crimson, chapter eight

Saturday afternoon and Central Park was deserted, Sarah Montgomery a slender woman in her mid thirties with blonde bobbed hair was walking through searching for others but found no one. She was working late last night and had fallen asleep at her desk, she was a well know face in New York City as the face and voice of the news. Now she was the only face in New York. Upon waking that morning she had heard screams from others inside the building and from outside. The room was filled with a haze of red, within minutes the mist had gone and all was silent. She had spent hours searching to no avail. Now the sun was high and that mist was back, not wanting to go into it again in case she too disappeared she kept moving away from it. Finding a car with the engine still running Sarah decided it would be best to be able to move faster and so in she got and drove through the streets having to drive on the side walk some times to avoid the traffic of the abandoned cars. The mist had forced her to leave New York and now she was heading to Philadelphia. Lethanial a boy of fifteen had been sleeping at a friend’s house in a tent in the back yard and when they had woke up they went inside to get breakfast. Pop tarts and coca cola made lots of sense to them for a choice of nutritious food. Sitting down to in front of the television they began playing the Xbox 360 favouring a war game. After playing for two hours Lethanials friend Lucas noticed that his parents were not up yet and he hadn’t heard his baby sister crying either. They went upstairs to look for them but found the house was empty. Curious to know where his family were they went out to check to see if the car was there. Sitting in the drive way was the family saloon surrounded by a red haze. “Cool, I’ve never seen fog like this before” Lucas told Lethanial. The mist moved closer and they were soon surrounded losing sight of each other they thought it was fun and tried to scare each other. Lethanial felt Lucas touch him on the shoulder and he quickly turned around and grabbed for him. Feeling his shirt on the tips of his fingers Lethanial thought that he had him then he was gone. The mist backed away and Lethanial was alone. Thinking his friend had found a way to hide behind the saloon he ran around to scare him but found nothing. When he realised that his friend had vanished into the mist panic and fear set in. He headed across the road to his house but found that his parents and older brother were gone also. Driving through Philadelphia Sarah was shocked to find it the same as New York empty and eerily silent. The mist had been behind her all the way and she was almost out of Philadelphia now when she spotted movement. A boy on a bicycle in front of her, she pulled up next to him and he stopped frozen to the spot tears running down his face. Getting out Sarah left the engine running and walked over to the boy. “Are you ok” she asked but got no reply. “Hey are you alright” she raised her voice which shook him back to attention. “they are gone all of them gone” he told her as he wiped the tears from his eyes suddenly feeling like a child for crying at his age”. “Come on get in the car” she told him and returned to the car. Lethanial stood for a second then dropped his bike and ran to the car taking his back Pac off and putting it in the foot well as he got in the front passenger seat. Sarah began driving again as the mist continued behind them. “My name is Sarah Montgomery I’m from New York” she introduced. He in turn introduced himself and told her what had happened. After telling her tale Lethanial asked the question she had been thinking but could not answer. “What is happening”? “I’m not sure but what I do know is we don’t want to go into that mist” she replied. He sat in silence then Sarah added “I’m just driving keeping ahead of it. If we stick together I think we should be ok”. She tried to sound reassuring but knew she didn’t. They stopped for food and avoided the food that had started to mould and smell, instead sticking to food that would last longer and didn’t need cooking. They also refuelled the car and picked up some CD’s to listen to as they drove. They did all of this as fast as they could so they could stay ahead of the mist.