Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven [184]
"We've hit an ocean," said Tim.
She rubbed her eyes. "Where are we?"
Tim turned on the roof light. He spread the map across their laps. "I kept working north and west and downhill," he said. "Until we got out of the mountains. There were a lot of them. After a while I couldn't tell directions anymore, so I just went downhill. Eventually I came to Highway Ninety-nine." Tim spoke proudly: With his lousy sense of direction they might have ended up anywhere. "Ninety-nine's been good. No more breaks. You missed a couple of guys with shotguns, and a lot of cars that weren't running anymore, but no real trouble. Of course there was a lot of water on the road, but … "
She had raked the map with her eyes, once. Now she was peering ahead through the rain, along the beam of the headlamps, piecing out the view from subliminal cues and imagination. For as far as they both could see in the gray twilight there was nothing but a silver-gray expanse of rain-spattered water. No lights anywhere. Nothing.
"See if you can back up," she said. She fell to studying the map. Tim inched backward, out of the water, until it was only hubcap-deep.
"We're in trouble," Eileen said. "Have we passed Bakersfield?"
"Yes." There had been freeway signs, and the ghosts of dark buildings, a mountain range done all in right angles. "Not long ago."
She frowned and squinted at tiny print. "It says Bakersfield is four hundred feet above sea level."
Tim remembered the fallen mountains. "I wouldn't rely on elevations any longer. I seem to remember the entire San Fernando Valley dropped thirty feet during the Sylmar quake. And that was a little one."
"Well, everything gets lower and lower from here on. We're in the lowlands." And we're sinking in the lowlands, lowlands, low ... "Tim, no tidal wave could have gotten this far. Could it?"
"No. But it's raining."
"Raining. Ye gods, how it must have rained, and it's still coming! This wasn't all in the comet head, was it?" She shushed him when he started to explain. "Skip it. Let's rethink from scratch. Where do we want to go?"
Back to high ground. "Well," Tim said, "that's a problem too. I know where we want to be. The high farming country, say around Sequoia National Forest. What I don't know is why anyone would want us there." He didn't dare say anything else.
She didn't say anything at all. She was waiting.
Tim worked on his nerve. "I did have one idea … "
She waited.
Damn, it was evaporating even as he tried to speak it! Like the restaurants and good hotels that waited in Tujunga: Speak your wish and they were gone. He said it anyway, a little desperately. "Senator Jellison's ranch. I contributed a lot of money to his campaign. And I've been to his ranch. It's perfect. If he's there, he'll let us in. And he'll be there. He's that smart."
"And you contributed money to his campaign." She chuckled.
"Money was worth good money then. And, honey, it's all I've got."
"Okay. I can't think of a single farmer who owes me anything. And the farmers own it all now, don't they? Just like Thomas Jefferson wanted it. Where is this ranch?"
Tim tapped the map between Springville and Lake Success, just below the mountainous Sequoia National Park. "Here. We go underwater for a way, then we turn right and resume breathing."
"Maybe there's a better way. Look to your left. Do you see a railroad embankment?"
He turned off the roof light, then the headlights. A little time for his eyes to adjust, and … "No."
"Well, it's there." She was looking at the map. "Southern Pacific Railroad. Swing us around and point the headlights that way."
Tim maneuvered the car around. "What are you thinking of? Catching a train?"
"Not exactly."
The headlights didn't reach far through the rain. They showed nothing but rain-stippled sea in all directions.
"We'll have to take the embankment on faith," Eileen said. "Slide over." She climbed over him to reach the steering wheel. He couldn't guess what she had in mind, but he strapped down while she started the motor. Eileen turned south, back the way they had come.
"There are people back