Chapter Six
Tsunami!
"Come in the chart room," the Captain pleaded,
"show me where, Charlie."
The harbormaster followed him in and on the ferry terminal's big
chart of the bay he showed them where the wrecks were.
"There were two ships in the lower end of the Upper Channel
when the volcano blew. One ran aground where there should have
been plenty of water beneath her. Then the other one plowed into
her in the smoke and dust. There's no way you can get by them.
There was another ship. She tried to make it out of the harbor
and got hit by one of the big rocks the volcano is spitting out.
Some of them are as big as railroad cars. She went down in the
Lower Channel, right at the end of The Lower Shoals. It's
hopeless."
Captain Henderson stared at the charts. "There's a
way," he muttered, "through the gap in the Shoals. It's
plenty deep enough."
"Deep isn't the problem," the harbormaster complained,
"it's too narrow, John. And if the bottom's risen on both
ends of the Shoals THAT channel may have risen, too"
"Maybe not," Warlock Young put in, "there's a
possibility that the gap may have widened as the other end rose.
It may be deeper now, than it was before. That ferry doesn't draw
too much water."
"Even if you GET through," the harbormaster pleaded,
"look how close you'll be to that damned volcano. We've had
stuff land on the beaches here."
"We've got to try," the Captain insisted. "If we
die trying we've GOT to try. Some of those people up there were
BORN on my ferry. We've got a bit of luck. The tide's coming in.
In five hours it'll be high. That means when I'll be coming back
on the last run we'll have as much water under us as
possible."
The harbormaster shook his head. "You're madmen!" he
moaned. He stuck his head out the door. "Start pumping! It's
insane, but they're gonna go! Shawn doesn't look in too good a
shape. You better have a third man on those engines. I suppose
I'd be as good as anybody else. If the rest of you are that crazy
I might as well be, too. Let's hurry up before something else
goes wrong!"
They had just finished putting the fuel on and were starting up
the engines to check out their odd fuel mix, when the Damon came
running down the pier, leaped on board, and began to talk
hurriedly to the young Warlock.
The Warlock stood motionless for several minutes then Captain
Henderson came down to him. "All right, young man," he
asked, "what is it?"
"It just came over the radio," the Warlock explained.
"There's been a gigantic volcanic eruption off the coast of
Japan that's literally blown the island in half! There's a
tsunami coming, perhaps the biggest one ever recorded."
"How long?" the Captain asked.
"Six hours," the Warlock told him.
"We're just not going to get a break are we?" the
Captain moaned. "Six hours. That gives us only two to spare
to get the people ashore and to get them to safety. I'd get
everybody headed southeast, the highest ground isn't in that
direction, but if we headed northeast we'll be heading into the
volcano's ash. We'll have to give up searching in the rubble, and
concentrate on saving those we've already found. What little is
left here probably won't BE here after the tsunami is finished.
We'd better get going. Every minute is going to be
precious."
The Warlock quickly gave his men some instructions then leaped
back onto the ferry and climbed to the bridge. "Ready?"
he cried.
Captain Henderson nodded. "Full reverse, helmsman! Give her
everything she's got!"
In a few moments the water at the rear of the ferry churned
violently and the lines fastened to the timbers pulled tight, the
timbers began to groan because of the tremendous stain put on
them. The Warlock raised his hand. "That's all we've
got," the helmsman cried.
"NOW!" the Captain screamed.
The Warlock's hand came down and there were four bright flashes.
The explosions were so small they could hardly be heard over the
engine's roar. The ferry shot backwards, there was a grinding,
ripping sound, but she kept going. A few moments later bits and
pieces of the once beautiful yacht began to float to the surface
as the ferry sped along the seawall and made for the channel.
"We won't try to turn in here," the Captain cried.
"Just too many wrecks. We'll wait until we're in the channel
then bring her about. I'm checking the depth gear." After a
few moments he straightened up. "Everything's working. The
depth gear may be able to tell us more than the radar. It's going
to be bad when we get in that dust."
The ferry finally swung around and put on her best speed forward.
All they could do now was pray.
When we get there," the helmsman spoke up, "how are you
going to tell them you can only take half of them?"
"We'll deal with that when the time comes," the Captain
answered. "First we've got to get there!"
Though it was a clear, sunny day it began to grow dark around
them. It was an ominous, oppressing, suffocating darkness.