Page 26 of Into the Mist

“Were they men or women?” Stella asked.

“Weird that you asked. My group and I laughed that this was the Year of the Coach. Four of the five teachers were men—and coaches. All three administrators were men. Teri and me—we were the only women to come to the spring conference this year. She’s dead.” Imani shook her head and grimaced like she might get sick. Then she cleared her throat and said, “It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. She died just over there.” Imani gestured at the tree line. “I limped back after the earthquake stopped, and Teri had come looking for me. She met me where the trail begins. She was okay. We hugged and cried—and then a limb fell from one of those big pines just as we were leaving the trail. She was only a foot or so in front of me, and it crashed down on her. It flattened the bottom half of her body. I held what was left of her while she died.” Imani shook her head as tears leaked slowly down her cheeks.

“What about the coaches and your administrators?” Stella asked quickly.

Imani wiped her eyes. “They were drinking coffee on those benches in front of the lodge. I remember that they all waved at me when I headed for my hiking trail. They were leaving earlier than me, so the guys were waiting together until the shuttle for the airport came.” She paused and swallowed several times before she continued. “After Teri died, I went there first.” Imani’s eyes were haunted by the memory she replayed. “They were dead. Every one of them. Worse than Teri. Way worse. It was like the insides of their bodies dissolved.” She swayed a little, like she might fall. “All of my people—all of them are dead.”

Mercury took Imani’s elbow and steadied her. “Now we’re your people. We’re very much alive—and we’re going to stay that way.”

“You said you limped out of the woods,” Stella said. “Are you okay?”

Imani stopped swaying and squeezed Mercury’s hand before she let her go. “Yeah, I’m fine. I thought I’d broken my ankle, but I musta just needed to walk it out because it’s not bothering me now.”

“And the green fog was here?” Stella said.

Imani nodded. “Right.”

Stella fired another question. “When it surrounded you, did you feel anything?”

Imani opened her mouth and then closed it as she considered. Finally, she said, “Yeah, even though I haven’t really thought about it until now. It was like fire inside my body.”

“Hot pins and needles.” Mercury nodded in understanding.

“That’s a good way to describe it,” said Imani.

“Something’s up with that fog,” said Stella. “Something that kills people. Mostly male people.”

“But it didn’t kill us.Yet.” said Imani.

Stella’s response was instant. “How do you feel? Really think about it. Not your emotions—we’re all upset and freaked out—I mean your body.”

Imani rounded her shoulders with a shrug. “Okay. Actually, pretty good. Physically, that is.”

Stella reached up to touch her left shoulder—the one that had been cut when the blast had hurled them to the ground. She met Mercury’s gaze. “It’s scabbed over. Not sore at all. Like it happened days and not hours ago.”

Automatically Mercury touched the gash above her temple. It had stopped bleeding some time ago. Except for the itchiness of the dried blood in her scalp, Mercury had completely forgotten about the injury.

“Yours is healed too, isn’t it?” Stella asked.

Mercury nodded.

“What about the aches in your joints?” Stella said.

Imani answered before Mercury could. “I still feel sore. Kinda like a mild flu. Definitely not as bad as before.”

“Same with me. What are you thinking?” Mercury asked Stella.

“It’s more a feeling than a thought. Let’s go inside. I’ll tell you when I know more, but I can say that I think we can be pretty sure that we’re not going to suddenly bleed out like Amelia or those two men we found by the roadside, but pay attention if someone says they feelwrongorbroken.”

“Death words,” Mercury whispered.

Stella looked grim. “Yep. Definitely. There’s probably nothing we can do to help someone if they start feeling broken, but we can be there with them until the end.”

“No one should die alone,” said Mercury.

Imani stared past the two women and spoke softly. “At least they were together—my babies and their daddy. Curtis would’ve held them and been with them and told them everything would be alright.” Imani pressed the back of her hand against her mouth to stop her sob.

Mercury touched her arm. “I’m here. I don’t know what the hell to say, but I’m here.”