Into the Mist Read online

  Coach Davis stretched and said, “Hey, don’t I remember one of those scenic lookout places not far from here?”

  “Yep,” said Stella around a yawn. “We stopped there two years ago on the way to the lodge.”

  Mercury raised a brow at her friend. “Oh yeah, that’s where you puked, right?”

  Stella shuddered. “Yes. It’s also the last time I ate prosciutto. Never. Again.”

  “Doesn’t that brown sign say ‘scenic turnout’?” Amelia pointed off to the left of highway 26.

  The principal sighed and began to slow the SUV. “We’ll stop. But this isn’t a joy ride. Get out. Do your business. Then let’s get going again.”

  “Hey, we didn’t take our annual selfie,” said Stella.

  “Perfect opportunity! With an amazing background.” Mercury nodded as Hale guided the SUV into the turn lane and then crossed over to the gravelly scenic turnout spot. As he parked and Amelia lumbered from the passenger seat, the women poured from the SUV.

  “Hey! I said we need to get going!” Hale said.

  “Oh, come on, Mr. Hale,” Jenny said, dimpling at him. “Let’s all take a picture.”

  Coach Davis clapped the principal on the shoulder. “It’s just a picture, and we did leave in plenty of time to make it to the airport.”

  Mrs. Gay closed her magazine and sighed. “Mr. Hale, if you wouldn’t mind terribly, I would like to take a picture of the scenery for my classroom. The history of this pass is as rich as it is tragic.”

  “See?” Coach Davis said. “It’s unanimous.”

  “Okay, I suppose we do have some extra time,” the principal grumbled as he reluctantly followed the teachers. “But let’s make it quick.”

  CHAPTER

  2

  THE SCENIC TURNOUT was really not much more than a gravel parking lot and two wooden benches positioned in the middle of a well-tended grassy area. But it was surrounded by huge, old pines framing a breathtaking drop-off that allowed viewers a gorgeous vantage point to gaze southwest. From the scenic perch on the side of Mount Hood, travelers could look out on a view so spectacular that they could see almost to the coast.

  Mercury bypassed the benches and went to the edge of the grass. She stretched and then rubbed her sweater-swathed arms in a failed attempt to warm them while she drank in gulps of cold mountain air enriched with birdsong, and stared. She loved Tulsa. Oklahoma’s red dirt was in her soul, and she only felt truly at peace in her hometown, but Mercury appreciated the magnificence of the land before her. It seemed she stood on a magic mountain as the view unfolded in turquoise, cerulean, and shades of emerald that were many layered and brilliant.

  “It’s something, isn’t it?” Stella said around a yawn as she joined her.

  “I never get tired of all the green. I think I could live here, or at least down there”—she jerked her chin in the direction of Portland—“where it’s not so cold.”

  Stella snorted. “Leave Tulsa? You? Girl, you bleed red dirt.”

  “Well, someday when I’m rich I’ll buy a second house here,” Mercury said wistfully.

  Stella raised a perfectly plucked brow. “So, you changing jobs?”

  “Nope. Winning the lottery. I have it all planned.” Mercury smoothed her loose knit sweater over her generous curves and cleared her throat like she was preparing to lecture her AP biology class.

  Stella tossed back her thick hair. “Ooh, I like this game. Will you buy me a car? Something red and sporty with a ragtop?”

  “Absolutely. You have my word on it. And I’ll take you on a spa vacay with me to somewhere warm and beachy.” Mercury spoke without moving her gaze from the view.

  “Did someone say beach vacay?” Jenny hurried up to them, with Amelia waddling in tow.

  “If we’re going to a beach vacay, could we please wait until I’m unpregnant?”

  Mercury grinned, but kept her focus on the horizon. “Absolutely. I’m not even going to make any clichéd beached-whale jokes.”

  Amelia rubbed her protruding belly and sighed. “As the sole representative of our English Department, I thank you for that.”

  Coach Davis straightened his school sweatshirt as he emerged from the trees to their right. “Whew, had to see a man about a horse! Ready for our selfie?”

  “What does that even mean?” Mercury asked Stella.

  “Manspeak for peeing,” whispered Amelia.

  “Well, I know that, but why?” said Mercury.

  “Come on, ladies!” The coach’s enthusiasm was contagious. “This is a great spot.” He took in the view and pointed to the northwest. “That’s Portland over there. And you can even see Salem.” Davis gestured to the south. “Wow! It’s just amazing.”

  “I forget you grew up in Oregon,” Jenny said.

  “Yep! Born in Bend, which isn’t very far south of Timberline. OSU recruited me to play college football and, well, after that I just stayed.”

  “Oklahoma grew on you.” Jenny grinned.

  “Seems like it,” Coach Davis agreed, then he looked over his shoulder at the second of the two benches where Karen Gay was seated as she snapped several pictures with her phone. “Karen—Mr. Hale, join us!” Coach Davis gestured magnanimously.

  Mrs. Gay stood and buttoned the top of her thick cardigan. “It really is a lovely view,” she said as she joined the group.

  Everyone looked expectantly at their principal.

  Richard Hale waved dismissively from his bench. “No, you go ahead. I’ll just take in the scenery.”

  Mercury walked quickly to him. “While you do that, how about helping us out?” She handed him her phone. “It’d be great if you took the picture. That way we can be sure we’ll all be in it.”

  “Yeah, unlike last year when someone’s head got cut off,” called Stella as she pointed to herself.

  Hale squinted at the phone. “What do I press?”

  Mercury showed him and then jogged the few yards back to the little group. She stepped between Stella and Jenny and put her arms around their waists. “Squish together!” she said.

  “Are y’all ready?” asked their principal.

  “Yep,” Mercury said. “Say summer break!”

  “Summer break!” they shouted.

  “Hang on,” said Hale. “Don’t move yet. I’ll take a few more just to be sure I got a good one.” He stood and tapped the phone several more times while the group grinned at him. When he appeared satisfied, he went to Mercury and gave back her phone, his gaze focused over her shoulder. “It is an amazing view. I’m glad we stopped.”

  “It’s always good to appreciate the beauty of our God’s creation,” said Karen Gay.

  Mercury considered reminding Mrs. Gay, for the zillionth time, that not everyone was a member of Church on the Move, nor an evangelical Christian—nor, for that matter, a Christian at all. But she chose not to waste her breath. As a Pagan living in the Bible Belt, Mercury was more than aware that people like Karen Gay believed anyone who didn’t worship like they did was not just going to hell in a handbasket, but was also a bad person. And that Pagans in particular weren’t just going to hell, but were Satan’s minions—or some such nonsense. Sadly, experience had taught her that no amount of logic would change a mind that was closed. Instead of wasting her breath on Mrs. Gay’s narrow mind, Mercury turned back to the view, but her attention was pulled to the parking lot by the crunch of gravel as a faded blue Chevy pickup pulled off the highway and parked. Two men climbed out, stretched, and headed for the tree line.

  “Looks like they have to see a man about a horse too,” said Coach Davis.

  “That truck!” Stella said. “I swear it looks exactly like the old pickup my dad taught me to drive on.” She laughed softly. “It had a stick shift on the floor, and whenever I put it into third gear, I had to keep my hand on it because if I didn’t, the damn thing would fall off the column and plop on the floorboard.”

  “That’s crazy,” Mercury said.

  “Absolutely.” Stella grinned an
d her voice turned nostalgic. “But I can drive anything with a stick shift.”

  “Is there anything still drivable with a stick? I mean, except for an eighteen-wheeler or whatever.” Jenny squinted at the truck like it was an exotic insect.

  “Barely,” Coach Davis spoke up. “What’s the year on that old Chevy, 1960-something?”

  “Dad’s was a 1959, and that one looks pretty similar,” said Stella.

  “Wow, they don’t make ’em like—” Coach Davis began, but his words were interrupted by a bizarre humming that filled the air around them.

  “What the—” Richard Hale spoke over the vibrating sound. He’d returned to his bench, but stood and stared, slack-jawed, out at the view.

  The little group stared too, while the humming intensified. Mercury cringed—whatever it was seemed to reverberate through her body. The hair on her forearms lifted and pain knifed through her head. Beside her, Stella put her hands over her ears and staggered against Mercury.

  “Look!” Coach Davis pointed up at the western sky.

  Mercury saw something that appeared to be a contrail, like an airplane would leave in its wake, far above the area Davis had said was the city of Portland. It was heading straight down in an arrow-like trajectory.

  “And there!” Amelia pointed southwest to a similar contrail.

  “Oh my God, they’re everywhere!” Jenny cried.

  Mercury’s gaze scanned the sky as she turned in a stationary circle. Jenny was right. In the distance all around them tails of cloudy white shot down from the sky, so many that she couldn’t count them all. The humming intensified as a huge mass of birds that had been perched in the trees surrounding them took wing in unison—each screeching horrible, soul-shaking cries that echoed eerily around the clearing. From the tree line the two men dashed out to stand a few yards from them as everyone studied the sky.

  Stella grabbed Mercury’s hand as the contrail over Portland disappeared into the city. She leaned into her best friend and spoke for her ears alone. “I think this is bad. Really bad. We need to get out of here.”

  Mercury opened her mouth to respond just as the first blast hit Portland. It created an enormous rising burst of fire that was almost perfectly round, like a gigantic crystal ball filled with flame.

  “There too! In Salem!” Coach Davis shouted as another fire circle lifted from the southwest. From all around them, the outlook allowed a front-row seat to watch brilliant balls of fire explode everywhere, with such force they seemed to eclipse the sun.

  Then a wall of sound echoed from the many balls of flame, followed immediately by bizarre flashes of green that jetted from the center of each fireball. Mercury was looking directly at the Portland ball when the explosion of sound met the green geyser—it changed shape, expanded, and became a wall of emerald that catapulted out, out, out. Like an impossibly swift tsunami of color, the glow rushed from the core of fire to cover the city and the surrounding land, and raced toward them.

  Mercury stared at the green tide and was filled with the strangest feeling of panic mixed with fascination. There was something about the green—something that evoked the Wizard of Oz and concealed mysteries—something as intriguing as it was terrifying.

  “Get the fuck down!” Stella screamed and pulled Mercury to the grassy ground with her. Jenny and Amelia did the same, but she could see that Coach Davis, Mr. Hale, and Mrs. Gay were frozen as they stared at the advancing wall of roiling green.

  The emerald cloud hit them with sonic boom intensity. Had Mercury not already dropped to the ground, she would have been knocked off her feet. She clung to Stella with one hand and covered her head with the other as sound, debris, and a wave of green mist engulfed them. Around them thick pines snapped, filling the air with the sounds of gunshots. She could hear someone screaming, though she couldn’t even see Stella through the soupy jade air.

  Mercury panted with fear and shock—and inhaled the moist shamrock-colored air. It felt like breathing in the forest: the scent of growing things filled her nose with the sharp tang of cut grass, the rich, loamy aroma of tilled earth, and the unique sweetness of wildflowers. Her battered body was overwhelmed with an agonizing pinprick sensation, like she’d sat on her foot too long and it was tingling awake, only this sensation was a flood of pain that broke against her skin from the inside. It felt like hot razorblades filled her blood, her lungs, her skin with agony.

  Mercury knew she screamed and screamed, but the blast of sound that was the harbinger of the green wave still reverberated around her, drowning everything but the internal thunder of her heartbeat echoing in her ears. She and Stella pressed themselves against the earth as their bodies writhed in pain. Mercury felt Jenny shaking beside her as the young teacher sobbed in terror.

  Mercury tried to turn her head, to reach out for Jenny, but the earth suddenly mirrored Mercury’s tremors. The ground beneath her cheek shuddered and shook. Forest debris rained shards of bark and pine against her body while another emerald tsunami pummeled them from Salem in the southwest.

  Mercury tried to hold her breath, but it was impossible. She gasped with pain and panic, and the green surrounded her and filled her completely. Something struck the side of her head and her face, already wet with tears, became warm with blood.

  Then the world went from green to black and she knew no more.

  CHAPTER

  3

  CONSCIOUSNESS RETURNED LIKE the flip of a light switch, though Mercury’s thoughts didn’t catch up with her body for several breaths. She lay on the ground with her face in the grass. What the hell? Why am I on the ground? Her mind was sluggish, like she’d washed down a Xanax with a glass of wine. Something slid across her temple and cheek and down her nose. She wiped at it and then stared at the splash of scarlet on her hand—and memory rushed back, chasing away her confusion.

  She sat up and then gasped and held her head in her hands while pain spiked through her temples. Her body felt strange—tingly—and bruised. Her joints ached like the last time she’d had the flu, and blood seeped from a cut over her left temple, down her face. Mercury brushed it away with her sleeve and crawled the short distance to Stella. Her friend was curled on her side in a fetal position, facing away from her. Something had torn through the faux fur of her car coat and turned the sleeve of her ripped sweater red.

  “Stella! Oh Goddess! Stella!” Mercury touched her. Stella’s skin felt cool—unnaturally cool—but her eyelids fluttered and then opened.

  “Mercury? Wha—” She tried to sit up, but Mercury gently held her in place.

  “No! Don’t move. We have to make sure you’re not broken anywhere.”

  “Mercury!” On her right Jenny sobbed her name.

  “Stay still, ’kay?” Mercury said quickly. “Gotta check on Jenny.” Her focus was tight. It included Stella and Jenny, though from her periphery she could see that mounds of debris were scattered around them, but her brain couldn’t seem to process more. Still on her hands and knees, she crawled to the younger teacher. Jenny sat up. She rubbed her wrist as she stared at Mercury, who asked, “Are you okay? Is anything bleeding or broken?”

  “You’re bleeding.” Jenny’s voice sounded bizarrely normal, like she’d just commented on a new haircut or outfit.

  “Yeah.” Mercury wiped at her face again. “I think I’m okay, though.” She felt Jenny’s shoulders, arms, legs—as she checked for breaks and tears.

  “My wrist is sprained, but not too bad. I—I don’t understand. What could have—”

  A moan sounded from the other side of Jenny, and Mercury felt a terrible foreboding. “Amelia!” She and Jenny crawled to their pregnant friend, who was bent over at the waist, on her knees with her forehead pressed into the grass and her arms wrapped around her bulging belly.

  “He’s coming!” Amelia’s tear-soaked face looked up at them. Her skin was almost colorless except for her cheeks, which were bright spots of flushed pink—drops of blood in a pail of milk. “It’s wrong. Something’s wrong.”

/>   She panted between words and then another contraction took control of her and she made an inhuman growling noise deep in her throat.

  “Nothing’s wrong!” Mercury spoke automatically. “He’s just coming a little early, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, you’re going to be okay.” Jenny’s voice was calm, but her eyes were dark saucers in her face.

  “Press your hands into her lower back,” Mercury told Jenny, who nodded and shakily complied. Mercury bent so that her face was near Amelia’s. “Breathe with me. You remember! You know how to do this!”

  Amelia turned her head so that she could meet Mercury’s gaze. Her pale skin was shiny with sweat, and her eyes were wide and glassy. “No,” she moaned. “It’s never been like this. And he’s too early. It’s too early! Something’s wrong—something feels broken inside me.”

  Panic made Mercury’s legs so weak that she was glad she was already on her knees. This was Amelia’s third child. The other two had been born at home uneventfully with a midwife and a doula. She does know how to do this, but that also means she knows if it feels wrong. The thought flitted through Mercury’s mind, and with it her brain finally caught up with her body. “Just breathe! Everything will be okay. You’re a pro at this,” Mercury insisted. She panted with Amelia while her focus expanded. She looked around frantically for Coach Davis, who worked as an EMT at his second job for the Broken Arrow Fire Department. Mercury ignored the broken trees and crevasse-like gaps that had appeared in the ripped earth around them. “Where the hell is the coach?” she hissed under her breath when Amelia’s body relaxed momentarily between contractions.

  “He was standing just over there, on the other side of Amelia when—” Jenny began, but her words broke off as her gaze rested on something on the ground not far from Amelia.

  Mercury recognized the coach’s sweatshirt by Will Rogers High’s bold royal-blue, gold, and white colors, but it looked strange. Before she could think herself out of it, she lurched to her feet and staggered to the coach.