crimson, chapter three

Three days had passed since jack had woke to find himself alone. He had searched but found no one in Chicago. The mist had been everywhere and having seen what had happened to the dog, jack was in no hurry to go into the mist. He travelled only where it was clear and with the mist closing in behind him it was forward he must go. Jack had now come to the outskirts of Indiana heading into Kentucky. The bloody mist was behind him every step of the way, around every turn blocking the way. it took jack days to find his way here through the misty maze. The radio stations were static and he had no CD’s in the car. When he stopped for fuel he also picked up music and more food. Most of his shopping was made up of beer and now he had numbed the feelings of guilt and fear that were eating away at him. Jack was driving through the quiet streets when all of a sudden the red mist was no longer just behind him but it was now in front and to the left of him. He swerved to his right, the tyres screeching as he turned in to a street narrowly missing an abandoned bus. The street was clear ahead but movement caught his attention causing him to slam on the breaks just in time as a man in his forties ran out

into the middle of the road. The jeep skidded to a halt in front of the overweight balding man. Jack got out of his car and shouted at the man. “Are you mad, I could have killed you”? The man

responded by hugging jack much to his dislike and asking “are you real”. Jack pushed him away

confirming that he was in fact real. After the shock of finding another person had sunk in they sat down next to each other beside the jeep with a beer. The mist was keeping a distance for now. The two men introduced themselves and Martin Holmes began to tell his story. Jack opened the beer and listened. Thankful for the rest and distraction of his thoughts. On the Friday Martin was admitted to hospital for tests on his heart. He had gone to sleep that night after taking a sleeping pill in a full ward and when he woke up on Saturday morning the beds were empty. He pressed the call button but no nurse came. Getting out of bed he slid his feet into his slippers and went in search of someone in the hospital. He returned to his room upon finding on one and got dressed then he left the hospital. The empty streets were framed by a red glow as the sun shone through the mist. artin searched house to house and came to the conclusion that what was happening was the result of a government experiment. He has always believed that government

conspiracies were real, and now he was in one. His thoughts were fleeting backwards and forwards first he was excited he was involved then he thought about getting proof to the world and exposing it all, then his thoughts turned dark, what if they didn’t want the truth to get out. They would eliminate all evidence even him. Martin told jack how that for days the mist had been following him around Indiana as he searched for people. After taking another drink of warm beer jack told martin of his story. Martin interrupted. ”and the dog just vanished”. Jack nodded and took another drink. Staring out at the mist jack said aloud “I swear that’s not normal fog. It has a mind of its own”. Martin asked him to explain. “It went after the dog and it kept moving and turning me onto this street and now its waiting”. “It has to be an experiment” said martin as he got to his feet. “Or maybe we are the experiment and we have been drugged or something” he rambled on. Jack just looked at him then finished his beer. The mist began moving again creeping towards them. Getting to their feet jack threw his empty bottle at the mist and heard it smash on the road. They got into the jeep and began driving in the only clear direction. They drove past a building that a plane had crashed into, the fire had long been extinguished but the smell remained. The tail of the plane blocked the road ahead so they had to drive up on the pavement knocking a pram out of the way. once they were past the plane they got back onto the street and continued to dodge the abandoned and crashed vehicles as they tried to keep ahead of the deadly mist.

Crimson had swooped in front of jack’s jeep forcing him to turn right straight in to martin. He

backed off as jack almost crashed into the bus then into martin. He watched as the two humans sat and recalled the last few days’ events. The one that called himself martin had fascinated crimson in a different way than the one called jack. This human was full of theories about what crimson was. He enjoyed listening in; his last meal was nowhere as entertaining as this one. Crimson paid attention to the thoughts of martin as he went on about a thing called conspiracies.

His last meal as the humans called dinosaurs had only thought about food and surviving. Crimson

was learning all sorts of new and exciting things from fact and fiction of their history to their hopes and dreams for their future.

After a while of letting them rest crimson was getting impatient it was time to get moving again, he had allowed them a short break and now he crept up behind the jeep and watched as they panicked and got back in to the jeep and drove off. Watching them a little while longer with his full attention crimson savoured every thought they had and every feeling. His hunger not yet fulfilled he searched for more.