Page 8 of The Space Traveller's Lover
“What was that?” She strains her eyes and focuses on the glittering orange light coming from the black cliffs.
“Stella! You’ve got to come down. We’re leaving!” Bill insists while Stella keeps staring into the distance.
She points towards the bright glow, but as she is about to ask her father to join her, the orange light goes out of her sight.
“Uh! I think I got a bit dizzy … I swear I saw a big bright orange light,” she claims as she jumps from the desk.
“Maybe it was one of the rescue helicopters!” Stella tries to justify herself under her father’s sceptical stare. “They should be resuming the search soon.”
“Stella, the helicopter lights are green, not orange,” Sheppard counters.
“Oh, forget it! It was the fog. I am so tired.” Stella gives up, noticing the dismissive look on everyone’s face.
The dwindling patting of the receding raindrops brings about an edgy aura of comfort as the emerging breaks in the clouds slowly restore their hopes to restart their search.
Lobart and Sheppard carefully sweep the ocean and the coast through the lookout telescopes, but all they can see is grim desolation.
As the group walks towards the exit doors and Mr Lobart unbolts the locking mechanism, all are eager to breathe in the fresh air.
Soon the fog starts to lift, and with renewed expectation, they watch as the helicopters fly along the coast, their roaring engines rattling and lifting their spirits. The ARA’s rescue team is here to attend to the injured and repair the damages. Surely the special brigades can make the difference in finding Sam and Erin. That is the thought in everyone’s mind.
But the storm is not done yet. The rain that follows lasts for two consecutive days while it seems the entire region will soon drown in the sea.
As the rain falls like a thick, impenetrable curtain, swollen water streams rush down the hills and form new waterfalls, blocking the roads with dislodged rocks and mudslides.
The ARA has already classified the mighty storm ravaging the small but vital island of Tinian as a Level 1 Emergency, the highest level.
Most of the island’s replanted trees have been mercilessly ripped off in mangled chunks and strewn across the landscape. The swollen water currents have carved new paths across the landscape, and the artificial reservoirs are now joined into a large single water basin.
The reinforced steel houses have fared better; they’re still standing up in one piece amidst the waterlogged fields.
When the rain eventually stops and as the water levels start to subside, everyone steps out into the open to face a landscape that has been mostly uprooted and remodelled.
The Sun’s shimmering disc shines through the now thinning higher clouds, signalling the long-awaited break in the weather. The warming sunbeams disperse through the floating water droplets, forming a brightly coloured rainbow over the ocean as if celebrating the end of the storm.
Finally, after four days of disruption, the rescue operations can resume across the island. At the same time, preparations are underway for their next attempt at the cave system’s most inaccessible site.
Now, the last hope of finding Sam and Erin rests in the unlikely area of Diablo’s cave’s gorge. But their families and the ARA’s rescuers haven’t given up yet.
CHAPTER 5
CAPTURE
Erin wondered if this was some afterlife experience
and she and Sam were already dead.
On the day of their disappearance, Erin was sitting next to Sam while he steered the boat at high speed.
“I’m taking you somewhere you’ve never seen before,” he shouted over the roaring sound of the engine.
She eagerly smiled and nodded as if she already knew where they were going.
He welcomed her bubbly excitement; he wanted so much to tell her about his feelings. This would be the perfect time, the ideal place.
On the horizon, the black outline of Diablo’s Point’s majestic cliffs was getting closer by the second.
Erin was wholly absorbed, admiring the breathtaking landscape, while Sam kept watching her out of the corner of his eye. He kept admiring her long hair moulded by the wind as she untied her ponytail and tilted her head backwards.
