Page 2 of The Silent Mountain Man

An ominous feeling washes over me. "If thatwasn'tthunder, what the hell was it?"

The rainstorm reintensifies, pellets of water slamming down onto the car so hard the entire vehicle shakes.

And thenoise. It's so freaking loud I can barely hear myself think. The wipers are going full force, but it's not making much of a difference. I can't see shit.

Another rumble.

Louder this time.

Closer.

And then…a blistering crack, and the car jolts.

"Fuck! What is happening?"

I slam on the brakes.

But just because the car has stopped, doesn't mean I'm not moving.

I am.

Back and forth, back and forth, like I'm a baby being rocked to sleep by a junkie on meth.

Something is very,verywrong.

And then, out of the blue, I get an impulse.

A crazy, stupid impulse.

Potentially the wildest impulse I've ever gotten.

I don't overthink it. Like I do in my career, I go with my gut. And for whatever reason, my gut is screaming at me to get the fuck out of the vehicle.

I yank off my seat belt, grab my phone from the center console, and jump out of my car.

I'm instantly drenched, the warm rain is falling down hard, turning my white shirt translucent as it sticks to my body.

But my intuition isn't done yet.

Move!

I start backing away from the car, slowly at first, until I feel a rumble all the way down into my bones.

That sound, that feeling, that's not thunder… It's a freaking mudslide.

I look up. "Holy fucking shit!"

Not wasting another second, I turn and run as fast as I can. I'm almost past the first bend in the road when there's an almighty boom. If I didn't know what was happening, I'd say an explosion went off because that's exactly what it sounds like. Mother Nature sure is letting it rip today.

I turn back around, my eyes widening in horror as a giant chunk of the mountain slides down and buries my car in mud.

The force of so much earth moving shakes the ground beneath my feet. I fall. I try to get back up, but everything is moving so intensely, I can't scramble back onto my feet no matter how hard I try.

So I stop.

Go still.

It's too late to run.

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