Into the Mist (Into the Mist 1)

“Yep, some lots worse than others, of course. Haven’t heard one word from anyone east of the Mississippi. And California—most of it’s gone. Whole damn coast changed. When the earthquakes started, the San Andres Fault broke. All of it. A shitload of the West Coast slid into the ocean.”

Mercury felt lightheaded, like she’d stood up too fast, and she clung to Stella’s hand to steady herself. She met his eyes. “You know this for sure. It’s not just hearsay?”

“Truckers reported it. For most of them, it was the last thing they did.”

Mercury fired another question at him. “What about the green fog? Did everywhere get bombed with that too?”

“Hell yes! It’s still floating around. I sped through patches of it between here and Madras.”

“But when the bombs went off, did the green fog hit you?” Stella watched him closely as she waited for his answer.

He shook his head. “Nah. I was taking my morning shower in a truck stop not far from Madras—basically in the middle of nowhere, Oregon. The men’s showers there are like a cement bunker—no windows—shit, no air circulation at all. The guys and I call it the dungeon. Everything started shaking and going to hell, and there I was, stuck in the showers, naked as the day I was born. When I managed to get dressed and outta there dead people were everywhere, but the green stuff was gone. Like I said, though, I’ve seen it. Between there and Madras, and between Madras and here.”

“Madras? That’s where you came from?” Hilary asked. Then she quickly added for Stella and Mercury, “Madras is a modest-sized town about seventy miles south of here.”

“Yeah, but that seventy miles took me more than half a day to travel. I left this morning at dawn. Good thing my rig drives like a tank, though I had to leave my load in Madras. Never woulda made it a mile, let alone all the way here still hauling. The road’s almost impassable. Lots of vehicles stranded. Lots of dead folks. It’s terrible. But Madras is still there. Parts tore apart in the quakes—and of course there’s the dead. Doesn’t seem to matter that no bomb fell on the city. They just died anyway. But their mayor, Eva Cruz, is on it. She’s got a hospital set up as her headquarters and is rounding up folks and helping ’em. She’s got a radio set up and is tryin’ to contact other drivers. This mornin’ she told me herself to spread the word to survivors that Madras will welcome them.”

“Sim, we’ll have more questions, and we’d really like it if you talked to the people in the lodge, but first how about some coffee and some lunch?” Hilary said.

“That sounds great. I do appreciate your hospitality. Can’t say I’m good at public speaking, though. Don’t much like crowds.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about. There aren’t enough people left here to be a crowd. It’s more like you’ll just be chatting with us,” clarified Hilary. “There are about thirty wounded inside and besides us, only a handful more non-injured.”

Sim shook his head slowly. “I really hoped there were a hundred plus folks up here who survived the bombs and such. Damn, just damn.” He and Hilary led the way with Mercury and Stella, still holding hands, following slowly.

“I knew it was probably gone,” Mercury said softly as she wiped at her nose again. “But I had some hope.”

Stella squeezed her hand. “I know. We gotta tell Jenny and Karen—and Imani. Shit, shit, shit, I’m tired of giving good people bad news.”

“We can grow things,” said Mercury. “I’m going to hold onto that.”

“Right there with you, girlfriend,” said Stella.

Mercury paused long enough to turn and face her best friend. “I don’t care where we go, but wherever we end up from today on, we have to make the world we live in better, kinder, more fucking reasonable than the one that exploded yesterday. If we don’t, none of this—none of these deaths—will have meant anything.”

“Agreed. One hundred percent agreed.”

Sim got comfortable at the coffee table Mercury and her friends had been using as a dining table. Imani and Jenny were helping Tyler board up the last of the foyer windows while the three housekeepers, Mary, Rachel, and Veronica, collected all the fans they could find and positioned them so that they blew air away from the foyer—just in case the green fog descended on the lodge. Karen was assisting Gemma as she changed Marge’s bandages. While Stella disappeared into the kitchen to make a plate for Sim, Mercury gathered her three friends, who threw the trucker curious glances but followed her to their bedroom suite.

Mercury closed the door softly behind them and turned on the little bedside lamp. Then she faced the women.

“That man’s a trucker,” she said without preamble. “He’s been in contact with other truckers. I’m just gonna say this fast and get it over with. Tulsa is gone. San Diego and the entire West Coast of California is gone too.”

“Oh!” Karen sat heavily on the bed and clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and as tears leaked down her cheeks, she prayed softly.

Jenny’s face had blanched a sick, curdled milk color. “He’s sure?” she asked.

Mercury nodded. “Yes, one hundred percent sure.”

Jenny sat heavily beside Karen. She stared up at Mercury with eyes that were glossy with tears that stubbornly refused to fall. “My mom. My dad. My sister. They all live in Jenks. They’re dead, aren’t they.”

Jenny didn’t phrase it as a question, but Mercury answered her. “They are. Jenks is basically Tulsa—like Bixby, Broken Arrow, and all those other suburbs. Remember how much damage the bomb did in Portland? Nothing surrounding it could’ve survived. It has to be the same in Tulsa. And even if some people survived, like around my parents’ place east of Broken Arrow, we have to be realistic. There’s really no way we can get from here to there—not somewhere that’s several days drive away.”

“I know… I know…” Jenny’s gaze slid from Mercury to the embers in the fireplace. She stared as tears leaked from her eyes, down her pale cheeks.

“I hope it was fast.” Imani’s voice was whisper soft. “It was early. My babies are good sleepers. They were probably in bed with their daddy ’cause they always climb in bed with Curtis when I’m gone.” Her gaze met Mercury’s. “Please let it have been fast. Let them all have been curled up together asleep.”

“They were,” Mercury said. “I’m going to believe they were.”