Page 89 of Into the Mist

The board’s splinters sliced into her fingers and the palms of her hands, but Mercury didn’t let go. The backpack pulled her down, but she gritted her teeth, and instead of allowing the current to take her and pull her to the bottom, Mercury grunted and concentrated. Then she attempted something she’d been trying to accomplish in the gym for years. Using an overhand grip on the rough plank, she pulled herself up until her chin was above the board, and then methodically Mercury straightened her arms, heaving up until her chest had cleared the board and her waist was even with it. She swung her legs to the side, up and over, and with abs of steel she had zero clue she owned, Mercury powered up the rest of the way onto the bridge, landing in a crouching position.

There was a sharpcrack, almost like gunfire, and the footbridge disintegrated beneath her. Without conscious thought, Mercury shouted, “Shit!” and leaped at the bank that was still at least ten feet in front of her. As what remained of the bridge crumbled into the river, Mercury catapulted to land with anoofas the backpack’s weight made her roll onto her back, turtle-like, in the dirt.

“Mercury! Jesus fucking Christ! Are you okay?” Like a major league pro heading into home, Stella slid to her. She grabbed her arms and pulled her to a sitting position. “Are you broken? Gemma! Get your butt here!”

“I’m here! I’m here!” Gemma sprinted up and went to her knees beside them. “Let me look at you. What hurts?”

“I’m okay,” Mercury said. She lifted her hands. Her fingers and palms were a mass of blood and splinters. “These hurt, but other than that I’m okay.”

“Fuck!” Imani ran to them. “Get that giant pack off her.”

“Guys, really. I’m okay except for my hands. The pack’s fine. It’s definitely not as heavy as it looks. Help me up.”

Stella and Imani took her elbows and guided Mercury to her feet. She moved her shoulders and shifted the backpack before smiling at her friend. “See, good as new. Goddess! That bridge really sucked.”

“G-give me that pack.” Ford was staggering to them. His pale face made him look as dead as Mercury almost had been.

“No!” Mercury told him. “I’ve got it. It’s not even heavy. Dude, you look like you’re gonna pass out.”

Gemma whirled around and made a little squeaking sound as Oxford swayed like a willow in a gale.

“Help him! I’m good.” Mercury frowned at Ford.

Gemma put her arm around Ford’s waist. Imani went to his other side and did the same to stabilize him.

“You better follow us back to the truck. Like,right now, Acorn!”commanded Gemma as she and Imani turned Ford and began trudging to the truck.

“Damn, she’s getting bossy,” said Mercury. “Right?” She glanced at her friend. Stella’s glacier-blue eyes were trapped on her. Her face was unreadably somber.

“What? I’m okay. Really.”

Stella kept staring at her.

“Stella! Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Give me that backpack.” Stella held out her arms.

“Fine, but I really can carry it. It’s just my hands that are cut, not my back.” She glanced down at them as she wriggled out of the pack. “Ugh, splinters are the worst, aren’t they?” Mercury let the pack drop to the ground. “Sorry, if I hand it to you that really will hurt me.”

Saying nothing, Stella bent to pick up the backpack. She lifted it about a foot from the ground before letting it drop back. “You said it was light.”

“It is.”

“No, Mercury Elizabeth Rhodes. That thing weighs at least fifty pounds.”

“Oh my Goddess, Stella. That’s insane.”

“No, what’s insane is that you’re carrying it around like it’s nothing, and you just did a straight arm pull-up with that fucking thing on your back right before you jumped, flat-footed, from the middle of that bridge onto the bank a good ten feet away likegoddamn Wonder Woman!”With a trembling hand Stella brushed strands of her wild hair from her face. “You have super strength.”

“I do not.” Mercury hooked one of the backpack straps through her arm and with a single movement, slung it up to her shoulders.

Stella’s brows lifted into her hair. “I could barely pick that thing up.”

Mercury stared at her friend as her heartbeat calmed. She looked behind Stella to the skeletal remains of the footbridge that clung to the opposite bank. Then she met Stella’s gaze again. “I did a dead-arm pull-up. I seriously pulled my body weight up like it was nothing.”

Stella nodded. “With a fifty-pound backpack. Then you jumped.Jumped!And went flying a bunch of feet—don’t know how many because I was flat out running to try to save you while you did it—to the other fucking side of the river.”

Mercury felt nauseous and dizzy. “What’s happening to me?”