The beginning of the end

Fog rolled in heavy. A blue sky had not been seen in 144 days. This new reality was still finding its feet. The happy family playing at the park was a far, distant memory. When it happened, no one believed it would get to them.

The cat must have sensed it long before anyone even realised what was coming. One morning Sarah had opened the back door, Puddles stepped out and froze. His tail puffed up and for a split second it was almost as if Sarah had felt it too. That was the last she saw Puddles, he darted out the garden and out of sight. They spent each night calling out for him to come back. But no such luck. Two weeks later, with puddles still missing, news came in from Ireland. First their power went out, then they could not reach the outside world. Government officials shut down all ports of entrance and exit to the island. Then the mainland could see a moving fog heading for them and fear filled the Country. The news outlets changed from seemingly having control, to a chilling fear of the unknown threat.

Before all of this we all had our own theories of how the world we knew would end. Some thought it would end in volcanos and asteroids like it did for the dinosaurs, others thought that judgement day would call, some even believed it would be aliens that would take control. Not many believed it would be our own doing that would end it for us. Hunger for power and lack of empathy. No one knows exactly what they created in that god forsaken lab. All we know is that it was strong, hated humans and it hunted through a thick fog. Created to reinforce the power the rich had lost. To ensure that the working stayed working and would leave the rich alone. It went wrong when the monster began to see all humans as equal and unworthy. Before the monster, divides had been created; towns sectioned off to keep the classes apart. The poor were working all hours of the day to provide for the rich. Until riots began and the poor stopped wanting to work for nothing.

Sarah had been gone for a little over two months, she had left when they were desperate to find medicine for their youngest. Graham had been filled with guilt every day since she had been gone. He insisted he would go but she refused, he was still unable to move fast. Watching her walk out the door was the hardest thing he had ever done, but he kept positive for the sake of Alex and Lottie. Alex is a typical 15-year-old. Independent thinking and incredibly smart. She had once enjoyed music and movies and although she sometimes was frustrated at her three-year-old sister, she loved her until the very end. Lottie had once been a bubbly ball of energy that everyone would fall in love with the instant that they heard her laugh.

We don’t know what the monsters were, those that have seen them are remembered by their blood curdling screams. It felt as though the monsters tormented them. Sometimes it would be fast, you almost felt relieved for the poor souls that had been found. But when the fog fell over large groups the screams could be heard for days on end. The worst one that Graham could remember was just before they fled Edinburgh. The fog had just rolled over Queensferry, which was a little over 30 minutes away. It was 8pm. And that’s when they heard it. It started with a single scream and within seconds it had turned into a choir of tortured screams. As though they were all being stabbed over and over all at the same time. It lasted through the whole night. Before a sudden silence.

That’s when they realised, they needed to leave. Immediately. They grabbed bags and packed everything they thought they may need. The air was static as they left. As though the whole of Edinburgh had heard the screams as well, and must have had the same fear creeping in. It was coming and they did not have long. They bundled into the car, moving before Alex had finished helping her sister into her car seat. Graham didn’t know where he was driving, but he knew he needed to protect his family. They had been travelling for four hours when they reached Birmingham. It was as though all driving laws had been abandoned. People were fleeing with no direction. Cars no longer stopping at traffic lights, appearing out of nowhere. Graham and his family were heading across a roundabout when a car hit the front driver’s side of the car. It felt like it had happened in slow motion. The red jeep had come out of nowhere. Towering over their small black Vauxhall. It had swiped them hitting Grahams side of the car. At first there was no pain. He turned to check his family. For Lottie, the shock had passed and she was terrified. Screaming for her family, in need of comfort. Alex had tears rolling down her cheeks but was in too much shock to get any words out. For Sarah fight or flight had set in. She knew that if her family gave up now, they simply wouldn’t make it. She jumped out of the car, leaving her door open, realising trying to keep out the way of cars was now impossible. As she ran past Alex’s door, she opened it and grabbed her daughter out of the car. Snapping Alex out of her shock. If she was going to save her family, she needed Alex to help. Telling Alex to get what they needed from the boot, she then continued to comfort a screaming Lottie. Hushing the once excited toddler to settle her tears. Just as Lottie had begun to calm down, a yell of agony had come from Graham. The adrenaline had gone, and he was left with nothing but sheer pain. With Alex, Lottie and the backpacks waiting at the edge of the road, Sarah struggled with her husband’s door in urgency to stop his pain. As soon as the door was pried open against its will. Sarah had a sudden sinking feeling. As though this was all for nothing. Graham sat there. Clenching at the wheel, tears on the edge of his eyes, looking as though if he moved an ounce, he would pass out, his once rosy cheeks now a very sickly white. His leg had been hit, bone almost visible through his skin, as Sarah tried to help Graham out of the car, suddenly his leg wasn’t the problem. His hands instinctively wrapped around his ribs; each breathe feeling like inhaling needles on his right side. Light headedness had taken him as he passed out. Sarah had always been level-headed but this may just push her over the edge. The memory of the fog and the screams for help flashed through her mind. That would not be her family. She wouldn’t let it be. She pulled a lifeless Graham out of the crushed car. With him on the floor not knowing what to do next. She heard a faint but stern yell. An elder lady stood at the front door behind the children, ushering them in. Looking to her mother for guidance, Alex stood froze. Sarah, debating on whether this lady was really offering help, or whether it was something more sinister, she realised she was out of options. She shouted to Alex to leave Lottie and the bag with the lady and help her carry in Graham. Once inside the woman’s house. Graham laid dazed on the hallway floor in agony, Lottie still crying being held by a now sobbing Alex. The seemingly calm, frail, looking woman got the children inside the living room. Sat them down and offered them some biscuits and left them in the room alone, returning to the kitchen. After clattering around, banging cupboard doors and draws open and shut, she returned to Sarah and Graham. Holding medical supplies, she knelt on the opposite side of Graham. She told Sarah that she was once a surgeon at the local hospital. This was the first bit of luck they had encountered. It took almost a day to get Graham stable. Night was falling when the lady appeared with some keys. She handed them to Sarah, claiming that it was safer to travel at night because everyone was too scared to leave once the dark had fallen. When Sarah asked her to come with them, she had replied saying she was simply too old to run away and had already lived a long and happy life. If her time had come, she was ready to embrace it.

They drove far into country lanes until they found a village called Chipping Norton. It was silent. One road of what used to be shops. The village was no bigger than three main roads with several cul-de-sacs. The monsters and the fog had already travelled through here. Body parts remained scatters across the road. Signs of other crashed and abandoned cars that had been left in the struggle. All the houses and shops had been heavily boarded up in attempts to hide from the monsters. They created a base in a small house on the edge of the village.

They had been there for around a month, food had become scarce, Sarah and Alex had gone out, each day, raiding the local houses for supplies and food. Medicine that had helped Graham recover, had ran out. For the last two weeks he had become used to being in pain, accepting his new normal. And that is when their luck had ran out. One morning Lottie hadn’t woken up, she was laying on her bed still looking as though she was asleep but her breathing faulted. Graham saw her chest struggling for air and grabbed his baby in a panic. This made him feel worse, it was like he had just picked up a heated bag of coal. Lottie was hot, too hot. She was awake but looking into her eyes; no one was there. The bright personality of a once happy child was dim, unresponsive. They did not have long.

After a couple of days Sarah was determined to go. To walk to the next village in hopes they would have the medicines needed to save her baby.

Sarah had not returned; it was a week at the most when Lottie had stopped waking up. Sarah never said goodbye. Alex felt as though she had to be strong, as Graham was falling apart. She decided that they needed to leave. Being in that place now felt like a punishment. She packed their bags and left a note in case Sarah did ever return.

‘Heading south down the main road, will leave another note if we stray’.

She had planned south as that is the way Sarah had gone to the next town, not wanting to miss her mother. They walked for two days. With Graham losing all hope and Alex struggling to keep her morale.

That’s when he saw it. On the side of the road, on a blanket of dirt and moss. With splatters of deep red over it. Sarah had once been here, and maybe not long ago. He walked over, careful to make sure no one had seen him, and picked it up. Sarah’s heart-shaped locket. She had begged for it when they found out they were expecting Lottie, even though Graham had mocked her for it being tacky. But Sarah loved the idea of it. Four slots. Perfect. A space for Graham, Alex, the new baby and Puddles the family cat. It had stayed on her neck for four years. She never took it off.