Fog Sorrows

Greta entered the second day on the road to what she saw as safety exhausted from burying someone. It was her first time burying someone and was someone she didn't expect to weigh on her emotions so heavily. She takes in a deep breath as she stretched in the cool morning air. That was one big thing she had begun to notice; the air around her is getting colder at a faster rate than it had when she was younger. She thinks the fog that wrapped around everywhere she went was starting to keep the warmth out.

"It seems like the world has gotten bluer. It is for me at least." Greta said as she looked around the room to see the pale blue has grown darker.

She took a look at her phone to see that it was 8:15 A.M. It didn't feel like she had gotten any sleep even though she had slept for just under five hours. She groaned as she walked down the steps into the kitchen searching for a drink. She struck lucky when she found bottles of water frozen in the freezer. She let out a sigh of relief pulling one out sitting it on the dining room table before stealing a look into the backyard.

"Eli, I hope you are resting well or at least better than I did." Greta turned on the T.V. finding the news on every channel.

She felt a hint of surprise that people had been able to keep moving despite the virus. It didn't take away from the depression she felt every time she looked outside, but it brought her some hope knowing that life is still moving forward. She was seeing the military developing a new system that can work on the masks without the need for filters. In her mind right away she thought of trying to steal one when they finished the development, but then considered that she might be dead by then.

"I would probably be shot before I got anywhere near the create that contained them." Greta said with a scoff.

She turned off the T.V. before getting up to see if her water had finally melted. She found the bottle was covered in sweat and filled with slush. For some reason, it took her back to family vacations that will never return. Vacations on a frozen lake fishing with her father or when she would ski with her mother down onto the lake from the mountains that towered above. It brought a sense of happiness to her heart to think about it.

"I miss you momma. I miss you so much. Oh god how I miss you!" She began to scream out in a choked voice as her grief took her ability to stand and her tears took her vision.

She cried on the dining room floor for hours as her life ran through her mind like a flipbook. Each moment and happy memory passed by her for what seemed like an eternity. She once again felt the sun on her skin and could smell the freshly cut grasses. It almost brought her happiness to have it all happen again, but when reality hit she froze once again.

"I gotta get out of here." Greta got out of the floor and collected her stuff before exiting the house.

Just like her childhood home Greta set the house ablaze bringing down any history she had within it. She could feel the emotions coming down on her shoulders as she was engulfed in the ocean of smoke and ash. The world hasn't ended for everyone, but for Greta, she felt like hers has already ended. No tears came to her this time, because she felt like she had none left to give in this world. All she could bring herself to do was walk and walking is what she did. She continued down the road she was on in the direction she thought was north.

"If I can make it to the coast then I can continue on the proper direction and make it off this continent." This was the statement she continued to repeat to herself as she walked.

She tried to hold out hope that at some point the fog might clear and she could see where she was going. This hope got dashed away when she saw flames high in the sky and metal spread around where she knew mountains stood. It brought her to the conclusion that nothing could see through this fog, not even an aircraft's radar. The only thing she could do was watch as she walked by animals crewing boils off of their skin causing puss to cover their faces when they finally popped them. It was sickening to see that animals and humans could all be affected by whatever was in the air.

"That is nasty." The words barely made it before she started to dry heave which was the signal for her to run as fast as she could away from everything.

During her blind sprint, she barely got herself stopped before almost falling into a canyon. Her heart seemed like it was going to break through her chest as she fell back against a rock wall that was behind her. She gulped trying to catch her breath with her eyes focused on the drop that went to a dead plummet onto sharp rocks. Each breath got shallower, but with a sharp shudder with each inhale.

"Holy fucking shit." She whispered as she slid down into a sitting position with her knees drawn up to her chest.

"You can't give up yet my dear daughter. I never gave up on you and I tried to hold on. I am sorry that I couldn't but please don't give up on yourself. You don't have much further to go." The voice that passed through her head sounded similar to her mother's, but she didn't know how that could be.

She shot up to a standing position frantically search for what could have said that, but nothing was to be found except for her own panic.