Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20653 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20653 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
My phone vibrates. As rude as it is to check it during dinner, my family understands. The Home Police Department isn’t very big, so no one’s ever completely off duty. Sometimes they need more hands on deck and there’s nothing you can do about it.
My eyes go wide as I check the message that just came in. “There’s been a massive mudslide. Half of Hobson may have just been wiped out.”
I stand up.
“Hobson?” Lemon echoes, confused.
“It’s a tiny place, about four towns over. They need help for the search and rescue now and are calling on everyone in this county and the next.” I stand up. “Sorry, I have to answer this call.”
My father nods. “It’s what you signed up to do, son. Go and do it. Don’t hesitate to let us know if they’re accepting civilian volunteers.”
“I will.” I slide my phone into my pocket and head toward my room. I have a place of my own, but Mom has always kept my room here untouched. Boots, jeans, and a jacket, it’s the best I can do in short notice. I can only hope to be further equipped by the professionals when I get to Hobson.
My heart pounds as worry for all those people wraps around me.
I steel myself to see the worst come to pass.
2
TALLIE
It all happened so fast.
I was making breakfast for my sister and her daughter. Nothing fancy. Just bacon, eggs, and toast.
I’m so grateful that Julia has taken me in. With everything going wrong for me, things aren’t going much better for her. She at least has an apartment and a decent job, and said she could use help dealing with the handful that is her daughter Lucy. I’ve been hoping to rebuild from nearly nothing, and be a good sister and aunt while I’m at it.
I was pondering what jobs I could take while still being a caretaker to her one-year-old little girl, imagining that this morning I’d be sitting down in front of a laptop doing research and putting in applications.
I may as well have been planning for my trip to the moon with as likely as that is to happen now.
Our phones went off. An emergency alert. Flash flood warnings, and an immediate evacuation order. My sister and I looked to one another – it was so odd. Extreme weather doesn’t happen in rural Washington state. Then we heard the ground tremble, and Julia deciphered what was happening.
A mudslide. A big one, coming down from the hill above. We grabbed what little we could – diapers, a few jars of baby food, our phones – before we freaked and just got out the door. We looked up at the hills.
We saw doom rolling over our town, our home.
We ran. I had Lucy in my arms. She was crying, aware enough to know something was terribly wrong. It was chaos as everyone in town fled. People were waving us toward where they believed safety to be, far from the valleys. Traffic was jam packed, which I never thought possible in a town as small as Hobson. We ran on foot, seeing that it was far faster, more and more people abandoning their cars as they decided the same.
Julia told me she was going to run ahead. Question the official-looking person about where they should go. I nodded, holding Lucy close to me.
I haven’t seen her since.
I kept running, heading up the hill, hoping to get far enough away from the mudslide.
We get further and further away, and I see the mud flow past me. I think I’m safe, but in my panic I’ve lost track of the crowds. I try to turn back to join them, hoping there’s safety in numbers.
Only to see my retreat has been cut off by the slow-moving torrent. I don’t dare chance it, not with Lucy in my arms.
So I scramble up and away from it. I go toward a tree. I find what I hope is a safe space and try to rock her to sleep, feeding her the only bottle I have. I dial 911. The signal is busy. But I stay on the line. I keep trying.
We’re all alone and it’s been hours. Hope is fading from me, but I hold on for Lucy. I hear helicopters overhead, then see them. There’s a whole air armada of them. The mudflow has stopped, but where my sister’s home once was, there is only dirt, and not very firm-looking dirt either.
The helicopters must be here to rescue people. Now I just pray they’ll find me and Lucy. Did I doom us by fleeing from the crowd in panic?
My hair is blown over my face as a helicopter hovers overhead. I’m surprised at how loud it is. Lucy, who has calmed down due to exhaustion more than anything else, starts to cry again and I can’t particularly blame her, because really? I want to cry too.