“What kind is it?” Doc asked. “Right whale?”
Mildred shook her head. “No. Saw them from a small boat, more fragile than this, down in Baja, the summer before skydark. Gray whales. Eschricktius robustus . Grow up to fifty or sixty feet. They were endangered once from the bloody harpoons. Became protected and were flourishing when the world ended. Probably there’s more of them now than ever.”
“Will they eat us?” Dean asked. “No, honey. They’re mainly bottom feeders. Scooping up thousands of the tiny crabs and the like. What the scientists call gammarid amphipods. Sailors named them devilfish because they would fight hard to protect their young.” Everyone sat still.
One of the whales rubbed its back along the rough timbers of the raft, making it rock from side to side. Trader cursed softly under his breath, hanging on tight with one hand, blaster in the other.
“They are the true wonders of the Lord in the deep,” Doc whispered, sounding as reverential as if he were sitting in a cathedral.
“There’s a young calf over there,” Ryan said to his son, pointing to the left toward the mainland. “See how its mother keeps between it and us.”
The whales moved on southward with a wonderful, ponderous grace. As they came closer together, a couple of hundred yards in front of the raft, they all dived in perfect unison. The last of them showed its flukes as it rolled, its enormous tail hanging in the dawn light for a few magical moments before it finally disappeared.
“Wow,” Dean said on a sigh. “Now that was something.”
Ryan picked up his paddle. “Time to get moving again.”
“LOOK AT THE SMOKE, or the steam, from those hot springs and geysers,” Krysty said. “Seems like the whole of the land’s boiling or on fire.”
“They dangerous?” Abe asked.
“Only if you get too close.” Ryan was steering them carefully toward what looked like a natural inlet.
Jak and Dean had stopped paddling, both standing near the front of the raft, keeping watch for any signs of danger from the shore.
“Small hut,” Jak said, “right by water. Could be boathouse.”
“Any smoke from a fire?” Ryan asked.
The albino hesitated. “Can’t be sure. So much steam and shit. Don’t think so.”
They were about a hundred yards away, moving through shallow water with rock protruding above the water and many more lying in wait below the surface. Dean was kneeling, calling out warnings. “Bit to the right, now left.” The clumsy craft was moving so slowly it was hardly likely to be damaged by any collision.
“I just saw a gigantic conger eel,” Doc reported. “Long and thick as a telegraph pole. I don’t think that I would relish swimming in these waters.”
It was full dawn, enabling them all to see the extent of the blighted land ahead of them.
There was a beach and some rocks, with the building that Jak had mentioned. It seemed like there was a track leading away from it, vanishing inland. Then there came a belt of mist, smoke and steam, with the tops of distant mountains, snow-capped, visible far behind it.
“Rad count’s getting higher,” J.B. stated. “Into the orange.”
If they landed and found that the region of orange radiation extended very far, they would have no choice but to return to their raft and either try a little farther up or down the coast, or cut their losses and return to the hidden redoubt to make yet another jump.
“See the bottom,” Dean called.
“Rocks, shingle or sand?”
“Sort of shingle and sand, Dad. I can see a crab, as well.”
“What?”
Everyone dropped their paddles and snatched for their blasters.
“Only about half as big as my hand.” Dean sniggered. “Sorry if I scared anyone.”
“You little bastard,” Abe moaned. “I nearly shit myself all over again.”
THEY MADE a perfect soft touchdown.
There was still only the lightest breeze, bringing in tiny breakers that hissed on the gleaming pebbles. With a little effort they managed to heave the raft up the beach, hauling it above the high-water mark.
Immersion in the ocean had tightened some of the knots in the rope, but the whole structure was much looser, and it was clumsy and difficult to handle.