Because of the urgency and the fact that I didn’t want to change my mind, I asked for things to be sorted out straight away…

 

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Previously…

‘We want you to go out and seek the fog and then get a sample of it somehow, so that we can analyse it and then find a cure or some way of destroying it. We would have used space suits, but they were due to arrive from our American colleagues the week after all this happened, so we have no reliable means of keeping a human protected and the fog at bay. Anyway, it is possible the fog can attack in other ways other than respiratory means and we can't take chances that someone exposed to the fog, will not be overcome. We just don't know enough about it. What we do know is that you have survived and function while others haven't so it is to you we have to turn to. Will you do it?'

I could hear the gasps coming from all my friends and the protests from Jeanie in particular, but I was looking at my Daddy. He was close to tears. In fact Mummy was crying. What he had asked me to do was to go out and, possibly, die.

Should I do it? Could I do it?

My hands felt moist and my heart was going mad. I was scared, more scared for some reason than that time someone took a pot shot at us at that big house.

Then, in my mind’s eye I saw the wee baby in her pram, dead before she’d had any real chance to live. Then I thought of Nicola, so scared and yet so very brave, looking at me now; her eyes seemingly, almost as big as saucers. Then there was Arthur; would he ever have the chance to grow up and marry a pretty girl so they could have children?

I looked round all the faces–the faces of my friends who were now part of my family. Could I let them down?

I took a deep breath and in a trembling voice, gave him my answer.

‘What do I have to do, Colonel?’

And now the story concludes…

Because of the urgency and the fact that I didn’t want to change my mind, I asked for things to be sorted out straight away. It would take a few days to get everything ready to everyone’s satisfaction and I spent a lot of that time discussing with the profs, scientists and others just what we knew about the fog. In the end it transpired that very little was known about it and as I had lived through it, I was regarded as–kind of– an expert.

We didn’t have much in the way of equipment, and so were somewhat hampered in what I would be able to take with me on my wee jaunt.

In the end, I would take a take a towel, a syringe full of adrenalin to give me a boost and an empty jam jar with a lid to catch the green fog. Not is exactly state of the art equipment but that was all I could use.

We had considered oxygen and a tank and just sitting outside and waiting for the fog to come, but the fog liked movement for some reason and I couldn’t move about lugging a flaming great oxygen cylinder with me.

I tried not to think of the danger. It would have put me in a blue funk. I was getting lots of hugs, kisses and other signs of affection from Mummy and Daddy. I know that they felt so guilty about what was being asked of me and I understood how they felt. But it was my decision and nobody forced me.

Oh, they did try leaving jars and things outside when the fog was about and used an ingenious method using wire and string and a sealed box that would snap shut, a bit like a rat trap, but nothing seemed to work. So good old fashioned methods had to be used and that was where little me came in.

The others were strangely quiet around me, not knowing what to say or do. Jeanie was nearly in tears whenever she came near me and in the end I suggested she make herself useful somewhere else, so she went to help in the kitchen.

The others made themselves useful around the place. Eve, being Eve helped with the maintenance of the bunker. She liked doing things with her hands and more often than not, she had those hands covered in oil! That didn’t mean that she didn’t like girlie things now. Every evening, we all sort of tried dressing for dinner and she looked as pretty as the other girls then.

Julie and Sarah helped with the little ones. Julie had gradually got better and she no longer had so many nightmares about what she had been through. Jeanie helped Mummy in the lab with the other scientists, trying to find different antidotes to the fog’s effects. Nicola was our sort of our animal keeper. Apart from Ben, there was another dog called Penny who had wandered in almost starving the previous day. There were also some chickens, nabbed from a local farm on the way through on the journey from the complex to the bunker. They gave us some much needed eggs which added to the rather plain food that we had to use. How long the tinned and dried food would last was anyone’s guess.

~ §~

So the time came when everything was in place and I was to go out and meet the fog. Sentries and look-out’s had been placed in various locations for any signs of the fog but there had been no sign of it for some time. The plane went up on two occasions and found banks of it some miles away, but it seemed to like valleys more than the higher ground.

I sat around for long periods twiddling my thumbs and waiting for something to happen. I was taking large amounts of vitamin B12–lots of it in the form of Marmite ® on my breakfast toast–hopefully to counteract some of the fog’s effects; I had always loved Marmite. I spent far too much time thinking about things and, this wasn’t helping and that was why, in the end I wrote this journal, to keep me busy and my mind off what was to come.

It was at almost the end of the third day that the fog came towards us. Lookouts reported it approaching us slowly from the east.

I didn’t want long goodbyes, and not wanting to risk blubbing, I just hugged my extended family quickly and made my way out of the bunker. I nearly lost my shaky composure when I said goodbye to my parents and sister who were all crying and acting as if they might never see me again, but I tried without a great deal of success to keep a stiff upper lip and just said a cheery–if quavering–goodbye and then when the huge steel doors opened, went out to meet the fog.

As the doors slammed behind me, I felt very alone in an extremely hostile world. I stopped for a moment almost panicking and considering very seriously whether I should just bang on the door and go back inside. But somehow, I calmed myself and began the journey that might cost me my life.

It was dry and cold outside and a gentle breeze wafted up my skirt. I smiled ruefully, remembering that as a boy, I had gone into long trousers about a year ago, and they might have been preferable on a chilly day like this–although a kilt would have been much warmer than my comparatively flimsy skirt. I had on my coat, scarf and beret, but no gloves because I would have had difficulty screwing on the jar’s lid or injecting myself with adrenaline had I been wearing gloves.

I knew roughly where the fog was. I had to go along the road, over the brow of a hill and there I would see its approach. According to the lookouts, it was about a mile and a half away, coming in my direction at about a fast walking pace. Well, thinking about it would not get the job done, so taking a deep breath I set off.

My heart was thumping loudly as I walked down the road, my heels clicking on the tarmac being the only noise apart from the gentle whisper of the breeze in the trees and the occasional flap of birds wings as, mainly seagulls flew rapidly across the sky and over my head. It did not take a rocket scientist to know what they were trying to escape from.

To keep myself sane and not thinking too many nasty thoughts I started singing the first thing that came into my head.

Oh! ye'll tak’ the high road and
I'll tak’ the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

I was slightly off key, but I was no singer to speak of and let’s face it, there was no one around to hear my rather tuneless wailing.

On reaching the brow of the brae I stopped: the road veered to the right about fifty yards ahead but behind the road and over the hills was the fog, not a quarter of a mile away and coming ever closer–a massive bank of the evil, rising to about fifty feet and many miles across. It was green, pulsating and had that strange luminosity about it, as if it had a life. My chest immediately felt tight and I had some difficulty breathing. After putting the towel over my mouth and nose, I looked for somewhere to stop. Over to the side was a large rock that looked rather like a leering skull.

I went to the rock and sat down with my back to it, facing the now fast-approaching fog. It began to darken as the fog covered the sun. I just sat there trembling and sweating despite the coldness of the day. The light got dimmer and dimmer and my heart thumped faster and faster. My breathing became more difficult. With trembling hands I unscrewed the lid of the Robertson’s jam jar with, I noticed in passing, it’s Golly sticker still attached.

I had the syringe in my pocket and I was just about to get it out when I heard a scraping sound. Looking up, I could hear faltering steps coming from around the corner. I gasped as staggering into view was a small boy of about 4 years old! He looked ragged, thin and almost dead on his feet. He came towards me, not really aware of the fog or anything else for that matter.

The fog was looming large now and was no more than two hundred yards away. I didn’t think, I just acted and called out to the boy.

‘Come here, quickly!’ I shouted.

He paid no attention and appeared to be oblivious of me. He stopped and stood there swaying the road like a branch in the wind.

I immediately got up and ran towards him. He seemed dazed, and didn’t respond as I came up and tried to shake him out of his torpor. The fog was getting nearer and nearer. I was feeling a compulsion to just go towards it with the boy and be embraced by it, but I had had these feelings before and I resisted them. I pulled the boy over to the side of the road, my mind full of indecision. Then, I realised that he had had a much shorter life than I and I need to try to give him a chance if I could.

I took the syringe out of my pocket and jabbed the boy in the leg with the needle and used the plunger to inject the adrenalin. It wasn’t a nice thing to do but he didn’t even notice it. Then I took the towel and tied it firmly around his mouth and nose. I was continually looking up and gauging the distance between us and the fog. It was coming nearer and nearer. It was nearly dark now as any light from the sun was now being obliterated by the green, pulsating, deadly fog.

I put the jam jar down on the floor and hugged the little boy. I noted that he had fallen asleep despite the adrenalin. I was feeling a bit sleepy myself, even though I found breathing difficult, had an intense desire to get up and join the fog.

I thought of Mummy and Daddy, my sister, Jeanie and my friends, Eve, Julie, Sarah, Nicola and not forgetting, Ben. I focussed on that and not the voices in my head that told me to just get up and be with the fog which was bearing down on me.

I bit my tongue and the pain helped the voices go away a bit and clear my head. I could taste the blood go down my throat and I nearly gagged as the fog finally came up and enveloped us. I was holding my breath and I pulled the lid out of my pocket and screwed the top on the jar, taking two attempts before it would screw properly, finally trapping some of the evil fog inside.

I could hold my breath no longer and just breathed the vile stuff in and shut my eyes, waiting for it to either knock me out or take my life.

But I didn’t sleep; I was feeling tired, more tired than I had ever felt in my life, but I did not lose consciousness!

I opened my eyes and could see very little of my surroundings. Everything was green and faintly luminous. I looked down at the boy, slumped down by the side of me. I thought that he was dead, and then noted some very shallow and slow breathing. I myself could not move now and it was as if I was paralysed in some way.

As I watched him with the fog swirling around us, I could see him subtly change. His head changed shape slightly and I looked on powerless, with horror when the towel dropped from his face. I could not move to put it back and it was all I could do to breath.

He no longer looked boyish but more feminine and his hair began to grow slowly before my eyes. I know that children of that age were fairly androgynous but I could tell that there were definite changes going on. His nose became thinner and more button like. His lips looked slightly thicker, the shape of his eyebrows changed subtly and his look softened perceptibly. Yes, he was changing into a girl before my very eyes!

I sat there for twenty minutes with what was now a little girl. My thoughts were muddled and disjointed, but mainly about what had happened over the few short weeks since the fog had descended on us suddenly and changed the world forever. I found that I could now move a little and I shifted my position to be more comfortable on the hard surface.

Looking down at the girl, I could see that her hair now touched her thin shoulders. She was wearing the uniform of Fort William Primary School with a blazer, shirt, tie and shorts. She had an overcoat on–which was open for some reason–with a cap and scarf.

With some difficulty–I was still finding it hard to move–I did up her overcoat and made sure that she was as warm as possible. I could do little for her legs, which above her stockings and below her shorts were bare. She looked awfully thin and pale. How she had survived all that had been going on I didn’t know. I hugged her to me, trying to keep her as warm as possible as the fog gradually thinned and then disappeared over the hill.

I couldn’t go back to the bunker yet as she was still asleep. I hoped that she would awaken shortly so I could get her and the jar back to the others as soon as possible. Looking at the jar, I could see the fog swirling slightly through the glass as if it had a life of its own. It wasn’t much, but I hoped that it would be enough for the scientists to do something with.

Eventually, she moaned slightly and opened her eyes. She looked up and smiled.

‘Maw?’ she said, her voice thin and weak.

I stroked her hair. ‘Your Maw has gone away for a bit. Would you like to come and see mine?’

‘Has she got biscuits?’

‘Aye, hen, let’s go and find her, shall we?

~ §~

The fog had all but disappeared now, and I noticed that the wind was whipping up and clouds were bubbling up from the west. It got colder very quickly and I hurried as fast as I could with my shaky legs to try to beat the bad weather that was surely coming our way. The wee girl–whose name, incidentally, was Andrew–was finding it hard going, and in the end I had to carry her. She was so thin though that I had little trouble lifting her.

I don’t think she realised that she had become a girl so I decided to leave the adults to sort out that wee problem.

It started raining rather hard half-way home, and then the rain turned to wet snow, making us feel even colder. I had real concerns about whether we would get to safety, when I heard the sound of an engine. Looking up I could just make out approaching headlights through the blinding sleet. It was a Land Rover!

In seconds we were in the car and being taken back by Daddy and one of the doctors to the safety of the bunker complex.

I had made it alive and had a new addition to our group!

As I browse my journal some 5 years later, I marvel at how we could have possibly survived such a catastrophic event.

On arriving back at the bunker complex, I was treated like a heroine, but not liking all the fuss, I disappeared into my room for a few hours.

When I came out of hiding, I discovered that things were moving. The storm outside had gradually worsened and it seemed as if it had reached hurricane proportions in its ferocity.

Meanwhile, the boffins had taken the precious fog sample and using a special airtight vessel, specially constructed for the purpose, were trying to discover more about it.

The storm outside continued unabated while we carried on with our lives as best as we could inside the bunker. Luckily it had its own generators, so we were relatively dry and warm, while outside the temperature dropped to 30 degrees below zero and dropping.

There was very little for us to do so we spent our time, reading, playing board games and–our favourite topic–what we would do when all this was over.

Wee Andy, who now answered to Andrea–or Andi for short–seemed to take to being a girl like a duck to water. It didn’t seem to faze her at all. She never spoke about her experiences and the doctors said it was probably some sort of defence mechanism, whatever that was. She took to going around with Nicola, Ben and Penny and it was nice to see them run through the halls with the other kids, playing games and trying not to be tripped up by the barking dogs.

It was somewhat boring at times for all of us, but sometimes boring is good, especially after what all of us had been through!

About a week after I went out to fish for fog, there was a general meeting in the great Hall. We were all there–even the younger kids–as the Colonel, Mummy and Daddy, and the head scientist faced us and told us about the current state of play.

‘Thank you for coming,’ said the Colonel, ‘Firstly, the weather. Outside, the temperature is continuing to drop and the storm continues unabated. We have no idea how widespread the bad weather is and how long it might continue. We will keep you posted, as usual by putting the temperatures and barometer readings on the notice board in the canteen. Now I think that Professor Summers here wants to tell us about the sample of fog that young Alexandra here was brave enough to obtain for us, Professor?’

I felt my face go hot as I blushed when half the eyes turned in my direction. I sunk lower in my chair.

‘Thank you, Colonel. Well, I would like to say that I have good news for you, but I regret that I have not. Under strict conditions and under a sealed environment, we opened the jar provided by Alex. It was immediately obvious that the fog had no life in it as it sank to the bottom of the chamber and did not move. There was no sign of luminosity and it was not throbbing. We did what we could to test it for its component composition, but there were no tests that we could carry out that would bring us any closer to what it was and whether indeed it was alive. The gas appears now to be inert and as such our tests have failed. We are not prepared to release it into the atmosphere in case for some reason it might come to life and make our situation worse. We are in unknown territory here and because we do not know enough about the gas we will not be taking any chance that it might miraculously come back to life again.’

With that he sat down. I felt bad about that. I had risked my life, all for nothing. Then I remembered wee Andrea and smiled. It was worth it, after all!

Mummy got up next and spoke.

‘As far as our supplies are concerned, we have enough to last us at least three months and water is being supplied by the underground well beneath this complex. There is enough fuel for the generators to last a further six months at least and that goes for the LP gas. We hope that the weather might change soon and if that does, we will try to do something about our stocks.’

Daddy then took over.

‘Our communications with the outside world are zero at the moment. The weather is too bad, and although we have round the clock monitoring, nothing is coming in. We are overhauling our equipment and hope to have a more powerful radio and antennas to use in the near future that will extend our range considerably.’

That was just about the end of the meeting and we just had to sit and hope that things would improve soon.

Three weeks and two days later the weather lifted and the fog was gone.

From around the country and the world, our now more powerful transmitters picked up pockets of life. We spoke to several places in the UK, one outside Manchester, another Cornwall, one near Mount Snowdon where another government complex had managed to weather the storm and a few other places, but nothing came out of the south east including London.

Other countries, like France, Holland and Germany had been picked up, but nothing further afield. It appeared that there were very few people left alive and those that were had many problems trying to survive the tragedy.

But the human race is tough and adaptable. It was calculated that only about half of one percent of the entire human race had survived the fog and the storms that raged around the world for nearly a month. It might have been worse or better than that, but as communications were difficult and remain so, it has all been a question of guesswork as to the numbers of survivors.

Formal governments have become a thing of the past and even now, five years later, there is no real strong structure of government anywhere that we are aware of. It took six months to get word that there were survivors in the Americas and a further two months when we were able to establish that most countries had people who had survived the virtual Armageddon brought about by the green fog.

As far as we could calculate from the sparse information coming in, there were now six females to every male survivor. It is considered enough–just–for the human race to survive. Only time will tell if it is true.

Large towns and cities have been abandoned to nature but smaller towns and villages have taken over as the hubs of much smaller communities. There are barter systems in place regarding trade, and formal currency has not been re-established in our country, although some others are trying it with varying levels of success.

We now live on my auntie and uncle’s Dunoon farm as a large extended family. Apart from my parents and aunt and uncle, there is Jeanie, of course, Eve, Sarah, Julie, Nicola, Andi and the dogs, Ben and Penny. We live a simple life and when Mummy and Daddy are at work at the complex we keep the farm going and food in our bellies. We have a lot of fun and I love all the others as dearly as if they are my own flesh and blood. It still hurts that we lost so many people but life carries on and we have to get on with it.

On personal level, I have a boyfriend called Nigel whom I love very much and who had somehow managed to avoid becoming a girl. He doesn’t know it yet, but we are going to get married soon. I want to have some babies and help increase the world’s population–well someone has to do it!

And what of the green fog? Occasionally, around sunset, there is a slight green tinge in the sky. If it is the fog, high up in the atmosphere, pushed up by the incredibly violent storms, I hope sincerely that it stays there, but if it doesn’t we will be ready and fight it because we are, as a race, survivors.

 

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