Isaac

 

Rebecca, Jessica, and I lay at the front entrance of the building, staring up at the light in the sky. It seemed to be taunting us. The more that we worked to try and shut things down we seemed to make it all worse. I looked over at Jessica. Her wheezing had calmed but a tear was coming out of the side of her eye as we looked up. Just past her, Rebecca held her knees up to her chest. In the last few hours since we had returned from the underground lab, she hadn’t said a word. I looked down at my hands and recognized some blood. The red was dried and now had a brown coloring on it. Rebecca was the first to stand up with a wince from all of her cuts and bruises. 

 

“Where are we?” She asked

 

I didn’t fully understand the question and she had turned her attention to me expecting a response.

 

“Where are we? I mean, town, city, are we still in Maine?” 

 

“Yes, we’re still in Maine,” I said with a cough. “We’re not far from Portsmouth.”

 

She looked down as she was taking it all in. 

 

“So we have two options. We either believe that the world is gone now and we’re the only ones left-” 

 

There was a brief silence after that.

 

“-Or we believe that there is an area not covered by this fog and we might be able to get your friend some help.”

 

Jessica looked at me. The hope in her eyes had shown me that this was the path that she wanted to take. Rebecca had her vote. 

 

“But what about trying to fix this?” I finally piped up, while looking at Jessica.

 

She tried to respond but her voice was still gone. She took her index finger and wrote a single word into the sand and dirt. Return. Then she wrote another word. Fix. Rebecca looked over her shoulder and read the next two aloud. 

 

“Find Help. Yes. Whatever this is, we can’t fix it on our own. We tried that and made it worse.”

 

Her breathing was getting harder while she was standing. It was taking her a lot of effort to remain upright. I could understand her rush but in my mind, she was pushing herself too hard too quickly. Whatever she had seen must have bothered her significantly enough that she wanted to get away from the facility. I looked down at my feet weighing the options. I couldn’t look into Jessica’s eyes. She wanted to get away from this place, as well. 

 

“Okay- I would be okay with us leaving but we need to find something for Jess. She wouldn’t be safe being pushed around.” 

 

A smile came to Jessica’s lips. Rebecca thought for a moment. 

 

“Did you guys have a parking lot? You know. For your cars?”

 

“No. We were bussed in for our shifts. They usually lasted many months at a time and then when it was time to go, they would bus us out. They didn’t want to draw too much attention to the facility.” 

 

She thought for a moment, again. With a heavy breath, she finally responded. 

 

“I won’t be able to go far either. We need a vehicle. Is my car nearby?”

 

“I left it at the gate, just on the other side of the fog.”

 

“Okay. If it still has enough gas, I think we should take it. Jessica, you can try and lie down in the back.” 

 

“There should be.”

 

Jessica nodded. Rebecca continued.

 

“I think we should try and make our way south. I think that will be the safest way. Along the coast. It might give us a chance to try and find a boat if we need to and just continue our way. It may be difficult if the fog reaches out there too but I think that would be safer in some way than having to deal with those creatures.” 

 

“It would be really dangerous trying to go through the ocean in that kind of fog.”

 

“The other choice would be trying to go through all of those creatures!” 

 

Her voice was beginning to rise. She was having trouble keeping her emotions in check. 

 

“I’m only saying that it might be the only way. The lighthouses along the coast-”

 

“Fine, we can take the road.” 

 

She said hobbling her way towards any direction than where we were. I felt like I touched a nerve. I looked at Jessica and her eyes were following Rebecca before looking back at me. My mind came back to the head of the person I found lying on the ground. When I found Rebecca she was severely bleeding and the was an incident at one of the stores nearby. She had seen a lot on her travels in such a short amount of time. I didn’t know what I should do. I got up and reached over to pick up Jessica’s hand to assure her I would be right back. She nodded and I followed Rebecca. 

 

“Let’s get to the car first and then we can discuss where we go next, okay?” I said as I got a little closer. “It’s this way.”

 

I stepped ahead of her and we quietly made our way to the vehicle. It was right where I left it. Right outside of the fence. It took us a little longer to get there because Rebecca was having a very hard time walking. When we opened the doors and sat down, I found the keys in the ignition where I had left them. I at least had the sense to turn off the car. The car started without an issue. I began to get out of the vehicle when I felt her hand grab my wrist. 

 

“My brother saved us by going to the lighthouse in town and blowing the fog horn. It was just enough noise to draw those creatures. I was able to drive away and make my way here. When we were down in that room. They showed me him. He was alive. He was really alive. I could touch him. He told me to push the button to shut down the machine. He was the one who convinced me to do it and the last thing I remembered before he left was that smile he had just before disappearing.”

 

I looked down at her hand. She had been dealing with a lot since our time down there. I put my hand on hers. 

 

“It will be okay. We just need to take the first steps to get going and we will figure everything out. Now let’s grab Jess, and then we can figure things out from there.” 

 

I got out of the car and opened the gate. I got back into the vehicle and looked at Rebecca with a smile. 

 

“It will be okay”

 

We moved forward out of the fog and into the clearing again. Jessica looked at me with a sigh of relief. I got out and helped her into the backseat. I got into the front seat, looked in the back at Jessica, and then over to Rebecca. 

 

“It’s time we get away from this place.”