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thundered closer and closer to the shoreline, blocking out the daylight, and as Ian reached Carl’s side, he heard a faint scream and knew it was Theo. “She’s just outside the cave!” Ian shouted, crawling past Carl to the edge, where he was forced to get down on his hands and knees lest the wind knock him off his feet again.
“Ian!”
he heard faintly from just below.
“Help us!”
    Ian had to pull himself along the lip while he tried to locate her exact position. He could see the short shoreline about twenty feet below, and beyond that the swirling ocean, which had been churned a dark brown by the driving force of the cyclone. To Ian’s horror, the terrible storm was now a mere five hundred meters offshore.
    At the rate it was moving, he knew he had less than aminute or two to get Theo and Jaaved to safety, or they’d all be doomed.
    Squinting as sand and sea pelted his skin, Ian shouted to Theo, still attempting to locate her in the chaos. To his relief she called back more clearly. “There!” Carl said from beside him, pointing down and to the left. “On that ledge!”
    Ian followed Carl’s finger with his eyes and gasped when he saw Theo and Jaaved flattened against the cliff face. His heart panged when he took in her terrified face and the closeness of the cyclone’s funnel; he had to help her as quickly as he could. He took off his belt and looped the end through the buckle, then wrapped the small noose around his wrist, pulling it tight. He then offered the other end to Carl. “I’m going to lower myself down,” he shouted above the roar of the wind. “Take this and don’t let me fall off the face of the cliff!”
    “Hang on!” Carl said, gripping Ian’s arm before he could shinny over the side. “You’ll need more length than that.” Carl too quickly removed his belt and connected it to Ian’s. He then tightly gripped the end and braced his feet against a rock. “Off with you, then!” he said when he was ready.
    Ian wasted no time lowering himself over the ledge, holding tightly to the part of the belt wrapped round his wrist while finding handholds in the soft limestone with his other hand. As he worked his way closer to Theo, his grip slipped from the rock before his feet found purchase, and he knew he would have fallen straight off the cliff onto the shore below if the wind hadn’t pushed him back toward the rock and if Carl hadn’t pulled tightly on the other end of the belt.
    Somehow, Ian managed to hug the rock and carry on until he felt hands grip his legs. He looked down to see Theo’s pale face near his knees. “Climb up!” he shouted to her. “I’ve got a firm hold here! Climb up and get into the cave!”
    Theo’s light blond hair whipped around her. She hesitated only a moment, then, with Jaaved’s help, crawled up the rock, gripping Ian tightly, and managed to make the ledge. Once she was secure, Jaaved hurried up as well, and Ian would have breathed a sigh of relief if the cyclone hadn’t started to pull him away from the rock.
    Struggling to cling to the limestone with one hand while he held the belt in his other, he could hear Theo, Jaaved, and Carl all urging him to climb back up to the ledge, but every time he moved, the whirling wind that had pinned him to the rock before attempted to pull him away from the cliff’s face. “Come on, mate!” Carl demanded. “Just climb!”
    Ian knew he had little choice but to take the chance, and he tried reaching up with one hand to pull himself along, but the moment he let go of the rock, the wind lifted him away and he lost his grip altogether.
    For a frightful moment he dangled in midair, perpendicular to the shore, and all he could see was the enormous black wall of the cyclone. Convinced he was about to breathe his last, Ian closed his eyes, but suddenly, Carl, Theo, and Jaaved gave a tremendous heave to the belt and it was just enough to pull him back into the rock face.
    The cyclone, however, continued to try to pull