A strange light hit the state of California on a Thursday night. It was around 11:00 pm and for those who were sleeping, they hadn't noticed it. When Laura Hollis opened her window she was speechless at what she saw. She was staying up to finish a paper that was due for her US Government class two weeks ago. Little to her knowledge, or anyone else's, overdue papers were to be the least of their concerns the following day. The light was blinding and lasted all of 10 seconds. When she looked out her window she saw smoke and people running around in caucus. She went to the hallway and ran one room over to alert her dad. When she opened his bedroom door, after politely knocking first, she gasped. There on her fathers bed were two figures, lunging over what she assumed was her dad. The figures turned around after hearing the door open and growled at her. She screamed as they slowly, and I mean slowly, started towards her. She ran back to her room and locked the door, while whipping her phone out. She called her best friend LaFontaine and waited in fear for them to answer.
A groggily voice picked up. She could tell LaF had been sleeping by the confusion in their voice. "Hello."
"Oh thank god! LaFontaine, look outside your window."
"You can't be serious right now?" As they turned to look at their clock.
"I'm as serious as a heart attack! Look outside your window!"
"Alright, alright, calm down I'm getting up."
There was silence on the other line as Laura waited for a response.
"Am I dreaming?" LaFontaine asked.
"I'm afraid not. I went to get my dad, but he, he-" Laura couldn't say anything as she started to cry.
"Okay okay." Laura hears the panic begin to pick up in LaF's voice." Come down the fire escape and I'll meet you near my window, then we'll go down the rest of the way together and go get help."
"Okay." Laura sniffles. She looked around her room for what she may need and decided to pack her back pack quickly with a few things. She was fortunate to have one of her best friends living below her in the apartments her and her dad had lived in since she can remember.
She was lifting her window up when she heard the growling again at her door. She practically jumped out the window and caught herself on the railing. She flew down the stairs a level skipping every other step. When she got to LaFontaine's window it was already open. Her breathing was impaired and her voice was frantic.
"Come on we need to hurry!"
LaF had swung their own backpack on in that moment and rushed to the window. "I still don't understand what's going on. What happened to your dad? Why is there smoke everywhere? Also, why are you holding a bedpost?"
"We'll talk about all this later." Laura put her hand out and helped LaF through the window. "Right now we just need to get the hell out of this building."
They reached the sidewalk in no time, seeing that LaF lived on the second floor. Laura looked around in panic. "Come on, let's go find Danny and Perry so we're at least all together."
"You don't think-" LaF had trailed off.
"I'm sure Perry is fine." She grabbed LaF's arm and pulled them into a run. "Only one way to find out."
They ran six blocks to the left of their apartments. Fortunately this was a small town, and no one was more than twenty blocks away. They made a right onto Perry's street which now put them in a neighborhood of houses. Perry lived next to the corner house and was now in sight.
When they reached the door, Laura had left her manners back at her place, viciously banging on the wood and screaming "Perry!".
Two minutes later, to which Laura never quit her ruckus, the door swung open. Wide eyes and curls appeared behind it. "What in the world Laura! My parents are sleeping! I was sleeping! Hell, the state of Florida was sleeping until now!"
"Look Perry, something happened and, and, I need you to come with us right now!"
"Us?" Perry gazed over Laura's shoulder to find a now guilty looking Lafontaine.
"Per, it's serious." They said with conviction in their voice.
"I think the city blew up," Laura truly believed this, "and there's cannibals in my house and there was a blinding light and I only have one backpack!" She was expressing everything with her hands and her eyes looked like they were about to fall out of their sockets.
Perry lowered her voice assuming her parents were still asleep. "Are you guys drunk?"
"That sounds nice right about now." Lafontaine mumbled to themselves.
"No! Seriously Perry, we need to go find help, bring your parents if you want. If not, lock the doors on your way out."
"Okay." Perry eyed Lafontaine one more time before looking back at Laura. "I'm only coming in fear that you might hurt yourselves if I let you continue on your ventures alone."
"Whatever! Just hurry!" Laura was now shaking.
"Let me grab a few things, and I'll lock the doors behind me and leave my parents out of this. Just in case this is alcohol taking over your actions."
With that Perry speed walked back into the darkness of her hallway.
"Do you know how to get to Danny's from here?" LaF asked as they nervously ran a hand through their hair.
"Yeah she's two blocks back. I figured we'd get Perry first for your sake."
The sentiment made Lafontaine calm. "Thank you."
Perry came out a minute later with a suitcase in one hand and keys in the other. She looked a little more shaken up and was mirroring the expression Laura's face had.
"Perry you know we're going to be running, right?" Laura thought she made that apparent with the heavy breathing and all.
"I just got a news alert on my phone. Which is why I really recommended you get the iPhone but we'll save that discussion for another time. Anyway it said to find shelter, hiding, what not. I figure we find it then we know where to tell our parents to go as well. That there's been an outbreak."
Laura twitched inside at the word parents and tried to forget what she thought she saw. "What kind of outbreak?" Now hating her Nokia phone.
"It didn't say, but I left a note for my parents so they knew I was okay and that I took-"
"Oh thank god!" LaF ran pass Laura and grabbed the car keys out of Perry's hand. They all agreed without another word to run to the driveway and get in Perry's parents car. LaF got in the drivers seat while Laura took the passenger. Perry started to unzip her suitcase while LaF pulled out of the driveway.
"Why do you have canned goods in a suitcase?" Laura begin to take out the assorted products.
Perry looked at her with confusion, as if everyone should have a suitcase full of canned goods. Then she looked at Laura's right hand, the one not fiddling with her green beans.
"Why do you have a bedpost?"
"I guess we all serve a purpose." LaF said from the drivers seat. "See," they threw their bag to the back seat, "I brought medical supplies in case we need them."
"Great thinking!" Laura shuffled through the contents in the bag. "Alright make this left turn up here and I'll run out and get Danny."
Lafontaine followed the instructions and parked in front of the house Laura pointed towards. Again Laura held back no noise as she belted on Danny's door. This time the door opened within seconds.
"Laura! So you heard?" Danny was looking at her phone.
"Enough with the phones, it's all my dad can afford."
"What? Oh the alert, yeah I got that too. I'm texting Kirsh right now. He told me before I got the warning message."
"So you're ready to go?" Laura pointed over her shoulder with her thumb and Danny looked over it to see Perry pacing in circles around a car.
"Go where?"
"We want to go find out what's happening and I don't think it's as simple as an outbreak. I went to get my dad and, and -" Laura started to form tears in her eyes again. Her words stuck in her throat.
"Okay, okay. I'm coming." Danny opened a closet door nearest to the front door and pulled out a hiking bag. Laura could tell the items within the bag weren't meant for hiking by the weird form the bag took. Laura looked at her with confusion. "I knew this day would come." Danny then grabbed a shotgun from behind the door and locked the door behind her.
"You have a gun?!" Laura's eyes looked terrified.
"Beats a bedpost, wouldn't you say?" With that Danny took Laura by the hand and ran over to the car. Laura tuned the radio so that it was on their local news station. No new knowledge came from it though seeing that the word "outbreak" was all there was to know at this point. They started making their way to the police station because it was all they could think of. When Lafontaine stopped the car though, just across the street of the station, they quickly put the car back in drive. All the windows of the station had shattered and the lights were flickering inside. A mist had taken over the streets and a light rain began to dance on the windshield. There were no people in sight, no, no people at all.
"Go!" Laura yelled when they all saw a creature staring at them from across the road. It started to crawl towards them and before it even hit the curb Lafontaine hit the gas full force.
"What was that?!" Perry started counting her cans to make sure it'd last them a while.
"It finally happened." Danny said with a straight face staring out the window.
"What finally happened?" Laura turned in her seat to look at Danny.
Danny's eyes still on the mist beyond her window. "The world ending."
Before Laura could ask further questions the car swerved and stopped at a halt. Lafontaine had made it three blocks when they slammed on the breaks. They all stared ahead of them to find a familiar face staring back. "Well don't just stand there," Danny had rolled down her window, "get in the fucking car Karnstein!"
"What is she doing roaming the streets alone?" Perry said as she reached across Danny's lap to roll the risky window back up. Carmilla walked towards the car with no fear in her steps and no fright in her face. Perry opened the door and scooted closer to Danny, giving Carmilla the window seat.
"What's with the bed post Hollis?" She closed the door and LaFontaine hit the automatic lock button to secure all the doors.
"See! I'm not the only one without a fancy phone." Laura gave Perry and Danny a look.
"Oh no I got the message," Laura shrunk back into her seat, "I just don't see why you're worried." She looked at everyone else now. "So we have a shotgun, corn, surgical tape, and a bedpost. Did I miss anything?"
LaFontaine was driving again but had no idea where they were going. "Carmilla, this is not joke. The world maybe ending for all we know."
"Must be, with all the fog, and electrical shortages, and the light sprinkle of rain." Carmilla ran a hand through her hair and played with the tips of it. "It's called a storm, idiot. Sorry to burst your apocalyptic bubble."
Danny pulled out her phone. "On second thought, let her roam the fog."
Carmilla didn't look phased by this thought. Continuing to play with her hair.
"Danny." Laura said sternly and Carmilla smirked.
"No, if she's not afraid of the 'storm' then she can go find herself a fucking umbrella and see what good it does her."
"You guys this isn't the time for fighting." Perry turned to look at Carmilla, "this isn't a storm."
Something in Perry's voice made a shiver go down Carmilla's spine but she never let it show.
"Whatever. Just take me home."
"Oh no, you're not going anywhere." Laura said.
"Why the frilly hell not?" Carmilla looked at her.
"Yeah, why the frilly hell not?" Danny asked.
"I wouldn't forgive myself if anything happened to-" (she was going to say friends but she barely knew Carmilla, aside from sharing algebra together, in which Carmilla rarely attended except on test days and she would pass with absolutely no notes) "if anything happened to anyone." She settled with that.
"Um," Lafonaine interrupted, "where exactly am I driving to?" Perry and Danny and Carmilla all looked at their phones when a new alert came in. Danny stared at it then placed it back on her side of the suitcase. Perry gasped and looked at out the back window to see if anything was behind them. Carmilla finally froze without a snide comment in mind. She looked back up at Laura who was staring at all three of them waiting for an update.
"Well cutie, I stand corrected on the bubble."
"Let me see, let me see!" She took Carmilla's phone from her hands and jumped a little at the pictures that were posted. By pictures I don't mean few, I mean, from California to Maine to Asia to the UK to Australia to, you get the point. Pictures posted from all over the world of the same fog they encountered. The same rain, lack of people, and creatures.. The pictures were enough to scare anyone, even shut up Carmilla. It wasn't the pictures though that made the car still. It was the headline sent out by the president himself.
"The end is near. Run, run if you can."