When Phoebe Mayle touched her forehead, it was sticky with blood. She looked at her fingertips and red stains spotted her skin. The front end of her car was smashed into a fallen redwood tree, and steam was rising from under the hood to mingle with the earsplitting downpour of rain that was hitting the roof of her car like a shower of nails. If she’d broken any bones, she couldn’t feel it. She didn’t feel anything except the way her entire body was shaking from the shock of the impact.

The windshield was cracked, but the rearview mirror was intact. Her quivering hands were barely able to tilt the mirror so she could inspect the wound on her forehead. She gasped at her reflection. There was a gash that was dripping blood, and both of her eyes were already turning the shade of an eggplant. Otherwise, she didn’t appear to have any major injuries. No, her current worry was the fact that she had just totaled her car, and now she was stranded miles from help. She might have a concussion, and the temperature was dropping steadily. Who knew how long it would take for a rescue team to navigate the road and find her?

She wasn’t quite sure what had happened. The last thing she remembered was the tree falling directly in front of her car. Luckily she’d been driving slowly because of the weather, or the damage would have been a lot worse. As it was, she’d blacked out when her head hit the steering wheel, and she wasn’t sure how long she’d been out. Now she tried to gather her wits and figure out a plan.

Good luck with that.

From what she could see through the curtain of rain, several trees had fallen, mudslides were coating