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CHAPTER
25
TIME BLURRED FOR Mercury. The twin who had screamed sprinted toward his brother—and the green fog that was lazily rolling with the wind along the riverbank toward him.
“Gemma! Stop him!” Mercury shouted.
As Gemma raced after the boy, Georgie slipped on a wet rock. Her arms windmilled as she tried to get her balance. Then, with a cry of terror, she fell backward into the raging water. Her head went under the whitecaps.
“Georgie!” Imani shrieked.
Mercury hurled herself down the incline and sprinted past Imani. As she did, she shouted to her friend. “Stay on top of the bank! Gemma and I will get the kids and hand them up to you.”
Mercury moved faster than she ever had in her life. She leaped down the bank, assessing the situation as she ran. Gemma was struggling with one twin, who was kicking and screaming and trying to get away to go to his brother. Georgie’s head surfaced. The current had already pulled her into the middle of the river and was carrying her past them. She sputtered, coughed, and then cried for help. The second twin was still frozen on the boulder.
The wind continued to push the green fog toward them.
“I’ll get the girl! Save the boy!” The shout came from across the river where a man had thrown off a huge backpack and was sprinting into the water. He dived in and surfaced fast. “Hold onto that rock! I’m coming!” With powerful strokes he closed the distance between himself and Georgie.
The rapid current had carried Georgie to a cluster of rock and tree debris, and she managed to pull herself up a little way out of the churning water, where she clung precariously to a craggy boulder as the man swam toward her.
As much as she wanted to, Mercury couldn’t save all of them by herself. She had to trust the man if she was going to get to the twin perched on the boulder, now an island in the middle of the expanding sea of green fog.
She reached Gemma, who was still struggling with the kicking, screaming boy. Mercury paused only long enough to grab the kid’s shoulder and turn him to face her. “Enough! You’re not helping! Go with Gemma. I’ll get your brother. Now!”
The kid’s face was covered with tears and snot and dirt, but he nodded shakily and went limp in Gemma’s arms. Mercury met Gemma’s frightened gaze. “I don’t know whether we have to breathe in the green crap to be affected by it or not, but here’s hoping it can’t hurt us unless we do. Carry him to the bank! Keep him above the fog! Imani will grab him! Run Gemma!”
She didn’t wait for Gemma’s response, but turned to see the twin who was still frozen on the boulder. His face was bloodlessly white. Even from a distance his big brown eyes looked glassy with shock.
Mercury had zero clue which twin it was, but with a fifty–fifty shot at getting it right, she called, “Cayden!”
The boy looked up from staring at the green fog. He blinked several times but finally focused on her.
“Do not move! When I get there, I’m going to turn my back to you. Climb on my shoulders. You’ll be fine up there. The fog can’t get you.” Mercury desperately hoped she was right about that. “Do you understand?”
The little boy nodded shakily.
Fear roiled in Mercury’s stomach. The fog was only inches from her. It hugged the rocky riverbank in swirling eddies that lifted about to her thighs, maybe her waist. She looked at the boy again. His eyes were trapped on her. Tears leaked from them, and he had wrapped his arms around his narrow chest like he was trying to hold himself together.
Mercury closed her mind to the memory of Amelia, Mr. Hale, and Coach Davis; Todd and Jason; Bob and Sim bleeding out because that green crap had taken them.
I believe I’m going to be okay. I’m not going to breathe it in. I’ll grab the kid and get out us out of there.
Mercury sprinted forward, slipping and sliding on rain-slick rocks. The swirling fog parted, as if welcoming her, and then it lapped around her legs and waist. Mercury ignored it. She kept her gaze locked on the boy. She reached the boulder, turned her back to Cayden, and crouched just low enough for him to climb awkwardly onto her shoulders.
“Hang on!” Mercury couldn’t sprint back. The fog now blanketed the entire riverside, completely obscuring the rocky ground. She was too afraid she’d slip and the boy would fall from her shoulders. She had to walk slowly, carefully instead. Her gaze darted to the river, where the man had reached Georgie and was talking to her. Georgie had stopped sobbing and nodded as she clung, monkey-like, to his back.
Mercury looked from the river to the steep bank where Imani, Stella, and Karen urged them on, waiting to lift up the other twin and Gemma. She hadn’t been able to get the boy up to her shoulders, so Gemma carried him half in her arms, half over one shoulder to keep him above the fog that billowed around her waist. Like Mercury, she couldn’t move quickly, but had to pick her way blindly over the slick, wet rocks.
Mercury increased her strides. Her long legs brought her closer and closer to Gemma until she reached the bank just behind the teen.
“Here! Take Cayden!” Mercury leaned forward as Stella and Karen grabbed Cayden and pulled him up off her shoulders. Mercury turned quickly to help Gemma, whose arms were shaking with the effort it took to hold the boy above the green tide.
“I’m—I’m gonna drop him!” Gemma panted.
“Got him!” Mercury hooked her hands under his arms and lifted Jayden, who felt like he weighed nothing, from Gemma up to Imani. “Now you!” Mercury turned back to Gemma and took a firm hold under the teen’s elbow.
“Reach for my hand! I’ll pull you up!” Stella stretched her arm down as far as she could—hand open to grab Gemma’s.
