They are waiting for her just inside the mouth of the tunnel, the five of them. Their eyes each have a green glowing firefly at their centre. Hallie holds baby Una against her shoulder.
A voice says, ‘Mommy?’
‘I’m here, Rufus,’ Riley says. She takes Una gently from Hallie, holds her in the crook of her arm. The baby smiles up at her. ‘I’m going to look after you.’
They reach for her with eager arms.
21Marc
His father comes to Marc in his sleep – the gentle man who raised him. He pushes his glasses up his nose and says, ‘You watch out for Tinkerbell, ok, son? You be careful.’ Marc knows it’s a dream because his father always preferred to speak French with him. But he reaches out for him anyway. ‘Papa,’ he says. ‘Tu me manques.’ I miss you.
Marc wakes, aching, with the memory of being loved. It takes him a moment to understand the sound that’s everywhere, pounding on the canvas above. Storm. The tent flap is open. Through it the world flickers. Everything is lit for a moment in white stark detail. Then the thunder comes. It’s more than a sound, it shakes the earth. It’s like they are inside thunder, made of it. He fumbles, breathing hard, with his prosthetic. Then he crawls out to join Kimble.
Kimble’s hair is blown everywhere, lifted by the wind, and she’s yelling, he can see that by the stretch of her mouth, her bared teeth, but he can’t hear anything over the screaming gale and the thunder.
Something sails through the air overhead and lands lightly on delicate hooves. Another deer charges through the firepit, which is a puddle now. Its legs kick a spray of ashy water into their faces.Suddenly the deer are on all sides; they flash past, flowing to the right and left, dodging and parting ways in alarm, leaping over the collapsing tents, over Marc and Kimble where they cower, arms protecting their heads. Then they are gone, away down the mountain. Marc reaches for Kimble’s hand and she takes it hard and tight.
Linus appears through the onslaught of rain and crouches beside them. Marc catches his words faintly under the tumult. ‘We have togo.’
‘What the hell is going on?’ Marc yells back.
Lightning divides the sky, hot white. The thunder is so loud that they all cower. Linus’s mouth makes the same shapes over and over again. He grasps Marc’s arm.Landslide, he mouths.Storm. Earthquake.
Marc moves his hand through the rain; it is like pushing into a solid substance, breaking a surface. Hail is beginning to fall, too. Icy marbles bounce off the ground.
A tall wave of mud topples and pours through the campsite, drenching them in a river of slick brown. A fork of white cracks the night sky and even though he’s prepared for it, the thunder, the shaking, the noise, it still stops Marc’s heart when it comes – the roar.
‘Time to go!’ yells Linus.
They run together, wading, slipping in the torrent.
When they reach the treeline Marc stops.
‘What are you doing?’ Kimble yells. ‘We need to go. Now.’
‘I’m not leaving,’ Marc yells back.
‘This place is being washed away,’ Kimble yells and Linus nods, grabbing Marc’s arm for emphasis. The sky is being torn open by jagged light. The slope is bare, exposed to the great turmoil of the sky. Marc feels like a gnat clinging to a leaf. They’re so fragile in their human bodies.
‘Back to the van,’ Linus yells.
Between the hills, in the distance, Marc sees that the road to the gate of Nowhere is running, a river. Another crash shakes everything.He watches as the gate crumples like paper under the landslide. The road into Nowhere lies open, under a fall of rock.
‘What about them?’ Marc points down at the gate.
Kimble shrugs.
Marc proffers his hand, palm up, and lifts it gently. Rain beats and bounces off it as he shows it to Kimble.Help.
She shakes her head.
Linus yells, ‘Let’s go!’
‘They might die,’ he says to Kimble through a mouthful of rain. He knows she can’t hear him but he knows she understands. ‘I need her.’
Kimble shakes her head. He sees her mouth shape the word –idiot.
Linus is in Marc’s ear, he yells something about search and rescue. He tightens his grip on Marc’s arm. Water and mud sluice down around them.
