Page 80 of Just Watch Me
A buzz. Ading.He pulled the phone from his pocket fast.
It was Marko.
All good. Thank God. Found yours?
Not yet,Zane texted back.Looking.
Need help?The answer came straight back. That was a mate for you.
Not now,Zane texted.I’ll let you know.
A thumbs-up. But all those texts had gone through. Zane found the thread with Skylar and wrote,How far up did you get? Number of streets? Number of minutes?
Nothing.
There’d been that aftershock. A bad one.
He put the phone back into his pocket and ran. Across one street. Across two. Nearly at the?—
He’d turn around, that was all. He’d turn around and look again, and then he’d go down the other side of the street. He’d keep looking, and he’d find them, because he’d never stop.
Hang on,he thought.I’m coming.
“Dad!”He registered the word at that same instant the figure stepped into his path. He had his arms around her just that fast, was swinging her to stop his momentum, then coming to a stop, holding on, trying not to gasp.
“Dad,”Scarlett said, holding his jacket.“Dad.”She was crying now, great gulping sobs.
“Daddy!” Georgia, running out of the dark. “Daddy! I had to wee on thepavement,and we had to sit on the floor in the museum, and it was an earthquake, and the carpark was broken, and we couldn’t get in!”
Duncan was there, too, and then more kids, but Zane was still looking. And there she was.
Skylar.
Who was safe.
Who had kept them all safe.
He turned from his kids, took her in his arms, and kissed her. She was crying, he thought, but he couldn’t see. Crying, trying to tell him things, and unable to do it. He had one arm around her and one around some kid, he couldn’t tell which. It was cold, it was windy, and it was dark.
But they were safe.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go home.”
31
AFTERMATH
Everything was soodd.As if she were watching the world through glass, or trying to feel things with numbed hands. She knew she should be exhausted. Shewasexhausted. She just couldn’t sleep. Jade was beside her, andshewas asleep. But then, Jade hadn’t seen what she had.
Every bed in the house was full, and a couple of them were double-full. Everybody had a bed, though, except Zane, who was sleeping on the couch. Which wasn’t fair, was it? It was his house. But his parents were in his bed, and there was no way he’d be makingthemsleep on the couch. That wasn’t the kind of son he was. That wasn’t the kind ofmanhe was.
They’d walked back to the house in the cold, in the dark, in the wreckage and the strangeness. “My dad says they have water up there, if no electric,” Zane had said. “We can do without electric. We can’t do without water. I’d like to get the kids more comfortable, and you, too. We won’t find that in some overcrowded evac center. And in case there’s another quake … I’d rather be higher, that’s all.” Spoken softly, because they’d stepped away, the two of them, to make a plan.
“Landslides.” She said it quietly, too. The kids didn’t need to worry about anything else.
“Built on rock up there,” he said. “Like where I was. Where we climbed to after the bus. Nowhere’s going to be completely safe. We just need to find the safest place we can.”
She wanted to ask him about where he’d been, what he’d done, but it was going to have to wait. “Can you find it?” she asked instead. “It’s so many turns.”
