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30.
The next day he was intrigued by thoughts of swimming parallel to the shore to explore the impact area of the mysterious sky object.
After making sure the rippers were busy in their valley, he clambered down from his sky island carrying his ladder. He used the ladder as a bridge between the sky island and a large boulder. He laid the ladder aside to prevent any rippers from crossing over and surprising him on his own turf.
Arrow at ready, he sprinted across the sand toward the water, where he would again be relatively safe from the rippers.
As he was halfway to the water, he saw them streaking toward him down the beach: two adult rippers in full sprint, moving like the wind. He dropped his bow and arrows on the sand, where he could retrieve them, and dove into the water.
He swam as hard as he could straight out.
He heard the rippers splash in the water behind him, and redoubled his efforts.
A rip current suddenly caught him and pulled him out.
He tumbled head over heels at the bottom of the water, rolling on the silty sand, suffocating for want of air—
—everything moved in a daze, and he heard the underwater mumble of waves and the rumble of crashing breakers above and the whisper of sand abrading his body—
—And then, past the breakers, the sea flung him clear, and he bobbed dazedly in three foot swells in an otherwise calm sea.
He was now about 150 feet out, comfortably treading water, getting his breath back. The two rippers had given up their pursuit and were tearing into his kill. He prayed that they would not completely tear the hide apart, though he could use scraps to make small pieces of this and that—for example, ties to bind the halves of a tunic together along the edges.
Should he wait until they were done? The rest of the pride was racing in for the feast. No telling how long they would lie in the sand, digesting. Now one of them left the dead animal and paced along the shore, looking after him. That answered his question.
He broke into an even, measured long distance stroke parallel to the shore. Once he warmed up, he was like a machine laying down yard after yard. The water was calm and pleasant and it actually felt warm. That was a commodity he could appreciate. Every few minutes he’d take a look around underneath, looking for aquatic predators, but saw only swarms of little fish and one grouper who ignored him.
Gradually, he was in line with the valley. He paused for a rest, treading water, and studied the lay of the land. His intended goal, the peninsula jutting out to the west, was still at least two or three miles off. It would be a long swim. Without his weapons, he might be best off returning to his beach—but the rippers would be busy on the carcass for a while. Even at this distance he could see the greenish-silver glow of fish feeding at the carcass. Best to wait it out, maybe swim a bit farther west and look things over.
In a million years, what would be left of civilization? Probably just about nothing. One or two good ice ages would race across the ground, scraping buildings off their foundations, leveling cities, leaving gouge marks. The earth might shift poles, or even reverse them. The South Pole could be in Hawaii, and southern Africa might be the new North Pole. A million years, a million possibilities. Even his own place of birth showed absolutely no sign of a human touch.
His cliff was a quarter mile to his right as he faced land, looking north. His cliff had split off from a long, low coastal range of foothills that ran as far to his left as he could see. Beyond those were more hills, each range twice as high as the first, until in the distance there were mountains. Everywhere he looked, he saw thick deciduous forestation, much as Alex had known in upstate New York. Only this was the ocean—had it cut its shore somewhere near Syracuse? Were Rome and Albany beachfront property?
The river that had cut out the valley he was looking at probably ran pretty fast in the spring, when the snow melted. It had carved its way through the foothills, opening a canyon a quarter mile wide.
As he rested, he turned playfully and did a somersault in the water.
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