The black seawater receded much faster than Faye Yardley had expected.
After just one day, the water level had already dropped below her raft's protective shield.
At this distance, the monster fish would have to swim out of the black seawater and into the clear zone just to attack the raft again.
For the others who had managed to hold on this long, the fact that the rafts were no longer under attack was a cause for celebration.
The cold wasn't a concern; after all, if things got too bad, they could just huddle by the fireplace to get by.
But just as the crisis beneath the waves was temporarily resolved, a new one began in the sky: hailstones the size of fists started to fall.
They came crashing down—BAM! BAM! BAM!—only to be blocked by the shield and slide off the sides of the raft.
Faye Yardley had planned to come up directly through an ice hole, but the sheer force of the hail was so great she didn't dare get close to the surface.
