hit the rearview mirror. Like her brother, she had her own lump, and cringed when she pressed on the bruise.
“How long were you sitting on the floor?” she asked, but Justin only shrugged at the question. She held up her phone, letting the light from the display brighten his face.
“It’s Dad!”
“What’s he say?” Justin’s spirits were instantly brightened.
“The first message says that he couldn’t”—Emily stopped, her mouth went dry and her chest tightened—“he couldn’t get to work. He had to turn around.” Looking at the gray poison covering their car, she understood that what she’d awoken to that day might be forever.
“What else?” Justin asked, not understanding the magnitude of the first message. Emily swiped her thumb across the second message.
“He says that he’s on his way to the mall!”
“What else?”
“Just those two,” she told him. “No more messages. None for a while, now.”
“Tell Daddy we see him at the mall,” Justin clapped, showing her a toothy grin, and then stopped and leaned forward, staring past her. “But Mommy. Gotta get Mommy, too.” Justin pointed a nubby finger toward the front.
Emily turned—and her heart leapt into her throat. Standing outside the car door was the ghost of a woman, her body eaten away by the poisonous fog. Blood streaked down the woman’s face, taking with it clumps of skin and hair. Her mouth lay agape, her jaw horribly broken. The sight was too much, and Emily had to turn away from it. She shuddered, trembling, tried to make herself look, but kept her eyes down. A pang of shame bit her for not being stronger. Lifting her chin, she caught her mother’s stare. There was horror and despair in those sunken eyes, but there was also something familiar. Something parental. Protecting. Emily cried out to her, reaching for the front seat.
“Mommy!” Justin cried. “What happened to Mommy?”
“Justin, keep your eyes closed! Don’t you look up!”
“But, Mommy! Why does she look like that?”
“Cover them up, Justin.”
“I’m covering them… I’m not gonna look.”
“Good boy.”
Before Emily could reach her mother, she watched her fall, heard the sound of her body scraping against the car.
“Justin, keep your eyes covered!” Emily yelled, her heart breaking when her brother began to cry. She made her way back to the front, spitting more blood from her mouth. The woozy feeling that had threatened earlier had been replaced by the horror of what had happened to her mother. She must’ve been hit by the other car, and now the fog was eating her. Emily tried to open the car door, but it wouldn’t move. She pushed, straining, until stars filled her eyes. Her mother was lying against the door, holding it back.
“Mom!” Emily screamed, banging on the window. “Momma, you have to move away from the door!” Two bangs rang out, confusing her.
“What?” she asked. “What? Mom, let me open the door.” Her voice was broken by a heavy sob.
Another bang on the door, followed by a scraping sound against the metal. Emily pressed her head against the window. The glass was cold, and a foreboding sense filled her. It was the same feeling she’d had when Ms. Quigly had called to them from outside their home.
“But Mom!” she cried. “Please… please let me open the door.” Her mother hammered again, objecting. Justin whimpered, then called out to her. Tears dropped from Emily’s chin, and her warm breath fogged the glass.
“Please, Momma,” she sobbed.
When the car’s engine began to sputter, instinct took over. Emily turned and pressed her foot on the gas pedal, revving the engine. She watched one of the orange needles shoot around the dial. More knocks came. The first was solitary, leaving Emily to think for a moment that her mother had died. Then two more joined the first, and Emily saw the bloody glove of her mother’s hand appear in the window. The hand moved across the glass, up and over, again and