"Maybe, maybe not. I've been thinking about the Outback. I have to get over my aversion to heat and dust," Ben teased, grinning at him. "But I think safety would end up trumping any aesthetic concerns. Did you know, before all the kaiju and everything, my goal in life was to own waterfront property? Now you can't even pay people to live there."

The only people who lived along the oceans now were those who were too stubborn to go anywhere else or those who were too poor to move. Ben did not envy them in the slightest. At least his bunk provided a little protection.