"I know it's in here somewhere," Tay muttered to himself as he dug through his bag.

"This is really worrying me, I mean we seem to always end up in the wrong place at the wrong time," Will exclaimed.

"I know, don't ask me how, all I know is, if you weren't here I don't know what I'd do," Tay replied smiling. That sparkle in his eyes making everything seem bearable to Will.

Tay grabbed his phone and pressed the 'on' button. The LED screen blinked twice and returned a 'no service' message.

"It's not picking up a service, I wonder if the storm has anything to do with it," he asked.

"Why am I not surprised."

"All I know is they've gotta be trying to get a hold of us, I'm sure they knew about the storm before we did," Tay said sitting down on the bed.

Thunder crashed in the distance and wind howled against the balcony doors. Will shuddered.

"We're gonna be fine babe, we've made it through everything else that's been thrown at us," Tay said wrapping his arm around Will drawing him closer.

"I know, I know I just have this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach," Will whispered.

"Now don't you start breaking apart on me, I need you," Tay said with misty eyes.

There was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?"

"I'm with the hotel, we are evacuating to a storm shelter," a young mans voice called.

"Oh, great, this is just great," Will said standing up.

"Ok, we'll be out in a moment," Tay replied.

"Come on, grab your bag, they've got their reasons," Tay said tossing Will the duffel with his cloths.

*          *          *          *          *

"What do you mean they've evacuated," Walker bellowed at the last person standing outside the hotel not more than half an hour later.

"They sent everyone to the storm shelters twenty five miles south, down that way," the man pointed down the coast line.

"Is it clearly marked," Walker yelled over the gusts of wind.

"Yes the flairs should still be lit."

Walker floored the car and they sped off down the road.

*          *          *          *          *

Taylor and Will sat quietly in the back of the hotel shuttle as it slowed to make the turn off the coastal road that led to the shelter area. His stomach flopped as the bus turned, strangely leaning over to one side at an extreme pitch.

"Somethings wrong, Tay, Tay," Will yelled as everything around them started to slide and people started dumping out of their seats. Glass rained down on them as the bus slammed over on to it's side. Wet sea air whipping in through the broken windows.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here," Tay yelled pulling Will up. His eyes were glassy, he held his head a slight trickle of blood ran from his temple.

They struggled to stand as the wind whipped at the bus. Most of the passengers stood up and managed to work their way down to the front of the bus. Apparently the wind had tipped the over packed bus on to it's side. Thankfully no one had been seriously hurt.

"Babe, are you ok," Tay asked lifting Wills hand from his temple.

"My head hurts, I can't think straight," Will whispered quietly. He looked extremely out of it. Taylor was worried the bump on his head was worse than he first thought.

"Come on let's get moving everyone only two miles to the shelter we've got to go, the hurricane is going to hit any time now," a tall slender Hawaiian man yelled out over a mega phone.

By now the wind was unbearable. Sand and wet salt air stung at everyones eyes. Taylor helped Will along, he was getting increasingly worse it seemed. He kept stumbling and tripping. After about fifteen minutes Tay lead him over to the curb and sat down.

"We can sit for just a moment, please tell me you're ok," Tay's voice trembled.

"My eyes hurt, it feels like someone is sticking an ice pick in to my skull right here," Will said pointing to the place where he struck his head in the bus accident.

"You'll be fine, we just gotta get to a safe place," Tay said as the wind picked up even more. Rain began to pour down in virtual buckets. Seeing more than five feet in front of themselves was impossible.

"Oh god, come on we gotta go," Tay yelled pulling Will up, who stumbled a little bit but caught himself.

"Where did they go, I can't see a fucking thing," Tay screamed. The rain had doused most of the flairs, and they couldn't hear anyone.

*          *          *          *          *

"Oh shit, hold on," Walker yelled as a palm tree came towering down into the roadway in front of them. The tires squealed as Walker slammed the breaks on. Spinning the wheel to the right to avoid impact with the tree. It wasn't enough. They had been going too fast and the tree landed square across the hood, windshield and roof of the car.

The black Toyota Camry sat crooked in the middle of the road. Steam rising from the engine. Windshield shattered, roof collapsed with a old thick palm resting over it. The passengers were still. The right turn signal blinked.

The rain poured down and the wind howled as Bertha loomed closer, less than a mile off the coast. The full brute strength of her wrath only mere moments from crashing into the shores of Honolulu.

*          *          *          *          *

A thousand plus miles away, in her bedroom in Tulsa Oklahoma, Diana Hanson bolted up right in bed. Pale as a ghost tears in her eyes.

"Oh dear God no," she gasped putting her hand to her chest ...


On to Chapter Seven

On to Chapter Five

Chapter Index

Taylor Quest Home Page

Disaster in Paradise is Copyright © 2000 by Taylor W. Quest.
This work may not be duplicated in any form – physical, electronic, audio, or otherwise – without the author's written permission.
All applicable copyright laws apply. All individuals depicted are fictional with any resemblance to real persons being purely coincidental.

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