Cretaceous Sea

Under an unchanging sky, they found it impossible to gauge how long they worked. Only the soreness in their bodies provided a vague measure. Otherwise, each mo-ment blended with the last into timeless drudgery. Pro-gress was slow. They worked until hunger and fatigue forced them to rest and eat. Despite their efforts, they were still far from done.

Only marginally rested, they resumed digging, and the work proceeded even more slowly than before. Con was beginning to feel it would never end when something hit her bare foot. The sensation was repeated on her leg. She shined her flashlight on her leg and saw a spot made by a drop of water, a raindrop. She assumed the spot was black because of the soot and ash that covered her. How-ever, as more drops began to hit her, she saw the rain itself was black. The others noticed it, too.

'Is this goop rain?' said Joe.

' 'Fraid so,' said Rick.

'I suppose it's black from smoke and dust,' said Joe.

'With a little acid thrown in,' replied Rick.

'Should we be out in it?' asked Joe.

'Well, I'm going to keep digging,' said Con. 'I hate this place.' The few scattered drops increased in number until there was a steady rain. The water was warm, but it was gritty and it stung the eyes. Con dug with her eyes closed, opening them only occasionally. When she did, the black rain made for an eerie sight. The rain's inky curtain swal-lowed the flashlight's beam. It transformed Joe and Rick into watery chimney sweeps, bathed in liquid soot. The ashy ground soon became a sticky puddle of black muck. So this is the shower I yearned for, thought Con. The rain made the digging easier as it softened the baked earth. Con found that she could widen her hole more quickly. At last, the earth came up in large spoon-fuls, and she wished they had thought of bringing water from the river. That would be unnecessary now, for the rain came down in torrents. Con was able to uncover the stone. It was water-smoothed and over two feet in di-ameter. It rested against the plane's leg, covering part of the foot. Con began to dig around the stone's edges, hop-ing to find a surface to grab. As she dug, it became ap-parent the rock was nearly spherical. Lifting it was beyond her strength and would probably require all three of them.

The water that had aided Con's digging turned against her as the stone disappeared beneath its rising surface. Further digging only brought up thin, watery, black mud. Water, mud, and ash began to fill the hole. Con looked around and saw Rick and Joe were in the same predica-ment. Joe's hole resembled a large puddle. He attacked it furiously, using both hands to fling water and mud. The rain filled it faster than he could scoop. When the side he was working on began to collapse into the hole, Joe flew into impotent rage. He slammed his fists into the sodden earth, splattering himself with muck. As if to mock him, the rain fell even harder.

'We've got to stop,' said Con, shouting over the rain.

'We're so damn close!' Joe shouted back.

'Digging's only making it worse,' said Con.

'Con's right, Joe. We're going to have to wait out the storm.'

'We waited out the heat, and look where that got us,' retorted Joe. The rain came down with such fury the holes vanished under a sheet of black water. Joe's head slumped in res-ignation. 'Okay,' he said, 'it's got us beat for now.' They stood in the rain and tried to rinse the ash and mud off themselves. The effort reminded Con of her bath in the muddy river. Then, they entered the plane and searched for dry clothes among the jumbled supplies be-fore turning off the flashlights and changing in the pri-vacy afforded by total darkness. This was the third time circumstances had forced them to abandon digging out the airplane. They sat listlessly in the darkness as the rain pelted their shelter with in-creased fury. Con turned on her flashlight and shined it on the clear portion of the plane. The soot- darkened rain made it almost opaque. She turned off the light, feeling depressed and defeated.

Rick felt in the dark until he touched Con's hand. 'Ev-erything will be fine,' he said.

'Stop saying that!' said Con more harshly than she intended. 'I'm not Sara, so don't act like Pandit! You don't know how things will turn out! So far... so far ...' She halted on the verge of crying. '... nothing's gone right.'

Joe's calm voice came out of the darkness. 'He does know how things will turn out.'

'How?'

'Out there in that hell, without the benefit of shelter or understanding, are little creatures—our ancestors. He knows they made it. That means we can, too.'

'Those were rats,' said Con.

Rick piped in, 'Rodents hadn't...'

'Don't get scientific on us,' said Joe. 'Con, the im-portant thing is to have hope. If you give up, you're doomed. If you believe everything will be fine, it's self-fulfilling.'