Page 30 of Desolation
To the sound of grinding teeth, I look to Ash, his fists clenched, his jaw tight.
I hate that I’m handicapped right now, that I’m holding him back.
I place my hand on his forearm, rubbing up and down to calm him, but inside, I’m freaking the fuck out. “Hey,” I say, letting my hand drift down to open his fist and interlock our fingers together. “It’ll be okay. Let’s just hope for the best.”
I hope he didn’t hear how my voice wobbles or see how I’m barely holding my tears back. I need to take my own advice because right now, the thought of Beth like that body under the concrete slab—
I let out a deep breath as a shudder runs through me.
“Yeah,” he says, squeezing my hand.
We walk to the office, hand-in-hand, as quickly as my injury will allow. On our way, we pass the college. Fire hydrants spray in the air and most of the buildings are either decimated or very close to it.
Yeah, school’s definitely not happening anytime soon.
I tense further at the sight, my grip on Ash tightening. The Arizona DCF office isn’t far from here.
When the office comes into view, I breathe a sigh of relief. Ash visibly relaxes at the sight of the large, white, Victorian-style building, standing tall and proud andundamaged.
Thank you, Goddess.
I wait for the warmth from earlier to warm the blood in my veins, but nothing happens. I knew it was a fluke earlier. A fluke withspectaculartiming.
We walk up the four steps to the building, through the door and straight to Gail, the receptionist. She looks up at the sound of our approach and frowns slightly, the lines in her aging face making her look much more severe.
I glance around for the boys but come up empty.That’s weird.
“They were already here, Lana,” Gail says, almost reluctantly. “They said to tell you to meet them at the house. Beth took a half-day to go home and get the house ready for your birthday tomorrow. We don’t know if the rope tornadoes extended that far before dissipating. We got extremely lucky that they zig-zagged in other directions here.”
A thousand-pound piece of lead weighs down my stomach.
Rope tornadoes are the most common occurrence in the open fields around us, but they have never torn through our town before.
“Do we know how many? Did they all dissipate or was there a larger formation after?” Ash fires off his questions, clearly struggling to hold in his panic at the new information.
“Someone reported seeing atleastten funnels when they were out riding their horse in the corn field nearby. No large one reported so far.”
“Ash, we need to go. Thank you, Gail.”
She nods at me, concern clear on her face.
I look to Ash, standing frozen, fixating on a spot on the floor. Tugging on his arm to pull him out of whatever trance he’s stuck in, I say firmly, “Ash.”
His eyes dart around before landing back on me and he grabs my hand, rushing out of the office and dragging me along behind him. He takes large steps that pull at the wound on my back, but fuck the pain. At least it gives me something to ground my emotions with.
Beth.
I shake my head, clearing the thoughts from my mind.
We pass more destroyed buildings on our way home and my heart begins beating in my chest a million beats per minute.
The hospital. The local farmers market. The preschool.
How long will it take us to rebuild?
How many families have lost their homes?
How many people were injured?
