Lucas shook his head, hardly daring to believe it. A landslide. From the mountains.
And Willow was still out there.
Alone.
‘Come on,’ he screamed. ‘We have to find her.’
It didn’t take much persuading to get volunteers. Greg was immediately by his side and then Adam. Macguire stood up too, but Lucas refused his help.
‘Stay here,’ he said. ‘Help keep everyone calm.’
As much as the guy irritated him, he knew he had his uses and being cool in a crisis was one of them. Macguire clamped his hand on Lucas’s shoulder.
‘Be careful out there,’ he warned.
But Lucas wasn’t listening. His ears were still screaming with the sound of the collapsing mountains. His heart was beating fast in his chest.
‘I shouldn’t have let her go,’ he muttered. ‘I never should have …’
They stepped back out into the horrific conditions. It took Lucas a moment or so to get his bearings. In the poor light, the world looked torn open. The wind had relented a little, but the air was still humming with thunder and the rain still washed down on them endlessly. Headlights from an overturned truck, possibly Macguire’s, cast crooked beams across the silt-slicked street. Broken timber, boulders and earth blocked their path. They moved cautiously, picking their way over the debris. Power lines sagged low in front of them, and a tangle of trunks and roots blocked their path.
It was chaos. Utter, utter chaos.
Lucas looked briefly back. The neon diner sign still flickered weakly in the rain, casting an eerie light over the parking lot, now half buried in mud. He saw faces pressed up at the window, ghostly and silent – watching their progress, willing them on.
In the distance, there was the sound of quiet rumbling, of the mountains settling and trying to find balance again.
It was all Lucas could do not to sink to his knees and sob, but he had to keep moving.
He had to find Willow.
They picked their way through the broken path towards Eric’s. What should have been a five-minute walk, took three times as long. Adam slipped once and turned his ankle. He cried out in pain, but refused to go back, even though Lucas could see he was badly limping.
The men didn’t speak. They moved in grim determination. Once or twice, Greg patted his arm. Lucas knew he was trying to keep him calm – but nothing could stop his overwhelming fear.
What would they find? Eric lived in a ramshackle cabin in the poorer end of town. It wouldn’t be able to withstand much.
They turned onto his road. Lucas used his flashlight to make sense of the scene. The gravel lane had been turned into a muddy stream. The cabins that lined this little bendy street were in bad shape. Whole chunks of mountainside had smothered driveways and fences with wet earth. One side of the road had clearly taken the biggest hit, as many of the cabins on the opposite side were still standing untouched, their lights burning brightly.
The cabin nearest to them was almost shattered by its crown of soil and broken fir trees. The next one along, where Willow’s mom had lived long ago but was now empty as so many were, was sunk deep into the mud – its door swinging eerily in the wind.
And Eric’s was next; Lucas could just about make out his cabin in the flickering light. It stood crooked now, tilted atsome odd angle as one corner was uprooted completely and the other sunk into the earth.
He froze. He could taste acid in his mouth.
Willow. Oh God, Willow.
Then he felt Greg pull on his arm again.
‘Look, Luc. Look.’
And there, stepping her way over the broken bits of building and debris was Willow. She looked exhausted and beaten – but she was alive.
‘Help,’ she called. ‘Help us!’
She reached out her hand towards them.
Lucas burst into tears as he rushed forward.
