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the opening. The journey to the freeway, less than two hundred yards, seemed interminable. Yet somehow he made it. His reasoning faculty had not been functioning well, for he ’ d thought that once he made it out to the highway, he ’ d be picked up and carried to safety. Now the six lanes were before him, stretching endlessly in opposite directions. But there was not a single vehicle, not a single evidence of people, in sight. Nothing moved. There were no birds in the sky and no glittering reflections from airplanes up in the gray overhead. It was almost as if he were the last man on earth.

 
    Chapter Three
     
    The Calmar Chemical Company was the nearest industrial operation to the White Water Plant. Situated thirteen miles directly south, it, too, was within a stone ’ s throw of the Pacific. At eighteen minutes until nine o ’ clock that morning the day shift had already been there nearly an hour.
    Up front, in the administration section of the plant, sat Cecil Yeager, assistant director of marketing, in his tiny, glassed-in office. Cecil brushed his coarse hair back and pulled himself in closer to his desk piled with paperwork and glanced at his computer screen. It was at that moment, as he glanced outward, that he noticed Mr. Hargrove standing on the other side of the glass. Hargrove seemed intent on the young man before him. Cecil could see his boss ’ s lips move and imagined that he could hear the words. He continued to watch as the younger man broke into a broad smile and pushed his hand into an eager grasp with the boss. A knot twisted in Cecil ’ s gut. This was it. He watched as Hargrove clasped the other around the shoulder and turned to walk off. The bastard, Cecil murmured under his breath.
    Instead of returning to his office, Hargrove, his face tinged with the redness from too many years of boozing and from the morning ’ s pleasantries with his young employee, pushed the door in and stepped into Cecil ’ s office. Calmly he withdrew a thin, dark cigar, held a flame to the end until he was puffing smoke, then looked Cecil squarely in the eye as he spoke. “ Guess you saw that out there. ”
    Cecil lowered his glance, without nodding.
    “ Yeager, I ’ ll get right to the point. I ’ ve just had a talk with McCormick. ”
    Cecil looked up, his eyes cool. Here it comes, he thought, that old fart is going to hand me a line of bull next....a lot of ‘ you ’ re a fine man, Yeager. ’
    Hargrove puffed deeply, then continued, “ You ’ ve been with us a lot of years....a fine, a really fine addition to our staff. ” Hargrove paused, inspected the tip of the cigar. “ I know you were next in line for promotion, Yeager, but the job went to McCormick.
    A hot spasm of anger passed through Cecil ’ s body, but he sat unmoving.
    Hargrove opened his mouth to continue when the shaking began. It was not a violent quake, hardly more than a tremor to Californians who had experienced many such rumblings over the years. But the man registered a trace of surprise and waited for the movement to cease. Within a fraction of a minute the quake was over.
    Papers on the desk had shifted and Cecil scooped them back into a pile. As yet he had had nothing to say to his superior.
    Hargrove cleared his throat. “ Calmar, you see, is taking a new course in the advancement of its employees. We ’ re going toward younger men....men who have a lot of years to give us....men with new ideas, fresher drives. ”
    Cecil lifted himself from his chair and went over to gaze out through the glass wall.
    “ You ’ re an excellent chemist, Yeager, and you ’ ve done all right in marketing, but, ” Hargrove flicked the ash from his cigar, “ we need someone who is, well....more personable for public relations. ”
    With his back to Hargrove, Cecil replied, “ McCormick is an ambitious young man. He won ’ t disappoint you. ” And he ’ s a butt licker to make it after less than two years, he didn ’ t add.
    “