THE CHURNING, ROILING tsunami approached, its surface thick with displaced vegetation. Sluglimpets could be seen in it too, upending or spinning in the current, their legs wriggling. The settlers stood on the roofs of the handful of settlement buildings that remained standing, or clung to the branches of tall tree-like vegetation. The electric fence had been turned off, and a few men and women had chosen it as the structure least likely to be knocked down by the wave. They perched precariously on top.
Cariad and Cherry were squeezed into a narrow space on the roof of the Leader’s residence. Cariad had looked for Osias’ body among the ruins as Cherry had guided her there, but she hadn’t been able to see him. Most of the place had been burned to ash, so it wasn’t surprising.
So many deaths
