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After 4 attempts, Sam still couldn’t raise anybody on the radio.  Eddie had checked out the boats electrical system and found no errors, the computer system, and GPS system, Auto-navigator they were all functioning properly.  “The ships running fine Sam, according to the computer, the radios are fine too.  It’s probably the satellite that’s out.”  Sam thought that made sense that would explain why they aren’t receiving anything, everything on this boat uses satellites, but why does the GPS still work?  Must use a different satellite.  “Yeah you’re probably right.”  Sam said.  She smiled at him and then realized she was still naked, as was he.  “Where were we?”  She said taking him by the hand.  1 hour later they could see Long Beach Harbor.  Eddie was watching through binoculars, as they got closer, he began to realize that he couldn’t see anybody along the shore.  No sailboats, no jet skis, no boats of any kind.  He could see the Naval yard at Long Beach, there were Naval ships, coast guard ships, private yachts, and he could even see the Queen Mary.  Yet he didn’t see a single person.  They got closer; he began to see smoke, then a hint of flames spread throughout the city it looked like.  “Sam!”  Sam came running to the bow of the boat, “What is it?”  “I think I know why were not getting any response, look.”  He pointed at the coastline.  Sam looked through the binoculars; she could see the smoke, the empty beach. “I think it was an Earthquake.”  Eddie said.  Sam nodded in agreement. 

They were within 3 miles of the port; the flames were clearly visible now.  Whole buildings were burning, Eddie was watching the flames intently, amazed at how brutal they were.  Sam slowed the boat to 3 knots as they pulled into the port, they still didn’t see anybody, and no one came out to greet them.  Eddie realized that no one was fighting the fires, he saw the fire trucks and various other rescue vehicles, but there was no one around them.  Sam brought the boat to a stop along pier 4.  Eddie tied the mooring lines.  Still no one came out.  Sam and Eddie were puzzled, “The Earthquake must have been really bad, and whoever was fighting those fires must have been caught in the after shock.  Lets go find someone.”  They began to head toward the main building along the pier.  There was trash thrown all over, they noticed cars abandoned along the road, some with the motors still running.  The building, an office of some kind, was completely empty, the doors were all open, and papers were thrown everywhere.  Sam picked up a phone, no dial tone.  She wasn’t surprised.  “Sam, lets go to the Naval base, there has to be someone there.”  “Good idea, I hate to say it, but maybe we should take a car.”  Eddie thought about it for a minute, there was one running out in the parking lot, “Alright, lets get that one that was left running.” 

They approached the car cautiously, not sure if they should call out or not.  “Hello!”  Sam said in a loud voice, “Is there anybody there?”  No response.  Eddie took note that the car was a 1999 Pontiac Trans Am.  He noted that it was the WS-6 package, “Sam, this is a thirty plus thousand dollar car, for someone to just abandon it and leave it running like this is not right.”  “It must have been a bad quake.”  Sam said.  They stayed with the car for a few minutes before leaving with it, there was about ¼ tank of gas, they couldn’t determine how long it had been sitting like this.  The radio was on but there was only static.  After they were convinced that no one was going to come for the car, they headed for the Naval base.  They had agreed to return the car to this same spot when they were finished with it.  Along the way they noticed several more cars in various states, some still running, some smashed into walls of buildings, or into other cars, some on fire, but all of them abandoned.  One car caught Eddie’s eye.  “Look at that.”  Sam turned to look, he was looking at a car off the side of the road with the doors closed, the driver window smashed, and all around the glass covering the ground was blood.  It trailed off toward a beach restroom.  Eddie stopped the car and headed toward the restroom.  “What are you doing?”  Sam asked.  “There might be someone hurt in there.”  Sam, obviously shaken, reluctantly followed Eddie. 

Eddie thought he heard a rasping sound coming from the restroom, “Did you hear that?  Someone’s inside.”  They both froze in there tracks, they herd mumblings coming from inside, it sounded like there were at least a dozen people in there.  Eddie, remembering the last time he was in a bad quake, quietly whispered in Sam’s ear, “There might be a band of looters in there; I’m just going to take a peak, stay right here.”  Sam nodded, not sure if she wanted Eddie to go any closer or not.  Eddie slowly walked to the entrance on the ladies side; he paused to listen for movement.  A ear-piercing scream echoed from within, Eddie jumped back, heart racing, another scream, this time from behind, He turned to see Sam being wrestled to the ground by some guy.  “Hey!”  Eddie yelled, he either didn’t hear, or didn’t care, but he didn’t let go of Sam.  Eddie grabbed the guy from behind and heaved him off of Sam; the guy stunk like a sewer.  Eddie threw him down; the guy couldn’t have been more than 16 or 17 years old.  He stood up and started toward Eddie, his eyes were covered with some kind of film; Eddie thought this kid was whacked out on drugs, “Hey!  Stay back!”  Eddie shouted, he put Sam behind him; the kid slowly kept walking toward them.  Eddie slugged him in the head, the kid fell back and tumbled over, and then he slowly began to stand back up. 

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