“Hey, we’re casting off,” Ben warned. The boat was filling up and the background noise increased proportionately. The deck shuddered and the four outboards rumbled to life.
“Cami, listen honey—we’re leaving the dock,” Reese said, raising his voice over the noise. “I gotta go, okay? Give my love to Amber—I’ll call you when I get back to shore.”
“Reese, I’m right about this,” Cami begged, her voice rising.
“If something happens, we’ll be out on the open water. Isn’t that safer than being on shore?”
“Well...” Cami began. “Yes, but—“
Reese laughed. “Then don’t worry. I’ll catch a big tuna and ship the steaks back to you. Love you!”
She said something in reply, but he couldn’t hear her—the engines had increased to a throaty roar as the boat pulled away from the dock. Reese hit ‘end call’ and lowered the phone with a sigh.
The phone buzzed again before he could even get it in his pocket. A glance at the screen told him she’d sent another text message. It wasn’t a final salvo in their argument, just a simple link. He opened the messaging app and clicked the link, waving Ben off and signaling he needed a minute.
“What was that about?” asked Ben when Reese looked up a moment later.
“Oh, Cami’s all worked up over that volcano.”
“Yeah? Why?” asked Ben, leaning forward in his seat.
Reese looked at him for a moment. “Uh...she’s worried about a tidal wave.”
“Tsunami,” Ben said, nodding. “Yeah, they mentioned that on the news.”
“So I hear,” Reese replied, taking his seat. He shrugged. “I dunno. Seems a bit far fetched. I mean, she gets worked up over stuff, and I usually go along with it, because she’s pretty much right.”
“But not this time?”
Reese glanced at Ben out of the corner of his eye, unwilling to explain to even his friend about the depth of Cami’s preparedness. She’d drilled into Reese’s head for years and years about the need for operational security—to keep their stockpiles and supplies secret from everyone, even close friends and family.
“Eh, I dunno.”
Ben wasn’t so easily dissuaded. “So, she’s thinking some big tsunami got started over there...got us in its sights, right?”
“Pretty much,” Reese said over the rim of his coffee cup.
Ben was quiet for a long moment. “Well, I don’t really know anything about it, but I do know that I’ve heard ‘tsunami’ tossed around by the media already.”
“It’s probably real—Cami’s usually not that far off. But I bet it’ll just hit Africa or Europe or something. And it probably won’t be really bad—not like that big one in Indonesia. Remember that?”
“That was nasty,” Ben replied with a somber nod. “Or even the one in Japan that took out that nuke plant.”
“Either way, what can we do about it, right?” asked Reese.
“Well, out here, probably not a lot. But, if it’s real, I can’t imagine we’d stay out for long. They’d want to get everyone back to shore...” Ben said, his voice sounding like he was trying to reassure himself.
“I’m not too worried,” Reese said, slurping at the coffee. “If we’re out at sea, the wave will be pretty small, actually. Those things only get dangerous when they get close to shore.” Reese grinned, imagining Cami’s delight at his wealth of knowledge about her pet apocalypse subject.
Despite his aloof stance on most of her worries, Reese did pay attention. He didn’t subscribe to the nuclear EMP theory of the end of the world. Reese believed it would be a pandemic that did humanity in, but he had to admit, a big tsunami could sure do a lot of damage. Although, if you were far enough from the coast you likely wouldn’t even know anything was wrong...
They were quiet for a moment, so Reese looked down at his phone. Whatever link Cami had sent him was taking forever to load. Reese felt the deck shift under his feet—he recognized that movement. They were pulling into the channel and hitting slightly rougher water.
“Whatcha got?” Ben asked, leaning over to see Reese’s phone.
Reese grunted. “Whatever it is, it’s really slow,” he muttered, pocketing the phone. If there was a real tsunami emergency because of some volcano, he had to believe the Coast Guard would be all over it. He told himself again there would be plenty of warning.
Reese watched the shoreline drift past. Seeing all the planes in the sky, the cars on roads, the buildings, the streetlights, the sheer mass of human industry and engineering, and all the technology that stood behind it...he felt a comforting weight settle on his shoulders. A simple wave—no matter how big—couldn’t take out all of that. Indonesia and Japan had been hit hard in recent memory, but that was over there, not America.
They’d have plenty of warning.
The more he thought about it, though, the more Reese convinced himself not to worry. How could a volcano thousands of miles away create a wave that might hit Boston? It was possible, he mused...but Cami herself said lots of conflicting information was already floating around.
The truth was, no one really knew anything yet. And that would have to be good enough. He rolled his neck and made up his mind to focus on the fishing. He was a shoo-in to get the promotion...as long as he didn’t screw something up.
“Alright everyone, huddle up!” Eddie called in his gravelly voice. He stood in the middle of the deck with his arms wide, calling the unwashed masses to hear the latest sermon. He was an okay guy, Reese supposed, but the man wore his ‘I’m the greatest’ act like a bad suit—all the time.
Reese and Ben shuffled over to the others as the captain turned the boat to starboard and pointed them toward
