From the Indie Side (6 page)

“Can’t do this now,” her mother said,
muttering more words under her breath. She stopped, becoming choked
up, and then continued. “He should’ve come with us, should have…
but he made his choice.”

“Mom,” Emily said. “He’s trying to stop
this.”

Her mother snapped her head around, glaring,
her expression filled with disappointment. The look made Emily feel
small and stupid for having spoken up to defend her father. Her
mother could always do that. One look was all it took.

“He can’t stop it! He
knows
he can’t
stop it! They thought they could control the oceans, the weather,
like the planet was something they could just tinker with!” Her
voice grew, filling the car. “He should be with his family. You
tell him that!” While the words were meant for Emily’s father, they
still stung. Emily looked down at her phone, the cursor blinking on
and off, waiting. She started to type.

“Wait,” her mother blurted. “Don’t say that.
Just tell him we love him—” Emily hit send before her mother could
finish.

“Already did,” she answered. “I also told him
that we’ll see him at the mall.” For a moment, her mother said
nothing, only stared ahead.

“Exactly when did you get so smart?” she
finally said. Emily felt her cheeks warm.

“I was
always
smart,” Emily answered.
“You’re just starting to notice.”

“Love you, girl,” her mother said, stretching
to rub her shoulder. “We’ll get through this. Family.”

“I think it’s safe to go faster,” Emily said,
hoping her mother would agree. She was feeling the urgency once
again; they had to get moving. “If Dad’s already close to work, he
must be moving faster: a lot faster.”

Her mother leaned into the steering wheel,
peering into the fog, trying to see more than the gray covering
them.

“Well,” she said, and neatly moved the GPS.
“I’ll try to go faster, but keep your eyes on the screen.”

Emily watched the screen’s triangle move
along the highlighted path. The map revealed a world she could no
longer see. As she glanced out the window and then back to the GPS,
she found it hard to grasp what had happened. Hidden beneath all
that gray were roads and buildings, even creeks and small ponds.
All of them were showing up on the screen, but she could see none
of it.

No sooner had their speed increased than the
first in a series of bumps lifted the car, dropping them down hard
each time. Any harder and she thought that the car might stall. Her
mother eased off the gas, slowing, but didn’t stop.

What the GPS didn’t show them was all the
debris. A new concern—not just about people, but stranded cars,
dead animals. How many animals had wandered into the fog,
collapsing onto the road’s blacktop? And she guessed that there
wouldn’t just be the occasional squirrel or possum, but deer; big
enough to destroy their car.

“Did we break something?” Emily asked. She
could hear the fear in her own voice as she searched blindly
outside. “We’re still driving, but is the car okay?” Her mother
shook her head, straightening her shoulders, leaning over the
steering wheel.

“I don’t know… Car feels right. I just can’t
see anything!”

Another hit, a big one, slamming Emily
forward. Her seatbelt contracted, yanking her back with a jerk. An
eruption of white filled the inside of the car as her mother
disappeared behind an airbag. For a moment, Emily only saw the
overinflated balloon. Fingers came next, followed by an arm, and
then the airbag deflated, revealing her mother’s bloodied face.

“Mom, your face!” Emily yelled.

“I’m okay,” she answered, wiping her nose.
“Your brother?” Emily was only vaguely aware of Justin’s crying. By
the way his fingers hung in the air, she guessed he’d bitten his
thumb.

“He’ll be fine,” Emily answered, wrapping her
hand around her brother’s. “How’s your nose? Is it broken?”

Her mother only shook her head, pulled
tissues from her bag, and shoved them into each bloodied nostril.
“I don’t know what we hit, but we have to keep moving!” Emily heard
concern. “Justin, you good, baby?”

Justin grunted once, his injured thumb
already back in his mouth.

The car’s cabin cleared and Emily helped push
down on the airbag, moving it out of the way. Her mother hit the
gas pedal, and the car sputtered. She hit it again, pressing until
the engine roared, but the car didn’t move. Her mother’s expression
was pinched as she let out a huff.

“Come on now!”

“What if you try turning the wheel?”

Her mother hit the gas again, pulling on the
steering wheel. The car pushed forward only a little. They didn’t
need the GPS to know that they were stuck. The front wheel was hung
up. Frustrated, her mother stomped on the accelerator, throwing the
engine into a fit of screams. The car lunged, grinding forward
slowly, but dragging whatever it was they’d hit.

“Okay, we have a problem.” Her mother threw
the car into park and reached for the keys. Emily’s hand jabbed at
the air, pulling her mother’s arm back.

“No, don’t!” she blurted. “Don’t shut off the
car. We don’t know if we’ll be able to get it started again.” Her
mother paused and then nodded, understanding.

“Well, we’re stuck on something. And I’m sure
it’s on my side.”

“What if we try going in reverse?”

Her mother considered. “Not a bad idea,
girl.” The car’s motor sang out a high pitch while her mother stood
on the pedal. Rearing up, the front of the car lifted and finally
began to move. They drove in reverse, traveling blindly, dragging
along the remains of what they’d hit.

“I think it’s coming free!”

“Try going forward now. May have loosened it
enough.”

Her mother dropped the shifter down. The car
lurched, jerking them to a stop. Justin shouted, his thumb raised
up. He’d bitten it again. Emily reached behind her, stretching
until she found his wet fingers. With his hand in hers, she tried
to rub away the sting.

“We going?” he asked. His expression turned
curious as the car bucked up again.

“You might just want to hold onto this,”
Emily told him, motioning toward his thumb. “Keep your thumb safe,
no more biting it.”

“Uh-huh,” he answered, and wrapped his hand
in his blanket, protecting it. “Hurts when I do that. We going to
see Daddy?” Justin’s question caught her by surprise, and a sudden
sadness touched her. Would they see their father again? The feeling
was new. Fresh. But it was there, and like the fog, she supposed it
might be there forever. She pulled up her cell phone, checking for
new text messages.

“Daddy might be at work by now.” It was all
that she could think to tell him. “I’ll send him a text and tell
him you said you love him.” Justin smiled, but she could see he was
becoming frightened.

“No good,” her mother said as the car settled
back to an idle. “We’re not going anywhere.” Her mother’s face had
become flushed and her forehead was covered in a sheen of
sweat.

Emily felt panic rise in her throat. “What
are we going to do?” Her mother looked around the car, searching
the floor, and then the back seat. Justin reached out, taking hold
of his mother’s hand.

“My boy doing okay?” she asked. Justin’s face
lit up, but then turned to a scowl.

“Bit my thumb,” he answered, and quickly
received a kiss to make it all better. His smile was back in a
flash.

“The plastic bags,” her mother declared. “I
packed all the plastic trash bags I could find.”

Confusion. Why would her mother pack trash
bags?

“Really, Mom?” Emily snapped, and immediately
regretted her tone. But her mother only raised her brow. Warning.
“Why trash bags? What for?”

Her mother leaned against the headrest and
said nothing. Emily sensed her mother’s reluctance to answer. It
was her turn to raise her brow, asking.

“Once we get to the shopping mall, we have to
get out of the car. And before we do that, we’re going to cover
ourselves in plastic.” Emily recalled Ms. Quigly’s drowning voice
and the sound of her body collapsing against their front door. She
held her breath until the images passed. She began to shake her
head, understanding what her mother was going to do.

“Emily… Hon, I need your help!” Her mother
reached across the center console, pulling up her hands. She locked
their fingers together. The touch was warm, and Emily felt her eyes
grow moist. Her mother was going to go outside. She was going leave
them and try to fix the car. “Emily, baby. We have to keep moving.”
The tears came then, and Emily turned her head, hiding them from
Justin.

“You can’t go outside. We’ll try the car
again, drive in reverse if we have to.”

“Emily, we can’t do that. Look at me,” she
said. Emily wiped a tear from her face and turned back. “I need you
to do what I ask. Can you go in the back and get the trash
bags?”

Emily said nothing, and instead did as her
mother asked. She climbed over the seats, digging out the roll of
plastic trash bags. When the cool vinyl was firmly in her hand, she
started unrolling it, covering her mother in a polyethylene
suit.

“Will the plastic protect you, outside?”

“Let’s hope,” she answered, pulling a bag
over her arm. “Eyes. I need eyes.”

“What eyes?”

“Eyes! Holes in the plastic so that I can see
what I’m doing.” Worry had shortened her mother’s patience, and she
snatched the plastic roll from Emily. But while her mother dug a
finger into the black plastic sheet, she looked over at Emily, and
then to Justin. She frowned, mouthing words that Emily didn’t
understand.

“I’m ready,” her mother finally said. She
motioned to Emily with her hand, encouraging her to come closer.
She spoke quietly. “I won’t put this on my head until I’m ready to
open the door. I don’t want to scare your brother. But it’ll be
fast.” Emily nodded and moved back to her seat. She’d expected a
count, or a wave of a hand, or even a goodbye, but before she could
object, her mother wrapped herself in the black plastic and opened
the car door.

Justin was the first to cough, choking on the
gray mist wandering in. A whispery vapor cradled the door’s
opening, but like at their garage, most of it stayed outside. She
could smell the stench, taste the saltiness, but the poisonous fog
mostly rolled past the opening. Within moments, pieces of her
mother disappeared into the thick gray fold. She turned once,
batting at the sting on her arms, but then waved and vanished. With
the door shut, the car became eerily quiet. All around them, the
curtain of fog rolled by, paying no mind to who was inside.

A thump came, startling Emily. She saw
Justin’s tiny body jump, too. Another thump came, and Emily saw a
hand on the windshield of the car. But she only glimpsed it for a
second before it was gone. Her mother was feeling her way toward
the front tire. But why wouldn’t she just call out? Emily perched
her fingers over her lips, tasting the remains of salt in her
mouth.

“Mom can’t talk outside,” she mumbled. “She’d
let the poison in if she did.” She waited for another tap.

“Where’s Mommy going?” Justin asked. Emily
raised a hand, like her father often did, motioning to Justin to
keep quiet. “I wanna go outside, too.”

Emily sucked in a breath when she heard the
sound of a buckle releasing. There was no mistaking the metal and
plastic clanking from her brother’s car seat. And by the time she’d
stretched her body toward the back, Justin’s tiny hands were
already perched on the door’s handle, already clutching it, already
pulling…

The collar of her brother’s jacket was just
inches from Emily’s fingers when an explosion of crunching metal
filled her ears. Her arm whipped against the headrest, nearly
snapping, telling her to scream. But she could do nothing while the
rest of her body flew backward. She crashed into the windshield,
breaking the rearview mirror with the back of her head. A flash of
lightning filled her vision, and she sensed that they were
spinning. Breathing was no longer an option. Her chest felt crushed
by some unseen pressure. Everything around her dimmed, until the
inside of the car was gone.

* *
*

Emily blinked her eyes, dazed, seeing only
simple cloudy apparitions. Blood filled her mouth, replacing the
chemical burn in the back of her throat. Her head throbbed, echoing
her heartbeat, louder than she thought was possible. When she tried
to move, her stomach rolled, and threatened to spill. She gulped,
resisting the urge to vomit. Pain awoke in her arm next, making her
vividly remember what had happened. They’d been hit. Another car
must have hit them. She turned her head. Her brother’s car seat was
empty.

“Justin!” she called out, but her voice
sounded muffled. “Justin, buddy?” She fell forward onto the floor
and screamed. Burning pain pulsed through her side in sharp waves.
The pain was bad, but she breathed past it, and turned to find her
brother.

She blinked away the blood in her eyes,
maneuvered her head and shoulders up onto the seat, and saw that
she’d cracked the windshield. She shook her head, trying to clear
it. Her heart raced, pounding; she could feel it clearly right down
to her fingers and toes. Gradually the sounds returned. An endless
car horn whittled its way past the ringing in her ears. It was from
another car, must have gotten jammed in the crash.

Emily pressed her hand against the floor,
finding their car’s engine was still running. But her relief was
cut short when a horrific thought occurred to her. She turned back
to the windshield just in time to see the blank eyes of a black
plastic bag skitter over the car, carried away by the fog. Dread
filled her. She reached up a weak fist, rapped it on the dashboard,
waited.

“Mom!” she called out over the other car’s
horn. “Mom, can you hear me? Knock on the side of the car!”