The Black Fog

Our Crazy Plan

Picture is Angie...

"Ready?" Nolan said once we were in his car and I had gotten permission from Rex and Violet. They had said that it was 'perfectly fantastic' that I had made a new friend already. Flick had promised that we could have a girls night (It was Friday)

"Yup" I replied. Because Nolan wasn't the constantly smiling, kiss up type, I felt like I could be myself and tend to my cheeks which hurt from so much smiling. He started the engine and indies music from 2014-2015 blared. He made a move to change it, but I swatted his hand away. "This is my favourite" I said, smirking at his blushing expression. Afterwards he smiled.
"I'm glad I'm not the only geek here" I laughed.
"Nope, I am the queen of geeks!" I said spreading my arms wide.
"True, though not as tough as you would have people think" He said turning to me as we stoped at a red light, and the automatic wall rose up to prevent anyone from running it. Cops, firefighters and Medics had buzzers that can put their wall down if they need to run the light, otherwise Ta Ta, car bumper! There were separate lanes for hose who are turning off.
"No, I haven't cried much, only when I first found out. Since then I have just... I don't know, I guess I just figured I'll be with them soon enough, or maybe by myself in eternal blackness... Or as a floating spirit or lost soul or-" He cut me off.
"I don't think that you would be lost, or alone. I think you will be with the people most significant to you in your life" He told me. I smiled, our wall lowered and we continued out journey. It took us half an hour to get to the laboratory, it was a large sterile building, and our floor was on the top. "So how are you academically?" He asked when we were looking out over the city from the elevator.
"I have a scholarship in literature, physics and scinence" I explained. "But I want to do a bit more of high school first. not that it matters anymore" Nolan slipped his hand into mine.
"How do you want to die?" He asked, easily slipping into my morbid mood.
"I want to know I am dying and I want to be with the ones I love: Violet, Rex, Flick and anyone else I get attached to. We can be watching one of my favourite movies, eating my favourite food, chocolate and pizza with Lemonade raspberry blueberry twist" I explained. He nodded.
"I would be the same, family and friends, you included" He said. I smiled.
"I think you will prove to be a good friend" I said looking at the ominous, noxious fog, looming over the city.
"When that shadow comes down, we will all be dead" He breathed. The doors beeped and opened. He took me in, unconsciously holding my hand. I fixed my green eyes on His blue ones as we walked into the sterile laboratory. We walked over to where the guys, Will and Nico, were looking at something on a desk.
"Oh Nolan, Lilith" Said Nico. Pushing his brown fringe out of his hazel eyes. He then raised his eyebrows at out linked hands and small smiles. We coughed and let go of each other's hands.
"So..." Will began. He had chocolate skin and shoulder length black hair, with cocoa eyes. "We have been looking at the records from refugees that have come here, to the end of the world, or what is left of it after the second ice age and acess volcanic activity, anyway. But we think we have less time than we initially thought" He explained.
"How much less?" Nolan asked. Will sat on the papers.
"I- Nothing it's fi-" Nico looked seriously to us, his hazel eyes piercing ours.
"We think we have a day tops" He said, his expression dead serious.
"Flick!" I yelled I rushed to the elevator and bashed the buttons, but Nico, Will and Nolan came in and pressed the button, which only responded to their fingerprints. I leant against it and looked at the looming shadow, a bolt of lightning and then thunder came at the same time and large droplets of water came down from the sky. As soon as the elevator hit the ground floor everyone piled into two cars. Nico and Will in one, Nolan and I in the other. We drove to Rex and Violet's after I told them that the other girls were there. I looked at the fog out the window, it seemed closer. I tried to calm my racing nerves.
"We could be dying, already, and just not knowing it, where are we going anyway? It is confirmed that there is nowhere after Wellfo-" Then he kissed me. It was completely unexpected, and weird. But oh well, it calmed me for a while anyway. He pulled away.
"Calm down. My father has a boat, but like everyone he works late. So this means leaving everyone and nearly everything behind. But even if we don't get to leave, it will all be over soon" I closed my eyes. Peace, that's what dying promised. Living? That entailed more pain, more potential loss etcetera. I leaned against the window and fell asleep. At first I thought I was dead, but then Nolan gave me a light shove and opened my door. The air smelt of damp concrete, and, of course, pollution. We ran into the apartment and I used put my finger to the pad and we shot up to my apartment. Nico and Will were the first to get out, then Nolan and I.
"Flick!" I yelled. "Where are your parents"
"They work late, like everyone" I sighed. Pack your things, get down to the car, divide yourselves up among Nolan and Will's cars then get in, even if we need people in the boot. I will explain everything soon, okay?" I said. They looked at our serious facing, probably thinking- no hoping we were joking. But they stood and got their things. I ran to my room and packed my essentials. I was about to step into out elevator, when I remembered something and ran to my room and opened my jewelry box. I dug around and then my palms closed onto a small necklace. It had been in our family for six hundred years. My mother had given it to me for my sixteenth birthday. I put the large gold and ruby pendant around my neck and tied the strings. Nolan knocked on the door and I opened it.
"We need to get going, I am not really sure how long we have, and it is another quarter of an hour to get to the river!" He exclaimed. I walked outside with him and got in the car, cramped between Ilsa and Angie. When we got to the bay, the boys pulled out the boat and put it in the water. It was really big, and had two cabins with two sets of double bunks.
"This must have cost a fortune!" Ilsa exclaimed excitedly.
"Yeah. He is an lawyer, so we are pretty well off" Nolan replied as we all piled in and he started the motor. "Hey Will!" He called.
"Yeah!" Will called back.
"Load her up with as much fuel as you can get! and make sure the papers don't get wet!" He yelled. Will did as he was bidden, and came out to the boat just as Nolan got her going. We sped down the river as fast as she would take us. Everyone but the boys (Navigator: Will. Driver: Nolan. Engineer: Nico) went back down to the cabins. We sorted out the sleeping arrangements and whatnot.
"What are our family's going to think when-if they get home and find us gone?" Asked Ilsa, who was one step from hysterically crying.
"Let's not think like that" I told her. "Have you ever read Noah's ark?" I asked her. She nodded. "Remember how everyone died during a storm, but Noah had a calling and survived by spending sixty days and sixty nights in an ark? Then they all survived? Think of them like us" She sobbed quietly and I gave her a hug, we were sleeping on the bottom double bunk, with Nolan at the opposite end, we were the only ones willing to take a guy. How lovely and generous people are. I offered to go make dinner once we were in the open ocean and quite far out, and the shore and river was just a black shadow in the distance. I was positively certain that if we had stayed for just another half hour, we would all be dead. I wanted to cry with relief, or maybe laugh or maybe both. To avoid this embarrassing situation, I buried myself in the task of making dinner. But then I had a revelation. The authorities from Wellfort and I, had been able to go back to my house after the fog had passed. Therefore we just need to get back to wherever the mist came from before it began to spread, in other words: We have to travel right around the world, through treacherous arctic waters and icebergs in a boat suitable for maybe a month or two long trip, with maintenance stops and supply stops, but we are talking a year or more, no stops and no maintenance, running away from a noxious gas/cloud/fog/mist. Lovely, just perfect. To use all the food that was most likely to go off first, I made salad with bits of fruit in it and some chicken. I poured everyone a glass of water and everything was finished just as the motor stopped for the night. Everyone came in.
"This looks awesome Lilith!" Flick exclaimed when she saw the small buffet.
"Thanks" I said before explaining my revelation to the boys.
"We would never have enough food or anything!" Nolan screeched. "We're all gonna die!" He said. "But luckily my genius self, knows of certain unregistered islands along the way" He said recovering. I burst out laughing.
"What does your genius self propose?" I asked.
"I propose that when we come to these islands we stock up on things that we need, but it means beating the fog" He explained. "Until then, we will all be assigned jobs" He said pulling out a peice of paper that had boyish scrawl across it. "Lilith, your our cook, I am the captain, Will is the navigator, Nico is the engineer. Ilsa, you are the cleaner, and the rest of you will swap over on our first stop. Kapeesh?" He asked, we all replied by laughing at his 'I am the boss do what I say' demeanor. Suddenly the boat jolted. There was a sound that didn't sound particularly bad, but there was a sense that it didn't belong, it was just wrong. The boys were the first to rush on deck, then us girls. I looked out, the fierce waves were lashing at the shiny, metal sides of the boat, like a whip. Nolan looked over, we all followed his lead, our eyes open for anything suspicious. Suddenly there was a splash.
"Ilsa!" I heard Angie shriek. I suddenly moved and began to haul at the life raft. No one else moved.
"Well don't just stand there! Help me get this out on the water, I will go if you lot are to chicken!" Ilsa screamed. "Ilsa! We are coming!" I called out.
"There are sharks!" She squealed. I didn't even think as I made my way across the dark water. I reached my hand out. Ilsa's wet, ice cold hand grasped mine. Everything that happened next happened in slow motion. There was a flash of white and grey, a terrible, blood curdling scream, and lots and lots of blood. All stemming from my right arm, which had been resting on the edge of the life raft.