Hiding from the Fog

Prologue

            Boss Hexe created a deadly Fog; it was a poison that killed all who breathed it in. Those who were lucky died within a few minutes of inhalation, but those that weren’t so lucky had tossed and turned with their worst nightmares before being scared to death for weeks. The wilderness reclaimed the earth and animals turned loose on the streets and attacked the people, strangely unaffected by the Fog.  Two large tribes of people live in the land; one ruled by a Council of Three and one ruled by a Vicar, both vying for the safest ground: Havenwood Asylum, a long abandoned mental hospital, where the bolts designed to keep people in could now be purposed to keep animals out.

            Bea was a beautiful young woman, despite the scar on her face where the wolf tried to blind her. Her hair was the color of the sun before it was blocked by the sickly green fog in the air, and her skin was pinkish, despite being kept in the dark for so long. Her eyes were blue, like sapphires and her lips were the color of the reddest rose. But beauty didn’t matter anymore. It was leadership and wiliness that kept her people alive, and she was the cleverest and wisest of all the young adults in her tribe. She would take the place of the Head Councilwoman when it came the proper time.

            Today was the meeting between the two tribes. Both were exhausted from three years of battle with each other and with the animals of the wild. The Vicar and his son Henry would be discussing a treaty to equally divide Havenwood Asylum with the Council of Three and their heirs.

            After the Council and its heirs were seated in the meeting chamber, the Vicar and Henry were ushered in, taking the side opposite of the six. The meeting began, and both sides put up an incredible argument.

Bea soon fell in love with the aggressive and charmingly intelligent young man across from her. Henry refuted her arguments with the slightest ease and fought for the rights of his people, while his father offered a few quiet compromises, passively giving in to the demands of the Council so long as his people were out of the openness of the wild. All would have been settled, but Henry was not satisfied. He demanded that the two tribes merge, but the Council refused. Infuriated, Henry took his father and left, declaring a final battle, and that the winner should inhabit the Asylum.

            Bea truly loved Henry, but now she knew she would have to kill him if her people were to live. She wept silently as she stared across the football field at her beloved. He was armed with a flint ax and a shield, his chestnut hair blew in front of his golden eyes, but he held her gaze.

A shout came from the Head Councilwoman and the charge began. Both sides clashed with a roar. The fight had begun. Bea was sure to fight Henry, so she knew exactly when he died then she could drown her grief in the blood of his army. They circled and lunged and parried each other in a beautiful dance surrounded by death and gore. No one noticed the Fog had begun to descend from the sky and onto the field where the fighting took place. It wasn’t until it had claimed its first few victims that the armies put on their gas masks. The fighting continued.

Bea and Henry faced off. With a feign at her side and a swipe at her face with the shaft of his ax, Henry knocked Bea’s mask off her face. All fighting stopped. The cleverest young woman fell. Both sides had respected her, and Henry secretly loved her, but no one ever thought the brave heroine would die to the Fog. As soon as she hit the ground Henry had picked up her mask and placed it against her face in hopes she hadn’t breathed any of the Fog, but the tiniest whiff made its way into her lungs where she was poisoned with her worst nightmares.

            Both tribes took up space in the Asylum and watched Bea fight her biggest fears in her sleep. Henry was determined to stay with her until the cure was found. Troupes of spies had been sent out to find the cure of the Fog for their beloved Bea, but not a single spy returned.

            The two tribes had merged as one and grieved over Bea, even though she still lived. Hers was the longest death ever lived, a full three months thus far, but she still tumbled in her sleep. Henry had almost given up hope, until a single spy stumbled through the door, more dead than alive. He told of a place not so far guarded by the most ferocious beasts of land and sky defending a laboratory. In there, lived Boss Hexe, where he did cruel experiments and sought to worsen the deadly quality of his dreaded Fog.

            Henry and the three men left of his party of twenty stepped into the laboratory. Most of his friends were eaten or torn apart by the creatures outside. The dimly lit hall with flickering lights led to a set of double doors. Behind these doors, was Boss Hexe. Hexe was expecting them, with tea and four wooden chairs across from his lab table. Of course, Henry was in no mood to chat. He held up the small mad scientist by his collar and demanded the cure to the Fog. But all Hexe said was this:

I comfort you in the dead of night

And I keep away the monsters that fright.

I do not live but I never died,

I am filled but not satisfied.

In my belly is the cure you seek.

            Henry dashed Hexe’s head to the floor for an answer, but the madman died before he said anything else. Henry looked around the room for the creature Hexe spoke of. The room was filled with the mutants of his experiments but none fit the description of the rhyme, until Henry’s eyes set on a small teddy bear behind a window of glass. He smashed it open and ripped into the belly of the teddy bear and found a vial wrapped in a napkin with a formula written on it. Two of the men stayed behind to create more of the elixir while Henry and the other man ran back to the Asylum to cure Bea.

            Henry and the man rushed to Bea and poured the elixir into her mouth. With a cough and sputter her eyes fluttered open to see her beloved Henry smile and laugh in relief. He picked her up and kissed her lightly and held her close. The cure was found and the world was to be saved.

            The two tribes worked together to bring the crop dusters out of the rust. They filled the tanks that used to contain pesticides with the life giving elixir and veteran pilots from the army of the past flew the planes across the city, curing hundreds of people inflicted by the Fog. The earth came back to life and the animals became tame once again. The world lived happily ever after.