she stiffened.

“Josh, sorry, but Milo wants to know if you can meet with us for a little while. We’ve got a problem.”

“Can’t we talk later?”

“Now’d be better.”

Josh didn’t even have to look at Maddie to know she had just turned into a little volcano. “More talking,” he heard her mutter, and he braced himself for the explosion.

Zoe came to his rescue. “Hamim and I’ll take Maddie,” she said. “We can go on some of the rides, and we’ll meet you back at the Palace.”

“But I don’t want to see the damn singing bunnies either,” said Maddie, her face darkening. Zoe grimaced an apology to Josh—he’d been warning her about her language. “I want to go on the coasters.”

“Sam’s too little for the coasters,” said Zoe.

“I don’t care.”

Josh blew out his breath, ready to whack her. But then Hamim crouched down next to her. “Maddie, I would be most honored if you would let me take you on the big rides. Would that be all right?”

The clouds vanished from Maddie’s face, and she grinned.

“Yeah. That’d be all right.”

Hamim straightened, and Josh mouthed a thank-you. He warned Maddie to be good, ignored the tongue she stuck out at him, and walked off with Evan to find the Core.

“So what’s the emergency?” asked Josh when they entered the UnderGround meeting room. Aiko was there, along with Moira and Caleb.

“It’s not really an emergency,” said Milo. “But Aiko noticed that a couple of the dolphins are looking pretty sick. Some of the kids want to swim with them today, and I was wondering if we should stop them.”

“Well, yeah,” said Josh. “If the dolphins are sick, then the kids could get sick, too.”

“Plus, the water’s looking pretty scummy,” said Aiko. “I’m not sure anyone ought to go in it anyhow.”

Milo nodded. “Caleb, think you can find enough Protectors to close off Neptune’s Theatre until we can figure out what’s wrong?”

“Yeah. Most of ’em are still upstairs stuffing their faces.”

Suddenly, one of the doors to the UnderGround crashed open, and footsteps pounded down the stairwell. Someone was yelling for Milo.

Milo looked at the others, then headed toward the entrance of the briefing room. Before he could reach it, Greg burst through the door.

“You guys better get up top! Something’s happening!”

They all jumped to their feet, following Greg back to the surface. The moment they got outside, Josh could hear air horns screeching from the west side of Atlantis. A stream of kids were racing toward the sound.

Chelsea ran up to them, soaked with sweat.

“It’s the Tsunami,” she panted. “It’s stuck.”

Josh panicked. The Tsunami was Maddie’s favorite coaster, the first one she’d gone on when their family had come to the Islands. What if she and Hamim …

Josh shot toward the ride, muttering a prayer over and over under his breath.

“Don’t let her be on it, don’t let her be on it.”

A minute later, he was tearing across the shadowy web cast by the metal backbone of the bright blue coaster, looking up into its crazy loops and corkscrew spirals. A light mist floated over them from the water jets that sprayed screaming passengers as they shot by on the tracks. But the screams Josh heard now were screams of terror.

One of the coaster trains was stalled halfway up the first of the big loops. About a dozen kids were clutching the safety bars, heads dangling backward, legs kicking frantically in the air. Josh squinted, heart pounding, and looked frantically from car to car.

“It’s okay, she’s not on it.” It was Zoe, rushing toward him and holding Sam tightly by the hand. Hamim and Maddie were just behind her. “I figured you’d be freaking.” Josh grabbed Maddie to him, almost collapsing in relief.

Nearby, Milo was yelling for volunteers to help figure out what to do. Evan and Greg put their heads together, gazing at the coaster and pointing to the stairs, catwalks, and maintenance platforms that were built into the tracks. Caleb gathered together the Protectors he spotted, and anyone else who looked like he or she had some muscle. Then Josh saw a trio of redheads pushing their way through the crowd, yelling that they could help.

The three O’Bannions stopped when they got to Milo.

“We can climb pretty much anything,” said Ryan. “Our folks used to take us rappelling.”

“Great,” said Milo. “What do you think we need?”

“Ropes and belts, to start,” said Kyle. “We need to make harnesses and rig safety lines.”

Milo signaled to Eli, Paravi, and some of the other Core members who knew where the supplies were stored. They nodded, jumped on a nearby tram, and set off with the O’Bannions, Paravi honking madly to clear the way in front of them. Greg ran after them and yanked himself up onto the last car, yelling at Paravi to head toward the nearest Boneyard.

Evan headed back over to Milo, and Josh moved closer to hear what they were saying.

“We’ve been stupid,” said Evan. “I remember my mom telling my dad what kind of upkeep these things take. They used to get checked every night: electrical systems, hydraulics and stuff. They had a whole army of people. People who knew what they were doing.”

“Which we don’t,” said Milo, kicking angrily at the ground. “We didn’t even think about taking care of the rides. We’ve been idiots.”

Josh silently agreed, feeling sick.

The crowd went quiet, waiting anxiously for Paravi and the others to return. Finally, the tram reappeared, and those on board began tossing out a small mountain of ropes, cords, and other supplies, including work vests with embedded metal loops holding tools and flashlights.

The O’Bannion brothers grabbed up the supplies, yelling directions to anyone who could help. Josh, Zoe, and Hamim joined them, knotting ropes together, making loops for arms and legs and attaching hooks to the back of each finished harness, carefully following Ryan’s directions.

Within an hour, a team of rescuers—the O’Bannions, Greg, and a number of the more agile Protectors—were using the access ladders and stairs to scale the metal frame of the Tsunami. Most stopped along the way, positioning themselves so that they’d be able to guide the riders from person to person as they were pulled from the coaster train.

Only the O’Bannions and Greg climbed all the way to where the coaster was stalled. Josh held his breath, watching as the four of them checked and rechecked their gear and took turns swooping from the catwalks to the cars, helping the terrified passengers into harnesses, attaching the harnesses to their own work vests, and then swinging back over to the platforms.

They worked slowly, carefully, moving like patient spiders across the still-wet tangle of metal. Then one of the younger kids panicked as Matt O’Bannion pulled him from under the safety bar. The boy grabbed Matt’s vest, pulling him off balance, and for a moment the two of them were swinging between the train and the platform, the kid not yet secure. The crowd shrieked, and Zoe put her hands over Sam’s eyes.

But then Greg jumped down from a slightly higher platform. He wrapped one arm around the nearest beam and reached out with the other until he caught hold of the rope. He pulled it toward him, arms shaking from the strain, until Ryan could grab Matt up by the collar and pull him and the younger kid to safety. A cheer rose from below.

The rescue operation continued most of the morning, with almost every Islander now gathered around the coaster, watching as though hypnotized. Finally, just as the sun began retreating from its highest point in the sky, the last rider was brought to the ground, and the final rescuer climbed off the tracks.

“Let’s hear it for the O’Bannion Boys!” yelled Evan. “And everyone else on the rescue team!”

The O’Bannions grinned and waved, and Matt pulled Greg over next to them, wrapping the big kid in a guy hug and pounding him on the back. Josh joined in the cheers, but he was still feeling a little sick inside, realizing how differently things could have turned out.

Taking care of the Islands wasn’t going to be that easy after all.