Chapter 28
Lucas
Lucas couldn’t help but notice how nervous Willow was, not that it surprised him. He remembered how she used to be when they were kids – how even the simple threat of bad weather would make her start to shake. He knew his main job today was to try and keep her calm.
He finds a clean dress of Mia’s. Mia was a bit more petite than Willow but this dress hung long on her anyway.
Lucas made them both coffee and then attempted to draw the curtains against the declining weather.
His stomach fell as he looked outside. It was getting so much worse.
The wind was pretty much relentless now and howling in fury, trees whipped back and forth as if they were about to be torn from their roots and the rain was building up on the dry ground – already creating murky rivers that picked up mud and debris.
Willow came behind him. He heard her breath catch.
‘It looks so bad,’ she whispered. ‘This is worse than they predicted.’
‘Much worse,’ Lucas growled. His head was swimming with thoughts. ‘A lot of the houses will be at risk of flooding.’
The Diner was set on slightly higher ground since it was on the way up to the mountains. Lucas knew that they would be safe here and he also knew that Willow would probably want to curl up on the chair and not leave. He really wanted nothing more than to curl up beside her.
But that wasn’t the point. Others would be at risk.
‘Mia is out there, and Greg and Rachel …’ he muttered. ‘I have to go and get them before it gets worse.’
‘What do you mean?’ Willow blinked at him.
Lucas was already moving, looking for his boots and best raincoat – even though he knew not much would hold up under these conditions.
‘I’m going to find as many people as I can. I’m going to tell them to come and shelter here. It makes the most sense. We’re on higher ground. We have food and candles. And we have enough coffee to get people through the night.’
Willow looked at him wide eyed. ‘Lucas, you can’t leave me.’
He rushed over to her, stroked the hair out of her eyes. He could see the little girl again. The scared girl who needed reassurance. It was all he could do not to pull her into a hug and tell her it was going to be alright.
But they weren’t children anymore. And he didn’t have much time to waste.
‘Willow, I need to go. I can’t leave people out there struggling. It’s not fair. I’ll be quick. I’ll—’
‘No,’ she said, standing up. Her eyes were wide with determination. ‘You’re not leaving me because I’m coming with you.’
Lucas wasn’t sure that this was a good idea, but he could hardly tell her to go back now.
Willow had managed to find one of his mom’s old coats and a pair of her rain boots and was now clumping beside him in the worsening weather.
They couldn’t speak, as with each attempt the wind would take their words away.
The dark clouds had created an eerie gloom as they walked, and rain lashed so hard on their faces, it stung.
Walking was a struggle as they were fighting with the storm’s winds; every step they took they were pushed back a little more.
Lucas gripped Willow’s hand and urged her forward. The lights of the town were flickering in front of them. In his other hand, Lucas held a flashlight; it was proving necessary in this worsening light.
Lucas had experienced a few storms in Honey Springs, but this was beginning to feel like the worst he’d ever known. His gut churned, a horrible deep instinctive feeling that this was going to turn out badly.
Keep everyone safe. Lock those doors and hunker down …
He blinked, rain drizzling down his cheeks and into his open mouth. He was sure he could hear his mom’s voice in his head, but how was that even possible? She was so good in an emergency. She would have known exactly what to do.
Lucas wasn’t so sure he was fit for the job.
Willow tugged on his arm. They had reached the main street where the general store and the church sat. A little further along was the Honey Pot Inn and at the end, the bookstore and the Watering Hole.
Rachel was outside the church, already guiding some people towards them. It looked like Ernie and some of his friends. She called out.
‘Hey! I’m so glad to see you. I was going to take these guys up to you—’
Lucas waved them over. He noticed that Macguire was coming out of the Honey Pot Inn, guiding the Parkers and their guests out.
‘Over here!’ Lucas shouted. ‘Let’s get everyone over to The Diner.’
‘Greg is getting everyone out from the bar and the bookstore!’ Macguire shouted back. ‘I’ll go and tell him to make his way to yours.’
Lucas froze, his mind racing. ‘Mia!’ he shouted back. ‘I need to find my sister.’
‘It’s OK. She’s at the bar with Adam. She told me she was going there earlier today,’ Willow said. ‘Greg will be helping them.’
Lucas nodded. At least now there was a plan of sorts. He began to turn to lead the others back but noticed that Willow wasn’t moving.
‘Will,’ he shouted over the howling winds. ‘We need to get going. It’s only going to get worse.’
‘I’m going to Eric’s,’ she called back. ‘He might be out of it. I can’t leave him there.’
‘He’s probably in the bar too,’ Lucas protested.
‘No. Greg told me yesterday that he’s been staying away since his fall. He’ll be home alone.’
‘Willow, it’s too risky,’ he yelled. ‘You can’t do that.’
‘I have to, Luc. I won’t forgive myself if I don’t.’
And before he could say anything else, in the roar of the winds and with the worried townsfolk of Honey Springs looking to him expectantly, she was gone.
Lucas was raging. Willow was terrified of this weather and yet she had risked everything to go and save someone who in reality she barely knew. A man whose son didn’t even bother with him; it was infuriating.
He tried to busy himself settling everyone in The Diner. He was glad to see Janice there, with both Tommy and Joey. She immediately began serving free coffees and keeping everyone calm with her easygoing way.
‘We need this storm to pass quickly,’ Ava Parker protested. ‘I can’t afford any more damage to my property.’
‘I’ll just go out and turn it off, shall I?’ Macguire joked lightly, encouraging the two women to sit down. ‘I’m sure it’ll blow itself out soon enough.’
Lucas could tell by Macguire’s grave expression that he didn’t really feel this way. It matched the vice-like grip in his chest. Where was Willow? Why had she made such a reckless choice?
He relaxed a little when Greg tumbled through the door, bringing in another gust of wind with him. Behind him was Mia, Adam, Rachel, the Henrys and a few other residents. There was no sign of Eric. Lucas had half expected him to be there.
‘It’s getting pretty bad out there, man,’ Greg said, his face pinched white with terror. ‘I think—’
But his words were interrupted by a sound like no other.
It was a low, muffled groan at first that confused Lucas into thinking that it was the building itself – but then the sound grew, almost as if the ground was exhaling air under pressure.
The noise swelled around them, a deep rolling roar, half thunder, half tearing of earth.
It was so loud, so monstrous that Lucas couldn’t breathe. The Diner shook beneath their feet.
And then the roar faded into a distant rumble and all that remained was the steady beat of the rain and the screams of the wind.
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 at some 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.