by Lee Miller
She had the haunting feeling another couple of feet and she’d never leave this place. Icy fingers tickled at her very being, at her soul. Out of the blackness in front of her she saw a silhouette coming towards her. She stood there, fight and flight weighing in equal measures. As the ghostly image got closer, she could start making out features of it. It seemed in morphed into different images, different people, it never stayed one image for too long before quickly morphing into another. As it grew closer she saw her mom, dad, Tommy, Chris and friends and family from the past. She saw Dr. Morgan appear in the cycle. As it got within a foot of her it morphed one last time, into Jackie. Sara felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes. “No Jackie! No! no, no ,no, no” Sara felt like crumpling to the ground and give into the darkness that threaten to overcome her. She stood there with tears streaming down her face staring into the face a woman who was a mother to her. He began to deny what was right in front of her. She refused to accept it as truth. She gained strength from her denial. “You aren’t really here, you’re back at the truck with Beth.” Everything went silent. The breeze stopped blowing, the masses around her stopped moving. The fog stopped swirling. Silence prevailed above all things. Sara looked around her and realized the blackness almost surrounded her. She saw it for what it was, death. Sara was on the brink of dying herself, the horrible realization added weight to Jackie’s words when she finally spoke. “Sara. Run! You and Beth are in danger!” Sara knew that when she made it back, Jackie wouldn’t be there, that the image she saw now was the last time she’d ever see this beloved woman. She went to give her a hug but the imaged dissipated like smoke rings in the dark. Several things happen at once, the darkness started closing in on her, the silence lifted, the shadows began moving in a almost circular pattern and Sara felt death only inches away. She spun on her heel and ran as fast as she could, pulling at the rope tied around her waist. The dense wet air making it almost impossible for her to breath, Sara knew if she stopped she was done for. She kept running, crying out for Beth in between gasp for air. She felt the shadowy darkness slowly catching up to her. As she kept running, she had an idea. Shadows can’t exist where there is light. She sparked her last flare and threw it behind her. She heard something scream out in pain, she couldn’t afford to glance back to see what it was, she kept running. She caught a flicker to her left, it was the flare she had set by the gas station, and another idea came to her. She dropped the rope and ran full tilt towards Dr. Morgan’s car. The flare was almost burnt out, but she only needed it to last another few minutes. She found one of the cars with the nozzle still in the car’s gas fill tube. She could hear the machine was still running. As though someone disappeared while filling the tank. She took the nozzle out of the tank and pulled the handle back and locked it wide open. Gas began to spray out all over the place. Sara had to make sure she didn’t get any on her. She sprayed down everything in reach. As she heard the shadows getting closer, she laid the handle on the ground and made sure it was still spewing its flammable liquid. She grabbed the flare from next to the car and ran as fast as she could away, she turned as the shadows converged on the gas station and threw the flare at where she thought the gas pump handle was, she didn’t wait to see if she hit her mark, she could tell by the sudden eruption of light and heat that she had found it. She stopped and turned to look at the damage she had done when she heard the unearthly cries of pain that the darkness made. Sara, with a triumphant feeling, turned back towards her exit and ran the last several feet. She thought she was home free until something large and heavy slammed her in the back, sending her hard to the ground. Whatever it was fell to the ground also and before she could get back up, grabbed ahold of one of her legs. She kicked out franticly trying to dislodge it before more of the ugly shadowy monsters came for her. She turned back to her stomach and tried hard to push herself back to her feet. She felt the dark mass clinging to her leg began to sap the strength out of her. Despair set in. The exit from the fog bank was only a few feet away. She could almost see the lighter colors sifting through to her from the other side. She cried out. She couldn’t give in now, she was so close. Sara fell back to her knees and the shadowy mess grew and covered both of her legs, now rendered useless. “No! Get. Off of me!” she screamed out.
The mass seemed to grow with the more she gave into the feeling of being lost and as the depression that washed over her went deeper and deeper. The mass had reached up to her waist. Sara was done. She was losing the will to fight. She didn’t seem to care anymore. She just wanted it to be over with. Even though she was still alive, she felt Death and was about to welcome it until she heard a voice coming from the other side of the curtain of fog. “Sara! Don’t give up!! Fight!!” it was Beth, still trying to urge her on. Somewhere deep inside of her she found the spark of hope that ignited her desire to live and gave her the strength she needed. She saw that the black mass that had her down had almost completely covered her, she felt the rest of her body underneath the crushing weight and pulled her arms out of it, she then pushed the more solid feeling object with all of her strength to try and dislodge it. She got one leg freed from it and used it to push as hard as she could against the ground. She reached the flare that was laying only inches away and burned the rest of the black mass until it let go. She pushed herself to her feet and made her way out of the black mass swirling around her. She staggered out of the fog and hit the front bumper of the truck with her shoulder. The wall undulated towards her in one last attempt to reclaim her, she wheeled around the front of the truck and felt a hand reach out to her and pull her to safety. She landed with a thud on top of Beth. Sara raised her head and looked into the face of her best friend and tears streamed freely. She didn’t try to control them. She just let go. Beth slid her off and to the side and sat up, wrapping an arm around her. Sara looked back towards the front of the truck, the gray mass was threating to surround it, and they had to go. She wiped the tears from her eyes and got in the driver seat as Beth slid into the passenger seat. She backed the truck up to a safe distance that the wall couldn’t reach and put it back in park.
“I don’t suppose you remember Jackie, do you Beth?” Sara got out between silent sobs. Beth turned and looked at her with an utter look of amazement o her face. “Ya. I remember Jackie. We were standing there waiting for you to come out. Jackie thought you had been in there for way to long. She had me hold onto her so she could lean her head into the mist and see if she could find you. She saw you drop the flare near a car, at what looked like a gas station, or convenience store. She came back out and looked at me. It looked like she had seen a ghost. She said you were right; there was a part of town we had forgotten. I leaned in and looked and was shocked at what I saw. You were nowhere around, but there were cars and buildings in there. Neither of us knew what to make of it. We waited and waited for you to come back out. Jackie wanted to take another look into the mist but before I could grab ahold of her, the wall flexed outward and engulfed her. I called for her and for you but neither of you came back out. Jackie just disappeared. Then I could see through the wall that you were just lying there, almost covered by something black and large. I called out to you and you started to move. Then you came flying out like a ghost was chasing you.” Sara spoke as if she couldn’t believe what she had seen. “Jackie’s in there somewhere and the rest of the city. What are we going to do?” Beth finally asked. Sara didn’t want to break the news to Beth, but she felt she deserved the truth. “It seems if anyone other than me goes in there, they disappear, for good. If I go too far, then I’ll disappear for good. I don’t want to come back here. Ever. Again.” The two women just looked out through the windshield at the swirling grayish mass. Sara got the impression that it was mad. Mad at her escaping it. She got a perverse sense of pleasure from that. Jackie wasn’t so lucky. Even stranger, Beth remembered everything. Suddenly, an explosion shook the ground and rattled the windows on the truck. The gray mass appeared to writhe in pain and scream out in a ungodly roar. The mass b
egan to swirl faster and then it did something that surprised Sara, it receded a ways. It uncovered the parts of town all the way to the burning gas station. She looked at Beth who wore a mask of shock and surprise equal to Sara’s. She didn’t know how long the fog bank would stay back, but there it was. The abandoned cars and buildings that was once part of a thriving city. “You heard that I assume?” she asked Beth who could only nod. “What was that?” she finally asked. “I don’t know but I have a hypothesis; that gray mass is a malevolent living creature of some kind.” Sara explained, detachment filling her voice. “And it has literally killed over half of our city, to include Dr. Morgan and Jackie.” She concluded. Both Sara and Beth stared out the windshield watching the angry looking fog. “Wait, did you do that to the gas station?” Beth asked, surprise in her voice. “Yep. That I did.” Sara couldn’t help but feel a bit proud. “Why? Came the expected follow o question. “To give myself time.” Sara relayed everything that had happen while she was in there. The voices, the movement, the continuously morphing figure. Seeing Jackie. All of it. “So when I took off running, trying to get back here, something large and black gave chase, I knew from flinging my last flare t it that it hated fire. Or more precisely, light. So I made it to the gas station and the black stuff was on my heels. So, I did what anyone would do in that situation, I opened a gas nozzle all the way and lit the place on fire.” Sara finished retelling the story to Beth who could only look at her friend in surprise and disbelief. “Sara, I don’t think anyone else has ever been in that particular situation. It’s a first.”
After a while longer of staring at the burning gas station and the angry mass in front of them, Beth finally said what neither of them wanted to give voice to. “Jackie’s really gone, isn’t she?” Sara had been hoping with the mass retreating, that the part of town it uncovered would return, the people would return. Jackie would return. It wasn’t meant to be however. Whoever the mass takes stays dead. “Yup, looks like it.” Tears slid down Sara’s face once again. She couldn’t believe it. Jackie was so full of life, larger than life in some ways. How could she be dead? It just didn’t seem real. She didn’t want it to be real. The truth was right in front of her though, she had to accept it, but she did so with a vengeful thought, she would make this entity die. Some way, somehow. It wouldn’t be around much longer.
The short drive back to the apartment really brought home just how close the boundaries of this thing really were to Sara. A city that once boosted a population in the millions was now down to maybe 20 or 30 square blocks. Still a large chunk of land, but a lot smaller than it was.
Over the next few weeks late November slid into middle of December and Sara was no closer to figuring out how to end the ugly mass that bordered her city and threatened to consume all life that was left, which wasn’t much. At least Beth now believed everything she had told her, or Beth had gone just as crazy as Sara thought she was. One was a comforting thought, the other no so much. Thanksgiving came and went without much fanfare. Neither one of them felt like cooking, they were both very grateful that the nearby Chinese place was open on the last Thursday in November. The weather had grown worse. The winter storms that had been plaguing the city came more frequently and were worse.
December
“Beth, you can’t go.” Sara was contemplating tying her best friend to a chair to make sure she didn’t go to the appointment she was supposed to have today. “Sara, I understand life seems to have shit on you, I do, but you can’t expect everyone else to stop living their lives. I made this appointment over two months ago, if I don’t go today, then who knows when I’ll be able to reschedule. I got to go.” Sara was growing more and more exasperated with her friend who seems to have forgotten their city was under siege by something big, ugly and strong. “We have…” she started to say but was cut off by Beth, who was putting her jacket and scarf on. “If you’re about to say ‘We have to figure out a way to stop the fog.’ You can stop right there. It’s fog. It’s not out to get you; it isn’t an evil, living monster that’s trying to kill you. It’s fog.” Sara couldn’t believe that Beth could forget so easily what had happen just a few weeks ago. “Seriously Beth?! You don’t remember what happen to Jackie? What’s happened to the entire city?!?” Sara was about to tackle her to prevent her from leaving. Her appointment was at an office that was a couple of streets away from the fog boundary. “So what do you want me to do Sara? Hold up in this apartment and refuse to go on with life? I miss Jackie too, but this isn’t what she would have wanted. What happen to her was sad and wrong, she should have just given the mugger the money and let go.” Sara was floored. “Beth, Jackie wasn’t killed by a mugger.” It was Beth’s turn to be frustrated. “Right, I forgot. The giant ugly mean fog reached out and pulled her in. Seriously Sara, Sometimes I wish this town had a hospital so you could get some real help. I love you, but you’re wearing me out here.” Beth was on her way to the door and Sara had nothing else to say to try and make her stop. She just prayed her friend would be alright. After Beth left, she turned the TV on so she could try to keep tabs on what was going on with the weather. After a few minutes, she face palmed herself. “Damn! Why didn’t I just drive her?!” Sara grabbed up her jacket and ran out the door, not worrying about locking it. She had to race down to the parking garage to try and catch up with Beth. She waited impatiently for the elevator to reach her then even more impatient as she waited to reach the 2nd floor of the parking garage where her spots were. She ran up to the truck, this time not wincing at Jackie’s car, which had stayed parked there since she disappeared. She caught sight of Beth’s brake lights as they rounded the first turn going down to street level. She had to think fast, try to run and cut her off or get in the truck? She decided on the truck, incase Beth was to put out with her to stop. She drove like a mad woman to try and catch up with her. As she reached the exit to the street from the parking garage, she suddenly realized she had no idea which way Beth would have turned. She looked franticly both ways and just caught the back of Beth’s car turning at the stoplight. She had gone right. Sara punched the gas and squealed the tires as she turned into the street.
She didn’t worry about oncoming traffic; there hadn’t been any in a few days. She raced the engine and made the turn at the stoplight. Beth’s car seemed to have a mind of its own, impossibly; she was 3 blocks up and turning again. Sara was getting frustrated that not only couldn’t she catch up to Beth, but it seemed that she was actually pulling away from her. Again, Sara punched the gas, and sent the heavy truck rumbling down the street, as she came to her next turn, she scarcely slowed down to make the left, the vehicles tires groaned under the strain and barked against the pavement. She saw Beth way up ahead, driving right towards the boundary with the massive fog. She floored the accelerator and shot down the street like a rocket. She was gaining on the old green mustang, but Sara didn’t know if she was going to catch her in time. It almost seemed to Sara that the fog was racing towards Beth, setting its will against Sara and her plan to save her friend. She had the truck going as fast as she could, but it didn’t seem like it was going to be enough. Beth was going to drive into the misty abyss and there was nothing Sara could do to stop it. She screamed out in frustration and anger. “Stop Beth! For the love of God stop!” but the mustang kept racing forward. Sara was within half a block of the car and closing when suddenly the car disappeared from view. Sara let out a frustrated howl and kept plowing forward. She burst through the shroud in time to see Beth’s car careen out of control. It hit a stoplight pole, shot through and ended up embedded in a storefront window amidst the shattering glass. Sara pulled the truck up right behind Beth’s car. She already knew what she would find, but she had to look, and look quick. She could already feel the darkness closing around her. Sure enough, Beth’s purse and phone were lying on the seat, but Beth was gone. The darkness claimed her. Sara wanted to sit there and give into her anguish. She wanted to let the darkness claim her. Why was she even fighting anymore? Everyone sh
e loved was now dead. What was the point in going on any more? A shadowy figure came her direction from the dark, from the way she just came. It was morphing into different shapes and sizes. All humanoid. She knew what it was, she had seen it before. She also knew the last face it would morph into. Sara stood up and walked towards it, back towards the truck. As it approached, it took on a shape and size Sara knew too well. She knew the face she would see when it got close enough. Sara watched as Beth walked out of the darkness. It stood there, the eyes almost flooding the area around the creature with sadness. Beth opened her mouth to speak, yet the voice that came out was Beth’s, it was also countless other voices also. “Don’t give up Sara. You must fight. We are counting on you. Now run!” Sara didn’t want to run. She didn’t want to fight. She just wanted to be with those that she loved. If that meant she had to give into the darkness that was coming for her, then so be it. She was tired of it all. The figure of Beth did something that shocked Sara back to her senses, seeing that Sara wasn’t moving; Beth slapped her hard across the cheek. “I said Run!!” Sara looked all around her; it was black. The deepest black she had ever seen. Fear set in. The self-preservation trigger tripped, Sara dove into the cab of the truck and shoved it into reverse, she left Beth’s car right where it was, were it would always stay. She spun the truck around, hoping she hadn’t gotten lost and she was facing back the way she came. She laid in on the gas pedal and rocketed the truck out of the blackness. She knew she had made it with only seconds to spare. The deepening grey skies above seemed to have gotten darker. She made her way back to the parking garage and put the truck in its proper spot. Sara didn’t figure she’d be driving it again. There was no need. The city had grown small enough she could almost walk to wherever she needed.