Sadie nodded and wiped her eyes. “He could be okay. We do have a basement. I’m—I’m just going to believe he’s okay. He has to be. He just has to be.”
“I hope he is. I, uh, think we should get going,” Mercury said gently. “An aftershock could happen any time.”
“You’re right. Yeah, we need to get out of here.” Sadie drew a deep breath and wiped her face again. “Can you help Gemma and me get them into your truck?”
“Absolutely,” said Mercury. “Mrs. Gay, Jenny and I will work with Sadie and her daughter to move the wounded while you lift the tarps and push the luggage out of the way.”
“And I’ll stay behind the wheel in case we need to get out of here quick,” added Stella.
Mrs. Gay narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, but she unlocked her door and lumbered to the rear of the truck so Mercury and Jenny could slide out. Mercury put down the heavy old tailgate, and then she and Jenny boosted Mrs. Gay up into the bed.
“We should hurry,” Mrs. Gay grumbled.
“Yeah, that’s what we’re doing,” said Mercury before she turned to Sadie. “Okay, let’s get these people out of here.”
Together Jenny and Mercury went to the roadside with Sadie. There were four adults on the ground—one woman and three men. Mercury went to the woman, whose jeans were ripped open down one leg, exposing a nasty break. Someone had placed two long sticks on either side of the leg in an attempt to stabilize it and tied them together with what looked like torn-up strips of a T-shirt.
Mercury glanced at Sadie. “Did you make that splint?”
“No, the teenager did,” said the woman with the broken leg. Her face was sallow, and a film of sweat beaded her upper lip.
Mercury’s gaze went to Gemma. “Good job with that.”
Gemma shrugged. “During school breaks I volunteer at OHSU.”
“OHSU?” Mercury asked.
“Oregon Health and Science University. I wanna be a doctor—actually an orthopedic surgeon.” The teenager put her long, cocoa-colored hair behind her ears. Her green eyes were bright and intelligent, and she looked way older than her years.
“Impressive!” Jenny said.
“She’s always loved science,” said her mom.
“Huh! Me too!” Jenny smiled at Gemma. “And now I teach science.”
“And I teach biology.” Mercury nodded at the teenager. “You definitely did a good job with this splint.” She squatted beside the injured woman. “This is going to hurt, and I’m sorry for that, but we need to get you—”
“You don’t have to explain it to me. I get it. It’s hurts like hell anyway. I’m just thankful you stopped.” She paused and smiled weakly at Sadie. “And thankful Sadie and her daughter didn’t leave us here like those jackasses did. By the way, I’m Marge Jackson, and this is my partner, Nathan Long.”
“Mercury and Jenny,” Mercury said quickly.
Nathan, who was lying beside Marge, turned his head and blinked his vision clear. “Nice to meet you ladies. Feels like my ribs are broken, but like Marge here, I’ll be damn glad to get into that old truck.”
“Do either of you know those two?” Mercury asked, nodding at the unconscious men beside them. Their faces were bloody, though someone—Mercury guessed Gemma—had tried to wipe them clean. Another makeshift bandage was wrapped around one of the men’s heads. Blood had seeped through it, and his nose was bleeding sluggishly. The other man’s forehead looked like raw hamburger with glass mixed in it.
“Nope. Sadie and Gemma pulled them outta that Winnebago over there. The one rear-ended,” said Marge.
“Neither of them were wearing seat belts,” said Sadie.
“Well, let’s lift the unconscious men in first, if y’all don’t mind,” said Mercury.
“We can wait our turn,” said Marge, and Nathan nodded in agreement.
“The bed’s as ready as it’s going to be,” Mrs. Gay called from the back of the truck.
“The four of us can lift them together,” Mercury said as she moved to the first of the two unconscious men. She bent and felt for the pulse in his throat—not because she could tell whether it was fast or slow or anything in between, but because she wanted to check that it was there at all. The man was so still and pale, he looked dead, but there was a heartbeat under her fingers, though it felt like the fluttering wings of a very small bird. “Sadie and Gemma, y’all get on his left. Jenny and I will be on the other side of him. Let’s grab wrists under him and lift on three.” The four women linked wrists. “One, two, three!” The man was young and slight and more awkward to carry than heavy. They moved together and slowly lifted him to the bed of the truck, where Mrs. Gay put her arms under the man’s shoulders and helped pull him to the rear of the bed.
They returned for the second man, the one whose forehead looked like raw meat. He was older than the first guy, though not by much. He was also heavier. Just as they linked wrists beneath him, the man’s eyelids fluttered and then opened.