“Easy, big guy.” He looked back. “They might not attack us, but they can still swamp us.”

The raft tilted again as a smaller whale lifted them up onto its back and carried them twenty feet. “Shit.”

It submerged, leaving them still scudding along the surface. “Thanks,” he said, looking down. “At least if there’s a Megalodon down there, it’ll see these big guys long before it sees us. Keep paddling, harder, and we’ll try and stay with them.”

The whales accompanied them for another ten minutes, the huge cow-like creatures taking turns to either glide closer to examine the strange beings floating above them, or one of the younger ones would lift and carry them again, giving them a free ride for a few dozen feet.

Cate allowed herself a small smile of comfort as the leviathans took turns coming within a few feet of the side. She reached over once, to lay a hand on the slick surface, and noticed the scars and rents in its flesh.

“Hard life, huh?” she whispered to the large dark eye that seemed to hold the wisdom of the world in its gentle orb.

In an instant the water swirled and lumped and they were gone.

“What just happened?” she pulled her hands from the water again. “Did something just scare them away?”

“Forget it; paddle… there.” Jack pointed. There was a cliff face, and one section looked slightly smoothed or melted. “Water erosion; means there’s been some sort of drainage from above. Good news, I hope.”

“We made it?” Abby said, suddenly brightening.

“That’s our destination. Pray there’s somewhere in there we can climb up,” Jack said, stroking hard now.

Cate turned back to where the pod of primitive whales had just been. There was nothing, not a swirl, lump or ripple on the dark surface. Jack turned briefly, his light now down to a dim burnt orange color, and she took the opportunity to look over the side. She squinted; did she just see something pass underneath them?

“Jaack.” She continued to stare over the side.

Jack was breathing hard, pulling the water back furiously now. “Keep – paddling – almost – there.”

She gritted her teeth, and hesitated, not wanting to put her hands back in, Abby watched her, eyes wide in the dark.

“Damn it.” Her heart hammered, and every part of her body and mind screamed not to do it, but she still dug her arm in deep, looking over the side again. Something else passed underneath them, and something else, and she was about to call again, when more of the objects appeared – rocks, weed, and darting fish as the water became shallower.

Looking up, she saw they were only a few dozen feet from a rocky shore line, this one unlike the last, did not start as a cliff face, but a gradual shallowing like a normal beach.