The cold was breathtaking, and the silence was incredible, absolute, its own shouting force. No cars passed on the highway; not a single insect clicked or buzzed in the rocks; not a breath whispered over the saltbush. The Milky Way rolled overhead, the moon cast a dim light from the far horizon, and Mercy’s heels ground through the gravel as she stretched her legs out in front of her, propped against the van in the dark, alone in god knows where.
