The Menace From Earth ssc Read Online Free PDF Page B

court. Meade settled the matter of economy versus convention by signing the book herself; they were placed in one cabin. He saw that it had twin beds and let the matter ride. Meade went to bed with her Teddy bear without even asking to be kissed goodnight. It was already gray, wet dawn.
    They got up in the late afternoon and decided to stay over one more night, then push north toward Bakersfield. A high pressure area was alleged to be moving south, crowding the warm, wet mass that smothered Southern California. They wanted to get into it. Breen had the wiper repaired and bought two new tires to replace his ruined spare, added some camping items to his cargo, and bought for Meade a .32 automatic, a lady's social-purposes gun; he gave it to her somewhat sheepishly.
    "What's this for?"
    "Well, you're carrying quite a bit of cash."
    "Oh. I thought maybe I was to use it to fight you off."
    "Now, Meade —"
    "Never mind. Thanks, Potty."
    They had finished supper and were packing the car with their afternoon's purchases when the quake struck. Five inches of rain in twenty-four hours, more than three billion tons of mass suddenly loaded on a fault already overstrained, all cut loose in one subsonic, stomach-twisting rumble.
    Meade sat down on the wet ground very suddenly; Breen stayed upright by dancing like a logroller. When the ground quieted down somewhat, thirty seconds later, he helped her up. "You all right?"
    "My slacks are soaked." She added pettishly, "But, Potty, it never quakes in wet weather. Never ."
    "It did this time."
    "But —"
    "Keep quiet, can't you?" He opened the car door and switched on the radio, waited impatiently for it to warm up. Shortly he was searching the entire dial. "Not a confounded Los Angeles station on the air!"
    "Maybe the shock busted one of your tubes?"
    "Pipe down." He passed a squeal and dialed back to it:
    "— your Sunshine Station in Riverside, California. Keep tuned to this station for the latest developments. It is as of now impossible to tell the size of the disaster. The Colorado River aqueduct is broken; nothing is known of the extent of the damage nor how long it will take to repair it. So far as we know the Owens River Valley aqueduct may be intact, but all persons in the Los Angeles area are advised to conserve water. My personal advice is to stick your washtubs out into this rain; it can't last forever. If we had time, we'd play Cool Water , just to give you the idea. I now read from the standard disaster instructions, quote: 'Boil all water. Remain quietly in your homes and do not panic. Stay off the highways. Cooperate with the police and render — ' Joe! Joe! Catch that phone! ' — render aid where necessary. Do not use the telephone except for — ' Flash! an unconfirmed report from Long Beach states that the Wilmington and San Pedro waterfront is under five feet of water. I repeat, this is unconfirmed. Here's a message from the commanding general, March Field: 'official, all military personnel will report — ' "
    Breen switched it off. "Get in the car."
    "Where are we going?"
    "North."
    "We've paid for the cabin. Should we —"
    "Get in!"
    He stopped in the town, managed to buy six five-gallon-tins and a jeep tank. He filled them with gasoline and packed them with blankets in the back seat, topping off the mess with a dozen cans of oil. Then they were rolling.
    "What are we doing, Potiphar?"
    "I want to get west on the valley highway."
    "Any particular place west?"
    "I think so. We'll see. You work the radio, but keep an eye on the road, too. That gas back there makes me nervous."
    Through the town of Mojave and northwest on 466 into the Tehachapi Mountains — Reception was poor in the pass but what Meade could pick up confirmed the first impression — worse than the quake of '06, worse than San Francisco, Managua, and Long Beach taken together.
    When they got down out of the mountains it was clearing locally; a few stars appeared. Breen swung left off the highway and