Page 9 of Into the Mist

“Jesus! Oh Jesus!”

“Are you hurt?” Mercury tried to touch her, but Mrs. Gay cringed away from her bloody hands.

“Oh Lord! Oh God!” she shrieked.

Mercury grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Stop it! Get yourself together and tell me if you’re hurt!”

Mrs. Gay’s thin, pale lips pressed into a line. She blinked several times, as if trying to clear her vision, and drew a shaky breath before she replied. “I—I don’t think I’m hurt.” Mrs. Gay didn’t meet her eyes. Instead, she stared at the gelatinous mound of red between Amelia’s thighs. “She—she’s dead.”

It wasn’t a question, but Mercury answered it. “Yes. Amelia and her baby.” Mercury was trying to sift through the horror that threatened to numb her mind. Her gaze went from Mrs. Gay to sweep around the turnout. The rich scent of earth filled the area from several places where the ground had split open. Their rented Escalade had been tossed on its side like a child’s discarded toy. The faded pickup was still upright on all four tires, though it looked as if a giant’s hand had pushed it back to the middle of the gravel lot, which reminded Mercury suddenly of the other men. Her eyes scanned past the broken pines surrounding them—some with trunks so thick sheand Stella couldn’t have touched hands around them. They’d been snapped in half like number-two pencils. She looked to where the men had been standing when the bombs—Were they really bombs? Are we at war?—had begun to explode, but her gaze was caught by a person who sat on the closest bench, the only bench still intact.

Mrs. Gay must have seen Mercury’s start of surprise, because she spun around. “Mr. Hale!” she shouted and rushed to the man on the bench.

Mercury wanted to warn her, but the history teacher moved too fast. She reached out and touched the principal’s shoulder—and her touch set off a grisly reaction, like he had been held together by a string of wet dominos. His body quivered. Then, with a horrible, sloshing sound, it fell apart. His arm slid from his shoulder to the bench beside him and continued to seep down into the earth. The movement caused his head to detach from his neck so that it dropped behind the bench to hit the ground with the sound of a melon splitting open. His headless torso slumped forward and quivered as it dribbled onto the grass like a macabre Jell-O mold left out in the summer heat.

“Lord! Jesus! Lord!” Mrs. Gay scrambled back. Over and over she wiped her bloody hand on her khaki pants as she stumbled into Mercury, who grabbed her and held her while she sobbed and called to Jesus to save her.

Stella was there, beside Mercury. “The men. The two from the truck. That’s them over there.” She pointed.

Mercury released Mrs. Gay, whose legs collapsed. The history teacher dropped to her knees and began to pray softly as Mercury followed Stella’s pointing finger to two mounds that just minutes before had been living men. Then her gaze continued beyond them, and she looked out at the view.

At first her brain didn’t register what her eyes saw. How could it? Everything had been altered so utterly that her mind kept telling her that it couldn’t be real—this couldn’t be happening.

Nothing looked the same. It was like one of the old gods had grabbed an edge of the earth and then lifted and shook it like a dirty rug. The land was ripped and gouged and utterly alien. Portland was gone. In its place was flame and smoke and green-tinged darkness.

“They finally did it. They finally destroyed the world.” Stella spoke with no emotion, but she wrapped her arms around her torsowhile tears dripped from her eyes down her cheeks to soak the long-sleeved shirt she’d layered under her sweater.

Mercury could only manage one word. “They?”

“Men. Politicians.Them.The greedy, corrupt people in charge whose job it was to keep us safe.” Stella’s voice cut like a knife.

Mercury’s gaze swept to the left—to where Coach Davis had said Salem was. It was the same as Portland: flames and darkness. The land between was a ruin—torn, broken, and on fire. Spots that weren’t on fire glowed with the strange green fog that had spewed from the blasts.

Like a zombie, Mercury ambled around, turning in one spot. Above the broken trees and torn earth, smoke and debris spread like a deadly contagion to cover the day with darkness that had already begun to blot out the brilliant blue morning sky.

“It’s everywhere.” The words slipped from Mercury’s numb lips. Terror seared through her as she tried to comprehend what her eyes reported.I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home.Her brain replayed the words again and again until Stella’s voice broke through.

“Mercury! Look at me!”

Mercury turned to face her best friend. Stella brushed the hair back from her blood-slicked cheek. Mercury had to draw several shaky breaths before she could speak. “I—I don’t know what to do.”

“Of course you do. You’re smart, capable, tough. Both of us are. Think!”

“We need shelter.” Mercury forced back the alluring fog of panic.I can freak out later. Now we need to act.She glanced up and then gestured at the growing line of smoke that had begun to shroud the sun. “We have no clue what’s in that, but we’re still alive. Jenny and Karen are still alive.”

“That’s more like it, Acorn.”

“Okay, yeah. We can do this. So, let’s get our asses in gear and see if we can all stay alive.” Mercury turned her back to the view that had become a nightmare, and the old Chevy caught her gaze. “You can drive that truck.”

Stella almost smiled. “I can.”

“We need to get back to Timberline. Fast.”

“Agreed,” said Stella, who took Mercury’s hands and squeezed them—hard. “Remember—together we can do this. Wehave todo this.”

Mercury allowed herself a moment to hold onto Stella and stare into the blue lifeline of her familiar eyes. Then she dropped herhands; drew a deep, cleansing breath; and raised her voice as if she was projecting to the rear of a noisy classroom. “Jenny, Mrs. Gay—we have to get out of here.”

Jenny was still holding Amelia’s body. Mercury watched her lay the dead woman’s torso gently on the ground. The young teacher lifted Stella’s coat off the body before she went to what was left of the dead infant. She scooped up the tiny, partially disintegrated corpse and placed it on Amelia’s chest. Jenny gently brushed her fingers though Amelia’s sweat-matted hair before she walked to them.