Sedulity 2: Aftershock (Sedulity Saga) (15 page)

“Yes, Fox, we just received a report
that the waves have hit the San Onofre nuclear power plant, south of San
Clemente. Both reactors were shut down after the earthquake and experts believe
the containment domes will survive the tsunami too. We’ll have to wait for
confirmation of that. At the moment the tsunamis are striking Laguna Beach and
approaching the coastal population centers of Orange County. We’re cutting now
to a live view from our GNN helicopter flying above Newport Beach.”

*****

By this time Armando, unable to sleep after his conversation
with Phong, had turned on the TV in his cabin. It was a small flat screen
mounted on the wall above his bunk and had escaped damage by flooding. He
watched the annihilation of Southern California with mounting shock and
disbelief. He had heard about the destruction spreading across the Pacific, but
had been too busy and later too injured to watch the news last night, aside from
hearing the warning that the Philippines were in peril. This was much
different. Armando was stunned at the demise of the land of dreams, which was how
he had always thought of America.

The live GNN broadcast from the helicopter showed waves
crashing high into the air against the hills above Laguna Beach. The camera was
aimed down the coastline and the picture zoomed out as the tsunami raced
towards its vantage point. The tsunami rolled north with unstoppable force.
Water along the beaches receded as the waves approached, revealing sand, rock
formations, and stranded marine life, only to be swallowed seconds later by
monstrous walls of whitewater.

The helicopter climbed to get higher than the unbelievable
waves. The view panned as the pilot turned to distance his aircraft from the
wall of water and follow it up the coast. It took mere seconds for Newport
Harbor to be consumed, turning multi-million dollar yachts and waterfront homes
into twigs that merged with trees, cars, and any movable object to form a
churning mass that flowed inland, roaring through lagoons and canyons, rolling
over small hills, to sweep across John Wayne Airport, wipe out Costa Mesa, and
continue far past the 405 Freeway, deep into Irvine. The carnage was shocking,
but it was only a snapshot of the destruction making its way up the California
coastline.

 
Armando had spent
several days ashore in California during port calls. He recognized landmarks in
San Diego and he’d been heartbroken to see them destroyed a few minutes ago. He
wasn’t familiar with Orange County, but could see that it must have been an
affluent and heavily populated portion of the coast. It would only be a few
more minutes until the tsunamis reached Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles,
where the
Sedulity
had begun this
fateful voyage two weeks ago. It wouldn’t be quite as bad as seeing his home
and loved ones in the Philippines destroyed, but seeing a place he had visited
so recently get obliterated was certain to drive the finality of the
catastrophe home in its own way. Tears were already flowing freely over his
singed eyelashes to soak into the bandages covering his blistered cheeks while
the apocalypse unfolded.

*****

“As our helicopter follows the path
of destruction up the coastline of Southern California, people around the world
join us in grief and prayer. Although we have seen unprecedented destruction in
other countries around the Pacific Rim since the asteroid strike yesterday, nothing
yet has compared to this in the minds of many viewers. American cities
populated by millions of people, many of whom were injured or immobilized by
the massive earthquakes earlier today, are now being washed away by titanic
waves. It’s hard to imagine anyone close to the coast surviving this disaster,”
the GNN anchorman in
Washington said.

“The waves are closing in on Long
Beach and Los Angeles now, with little hope for anyone or anything standing in
the danger zone. But I have received a little bit of good news to report from
here in Washington. According to a White House press release, the president is
alive and in stable condition after suffering what appears to be a minor
stroke. He has been transported to Walter Reed Hospital. The Vice-President has
been informed of the situation. He is reportedly in contact with all branches
of government and the military, directing rescue and recovery efforts from an undisclosed
secure location. There is speculation that he is airborne aboard the 747 we
normally think of as Air Force One, although in this case it would be referred
to as Air Force Two. It has been rumored that the vice president was flying to
the West Coast to oversee rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of this
catastrophic disaster.
 
We’ll keep you
updated as that situation develops.

“In the meantime, the world is
focused on the cataclysm unfolding around the Pacific Rim. We continue now with
our live coverage of the devastation in Southern California and once again warn
our viewers that this is live and uncut footage that everyone will find
extremely disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.”

*****

Hank choked on a swig of Jack when he heard that.
Viewer discretion advised? You can say that
again!
Hank had no doubt that millions of viewers around the world were shitting
their pants and being traumatized by what they saw unfold on television. Even
Hank was feeling ill from seeing the wholesale destruction of entire cities,
and realizing that millions of people had been unable to escape in time.
 
He could only imagine the reaction of families
sitting in front of the TV in their living rooms. Hank wasn’t sure if his own
imagination could grasp the impact of these televised events on the viewing
public.

Most of the kids outside of the danger zone would probably
think they were watching a disaster movie, considering all the special effects
employed by Hollywood these days. How was this any different from all the
apocalyptic movies and video games that they consumed regularly? Yet how would
they respond to the horrified reactions of their parents? Could children
comprehend that they were actually watching millions of people get killed on
live television? Could their parents? Hank found himself wondering if all the
death and violence depicted in movies, on television, and in video games might have
helped to prepare the population to absorb this apocalyptic destruction numbly.
Then he thought of the looting, rioting, and violent assaults shown in Los
Angeles. It was obvious that those in the path of destruction were anything but
calm. They were running scared. Many of them had lost their minds and were in
full panic mode. Hank didn’t blame them.
 

The live feed on GNN from a helicopter over Orange County was
horrifyingly awesome. Wealthy beach communities were obliterated as the
tsunamis charged inland without pause, and still the waves moved relentlessly
north along the coastline. The helicopter was not fast enough to keep up with
the breaking line of colossal waves and soon the perspective shifted from ahead
of the tsunamis, to looking straight down at the monster, then panning to
follow the wake of destruction moving inland. It showed incredible images of
buses and other large vehicles, along with large sections of buildings, being
tossed into the air or bobbing briefly in the churning torrent that followed
the leading edge of the massive walls of water before being sucked under.

GNN coverage shifted to the view from another helicopter over
Long Beach. The mountainous waves swept over Seal Beach and swallowed the Port
of Long Beach breakwaters without chewing. Moments later the walls of water
engulfed the city and swept across Terminal Island. The largest shipping port
along the West Coast of North America was utterly destroyed in a matter of
seconds. However, this televised scene would become one of the most famous in
history for another reason, a seemingly miraculous event that unfolded in the
midst of total disaster.

The churning mountain of whitewater had consumed and
destroyed all of the ships and yachts remaining in port. All but one: the
Queen Mary
, a venerable old ocean liner
converted to a floating hotel, had been permanently berthed inside of a
breakwater at the mouth of the LA River with her bow pointed upstream. This was
intended to be her final resting place, but the tsunami had something else in
store for her.

The wave enveloped the one thousand foot ocean liner,
eliciting gasps from hundreds of thousands among the millions of viewers. An
icon had been destroyed, or had it? A moment later the Old Lady bobbed up near
the front of the rampaging tsunami, already moving far up the Los Angeles River
at high speed. While the wave wiped out the cities of Long Beach, San Pedro,
and Wilmington, the
RMS Queen Mary
rode the tempest like a surfboard straight up the LA River. The helicopter
cameraman must have been as captivated by the sight as the rest of the world,
since he zoomed in and focused on the legendary ship as it cruised over
communities that were being utterly destroyed by the waves. Riding the sweet
spot of the massive tsunami, the
Queen
Mary
zoomed up the 710 Freeway, traveling well over the posted speed limit,
in the vanguard of a nine hundred foot high moving mountain of water. The
majestic liner narrowly missed ramming the doomed Harbor UCLA hospital and barreled
on across the 405 Freeway. It seemed miraculous that a derelict, engineless,
and rudderless vessel of that size could ride a mountainous wave so perfectly,
so majestically, even if her smokestacks had been torn away by the impact. It
was a thing of beauty, unless one looked down at the base of the wave she rode and
saw the homes, apartment buildings, businesses, even moving vehicles and tiny panicked
people being swallowed by this unimaginable juggernaut.

“Holy shit!” Hank exclaimed, far from the only person to use
that expression at that moment. Up on the bridge Kevin said, “Oh my God!”
Captain Krystos said the same thing in Greek. Millions of viewers around the
world made similar reference to their preferred deity in a wide variety of
languages. Many others were far too shocked to say anything at all. This was a
television moment that surpassed all others in terms of audience and impact. It
had Pulitzer written all over it, if such a thing would exist after this
cataclysm.
 

*****

“That’s amazing! Fox, are you seeing
this? Is that a cruise ship riding the wave towards downtown Los Angeles?”

“Yes, I see it on the monitor here. I
think that’s the old
Queen
Mary
! We can also see the wave itself in
the distance now, from our vantage point here at the Griffith Observatory. My
Lord! It’s almost as high as this mountain! It looks like a fast moving fog
bank, and it’s bearing down on the city. I can’t imagine how much death and
destruction is taking place down there!”

“We’re going to a split screen now,
Fox. The view on the left is from our helicopter, and on the right we have your
live location shot from the observatory. Can you describe what you’re seeing,
Fox?”

The television images spoke for themselves. The helicopter
continued to follow the leading edge of the tsunami as it tore through the
suburbs, towards the city, with the
Queen
Mary
carried along atop it. The view from Mount Hollywood panned from south
to west, showing other parts of the wave smashing into the coast further north.

“It’s incredible!”
Fox Rusher exclaimed.
“Totally incredible! The wave broke over the
Palos Verdes Peninsula and I think it just wiped out LAX. Santa Monica and West
LA have been hit hard. God help anyone down there! There goes GNN Headquarters
in Westwood. It’s horrible! My God! This thing is gigantic! It might even reach
the top of this mountain!”

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.”