Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
M y God. How had this happened?
Xanthe pushed the panic down deep and started coordinating her team, along with the small group of local volunteers that had shown up to help. The trouble was, more and more people kept showing up as word of mouth spread, cluttering the area and diverting her attention and energy.
“Help’s coming. Just keep them covered and wet for now,” she told her team.
The temperature was cool but the angle of the sun was strong, and there wasn’t a cloud in the bright blue sky to dim its rays.
Her wetsuit offered some protection from the cold water and wind rolling off the ocean, but she was already shivering.
This was so much worse than she’d imagined. She couldn’t stop to think about it, or her emotions would get the better of her. Every minute counted if they were going to save these animals.
“Xanthe!”
She looked up and spotted Rafe off to the left, hiking down the rocks toward her in his sheriff’s uniform.
He jumped down from a large boulder onto the beach and hurried toward her. “What’s the situation?” He scanned the scene, taking in the scale of the disaster.
“Two stranded adult orcas, and a young juvenile trapped on the rocks out of view just over there.” She pointed to a group of large boulders a few hundred yards down the beach.
“I don’t know what happened. We’re trying to figure it out, but our priority right now is to stabilize the animals.
The tide’s still moving out, with low tide still another hour away.
Have you heard anything from the Coast Guard? ”
“They dispatched a small crew, and the Marine Mammal Response Team is on the way. ETA forty minutes. What else do you need right now?”
“I need this whole area blocked off to anyone I haven’t vetted to be down here. A lot of people are showing up and wanting to help, but I need to be able to control who goes in and out.” They meant well, but their presence complicated everything.
“I’ll handle it. Anything else?”
“Put out a call for donations of towels, bedsheets, buckets, and shovels.”
“Got it. I’ll head up and get a perimeter marked out at the top by the parking area. Shout if you need anything more.”
“I will. Thanks.” She hurried back to Allistair and Samantha, who were gently pouring buckets of water onto some towels draped over the stranded male’s back. “Rafe’s securing the area and putting out a call for donations. The response team is en route.”
“Good.” Bare feet sunk into the wet, muddy gray sand and his pantlegs rolled past his knees, Allistair bent down to scoop another bucket of water. “We need all the help we can get.”
She knew it. “I’m gonna head back to the calf.”
They nodded and kept working. She hurried away from them down the beach. Stopped when she heard someone behind her shout her name.
Looking back, she spotted Willow and Tripp, then Maddy and Blaine. They had shovels and buckets.
Thank you.
She hurried back to meet them.
“What do you need?” Blaine asked before she reached them.
Wearing a button-down shirt, dress pants, and leather shoes, he was dressed for the board room, not a whale rescue. He’d obviously come straight here when he’d heard about the strandings, without even stopping to change at his house on the way.
The sight of him put a lump in her throat.
She swallowed hard. “Follow me. We need to hurry.” She turned away and started jogging toward the stranded female, the drier sand shifting under her feet with each step.
“What happened?” Blaine asked, falling in step beside her.
“I don’t know. But that’s Onyx.”
“Shit,” he muttered, his face tightening.
It was awful.
Xanthe led the way, pausing near the stranded female.
Onyx was lying half on her right side as if the ocean had dumped her there, her one pectoral fin buried under her in the sand.
Behind her, the water was distressingly far away.
It would be hours before the tide came back in far enough to re-float the animals off the sand.
The sight of the emaciated matriarch lying there so still broke Xanthe’s heart.
“She’s so thin. Must have been starving herself while she’s been carrying her calf.
” Little Nova’s body was nowhere in sight.
“She may have been too weak to resist the pull of the tide, and the others followed her too close to shore. She hasn’t moved since Lachlan first reported seeing her.
It’s like she’s given up,” she finished, her voice catching.
“We’ll do everything we can to give her reason to keep fighting.”
She pulled in a breath and blinked back tears, grateful for the sunglasses hiding her eyes. Stopping a respectful distance from Onyx’s massive head, she turned to face the others, who were close behind them.
“Stay clear of her tail, and back off if she starts moving. The last thing we want to do is stress her more right now. See how the others are pouring water over the sheets and towels draped over the male? We need to keep their skin wet, or they could dry out and blister in this sun. Make sure you don’t cover her blowhole, and be careful not to get any water in it. ”
Tripp nodded, face grim. “What else?”
“We’ll need four to six people to dig a shallow trench parallel to her belly to try and get her upright, but we’ll wait for the Coast Guard and the Marine Mammal response team to get here first. In the meantime, I need one of you to come help me with the juvenile.”
“I’ll go,” Blaine said without hesitation.
She could have hugged him. “Thank you. We need to hurry, he’s injured.” She started jogging along the sand. He kept pace right next to her, shovel in one hand and a bucket in the other. “His name’s Zephyr. He’s caught on the rocks just up ahead.”
Halfway there, his piercing cries reached them. Shrill, heartbreaking sounds of pain and distress that were terrible to hear.
A heavy weight settled in her chest. She swallowed and took a deep breath, pressing her lips together. Don’t think about what could happen. Just do what you can and focus.
“Has he been doing that for long?” Blaine asked.
“Hours.” And with each passing one, the odds of him surviving dropped lower.