Tsunami

While on their honeymoon, Edward leaves in the night to hunt and a natural disaster strikes. When he returns will he be able to save Bella, or even find her?

AN: This story is written on the basis that Bella is not yet ready to be turned into a vampire and that she isn't willing to give up her family yet. It's an excuse for whump without the easy solution of turning her into a vampire.

Chapter 1

When I woke I was groggy, it was one of those awakenings where for a brief moment I couldn't remember where I was. My surroundings were foreign; from the luxuriously soft bed sheets to the warm humid air. When my memories did come back to me I sat up in bed realizing what had woke me, I needed to pee. I felt next to me in the darkness searching for my new husband only to realize I was alone. In my groping along the bed my fingers felt something smooth, flat and stiff- it was a sheet of paper folded in half. I picked the note up and walked over to the light switch in the room. The outside of the note read: Mrs. Cullen.

I'm hoping you won't wake and notice my absence, but, if you should, I'll be back very soon. I've gone to the mainland to hunt. Go back to sleep and I'll be here when you wake again. I love you.

I sighed, we'd been here for 2 weeks, it was obvious he would have to go and hunt sometime but I hadn't given thought to when. Don't be so selfish I thought to myself. Knowing he'd stick to his word and be back soon I made my way to the bathroom drowsily. When I was done I found that I was half asleep and began to make my way back to bed longing to lie down. I collapsed face first on the satin sheets not bothering to cover myself back up; even though it was the middle of the night it was so warm.

I was just starting to drift off to sleep when the bed started to vibrate, lightly at first but then it quickly transformed to a violent shaking. The loud crashing sounds coming from other parts of the house told me that it wasn't just the bed shaking. Earthquake, I realised. It was when a beam from the ceiling collapsed- crashing loudly onto the floor that I realised how bad it was. I was just trying to decide where to hide when all of the windows in the cottage began loudly shattering one after another including the ones in my bedroom. I dove under the bed for cover, making myself as small as possible and waiting it out.

It felt like hours passed before the shaking finally stopped, but even still I didn't move for a good few minutes to be sure it was done. I crawled out from under the bed once I was sure it was safe to do so. I was suddenly immensely glad that I had worn slippers earlier in the evening and I slipped them on hoping they would offer adequate protection from the shattered glass littering the floor. I lightly walked over to the light switch again and flipped it into the 'on' position. Nothing. The power was clearly out.

I made my way into the kitchen; even by the dim moonlight I could see the carnage that was once the cottage. It was in shambles, every window as far as I could tell had been blown out. The curtains and rods were on the floor, cupboards had opened and spewed out their contents. Bits of broken ceramic dishes covered the counter below as well as the kitchen floor. Even amongst the chaos I managed to locate what I was looking for, the old fashioned corded phone hung from where the base was mounted on the kitchen wall.

As I walked toward it, it swung back and forth and I grabbed it mid-swing. I picked it up and held the receiver to my ear- nothing but silence greeted me. I hung it up hoping that it had timed out, I picked it back up and desperately brought the phone to my ear praying I'd hear something. Silence.

'Damnit!' I cried, panic starting to creep in, I slammed the receiver back down and took a deep breath. I went to what were once the large glass doors and found my running shoes. I turned them upside down and glass rained out of them, I meticulously cleaned them out making sure no glass remained then slipped them on. I went to my bedroom and put on a pair of capris and a t-shirt. I felt a little bit better now that I was dressed more appropriately.

With Edward gone- having taken the boat- I realised that I was well and truly stranded, I couldn't get off this island- couldn't even call off. I tried not to panic as I walked out to the beach, hoping against hope that I might see Edward in the boat on the horizon coming back for me. Of course he wasn't, and not only did I not see him, I couldn't see anything.

The normal lights of Rio were gone, extinguished. It was as if the city across the water had vanished, swallowed by the hungry ocean. I was truly starting to panic now, worried for the people across the water who were sure to be in danger, worried for Edward, worried for me. Even with the eeriness of the total darkness, my anxiety over Edward returning overrode my fears. Plus I don't think the house missing all of its windows and doors would be much help in keeping me safe if any animals or humans came looking. So I sat out on the sand of the beach feeling cold despite the warm air.

I can't have been sitting on the beach for longer than a few minutes before the water began retreating. This wasn't the normal push and pull of the tide, the water started pulling back and didn't stop. It got sucked back so far that I couldn't even see the water anymore in the moonlight. I didn't understand what had happened, why had the water vanished? I stood up to try to get a better view when I heard the faint sound of rushing water. It quickly became louder, too loud. Right after I noticed the sound I saw it.

A massive wall of water was coming crashing towards me, way too fast, way too big. The size of it shocked me- I couldn't make myself move for an agonizing few seconds, but when I did I was running faster than I ever had before back in the direction of the cottage. In my panicked brain I realized as I reached the blown out glass doors that if I went inside the water would fill the structure up and I would be trapped.

I quickly recalculated and turned left, sprinting towards the giant mangrove tree that I loved. If only I could reach the tree and climb out of the way of the oncoming wave, it was my only chance. The tree sat roughly 50 yards behind the cottage, with all of its scraggly roots and grizzled knots even I stood a chance of climbing it- if I could reach it that is.

As I ran I could hear the roaring of the ocean getting louder and louder as it neared the island, as if some ancient sea creature had come to life to claim me. As fast as I ran I knew I wasn't going to be fast enough but I didn't give up. I sprinted, my legs burned, my lungs ached for oxygen and I was close. So close. I reached out with my arm and my fingertips brushed the bark of the tree when I felt a brick wall slam into my back forcing me face first into the tree and engulfing me with salty water.

The blow to my forehead dazed me to say the least; the pain ricocheted down into my neck blazing a trail of pain from above my eyebrow to my neck. I registered this in a half second before I was tumbling under water, I was pushed around the tree as I tried scrabbling at its trunk only to be quickly ripped away. I could feel debris hitting me under water but it was barely registering as I quickly ran out of oxygen.

I struggled and kicked trying to find the surface only to be tumbled back down and flipped around. I couldn't figure out which way was up. I could no longer hold my breath and my body automatically sucked water into my lungs. I'm dying, this is it. I thought to myself in a moment of lucidity, it was when I had gone limp and could no longer fight that the water threw me back up to the surface. I vomited copious amounts of seawater before I was able to gulp some precious oxygen back into my lungs.

I managed to look up to see that I was being forced into the forest that lay behind the cottage and tried to brace myself as I was bounced from tree to tree. I was barely cognizant of the pain as I was pulled back under. I scrambled under the water knowing that I would die if I stayed under again for any length of time. I grabbed at multiple trees as I was forced deeper into the forest and I finally managed to grab hold of a branch and pull myself up, my head breaching the surface.

I clung desperately to the trunk as the water rushed by me. I had to be up 20 feet off the forest floor gauging by the appearance of the trees next to me. The tsunami had picked up so much debris that my back was being pelted with varies detritus from the forest floor and from the cottage that surely had to be completely submerged and destroyed. My hold was getting weaker and weaker the more exhausted I became; I was feeling my grasp weaken when suddenly the rush of water slowed and then stopped.

I couldn't comprehend how it could have gone from the rapid pace to almost a dead stand still in such a short period of time with my muddled thoughts. It wasn't until I felt the water begin to recede like it had earlier at the beach. The head injury made it more difficult to react in time but I tried to lock my arms around the trunk of the tree but I was no match for the rapidly receding water.

The insides of my forearms and my palms rasped against the bark of the tree that had been my saviour as I was ripped backwards as the tide pulled back out. I found myself in the same position I had just been in. I was immediately forced backwards into another tree knocking the wind out of me and bashing the back of my head this time reigniting the pain in my neck. I at least managed to keep my head above water this time as I was pulled back towards the beach.

I was frantically trying to find purchase on anything that I possibly could, even in my muddled state I knew that I didn't want to be out in open water, I knew that would be bad. Unfortunately I bounced off of everything I tried to grab. I was so exhausted at this point it wasn't surprising that I couldn't save myself, but still I tried.

It was once I saw the top of the cottage that I knew I was done for, there was nothing left for me to grab onto. The top foot or so of the cottage was all that was visible I noticed as I floated by it. I was struggling to keep my head above water as I was pulled quickly backwards by the tide. It wasn't long before I realised that it wasn't over, it was pulling back and drawing its strength again to once again pelt the island with another massive tsunami.

In the not too far distance I could see the tsunami reforming and rushing back towards me. I vaguely noticed I had stopped being pulled out into the open water and was again being pushed back towards land. I didn't know how I was going to survive this again, but I had to try- for Edward. The tsunami quickly reformed forcing me and all of the debris swirling around me back to land.

As I was approaching land I felt the agonizing pain of my right thigh being impaled by a foreign object and I screamed out floundering under water momentarily barely managing to pull myself back up to break the surface. If I was having trouble treading water before, now it was unbearable agony. My leg was barely working; it was almost useless in helping me kick to keep my head up.

Luckily I didn't have to work too hard as the water held me up well enough as I rushed towards land. The cottage was nowhere to be seen I noticed as I was pushed up what used to be the beach and quickly hurtled back towards the forest. I closed my eyes, realising I had no control over my fate and just let the tsunami take me.

My right shoulder quickly impacted with a tree and I both heard and felt something snap, I barely had a chance to register the pain from this as I continued to plunge through the dark forest being propelled by the force of the ocean. I continued to ricochet between trees getting various more injuries, but it wasn't until I crashed into a tree branch head on with my ribs that I knew the end was coming. The branch pierced me between two of my ribs on the left side of my torso and was quickly ripped back out of me as I continued on through the dark.

I could feel the life draining out of me from blood loss, pain and exhaustion. I was barely managing to keep my head above the surface and in fact I was getting sucked under more and more frequently only to just claw my way back up to the surface to hack the water out of my lungs. After what seemed like an eternity the force of the tsunami slowly came to a stop and very slowly started to drain back towards to ocean where it belonged.

This retreat was much slower and calmer than the last time, I was pretty sure that it was finally done. And while the extreme danger had passed I knew I was still at risk of getting pulled back out to open water from which I knew I would not survive. Ahead of me to the right I noticed a tree had been uprooted and was wedged sideways between two trees that were still standing. I used all of the last remaining dregs of energy that I had to kick and swim towards it.

I just barely managed to grab it as the tide was forcing me past. I wrapped both arms around the horizontal trunk trying to lift my chest up onto the log. I was barely gripping the log and hanging onto consciousness as the log slowly drifted to the forest floor while the water receded.