At last the ash blizzard stopped.

A thick coating of the warm flakes covered their heads and shoulders.

Jess spit and coughed and wiped her eyes.

The sky had lightened up. Finally she could see well enough to climb through the tangle of limbs that covered the hole.

She made her way up until she was high enough to see the forest.

Except it was no longer a forest.

It was a graveyard of fallen trees.

Every single tree was down — thousands and thousands of trees. The force of the blast and the surge had ripped most of them right out of the ground. Two-hundred-foot trees, knocked over like Popsicle sticks.

Some had been uprooted, others snapped like twigs. If Jess and the twins hadn’t been deep in that hole, they all would have been crushed.

The cabin was smashed under a huge fir tree.

Everything was covered with a thick coating of gray ash.

But there was a sight even worse than the ruined forest: the mountain.

With the trees down, Jess now had a perfect view of St. Helens.

Or what was left of St. Helens.

It looked as though it had been smashed by a giant hammer. Its sparkling peak was gone. In its place was a gaping black mouth vomiting up smoke.

Jess had never seen anything so hideous.

She slammed her eyes shut and turned away. She climbed back down into the hole again.

And now she could finally really see the boys. Their faces were plastered white with ash and smeared with blood. They looked like two battered ghosts.

Sam was staring down. Jess followed his gaze to his thigh. His pants were torn. What was that on his leg? It didn’t look like skin. It looked ripped up and blackened, like burned meat.

Jess gasped.

“Oh, Sam!”

And then she looked at Eddie. She couldn’t see his wounds. But from the glazed look in his eyes, she could see that he was badly hurt, too. Both boys were shivering.

They needed to find help — now.

But how? The boys couldn’t stand. And Jess wouldn’t be able to carry even one of them out.

It was hopeless. They would have to sit here and wait for help to come.

Jess looked up, praying that she’d see Mr. Rowan peering down into the hole. But how would he get to them? It would take hours — even days — for anyone to make it through the maze of fallen trees.

Jess had to get help.

But what if there was another eruption?

What if another fiery hurricane swept over the forest?

What if she got lost?

A hundred terrible questions swirled through her mind, and none had answers.

But that didn’t matter, Jess realized.

“I’m going to get help,” she said, fighting back tears. “I’ll be back very soon.”

The boys didn’t seem to hear her. Both seemed to be drifting away. Sam’s eyes were closed. He was shivering harder now.

Jess gently took Sam’s cold hand and laid it on her palm. She lifted Eddie’s and put it on top of Sam’s. She rested her other hand on top of Eddie’s. She gripped both boys’ hands tightly within her own.

All for one, she said to herself. And one for all.

For the first time, Jess really understood what those words meant.

Jess would do anything to help the boys.

She would even face the volcano by herself.