I hope you enjoy this one x


"How were you able to marry me knowing that I'd cheated on my ex-husband?" Addison questioned, her eyes glancing up to meet Jake's. The two of them were on the public beach now. They had been walking along the shore side by side in comfortable silence, with only the sound of their steps and breaths mingling with the constant, soothing music the ocean provided.

"People make mistakes," Jake shrugged. He'd honestly never thought about it before, had never asked her for more information about that part of her past. If she wanted to open up to him at some point, he would be there to listen, but he would not poke about. She deserved that much respect. He wanted her to make the decision on her own, to tell him what she wanted, when she wanted. He was a bit surprised that she had brought it up completely out of the blue, but continued speaking, "I figured you had a reason. Everyone has a reason."

"Derek was…absent," Addison admitted. "It's no excuse, but I was in a marriage that was missing a husband, can you imagine that? And Mark stepped up and started filling Derek's shoes for everything. It was innocent for a while," she said. "When I told you… That night, I was surprised you didn't drop everything and run."

"Is now too late to do that?" Jake asked, his facial expression and voice was deadly serious. He laughed when she swatted his arms. "Like I said, you've cheated before. It doesn't make you a cheater." He also believed that he would never give her a reason to run into the arms of another man.

"My parents repeatedly cheated on each other—their whole marriage had been a sham—Archer cheated on Naomi, and probably countless of other women," Addison rattled off self-consciously. "It could be possible that—"

"Adultery is not a gene," he interrupted her. "And you are not a—"

"Oh my god," Addison whispered, frantically moving behind her husband. She pointed at the ground a few feet before them. On the damp sand, a nest of at least seven black and white striped snakes slid around; frenzied, as if in distress. Then, at full speed, the creatures slithered inland together, towards a resort, finally disappearing into a bush. It was like nothing she had ever seen before.

"Colubrine sea krait," Jake said, prying Addison's death-grip from his arm. "Sea snakes," he explained when he was met with a blank stare. "They're locals of this island." He had heard stories of these docile creatures. Although deathly venomous, they tend to keep to themselves and don't attack humans unless provoked or threatened. Seeing a bunch of them together, though, was odd, he thought. He remembered vaguely that snakes weren't social animals, naturally coming together only during mating season. There was something off about all of them scurrying away at the same time but he brushed the thought aside.

Addison felt something cold and slippery on her feet and froze. This is why I hate nature. "Jake, there's something on my feet. Please get it off of me," she said calmly, closing her eyes as she silently hyperventilated.

Jake looked down. The sea level had somehow risen up to where they were standing, and what Addison thought was a snake was a clump of seaweed resting comfortably on her feet. He raised his eyebrows at his rigid wife, whose eyes were currently shut. "Sweetheart, open your eyes," Jake chuckled.

"No."

"Open your eyes, Addison."

Addison gave in and looked down. She grimaced, but was relieved at what she saw. She shook the offending plant off her feet, suddenly becoming aware of the water around them. She and Jake were ankle-deep in seawater, which was abnormally still.

"The sea level's rising, come on," Jake prodded, ushering Addison to dry land. They stopped a couple of meters away from a bar. "Do you think the water usually comes up this far?" He asked.

Addison would've answered "No" had the both of them not tumble down onto the sand as the ground beneath them shook and vibrated, a flurry of sand blowing around in the air. Further away, a small tree went down. Sand digging into her knees, Addison covered her nose and mouth with one hand and protected her head with another. Jake was in the same position. It became still after a minute and Addison stayed crouching, waiting, in case another one would follow.

Jake got to his feet, pulling Addison up with him. "You alright?" He asked, brushing sand off her hair and face.

"Yeah," she said dazedly. "I think we should head back to villa…check if the others are okay." Taking his hand, she began walking back towards their side of the beach.

"It was probably just a small earthquake. Happens here all the time" Jake assured her, but he himself wasn't fully convinced. He contemplated the strange behavior of the snakes and thought about the unnaturally fast rise of sea level as they walked along the beach, but decided against saying anything that might cause his wife to panic. He was intent on getting back to the villa; if anything worse should occur, Jake preferred all of them to be together.


The beach was unnaturally quiet when Charlotte ran outside. The tides were also unusually high, she noticed immediately and looking into the distance, she could not see a single person, let alone two. She bit her lip.

"They're not here," Violet said, gasping for breath. There was no time. Cooper had said they had twenty minutes to evacuate to higher ground and now, minutes later, she was still in front of the freakin' beach house, even closer to death than before, looking for two people that were not there. There was no more time.

"Well no shit, Sherlock," Charlotte snapped. "They're probably at the other beach." She started to walk towards the sea when Violet pulled her back.

Goddamn doctors with hero complexes. "Or they could be in town right now, going up a hill, evacuating along with everyone else that doesn't have a death wish!" she shouted, dragging the blonde doctor towards the path to the resort. There was no more time.

Charlotte pulled against Violet's grasp, making the both of them come to a halt. "What if they're not?" She demanded. What if they're strollin' on the beach, completely clueless in post-marital bliss. And what would happen to Henry. Poor Henry. Charlotte didn't want to die, not yet anyway, but she couldn't bear the thought of leaving two of her friends behind. Not when they had finally gotten their chance at happiness.

Yeah, what if they're not? A voice inside her asked but Violet ignored it because they were running out of time. Exasperated, she grabbed Charlotte's arm and tugged hard. She started running, making sure Charlotte was right behind, and that she did not loosen her grip.

"Stop!" Charlotte shouted. Violet turned around and Charlotte saw that she was crying. "What if we can save them?" Charlotte insisted, "If they die—"

"Then we'll live with that on our conscience every single day, Charlotte," Violet cut in. "And we might hate ourselves until the day we die, but at least our children will grow up having a mother." She refused to let Lucas become an orphan; she owed Pete that much. And what was Charlotte even thinking? Risking her life with four freakin' kids back at home. Cooper would never forgive her if she let Charlotte die, Violet thought, grabbing the blonde's shaky hands. "There's no time, we have to go."

They ran.


They were more than halfway across the public beach when Jake heard the strange sucking sound he very much dreaded. He turned to the sea and his heart sank, leapt, pounded and exploded at the same time. The water was rapidly receding. God, tell me this is not happening. His instincts told him to run like hell, but he seized Addison's shoulders and spun her around. "Addison, I'm going to tell you something and you cannot freak out. See that hotel over there?" He said quickly, pointing to the sturdy looking building a little less than a kilometer away. There were small bungalows and another building partially blocking it and it wasn't huge, but it was the most distinctive one. Addison's eyes darted to where his finger was pointing and nodded. "When I tell you, I need you to run there, as fast as you can, get in, and go up as high as possible. Got it?"

"Got it," Addison said nervously. She was a good runner. She would often use the treadmill to cool her frustrations, and she thought she was fast. However, she had no idea what was going on. Jake was usually so calm, so collected. Now, though no matter how hard he tried to mask it, there was alarm in his eyes.

The beach was eerily silent, the ominous kind, as Jake spoke, "A tsunami is coming, Addison. It could kill us all." Jake looked into her frightened eyes, for what might be the last time. "Run!"

Addison complied.

Jake looked over his shoulders to see a vast expansion of sand and mud. He began to sprint towards the hotel, hoping he'd made the right decision, hoping the building was strong enough, hoping they would make it. The sea was still retreating, buying them some time. Time they couldn't afford to lose.


Unbeknown to man, the sea floor abruptly deformed, the seabed lifting as the ground quaked, vertically displacing the overlying water from its equilibrium position. Under the influence of gravity, waves are formed as the displaced water mass attempted to regain its equilibrium. In open sea, the waves would look relatively small, with a height between half a meter and a meter. They are unnoticeable. Irrelevant. Quiet, fast. Traveling 700 kilometers per hour, in the deep sea the waves seemed harmless. Upon reaching the shore, mass destruction would occur. Nobody would have seen it coming.


"A tree? Are you fucking kidding me?We got all of these stuff and your smartest plan is to climb a tree and hang on for dear life?" Amelia yelled, incredulous. They had been running for more than twenty minutes uphill, along with thousands of the island's occupants when Cooper had stopped in front of a large tree and suggested the three of them take shelter on top of it. It was the dumbest thing she'd ever heard.

It was difficult to hear her amidst all the commotion. That, and the thunderous roaring that Cooper hoped wasn't the tsunami. "There's no way in hell we are outrunning that wave!" He yelled back.

"Then lets get into, how about, I don't know, a building?" Amelia screamed back at him. She looked around. There were several three-story concrete buildings. Maybe if they all climbed to the roof…

"This tree is clearly taller than everything else around here!" James shouted. Well… Except for the utility pole. He shuddered thinking about the chances of electricity being leaked into the water. He remembered that the girl at the store had told him the last tsunami was three stories tall and James didn't want to take any chances. He had no idea how they were going to climb that thing with two bags of necessities each, but it did seem like the best option to him.

"Open your fucking eyes!" Cooper shouted, turning to Amelia. "This is a third world country, do you really want to get crushed in one of its shitty infrastructure?" He dropped his bags and began climbing the pine tree.

James began to follow suit. He abandoned a bag and held the other in his mouth as he climbed. He really hoped that all the buildings and trees from the shore up until where they were would help lessen the impact of the wave when it finally hit them.

"Hey genius," Amelia called. "The wave will wash your bag away anyway so why don't you save yourself the trouble?"

"Shut the fuck up and get up here!" James screamed at her, dropping the bag. How does a person climb this thing, anyway? And he was supposed to hold on until it was over… Cooper you fucking dumbass.

Cooper had already made it to the top when Amelia began to climb.

"Fuck, I see it," Cooper yelled from above. He'd twisted his head towards the ocean when saw it. It didn't even look like a wave. It was a black wall that towered over houses and swept up boats, docks, piers, bungalows and every other thing unfortunate enough to get stuck in its path. He didn't know if his tree was taller than it was or not, he didn't know if they stood a chance. Minutes felt like hours. "Fuck, fuck, Amelia, hurry the fuck up!"

"Amelia!" James screeched. The young doctor himself was clambering up, trying to get as high as possible. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it. The wind whipped against him but the tree did not budge. And James could definitely hear it. The roar sounded like a million trains. And it was coming towards them. His hands felt numb, wrapped around the tree bark. Please don't let go.

Amelia was halfway up the tree when Cooper started screaming. She blocked out all the noise as she focused on climbing. You're not going to make it, a voice inside her taunted. Oddly, it sounded like herself. Fuck you, she thought and inch-by-inch, Amelia climbed.

It's here, James thought desperately, looking down at his girlfriend. "Here, take my hand," he shouted, clinging with only a single arm and two legs. Amelia grabbed his free hand and with all the adrenaline running through him, he pulled her up and quickly scrambled up higher, making room for her.

There was no time for thanks. "Face the tree, you idiots!" Amelia screeched, hugging the pine securely. Cooper was staring at the approaching tsunami in both awe and sheer terror. If he continued like this when it hit, he'd end up blind or dead. "Cooper!" She shrieked again before she hid her face, closed her eyes and began to pray. Dear God, Amelia began. Please let us all survive so we can continue to do good things. Addie isn't with me, so please make sure she stays safe. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

"Cooper!" James screamed. His throat was raw, but he did it anyway. Cooper was at about two feet higher than he was, even further away from Amelia and he wasn't sure if the doctor had heard her. "Your face! Cover your face!"

Startled, Cooper Freedman faced the tree trunk and bended his head. He was holding the damn tree so tightly he was sure his balls would be crushed by the time this nightmare ended. Balls or no balls, he closed his eyes and prayed to survive. He prayed that Charlotte, wherever she was, was going to be safe. They had a family to go home to. That was Cooper's last thought before the black wall crashed onto his back, the force of the debris it carried cutting and bruising his body. He cried out in agonizing pain as he willed himself to keep holding on.

Not a sound was heard from the other two.


Charlotte and Violet had reached the hotel pool, intending to go inside the hotel for safety when a loud, booming sound that rattled glass windows all around them caused the two women to turn around.

Charlotte screamed. They were steps away from the hotel lobby. She fastened her grip on Violet's arm and tried to drag the shrink to safety. When Violet would not move, Charlotte crouched down and covered her head with her hands, her arms blocking her chest in an attempt to protect herself from the worst injuries. A raft, a roof, a tree, she silently begged, anything to keep me afloat. She had a little boy and three baby girls waiting for her. She must not die. If God existed, now was His time to prove it.

Violet stood gaping at the sight before her. Instead of the ocean, all she saw was darkness. She knew what it was, but she'd never imagined it to look that empty. It was just black. An infinite blanket of darkness that contained god knows how many bone-crushing things, and it towered over her as it was coming towards the hotel. She remotely felt Charlotte try to pull her away, but she remained completely still, as if she were stuck in a trance. Violet had read and seen documentaries about Tsunamis before and they all basically say the same thing: If you can see the wave, you're too close to escape.