Page 37 of Into the Mist

Hilary brushed a thick strand of long hair from her face with a shaky hand. “Yes. I have a practice in the city. I only come up here and work during busy weekends, like this one.” She looked down at her hands, which she’d folded together in front of her. My wife, she—” Emotion closed her throat.

Mercury reached out and touched her shoulder. “She was in Portland?”

Hilary looked up and through unshed tears met Mercury’s gaze. “No. She joined me this weekend. It was our fifth anniversary. She didn’t make it through the initial blast.”

“Ah, damn. I’m so sorry,” said Stella.

“She was waiting for me in the hot tub by the pool. It was the pool area that fell into the crevasse before the avalanche covered it and that half of the lodge. I should have been with her. I…” Hilary wiped her eyes, drew a deep breath, and straightened her bowed shoulders. “She’s at peace, beyond whatever the rest of us will still have to live with here. What I want to know is how bad is it? How many bombs? Gemma said a lot. What did you see?”

There was a thoughtful stretch of silence, and then Stella took the healer’s hands in hers. “There were bombs everywhere. The world as we knew it is over.”

Hilary paled but nodded. “I thought as much. I wonder—my parents are in Manzanita. It’s on the coast. Could anything there have survived?”

“It’s impossible to say,” Mercury spoke slowly. “The sky was filled with smoke trails from the bombs—all over. All around us as far as we could see, and what we could see became fire and rubble. I wouldn’t try to get to the coast, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No. I won’t leave my patients. My mother and father wouldn’t expect me to. I just needed to know. Almost all of the wounded were guests from out of state, but the staff is either from Portland, Government Camp, or somewhere in between. They’re staying right now because they’re terrified or too kind to leave before we get the wounded tended to and settled. After what you said, I’ll encourage them to stay indefinitely.”

Karen picked at her cardigan. “Don’t let them leave. It is terrible out there.”

“You really believe everyone between the mountain and Portland is dead?” Gemma stared at them with eyes much older than those of a sixteen-year-old.

Stella held the girl’s gaze steadily and spoke compassionately. “I’m only going to tell you the truth. I really believe it. And I also believe it’s worse than we can imagine. The bombs changed things. There was something biological about them.”

Gemma nodded sadly. “That’s what I think too.”

“It kills men,” said Stella.

Hilary’s sharp gaze caught Stella’s. “That’s the observation that I’ve made. Not one woman has bled out.”

“But there are some men here, like Ken and Tyler, who seem fine,” said Mercury.

The doctor nodded. “Yes, and they back my hypothesis. Ken and Tyler were in the basement when the blast of green hit us. The other men who are still alive—and there are only a few of them—were in the spa’s sauna, which is on the basement level in a room with no windows or access to outside. Their injuries happened trying to get out of the rubble. None of them breathed in the green stuff.”

“Bob must have,” said Gemma.

“He did. He wasn’t outside when it hit, but he was in the hallway that leads to the side of the lodge consumed by the avalanche. When the building broke, some of the green reached him.”

“So it seems if men were hit by the initial blast, they died, like our principal and coach,” Mercury reasoned aloud. “For lack of a better word, theyjellified.”

Stella chimed in. “But if a man was somewhat protected, like Bob, and still breathed in the green crap, he dies. Just not right away.”

“And he doesn’t turn into a Jell-O mold,” said Mercury.

“Gross,” said Gemma. “But true.”

“We must keep an eye on everyone and be sure we all stay away from any lingering green fog,” said Doc Hilary.

“Absolutely. We’re fortunate here,” continued Stella. “The kitchen is well stocked. Tomorrow I’ll take inventory and figure out exactly how long the supplies will last.” She blinked as a new thought came to her. “Wait, there was a bar—Ram’s Head.” Then, before anyone could respond, she turned to Mercury. “I totally forgot about Dusty.”

“You’ve been busy with the whole end-of-the-world apocalypse thing,” said Mercury.

“Dusty the bartender? The one with the hair and the muscles?” Hilary asked.

“That’s him.”

“His body is beneath the avalanche with my Kate’s.”

“Well. Shit.” Stella sighed heavily. “The bar was on the second floor.”