Chapter 6 Summary

The trip of the U.S.S. Scorpion is underway. They visit Monterey Bay and find the radiation to be uniformly high. They inspect San Francisco from five miles outside the Golden Gate and all they learn is that the bridge is down. They backtrack to Half Moon Bay and noted the houses are not much damaged but there is no sign of life anywhere. Somewhere around Fort Bragg, they are able to pinpoint the Seattle transmissions as coming from Santa Maria. They decide the transmission is too random to be a person sending. Outside the Columbia River, the radiation readings remain "thirty in the red" but not high enough to be immediately lethal.

Dwight, back in his cabin, takes out the bracelet for his wife and puts it in his shirt pocket. He falls asleep with his hand on the fishing rod...