Previously…

I coughed slightly and my chest felt tight. I wondered if, what with everything else, I was coming down with a cold.

The road rose a bit and there was a bend up ahead where the glen started proper. I was getting to feel even colder now. The heating in the bus was laughable, and we really needed to stop and put on some more clothes, but we had stopped enough for today and I wanted to get where we were going in the shortest time possible. Looking at the others in the rear view mirror, they were all either asleep or just staring out of the windows. The chatter had stopped after seeing those poor kids on the bus. No more sing-songs today.

I coughed and I felt a bit of wetness down below. I wasn’t sure if it was wee or, yucky blood, but I was thankful that I was wearing some sort of protection. I didn’t want to spoil my skirt–

I stopped thinking about my skirt as I topped the brae and studied what lay ahead.

I pulled the bus up on the side of the road and stared at Glen Coe, which had opened up before me.

There were gasps from behind as the others had noted that I had stopped and realised why.

Jeanie came forward and just said. ‘Oh, crivvens!’

Before us, as far as the eye could see, between the mountains on either side, in the glen, was a sea. A sea of green, pulsating, slightly luminous fog, covering the road completely and going half way up the mountains on either side. It must have been half a mile across––

And now the story continues…

I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. In the distance I could see the huge mountain range that included our destination, Ben Nevis. We were so near yet so far. I could not believe that after all we had been through, we would have this horrid green splodge of death in front of us barring our way.

Did it have consciousness? Did it possess intelligence? Nobody knew, in fact it was our ignorance that was our greatest enemy.

I put the bus in reverse and very slowly drove backwards over the brow of the hill until the iridescent fog was once again out of sight.

I stopped Nessie at the side of the road on a grass verge. I kept the engine running as I thought that we might have to make a quick getaway if the fog decided–if it was able to decide–to advance upon us.

I turned to the others, wincing a bit as my belly decided to kick with pain. All this and the curse too! Who said girls didn’t have it tough? Men, I bet!

The others looked downcast and shaken. Even Ben looked up from his prone position with a look that told me that he wasn’t exactly full of bouncy joy. Then I remembered what the project leader, Colonel Robertson had said of us, ‘you have come so far, you’re resourceful enough to get here by yourselves.’

For better or worse, I was the leader–even Jeanie looked to me now. She was the natural leader as far as I was concerned, having been the tougher of the two of us, even when we were growing up. But everything that had happened to us of late had knocked some stuffing out of my sister, and I felt she would take a long while–even if all this ended happily–for her to get back to her normal rambunctious self.

I noticed Julie was crying and Sarah, her sister, was comforting her. It was all getting a bit much for everyone. I needed ideas. I took a deep breath and tried to get us all back on course and positive.

‘Now listen, everybody, we’ve come up against plenty of obstacles on our journey and overcome them all – you’ve been marvellous. We are so close now that I can even smell my mum’s cooking from here. I know that ’cos she always burns the food.’

They all smiled and Nicola–bless her–actually giggled.

‘We have to get past that fog. Has anyone got any ideas?’

Eve looked at me.

‘W—What do we know about it–the fog?’

‘Good question. When my Dad got a rotten letter from the tax people, he said ‘know your enemy’. Well, it kills people, we know that, but not everyone otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Anything else?’

‘Well,’ Jeanie replied, ‘d’you remember when it like, came after us a few times and the faster we went in the bus, the faster it seemed to go?’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I remember; after that man at the garage tried to get into the car, he had a knife and we shot off and the fog followed us; what else?’

It might sound as if we were having a normal conversation from the above description, but in reality, I was constantly glancing over at the brow of the hill for any signs of the fog approaching and we were all feeling breathless, a sure sign that “the enemy” was in the vicinity.

‘We don’t all need oxygen,’ Sarah said. ‘You don’t, Allie.’

‘That’s true; somehow I seem to have developed some sort of resistance to it than the rest of you–I wonder––?’ I paused for a moment. A germ of an idea was rumbling around inside me and bubbling to the surface.

I gazed at Jeanie and asked; ‘How many flares did you bring, sis?’

‘I brought the box; there must be twenty at least–with two Very pistols.’

‘Can you dig a few out and get me a flare gun too? I want to try something.’

She stared at me as if I was feeble-starkers-bonkers–I was probably–but I wanted to try something. Everyone was quiet and then Nicola came to me wearing a somewhat worried frown on her face.

‘Allie, I’m frightened.’

‘I know, honey, me too, but we’ve all been very brave so far, especially you, so I want you to try and be brave for a little while longer. Can you do that for me?’

‘I—I’ll try,’ she said with a timid smile.

‘Good girl,’ I said giving her a reassuring hug.

Jeanie returned with the box of flares. The Very pistols were lying on the top.

‘Thanks, freckles.’ I said. She had two freckles on her nose and I never let her forget it. ‘Now listen everybody this is what I intend doing––’

There were a lot of arguments and it took a while for things to calm down again.

‘Does anyone have a better idea?’

They all looked at one another but nothing was said.

‘I’ll try it then.’

I put on my coat and beret, picked up the Very pistol which Jeanie had already loaded, gave them a bright smile and alighted from the Nessie.

Jeanie immediately sat in the driver’s seat and as I glanced back, I could see the tension on her face and her white knuckles as she gripped the steering wheel tightly.

Without further ado, I started to make my way up the road. The sound of my shoes scraping on the road surface sounded quite loud as I trudged nearer and nearer the monstrous green death. My heart was in my mouth and despite the chill in the air, I could feel a rivulet of sweat running down my back and soaking my blouse at the bottom. There was not a breath of wind in the air and over in the distance, I could hear the lapping of water against rocks as I got ever nearer to my crazy destination.

At the top of the hill, there were big rocks on either side of the road. Not knowing whether the fog could somehow see me if I appeared, I crouched down low and approached one of the rocks, peeping out to see if–by some miracle–the fog might have gone. It was a forlorn hope as I was breathing like an asthmatic sheep, but a girl has to hope.

It was still there; vast and green, like a sea, reaching into the distance.

I lifted the gun and aimed over to the other side of the glen where the fog had crept up the mountainside and seemed to be at its thickest.

My hand was shaking and the grip felt slippery in my hand, so I held the pistol with both hands and pulled the trigger.

The swooshing noise made me jump, as the flare sped across the fog. It sent a burning coloured wad similar to a 'roman candle' several hundred feet and just before reaching the mountainside, it exploded with a loud noise and then a shower of bright red lit up the darkened sky.

Momentarily, I was blinded by the flare and then saw what I had hoped for; the fog was following the flare and began to ooze toward it! I was right; it reacted to movement, light and possibly noise! As a mass, it rolled towards the place where the flare was still burning brightly. It was almost like a vast wave hitting the shore as the fog climbed the lower slopes of the mountain and engulfed the bright red flare. When it followed the flare, the road became exposed. My idea could work–with luck!

Then slowly, once the flare had died down, the fog crept back to its original position. I could see that it was going to be tricky getting Nessie through in time for us to avoid the fog, but we had no alternative. We had to try.

I returned to the others giving them a thumbs up as I arrived back at Nessie.

‘It worked,’ I said breathlessly. We’ll give it a try. Look, there’s something else we have to do though. I want you all to have oxygen going as we go through, just in case.’

‘What about you?’ asked Jeanie.

‘I don’t think I can. The bottle would get in the way and so would the tubes. I’ll have a towel or something, don’t worry about me. If this all works out, I won’t need anything. Let’s get cracking!

It only took a few moments for everyone to get ready. We made sure that the baby was safe and that someone was sitting next to Nicola–who still looked petrified. We tied Ben to the base of one of the seats because we didn’t want him rushing up and down the aisle of the bus in panic.

I had a towel on my lap in case I needed it and the two Very pistols armed and ready by my side. I would have no time to reload them, so I would just have to trust to luck that we would get through to the other side before the fog came. I opened the side window so that I could just point and shoot when the time came. I also had my pen knife cradled in my skirt between my legs. I hoped that I wouldn’t have to use it and didn’t say anything to the others about it, in case of objections.

‘Ready?’ I called, my voice sounding much stronger than I felt.

I heard muffled calls from behind me.

‘Right, here goes. Hold very tight please.’

Jeanie glanced at me and reached up to the bell-push and pushed it twice; ‘Ding…ding.’

I drove Nessie to the brow of the hill. The fog had virtually returned to its previous position in the middle of the glen.

I pointed the pistol out of the driver’s window and aimed for roughly the same place as before, but a bit higher. I squeezed the trigger and flames shot out as the flare screeched across the valley and exploded on the mountainside. The fog responded immediately and surged towards the bright red light of the flare.

A Webley and Scott Very Pistol

Without further ado, I gunned the engine and threw the bus down the road which now had only a thin covering of fog. As we reached the fog, I realised that it was still potent enough to cause us harm. A brief look in the rear view mirror showed that the others were either asleep or heading that way.

I began to feel a bit woozy, so I knew what I had to do. I picked up the penknife with my free hand and as I put my foot hard down on the accelerator, with my heart pounding and a violently shaking hand, I plunged the knife into the fleshy part of my thigh, hoping that I would miss anything vital. The pain nearly made me pass out and I screamed as I dropped the knife, picked up the towel and covered my nose and mouth.

I was crying with the pain of my injury. I never thought it would hurt so much. The engine was almost shrieking now, not being used to running at such a high speed, but I knew of MacBraynes reputation for keeping their buses and coaches in tip-top mechanical condition. It was all I could do to control Nessie as I weaved about, trying to keep her on the road and attempted to concentrate through the terrible pain in my leg. I could feel the blood running down my leg and began to feel faint, but I hung in there and carried on. I had to because there was nobody else to do it.

I kept glancing at the green wall over to my right, it looked huge and impenetrable. There was fog all around the bus as I drove through the glen to the other end. I had the headlights on, but it was almost like being in the dark, and this was where the fog was at its thinnest. It was incredibly difficult to steer with one hand, hold the towel to my face with the other and avoid the rocks and boulders on either side of the road.

After reaching what have been about half way through, I noticed that the fog was getting thicker again and I could barely see the road in front of me through the throbbing green luminous haze.

I took a deep breath behind the towel, put it on my lap, picked up the other Very pistol and with a none too steady hand, once again, fired it at what I hoped was the mountainside.

I dropped the pistol beside me, picked up the towel again and held it against my face.

Almost immediately my view cleared as the fog oozed away from the road and followed the bright red flare. It seemed more interested in the intense bright red light rather than our speeding wee bus. Another interesting fact to add to our meagre knowledge of the fog.

We were beginning to climb uphill now and I had to hold my breath again, drop the towel and change down a gear with an awful crunch as my weakened left leg struggled with the clutch pedal. The blood had started to fill my shoe now and the pedal rubber felt slippery with what was probably my own blood.

I was feeling hot and cold at the same time. I wanted to go to sleep and my eyelids drooped for a moment. A front wheel hit a boulder or something, making me jolt awake again.

The fog to my right was returning towards us now like a green tidal wave so I put my foot to the floor as I just had to outrun it somehow, but my foot was already jammed on the floor and the old bus just couldn’t go any faster. If anything, we were slowing down as the road got steeper in front of us.

I had no more shots to fire from the Very pistol, as they were single shot guns only. The others in the back were all on the floor where they had rolled off the seats. Arthur’s carry cot was jammed amongst some of our stores though and hadn’t moved. It was brighter up ahead at the apex of the road. The fog was closing in though and it was touch and as to what would happen next. Either the fog would get us or we would get to the other side and hopefully the fog would subside back into Glen Coe.

Then the green mass of the fog overtook us and I couldn’t see a thing. It was like thick green pea soup and I just wanted to give in there and then, give myself to the fog and have peace. It was almost inviting me to ease off on the accelerator and just stop and I began to do just that–there was no point in continuing. The fog would get us one day, why not now? Then I could close my eyes and breathe in deeply and all my troubles would be over––

Then a muscle spasm in my injured leg made me wince and almost shout with pain as my wound reminded me of the perilous state all of us were in. I jolted awake, put the towel back up against my nose and mouth and stamped down on the accelerator–

Nessie burst out of the fog and almost crossed the road into Loch Leven up ahead. I pulled her to the right, away from the “valley of death”, realising that the Ballachulish Ferry would probably not be working and carried on up the road towards Kinlochleven, Fort William and our parents.

Gazing out of the window, I could see that the fog had not followed us and breathed a sigh of relief at that. I looked down at my skirt: it was covered in blood, as was my left leg. I nearly cried as I liked that skirt and it would never wash out–

Suddenly I felt very poorly. I wanted to faint and I nearly ran off the road and down into the loch. I had to stop and have a break and perhaps do something with my leg which was oozing blood all the time. I stopped in the middle of the road and held the towel against the wound. Looking back, everyone was still asleep and I wondered with dread whether they may not have been asleep, but dead––

That thought sent me over the edge and I felt my head hit the steering wheel as I too went into oblivion–

I could hear the voice from a long way off. It was a voice I recognised–one that I loved.

‘Wake up, honey, oh please wake up.’

I was in the bottom of the school swimming pool, trying manfully to come to the top after being pushed in by some oik of a sixth-former. I struggled to the surface, but something was stopping me from rising to the surface. My long hair was caught in a drain on the bottom of the pool. That was strange, I had short hair. It was an awful feeling, to drown in the swimming pool–

‘Alex, please, darling, come back.’

That well-known voice again. Who was it? I recognised it, but it couldn’t be. I was going to be late for the rugby match and old Stinky, the games master would give me lines. Still, I wouldn’t have to do lines if I drowned in the swimming pool–

‘Alex, I know you can hear me, wake up NOW!’

I felt something cool and damp on my brow. That was funny. I thought I was in the pool–

I cracked open an eye and there in front of me, as large as life and as pretty as a picture, was my mum.

My thanks go to the brilliant and lovely Gabi for editing, help with the plot-lines and pulling the story into shape.