Chapter 2

EPOV

I had the scent of what I assumed had to be a jaguar, very similar to a cougar but more… exotic. I flew through the forest after it, its scent completely filling me, the hunt consuming me. I came upon it as it was crouched down ready to ambush a large marsh deer. I pounced and tackled it, biting into its neck so quickly it barely had a chance to put up a fight before it succumbed to the blood loss. I relished in the taste, so much more interesting and exotic than the deer and even the cougars I was used to in Washington.

I had just finished draining the animal when I felt a murmur from deep beneath the earth. This quickly transformed to a very large earthquake, it shook the forest around me. Loose branches fell to the earth as the trees swayed and shook from the force of the quake followed by an entire tree crashing down next to me. The earthquake went on for multiple minutes, as it was ending I began to run back to Rio.

I was suddenly extremely regretful that I had run so far into the forest to hunt my prey. It would take me at least 10 minutes to run back into town. I was consumed with worry for Bella; I pulled out my cell phone as I ran only to realize that I had no service. I cursed under my breath. I wondered if Alice had seen what would happen and had tried to reach me. I just hoped that I would get service once I reached the city.

Several minutes passed as I ran, I pushed myself to the absolute limit of my speed until I reached civilization. At this point I could no longer sprint at my normal speed; I was forced to run at a fast human speed to get to the docks. It was infuriatingly slow, but as I ran I noticed people screaming and running from the ocean. Because of the buildings of the city I couldn't see anything in the direction of the water, I kept running. I checked my phone again- nothing. The cell towers must be down. Damnit.

I didn't even make it out of the city before the first wave pummeled the city. I was suddenly engulfed by the ocean, even I couldn't hold my balance and I tumbled as the water forced me into the ground floor of a storefront. Had I been human I would have surely drowned. I was forced to the back of the store by the strength of the wave as the room completely filled with water. I began to truly panic. If this could happen to me, what was happening with my Bella?

I recovered myself and began to swim back out of the building. The chaos was unbelievable. As I surfaced I was assaulted with the cacophony of screams, people calling family member's names, people screaming in pain, the roar of the water, the crashing of glass and metal on metal. I couldn't even think about helping, I had to get to the boat; I had to get to Bella. In the moment my brain didn't process the fact that there was no way the boat was still where I left it.

Swimming against the force of the tsunami was almost impossible even with my strength. As I swam under the water I was grabbing onto anything I could and pulling myself forward through the water. I was assaulted constantly by debris; I could feel my clothes tearing where my skin could not. I surfaced where I thought the marina was but there was nothing, I could see only one boat and it had capsized, the others must have sunk. I realized that I had to swim all the way out to Isle Esme.

Once I was out in the open ocean past the confines of the city I could feel the water withdrawing back to the ocean. I didn't let myself think about what this meant as I used the pull of the tide to help me propel myself farther into the ocean. I was aware of a human body every now and then floating around me but each one was silent with no heartbeat. I tried to keep my mind on one thing and one thing only. I'm coming Bella.

I was making much better progress now that water was rapidly receding and working with me, until I felt the same force starting to build up again. I didn't even need to surface to figure out what was happening, a second tsunami was coming, potentially more devastating than the last. I figured that my only course of action to stop from having all of my progress undone was to dive deeply to the ocean floor.

Even from so far below the surface I could feel the tsunami racing above me back to land; luckily I was correct and was untouched by the force of nature. I continued to rocket towards Isle Esme, hoping against hope that it was somehow untouched. I pictured Bella still asleep in our bed, waking only when I got there, confused as to why I was sopping wet. She was never that lucky though, proven by the fact that a horrible natural disaster strikes in the few hours I left her alone in the last two weeks.

Swimming to Isle Esme took longer than I had hoped and by the time I reached the shore the sea had settled for the most part and the sun was just starting to peek on the horizon of a blessedly cloudy day. I hoped that the cloud cover would hold up in the likely case I needed to be around people today. As I pulled myself up the beach the site that greeted me was worse than I could've imagined.

The cottage was gutted, the walls stood but that was about it, the windows smashed, the contents of the cottage were littered along the beach and into the forest behind it. If my heart was beating it would have stopped at the sight, it didn't look like anyone could have survived this. I ran for the cottage shouting 'BELLA!' knowing that I wouldn't hear a response. I couldn't hear anything- including her heart…

I stepped through the shattered glass doorway knowing that if she was in here I wouldn't be finding her alive, but still I searched. I flipped over the large pieces of furniture and searched the entire building; I found nothing which gave me hope. The two options for her location were the forest or lost in the ocean. I didn't even entertain the option that she was floating somewhere in the abyss that I had just swam through. I ran for the forest.

The forest was littered with debris and fallen trees; I also noticed that it was silent, no bird calls, nothing. I assumed everything had run for higher ground, I could only hope that Bella had managed to do the same. I had been so surprised by what had happened and I have the gift of extra abilities, Bella is just a human, a human who was likely fast asleep when this hit. I shuddered at the thought and kept my mind focused on finding her.

'Bella!' I called again as I combed the forest looking for her. It was taking too long; I had been searching for roughly 20 minutes with no sign of her. The water had washed away any and all scent of her; it was like she had never been here at all. As I walked through the forest I suddenly caught the very faint smell of human blood, her blood.

I quickly located the blood, about 20 feet up on the edge of a tree branch. No. I thought, horrified. This proved that she was indeed swept up in the tsunami; I doubled my search efforts screaming her name. After another few miles I found one of her running shoes soaking wet leaning up against a tree, I smelled deeply and I just barely smelled her scent. She had definitely been wearing this recently.

As I continued to run I began to smell the slight scent of blood, I raced towards it. The smell grew stronger and stronger as I ran through the gradually lightening forest.

BPOV

When I awoke it was still dark although I could see some light on the horizon when I lifted my head. I woke to realize my upper body and arms were still draped over the fallen tree that had saved my life. I tried to lift myself up and my right shoulder screamed out in pain and I collapsed back down over the log. Through the fog that was my injured brain I became aware of another much more dire injury. The way I had been laying on the log must have been serving to seal the puncture wound in my chest but now that I had shifted the wound reopened and immediately my breathing became next to impossible as I heard a hissing coming from my chest with every breath.

I managed to turn myself over so that just the back of my head rested on the log and in doing this I briefly passed out from the pain. As I flipped over, the stick that had gone clean through my leg was pushed on causing unbelievable agony to erupt within it. When I came to all I was aware of was pain, the pains in my head, neck, left chest, right shoulder and thigh were the most pressing ones. I slowly shifted myself down off of the log wanting to lay my neck flat knowing that I had injured it and the back of my head, not wanting to make them worse.

I lay flat on my back listening to the whistling of my chest, I looked down and pulled my shirt up with my left hand revealing a myriad of black and blue bruises, but also a hole in my chest between my ribs that bubbled pink with every breath I took. Breathing was becoming extremely difficult and all I could think to do was to seal the hole shut with my hand. I breathed out first letting the air bubble up then quickly covered it over with my shaking hand and inhaled, the difference was definitely noticeable.

All I could do now was hope that Edward would find me before my strength wore out and I could no longer hold the seal over my chest. As I lay there on the forest floor with my blood slowly leaving my body I could only think of two things, the immense all-encompassing pain I was in, and Edward. I hoped he was okay, I didn't know if he'd even be able to get back to me after what happened. No way could a boat get through a tsunami; even if he waited, there would probably be too much debris to even get the boat out of the marina.

My brain was so foggy from the repeated head trauma, I thought I heard someone shout in the far distance but I quickly dismissed this. No one was here, I was alone. I was drifting in and out of consciousness, my hand would slip off my chest wound and the impossibility of breathing would wake me immediately and leave me scrambling to cover the hole again. A single tear slipped down the side of my face. I was exhausted; I'd never been so exhausted, just holding my left arm up to the wound in my chest seemed beyond what energy I had left after what I just went through.

The sun was rising a little higher into the sky when I heard it again, someone yelling. I couldn't make out what they were yelling but I was sure this time, I had definitely heard a person. I tried calling back out to them 'H-' I immediately choked on the blood bubbling up from my lungs into my chest and coughed and spluttered. 'Bella!' Did I really just hear that? Did Edward make it back here? I thought to myself.

I turned my head and spit the blood onto the forest floor beside me. 'Here!' I managed to rasp out this time barely audible. I prayed it was loud enough for his sensitive ears to pick up. There was silence then 'BELLA!' and I heard the rapid approach of what I assumed was Edward running through the forest towards me.

'Oh my god Bella…' I heard Edward say quietly, I then realized that my eyes were closed and I peeled them open. This was easier on the left than the right; my right eye had slowly been swelling shut after slamming face first into the mangrove tree.

'Edward.' I whispered trying to reach for him with my right hand but it lay useless at my side, my broken shoulder stopping my arm from moving.

'It's okay love, don't move. I'm going to get you help.' I felt his hands fluttering over me not knowing where to start; he looked like he was in shock.

'Don't breathe.' I whispered to him, tasting blood on my tongue and lips again.

He shushed me 'Try not to talk Bella.' He said as he wiped the fresh blood from my lips. 'Let me see.' He said as his hands gently pushed my left hand away. I didn't have the energy to resist and when the seal of my hand was broken I immediately sucked air into and out of my chest, I could hear it bubbling.

'Damnit.' He said to himself as he resealed the hole with his own hands. 'I'm sorry Bella.' His voice burned with emotion.

'I'm okay.' I whispered, eyes closing.

'Bella, open your eyes for me, no falling asleep now, okay?' He said urgently as I started to drift off again.

'Mm, sorry.' I whispered opening my eyes again.

'No need to apologize love.' He murmured. 'Bella I need to you tell me what hurts before I can move you.'

'Chest.' I said 'Leg, shoulder.' I devolved into a series of coughs after this, Edward lifting my head up so the blood could exit my mouth.

'Ah! Neck! Head!' I exclaimed in pain, his lifting my head had caused an explosion of pain in my neck and head again.

He quickly lowered my head back down and cursed loudly. 'I'm so sorry Bella.'

'I'm okay.' I whispered finally as I lay back down on the ground.

At that he let the hand that wasn't holding my chest together probe around my head where he found the wound on the back of my head and I gasped. 'Sorry.' He murmured again.

'Okay Bella,' he said and I looked into his face as he looked at me. 'I'm going to move you now, okay? I'm going to bring you back to the cottage, hopefully there's something there I can use to help you.'

'Edward…' I whispered, terrified of the pain, he must've heard my heart rate increase.

He leaned down and kissed me on the uninjured side of my forehead. 'I know sweetheart, I'll do my best to keep you stabilized, okay? I need you to do one thing though; I need you to cover the wound on your chest as I carry you. Can you do that?' he asked me.

I nodded and he pulled my left hand over the wound so quickly that no air got in or out. From there he lifted me carefully being sure to cradle my neck and right shoulder but even still I cried out in pain. I tried to stifle it but it was impossible.

'I know, I'm sorry.' He shushed me and then we were flying through the forest. Even at his rapid speed it was several minutes before we reached the beach, I couldn't believe how far into the forest the water had taken me. Edward carried me inside the ruined cottage and laid me on the wet mattress and I shivered. 'I know Bella, I'm sorry. Everything is wet.'

'It's okay.' I whispered again as my eyes began to close, too heavy to force back open.