Escaping the Giant Wave

Kyle and BeeBee’s parents find out that there was an earthquake on shore and try to call the hotel but realize that they cannot contact the children because the power is out. They go to find the ship’s captain to ask to go back to shore. They learn that the hotel they were staying at caught fire and that there is a tsunami warning. The captain refuses to go back to shore, explaining that it is safer for the boat to be at sea during a tsunami, so the parents resolve to pray and wait it out. Daren’s parents also hear the news about the earthquake and cause a scene when they are told they are not returning to shore.

Back on shore, Daren thinks about how he will deny that “wimpy” Kyle saved him from the fire if anyone from school finds out and wonders if his parents know about the earthquake. A van passes, broadcasting with large megaphones that there is a tsunami warning for the area (89). Daren starts to have doubts about staying on the beach and thinks that he was “so sure that Kyle was foolish to run away” before (90). He discovers that tsunami warnings aren’t taken seriously in the area because nothing ever happens, and this makes Daren happy to prove Kyle wrong. As the time gets closer to 5:30pm, Daren feels brave and excited by his decision to stay among the people on the beach. However, three minutes before the wave is supposed to hit, someone yells that a killer wave is coming and to get far away from the beach immediately. A few people on the beach start to run away and Daren joins them, though they’re still laughed at by others who choose to stay behind.

BeeBee and Kyle walk uphill with Norm and Josie and their dog Pansy. They reach the top of a hill and sit down at a bench that overlooks the ocean. They watch the firefighters and the people on the beach and wait for 5:30pm to come along. Josie and Norm offer for Kyle and his family to stay with them after they are reunited with their parents so that they have somewhere to sleep. At 5:30pm, Pansy the dog starts barking. Then they hear the “roaring noise like a dozen low-flying airplanes” and see the water “rising higher and higher as it [approaches] land” (100). Everyone below them is swept away by the wave that is taller than both hotels.

Kyle, BeeBee, Norm, Josie, and Pansy start hurrying further inland in case there is a bigger second wave on the way. They “[crash] through the underbrush like startled deer” and Kyle keeps thinking about the horrors he just witnessed (103). He and BeeBee worry about what happened to Daren and hope that he didn’t die in the tsunami. After a while, Josie declares that she can go no further, and she and Norm decide to stop because they are tired and elderly. They give Kyle a flashlight and encourage him and BeeBee to keep going to safety. They ran “not knowing what was ahead of [them] and not caring” until BeeBee stops out of exhaustion (106). It is dark outside, and they only have the flashlight Norm gave them. As they catch their breath, they hear branches snap and see two glowing eyes looking at them.