Page 25 of Into the Mist

The older man shook his head slightly. “No one can help me. Go ahead and get warm. They’ve at least got a fire going up there, as well as shelter and food. I’ll be along as soon as I check for wounded.”

“Hey, I looked on the way across the lot, and I didn’t see anyone who could’ve been—” Stella’s words stopped as Ken turned and began to walk to the first of many dead bodies.

“Let him go,” said Mercury. “His family is gone. He’s got to try to deal with that.”

“Give it to me straight.” Imani faced the two women. “How bad do you think it is?”

Mercury and Stella exchanged a quick look before Mercury began, “Let’s talk as we walk back.”

“I need to hear exactly what you know. Don’t sugarcoat it and don’t try to distract me,” Imani said immovably.

“Okay then.” Stella drew a long breath. “We could see the bombs hit Portland. It’s gone. Seriously.”

“Salem is the same, as well as a lot of the surrounding area—basically everywhere we could see was either destroyed or damaged badly,” continued Mercury. “And I think…” Her words trailed off as she did think. Mercury knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, which she hadn’t allowed herself to fully confront yet, that Tulsa was probably as gone as Portland. The Air National Guard’s 138thFighter Squadron was stationed there with their F-16s. If a foreign country wanted to take out military installations, Tulsa would definitely be on the list, as would Imani’s home, San Diego, where her family had been waiting for their wife and mother to fly home. She cleared her throat. “I think it’s bad. Really bad.”

Imani’s head shook back and forth. “Maybe it’s just here. Maybe it’s just Oregon that was attacked.”

Mercury didn’t know what to say. So she reached out and took Imani’s hand in hers. “I hope you’re right.”

“But you don’t think I am.” Imani’s voice was emotionless, yet her eyes begged Mercury to disagree—to give her hope.

Mercury’s words didn’t come. She had no hope to give her friend.

Imani gripped Mercury’s hand as her gaze went to Stella. “Tell me. Just say it.”

“Why would anyone just attack Oregon? And what we witnessed was more than that,” said Stella. “There were smoke trails from bombs for as far as we could see.”

Mercury nodded somberly in agreement. “What Stella said. Truthfully, I believe the world as we knew it came to an end today.”

“M-my daughter, Jasmine—she’s five.” Imani’s body began to tremble as she spoke. “Austin, that’s my s-son. He just turned three.”

Mercury put her arm around Imani’s shoulders and held her friend as she sobbed. “I’m here,” she said. “I’m here.”

Stella moved to Imani’s other side and wrapped an arm around her waist. “I’m here too. We’re in this together. All of us. We’ll stay together.”

Imani lifted her gaze to meet Mercury’s. “They’re babies. J-just babies. They w-wanted to come with me this year, and I almost let them, but Curtis took off work to stay home with them. Said I deserved a mommy break.” Her almond-colored eyes filled with tears that spilled over and flowed down her cheeks. “Are you telling me my family is dead?”

“I don’t know, Imani. None of us knows for sure.” Mercury wanted to throw up as she thought about the two adorable, chubby-faced kids she’d watched Imani FaceTime with the day before. They’d been excited to tell their mommy that they’d used sidewalk chalk to draw and color in big hearts on their driveway as a welcome-home surprise.

“Honey, let’s get back to the lodge. You’re shivering. And you’re soaking wet. You need to—”

“I need my babies!” Imani’s legs folded beneath her.

Mercury and Stella caught her and gently guided her to the snowy ground. As Imani rocked back and forth and keened over and over, Mercury and Stella wrapped their arms around her and held her while all three women sobbed.

CHAPTER

8

THE HALF OFTimberline lodge that hadn’t been swept into the crevasse by the avalanche was in a lot better shape than Mercury had expected. The Polaris the others had ridden in was parked under the roof that protected the baggage load and unload area and was still very much intact. The sign that had been changed a few hours before from welcoming the nationally certified teachers to greeting Nike executives had fallen from its easel, but it was still in one piece. All someone would have to do would be to right the easel and reposition the sign, and everything would almost appear normal. If you ignored the shattered glass doors behind it and the blood that speckled the snowy sidewalk.

“Shit,” Mercury said under her breath. “Shit. I really hate blood and such. Ugh, I don’t want to go inside.”

“Most of the people have broken bones and cuts, and the doc has been working on cleaning them up,” said Imani. She’d stopped crying and instead, all the way from the parking lot to the lodge, she’d fired questions at Stella and Mercury about what all they’d observed on their drive from the lookout spot back to the lodge. “What I said before wasn’t an exaggeration. There aren’t many wounded. Therearea lot of dead people, though.”

“Where are they?” Mercury asked.

“You’ll have to ask Tyler and Ken. They were taking care of the bodies.” She drew in a long, shuddering breath and then continued. “The five teachers and three administrators I came here with are dead. All of them.”