Stella put the truck into gear, and without so much as a glance at Rutland, she pulled away from the men.
“I won’t forget this!” Rutland shouted after them.
Stella rolled up her window and muttered, “Neither will we.”
“We need to watch out for Al,” said Mercury. She turned so that she could catch Sadie’s eye as she mouthed, “Everyone okay?” Sadie nodded. Gemma gave her a thumbs-up as she retucked the tarp around Nathan. Mercury breathed a relieved sigh and reached forward to open the glove box, but Mrs. Gay beat her to it.
“You did well back there,” said the history teacher.
Mercury switched on the safety and slid the .38 into its holster before she gave Mrs. Gay a surprised smile. “Well, thanks.” She smoothed her hand through her hair, noticed that she was visibly trembling, and folded her hands together in her lap, to stop their shaking.
“Karen’s right,” said Stella.
“Yeah.” Jenny put one hand over the two Mercury had clasped in her lap. “You kicked ass.”
“I do not hold with violence,” said Mrs. Gay, “but it’s pretty easy to identify a bully, and bullies need to be confronted. That is exactly what you did.”
“Thank you,” Mercury repeated. “I appreciate you saying that, Mrs. Gay.”
The older teacher turned to meet Mercury’s gaze. “I would like you to call me Karen.”
“I can do that, Karen,” Mercury said.
For the next few miles their side of highway 26 had only half a dozen stalled vehicles. At each one Stella slowed so that they could check for survivors. Four of the cars held dead people. The other two were empty. The asphalt was less broken, and Stella was able to speed up. Still, she kept both hands on the wheel and her eyes on the road as she spoke. “I have a real strong feeling that we should pause at Government Camp and let someone know that there are people on highway 26 who need help, but that we should keep going on to Timberline.”
“That sounds wise,” Mercury said. “From the beginning I thought that was the best plan.”
“I agree,” said Jenny.
“After meeting Mr. Rutland, I’ve changed my mind about Government Camp,” said Karen. “If he lives nearby, that means I don’t want to stop there.”
“Good, so we’re all agreed,” Mercury said. “When we pause there, we can see if Sadie and the rest of them want to get out or go on with us to Timberline.”
“There’s the sign for Government Camp.” Stella nodded at a green and white road sign that listed hard and barely clung to what remained of the easement. It announced the exit for the town was in one mile.
They rounded a gentle curve, directly after which they were supposed to exit off the highway onto a loop that would take them through the small town of Government Camp. Instead, Stella had to brake quickly to avoid a maw-like crevasse that opened the asphalt in front of them.
“Shit! That was close!” Stella wiped stress sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm.
Mercury turned to see if their passengers were alright. Marge was grimacing in pain, and Nathan’s face was colorless, but Gemma gave her a thumbs-up again.
Stella spoke softly. “Are you guys seeing this?”
“Holy crap!” said Mercury. Her stomach tightened as her shifting gaze took in the left side of the highway. There was no quaint little town—not even the outskirts visible from the road remained. Everything had been engulfed by the mountain. Enormous pines were splintered and upside down among mounds of muddy snow and boulders the size of houses. She could make out cars that had been swept up in the avalanche. A few bumpers were visible, as well as the broken roof of a house that was completely detached from the structure it used to shield so that it sat atop a mound of dirty snow like an ill-fitting hat.
“Wh-where is it? Where’s the town?” Karen sat forward. She gripped the dash and stared.
“Gone,” said Stella. She rolled down her window and called to the bed of the truck. “Y’all hold tight. This next stretch will be rough.”
Mercury turned again so that she could watch Sadie and Gemma as they shifted suitcases and tarps to make Marge and Nathan—and the still unconscious Jason—more secure. Then Gemma shouted at the cab. “Ready!”
Stella blew out a long breath, wiped her palms on her jeans, and gripped the steering wheel again. “Okay, here we go.”
She shifted into first and the truck crawled forward. Stella navigated their way around the crevasse in front of them by steering the truck off the road and onto what remained of the center easement. Mercury internally cringed every time the old pickup pitched and rolled over the broken ground—and tilted precariously toward the torn side of the mountain.
They made their way slowly past the buried town. It seemed Government Camp had contained the avalanche. Only a few boulders and mounds of snow and debris had reached the road, but the earthquake that had started the sloughing of the mountain had shifted so much of the land that several times Mercury thought Stella wouldn’t be able to keep driving and they’d have to abandon the truck. She felt weak with relief when they were able to veer left off the road and onto the two-lane Timberline Highway. This stretch of the smaller highway was littered with huge rocks and fallen trees, but the asphalt itself wasn’t as torn up as highway 26 had been.
As if reading her mind, Stella said, “I know this road looks like it’s in better shape than that other highway, but I still have to go slow and be careful unless we want to bounce Sadie and the rest of them out of the bed.”