The Survivors(27)

Kieran checked his watch. It hadn’t really been that long, but he knew what Ash meant. It was unnerving to just stand there, not knowing what was happening.

‘Bronte seemed nice,’ Kieran said, for something to fill the space. ‘From what I saw.’

‘Yeah, she was. All right, calm down, mate –’ Ash had reached over to pull out another weed, but dropped it as the frowning uniformed officer looked poised to act. Ash turned his back on the house and leaned against the fence. ‘Bronte was good fun. Easy to be around, you know? Easygoing, I guess,’ he corrected himself. ‘I know she drove Liv a bit nuts, but it wasn’t deliberate. I mean, Liv’s got other things going on, stuff with her mum. It wasn’t all about Bronte, even if Liv thinks it was.’ Ash glanced sideways. ‘Don’t tell Olivia I said that.’

Kieran shook his head with a small smile. Ash turned back to the house, his own smile fading.

‘I know it’s different when you live with someone, but I thought Bronte was all right.’ He frowned, and fell quiet for a moment. ‘Liam liked her. A lot. Whatever Sean reckons, that kid was into her. Bloody obvious about it too.’

‘And what did Bronte make of him?’

Ash reached out and ran a rough finger and thumb over the police tape looped across the gate. ‘Who knows, eh?’

Olivia pointed as the green-black water surged slick and strong across the cave floor, foaming angrily against the walls. The sight of it was Kieran’s last completely clear memory of that day. Everything after that came in snatches.

He remembered sliding off the ledge feet-first, and the shock of discovering the water he’d thought was ankle-deep was above his knees. Come on, come on, he had urged, watching in disbelief as Olivia took valuable seconds to reach up and snatch the waterproof bag with their phones in it.

Jesus, leave it, he must have said, because he remembered her looking at him in astonishment.

Are you kidding? No way. Her eyes were wide.

But no, Kieran was serious. Because all he could think of was Finn’s warning.

If you’re in here at high tide, you are not coming out.

Kieran had grabbed Olivia’s arm and they’d waded through the oily blackness. The relief as they’d hit open air had vanished immediately when they splashed out of the cave and into daylight that was more like night. The beach had disappeared. The peak of each wave reached his chest. His skin stung in the driving rain and the sea slapped high against the rock.

The dark twin mouths of the caves inhaled huge lungfuls of water before spewing them out again, and the currents clawed at Kieran’s legs, trying to knock his feet out from under him. He wiped the water from his eyes and tried to work out which way to aim to pick up the cliff path that led away from the beach and up to safety. He couldn’t see it. Everything seemed different.

‘Shit, Kieran, look.’ Olivia’s voice was snatched away and he had squinted against the rain hammering down on the open sea. And it was wide open, he realised. There was nothing between them and the horizon, and all at once he knew why everything felt so wrong.

The Survivors were gone.

Where they should have been standing solid and secure with their heads always rising above the water, there was only angry ocean and a grey-black horizon. They were fully submerged, swallowed whole by the swell. Kieran had never before seen that. The fear that had been brewing inside him, strong and dark and deep, exploded to the surface.

‘We have to get higher.’

He’d grabbed Olivia’s hand. The bottom of the cliff path was under the waves but they had forced their way, half swimming and half wading, to where it should have been. Olivia lost her footing first, and Kieran heard her gasp as she went under. He plunged in his other hand, dragging her up until she appeared, red-faced and choking. Moments later, he stumbled and the world was instantly swallowed up.

He felt himself dragged in one direction by the water and another by Olivia, and then it was his turn to burst through the surface, back into the roar of the storm. They pushed forward, Kieran counting the steps in his head until he felt the sand give way to rock under his feet. He felt light-headed with relief. They had found the path.

As the tide sucked out, gathering momentum, he put his hands on Olivia’s waist and hoisted her up. She clambered higher, her bare legs leaving a bloody smear where she grazed them against the rock. She had lain flat on her stomach, shielding her face from the sheets of rain, stretching down to help him. She’d yelled something that Kieran couldn’t hear over the shrieking wind.

He never reached her. The water slammed into him and next time he could see he was far away.

Olivia had untangled the waterproof bag from around her wrist and wrenched it open, using her phone to call for help. Kieran didn’t know if he really remembered seeing her do that, or if he’d conjured the memory from what he’d learned afterwards. He’d heard a snatch of his name being shouted into the squall and fought to swim towards her voice. He couldn’t make any ground.

The waves were monstrous. He was tossed upwards then pulled so deep he couldn’t tell which way to fight for the surface. He didn’t know how long he was under for. Long enough that his lungs were empty in a way he had never felt before.

And then, suddenly, where there had been nothing but water, there was rock. Hard and brutal, it hurtled towards him with enough force to make his teeth rattle. When the water pulled back, Kieran was still chest down, his face slick against the solid surface. Breathless and bleeding, he had raised his head and seen Olivia screaming something at him. She was pointing in a frantic gesture.