Sedulity 2: Aftershock (Sedulity Saga)

by David Forsyth

  This was the first time that his viewers had ever heard true fear in the voice of Fox Rusher. The images continued to chronicle the destruction of America’s second largest city, but Fox himself was momentarily speechless as the merciless waves bore down on him.

  *****

  Captain Krystos was stunned by the image of the Queen Mary sailing inland on the monster wave. It was surrounded by buoyant bits and pieces of everything else the wave had consumed, but somehow the old ship itself was still afloat and in one piece. This was something he never would have believed, never even dreamed of; an event more miraculous than the Sedulity’s survival near the impact zone. The captain shook his head in wonder, mingled with grief, as the city was destroyed beneath the wave upon which the ocean liner rode, virtually unscathed.

  That the old ship’s smoke stacks were missing came as no surprise. Captain Krystos knew that the real ones had been replaced with replicas during the conversion of the Queen Mary into a hotel. The fact that she could float at all was a wonder. He had heard that the old ship’s fuel and ballast tanks had been filled with mud and concrete to help the ship settle into her final resting place and keep her stable. Nevertheless, it appeared that the titanic wave had set her free to make one more historic voyage.

  The captain glanced around his dayroom at his officers, as well as Kevin and Professor Farnsworth, who had all gathered to see the tsunami consume Southern California. It was more than morbid curiosity that brought them together. It was more than history being made. If they felt as Captain Krystos did, it was about the need to know, to be informed about even the worst news imaginable. He really couldn’t think of worse news than this. Yet, even in the midst of all that destruction, the image of the old ocean liner cruising over the devastation sparked feelings of wonder and amazement. He mumbled a prayer in Greek before shifting into English to say, “Dear God, what a sight.”

  Kevin nodded, speechless. Professor Farnsworth spoke up, saying, “The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the Earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.” No one took their eyes off the television, but heads were nodding and the captain noticed several of his officers cross themselves and mumble prayers too.

  The wave carrying the Queen Mary had almost reached downtown Los Angles by then, smashing its way up the Harbor Freeway. It must have traveled more than ten miles inland by now, showing no sign of stopping. While it had diminished in height, the churning water was still engulfing every building in its path, even mid-rise apartments and condominiums. Everyone sat speechless as the wave carried the old ocean liner across Interstate 10 and straight towards the skyscrapers of the city.

  There were collective gasps in the dayroom, as there were among viewers around the world, when it became clear that the old ship was on a collision course to hit the 55 story JS Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotel complex that towered above LA Live and the Staples Center on the edge of downtown. Amidst all the death and destruction enveloping the city, the cameraman on the helicopter zoomed in on the skyscraper and the wave-borne ship bearing down on it. A large military helicopter had just lifted off from the rooftop helipad, presumably packed with a final batch of evacuees, but other people had been left behind on the roof. Some were frozen with fear, staring at the wave and ocean liner closing in on them. Others scurried like ants, darting back inside the building with slim hope for survival. A ring of bodies could be seen scattered on the helipad, indicating that the soldiers had to open fire to keep from being swamped by the panicked mob when the last helicopter was full.

  The churning wave was little more than five hundred feet high when it smashed into the skyscraper. The top of the moving mountain of water hit about ten floors down from the roof, but it splashed up and over the top of the building, clearing the helipad of living and dead alike, before parting to flow around the tower and roar on into downtown Los Angeles. The Queen Mary, on the other hand, rammed squarely into the building at about the 40th floor. The old ship speared straight through a dozen floors of multi-million dollar Ritz Carlton condominiums, shattering the remaining glass walls, and then the bow smashed out the opposite side of the skyscraper.

  Then something truly amazing happened. While millions watched, waiting for the building to collapse and the ship to get pulled under the raging water, it didn’t. The water receded slightly after the initial wave passed, leaving the former ocean liner firmly lodged through the entire width of the building, with several hundred feet of the ship protruding on either side of the massive structure. It reminded Kevin of a giant rock he had seen in New Mexico, balanced on a thin pillar after millions of years of flooding had eroded the rest of its support. Impossible as it seemed, the Queen Mary had impaled herself straight through the top of an LA skyscraper and the building was still standing for the moment, as raging waters inundated the rest of the city. That image, captured from several angles by helicopters and cameras broadcasting from hilltop locations, would become the iconic symbol of the destruction sweeping around the world that day.

  After a few amazing seconds, the massive hotel complex collapsed under the combined stress of supporting a thousand foot long ocean liner piercing its upper floors, the intense pressure of the tsunami gutting the floors below, and structural damage sustained in the massive earthquake earlier that day. The tower fell towards the Staples Center, which was already fully submerged, bringing the Queen Mary down to strike the churning water on her port side. The big ship struggled to stay afloat, holding the top of the building out of the water for a few more agonizing seconds, before being pulled under by the weight of the skyscraper and the water that flooded into her upper decks. If anyone had been aboard the legendary ocean liner on her last epic voyage into downtown LA, they wouldn’t live to tell the tale.

  Fox Rusher sputtered excited commentary in the background while the waves continued on to ravish the city. As Fox had feared, many of the high rise structures in the city center had indeed suffered too much earthquake damage to withstand being hit by a five hundred foot high wall of water. They trembled, tottered and fell into their neighbors, causing a domino effect across portions of the skyline. The progress of the wave could also be measured by the number of fires it snuffed out as it tore through the earthquake ravaged city. The waves converged on the city from the south and west, channeled by the Santa Monica Mountains and Hollywood Hills, to engulf nearly the entire Los Angeles Basin with water hundreds of feet deep. Meanwhile, back at the coastline, the tsunamis marched north in a non-stop wave of destruction.

  Chapter: 8

  Two elderly gentlemen stood atop a large rock overlooking Malibu and the Santa Monica Bay on a mountain vantage point above Piuma Road. It had taken them all day to hike up to this spot after abandoning their car in a traffic jam on Malibu Canyon Road. They had pressed on to reach this peak because it offered a view of the whole coastline, and they hoped that it would be high enough to remain unscathed by the approaching tsunamis. These two men had a very good idea of what to expect, having researched the probable effects of a similar hypothetical event four decades previously.

  They were neither surprised nor shocked to see the horizon swell into the sky, far out to sea. It was a clear day and they were able to see the first wave strike Catalina Island with a massive plume of whitewater and mist. Both men carried binoculars and followed the progress of the colossal walls of water hurtling towards the mainland. The incredible waves broke over the Palos Verdes Peninsula to sweep down upon Redondo Beach, El Segundo, and LAX. Details of the disaster became clearer when the waves destroyed Santa Monica and traveled up the coast of Malibu.

  Neither man spoke. They didn’t need to. Decades of working together on dozens of projects had developed the type of empathy, nearly telepathy, normally only granted to twins and married couples. They could feel each other’s pain, suffering, and overwhelming awe in the face of this natural disaster. The fact that they had researched and described a similar hypothetical event didn’t detract from the shocking impact of witne
ssing it unfold before their eyes. Their horror at the loss of human life and destruction of their city was only matched by their respect for the unbridled power of nature.

  The water receded along the beach and they saw the endless line of mountainous waves build higher and higher as they reached the shoreline. Multi-million dollar beachfront homes were pulverized in rapid succession. Massive waves crashed against the coastal mountains, wiping away homes perched many hundreds of feet above the shore and charging up every canyon and seam of the foothills. Malibu Pier was gone in an instant, the town of Malibu an instant later, and the waves tore up Malibu Canyon without pause. A wall of water hundreds of feet high rushed inland towards Calabasas and Agoura Hills. Thankfully, the water remained hundreds of feet lower than the mountain crest where the two men stood, but they could feel the Earth tremble from the force of the waves’ impact, while the sounds and images of the cataclysm were heart wrenching and nearly overwhelming. They stood speechless for several minutes, gazing through the mist at the churning water that continued to fill the canyon below.

  “Is it what you expected, Larry?” asked one of the men.

  “No, Jerry,” the other replied with deep sadness. “It’s far worse than we imagined, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, and I’m afraid this is only the beginning of what’s in store for the world. We’ll need to find a good place to hole up and prepare before the rain gets here. We should have a couple of days, since the impact was down near the equator. And it will be weeks before the snow gets to Southern California.”

  “I’m pretty sure our homes are gone, Jerry, and I know my car just got swept away down there in the canyon. The earthquakes and these tsunamis have destroyed all the highways. Where do you suggest we go?”

  “Well, Larry,” he replied, pointing his finger down the ridgeline, “we could start by knocking on the door of that house and explaining the situation to whoever is there.” He indicated a walled mansion perched on the mountaintop a quarter mile away. “That looks like a good enough spot to ride out Noah’s flood and the first stages of an ice age.”

  “What makes you think the owner will let us stay there?”

  “We’ll just have to prove that we’ll be useful to have around.”

  “Two old men? How could we be useful?” Larry asked skeptically.

  Jerry hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder and said, “I brought my Kindle and a solar charger.”

  “So what? We’re going to read them our books?” Larry asked sarcastically.

  “Maybe, if they get bored,” Jerry smiled. “But I also downloaded a full encyclopedia, an almanac, the SAS Survival Manual, the Anarchist’s Cookbook, and an unabridged edition of The Way Things Work.”

  “Brilliant!” Larry beamed. The smiles and good humor faded as their attention returned to the destruction taking place below, but they had survived the first phase of the apocalypse and had a plan to survive whatever came next. Knowing what to expect and possessing the knowledge of how to overcome it would put them far ahead of most survivors. The men turned and walked slowly towards the closest hilltop estate.

  *****

  Kevin Summers sat in stunned silence after watching the destruction of his home, the television studio where he worked, and the city where he lived. The split screen coverage of the Fall of LA included a view from a helicopter following the waves up the coastline. The water did indeed roar up Topanga Canyon, wiping out the Summers’ house along with all the rest. The force of the wave was so strong, focused as it was in the canyon, that water spilled over the crest of the pass to pour down into the San Fernando Valley too. That sequence of events was only shown for a moment on television as the helicopter followed the path of destruction further up the coast, though it was enough for Kevin to know that there was no home left for his family to return to. This came as no surprise, but was nonetheless heartbreaking to witness and confirm.

  He rose from the couch in the captain’s dayroom without saying a word and went through the bridge to the staff captain’s dayroom on the other side of the ship. The television was turned off there and he found Amanda telling Emily a story about dinosaurs in an apparent attempt to get their child to take a nap on the couch. Kevin didn’t interrupt them. He stood there quietly, treasuring this moment of normalcy in a world gone mad.

  Mandy’s story was about a stegosaurus named Sammy who wanted to play with other dinosaurs, but the others were afraid of the spikes on Sammy’s head and tail. Kevin smiled at the voices and sounds that Mandy used to imitate Sammy and was pleased to see Emily smile and hear her laugh. However, he couldn’t help thinking about the extinction event that killed off all of Sammy’s kind. An asteroid did that, just as this asteroid had destroyed their own home and taken millions of human lives. Kevin feared for mankind’s future in the wake of this event, his only comfort being that his family had survived the initial phase of the cataclysm.

  Amanda noticed Kevin standing there and gave him a questioning look. He tried to smile, but ended up simply shaking his head in sadness. He didn’t need to tell her that their home was gone, that most of their friends had just been killed, and that there was nothing left for them to return to in California. The single tear running down his cheek was enough to impart the magnitude of their loss.

  *****

  A steady trickle of passengers were exiting the ship’s theater, unable to handle the endless images of utter destruction displayed on television. Hank Donner, while sickened himself, decided to remain until his new roommates discovered the fate of their homes in Santa Barbara. It wouldn’t be long now. The waves had wiped out Port Hueneme and the entire coastal plain of Oxnard and Camarillo before inundating Ventura. Now the tsunami was crashing against the coastal mountains between Ventura and Santa Barbara.

  The helicopter filming this portion of the apocalypse had swung out over the Santa Barbara Channel in a failing attempt to keep pace with the waves and beat them to Santa Barbara. A panoramic view showed the tsunamis striking the Channel Islands and spilling between them as mountainous bulges that spread out and kept coming. Over a dozen oil drilling platforms, several of which Hank had worked on, were ripped apart as the waves closed in on the mainland. Hank hated to think how much crude oil would pour into the ocean there, if the wellhead safeties failed. That was the sort of disaster that he and his Armadillo would have been called in to address, if it had been an isolated event – which this clearly wasn’t.

  Hank glanced over at Romy and her pathetic boyfriend. They were holding hands and it looked like Romy’s grip was making Fed wince. It was hard to tell though, considering how terrified he appeared. Hank wasn’t a very compassionate man, especially since his wife Joan had fallen victim to cancer and passed away, but had to admit that he felt sorry for Fred. He felt worse for Romy, of course, since she seemed like a survivor and he hoped the next few minutes wouldn’t traumatize her too severely.

  Hank thought he could handle watching a wave like this wipe out Galveston and Houston. He was a hardened oilman and widower who had lost everything more than once before in his life. Seeing his home be destroyed couldn’t be any worse than watching his wife succumb to the cancer, he mused. Thankfully, Hank’s home was not in the path of destruction this time, but he felt a rare twinge of compassion for Romy and all the others aboard the ship who were not so lucky.

  “You might not want to see this,” Hank said softly to the couple seated beside him. “It looks like Santa Barbara will take a direct hit.”

  “That’s not possible!” Fred blurted. “It’s insane! This can’t be happening!” He looked crazed with fear and denial. Romy shrank away from him and looked towards Hank for support, or protection. Others nearby in the theater glanced over at Fred, recognizing his anguish and unstable mental state. Hank frowned and second guessed his decision to invite the man to share his suite. He studied Fred closely for a moment, noting the wild-eyed expression on his face. After a moment Fred’s eyes glazed over and he stared at the television. Romy began to cry a
nd turned to bury her face in Hank’s shoulder when the tsunamis struck their hometown.

  GNN was showing a split screen of the tsunami closing in on Santa Barbara and the aftermath of its impact on Los Angeles. The helicopter chasing the wave across the Santa Barbara Channel offered a different perspective from behind the massive swell. It grew larger as it approached land, blocking out their view of the city in front of it. Then it crashed upon the shoreline and turned into a roiling maelstrom of white water that must have torn the picturesque city to shreds. It was hard to see from that angle. Hank thought that was probably a blessing for his two companions. One moment the famous vacation destination was there, and then it was gone, replaced by a violent surge of water.

  As Hank had predicted, the wave took out virtually all of Santa Barbara and the surrounding communities of Montecito, Carpentaria, and Goleta, but didn’t rise much higher than the foothills of the coastal mountain range behind them. The Channel Islands had blunted some of the force of the tsunami, though not enough to save the city and coastline. The helicopter caught up to the devastation seconds later and broadcast the immediate aftermath, focusing on swirling wreckage and whole houses being torn from hillsides to be swept back out to sea with the receding flood. Then the camera panned up to the crest of the foothills and coastal mountain range where it zoomed in to show thousands of people standing in shocked horror, staring down at what had become of their homes.

  Hank said, “It looks like lots of survivors made it up into the hills. Let’s hope most of the people you know are among them.” Romy was crying openly now, sobbing on Hank’s shoulder. Fred was too shocked to react at all, except for his white knuckled grip on the seatback in front of him.