Out of Darkness

Content Warning: The Part 3, Chapter 1 Summary depicts the aftermath of a gas explosion resulting in the gruesome deaths and loss of limbs of adults and children. It also includes an attempted lynching, racist language, graphic beatings, a graphic rape, and an especially graphic kill by shotgun. The Epilogue mentions rape and death by suicide (albeit a false retelling).

Beto is knocked unconscious by the explosion, aware of little aside from Wash carrying him from the wreckage of the school. Naomi cradles Beto in her arms, waiting for Wash to come out with Cari. Men from the oil fields nearby rush to help extract children and their teachers from the school, some dead, some terribly wounded, while parents search frantically for their sons and daughters. Wash finds Cari’s body, in pieces, and struggles to extract her from the rubble, as people shout for everyone to clear the building. He manages to escape, but for a horrifying moment, as Naomi watches the building shift and collapse, she does not know if Wash was spared. As the unfathomable number of dead and injured begin to be amassed outside, Naomi is told that it may be some time before Cari can be taken to a funeral home, so she decides to take her body home.