She tells herself to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. It's only six blocks. And she has to get there. No matter what is out here. She told them she'd only be gone a few minutes. She didn't even drive, just walked.

Damn them. Damn them for just turning away when she asked for help. But she shouldn't say that, she shouldn't even think that. Somehow she thinks that those people will need all the help they can get. This is not time to be calling curses down on anyone else.

Oh GOD! What was that? Don't look around Amanda, don't look. Just keep walking. If you look you'll stop. If you look you'll run. If you look you'll die.

She remembers how that man screamed when the mist overtook him as he tried to get in his car. It was horrible. The things she catches little glimpses out of the corner of her eyes are horrible too. But she just keeps walking. It's only five blocks now.

It's so quiet, as though the mist is smothering sound as well as vision. Her shoes tap gently on the concrete. She cringes at every step. She wonders if she should stop and take them off. She knows the mist is hiding terrible things but if she's very quiet it might hide her as well. But to take her shoes off she would have to stop walking. And she can't do that. Because if she does stop she might see something. What that something might be she has no idea except that it freezes her blood. So she keeps walking, her eyes fixed on the pavement in front of her. It's only four blocks now.

Mister Miller had tried to stop her. She had seen him run across the parking lot, his nose bleeding. She had heard him babbling about something in the mist and how it had taken John Lee. It wasn't that she didn't believe him. It was just that nothing was more important than getting home. Wanda and little Victor would be there, waiting for her. If she was frightened they must be nearly out of their minds.

Her gaze caught something. Something lying across the sidewalk. She nearly broke stride when she saw what that something was. It was an arm. A human arm and it wasn't attached to anything. A trail of blood led somewhere but she refused to stop and look.

She wanted to throw up but if she did she would have to stop walking. And that was all that was going to get her home. She had to keep walking. She couldn't run because if she did she might never be able to stop. And Wanda and Victor are counting on her. She turned the corner and she keeps walking. It's only three blocks now.

There's something crossing her path. She can't tell what it is. It's nothing more than a dark shape moving across her line of sight from left to right. She doesn't slow down but she steps lightly, so very lightly. She holds her breath, praying that whatever it might be it's not looking her way. Then it fades and it's gone.

What was that? It's so hard to hear anything. It sounded like fingernails clicking on a blackboard. A skittering noise like something is running on a lot of legs, more legs than anything normal has a right to have when the sounds promise something big.

For an instant an image of something like a giant spider rears up in her mind and she nearly screams. But she firmly puts it out of her mind. She does that by bringing up the images of her children. She fixes sweet eight year old Wanda's face and Victor's five year old face in her mind and lets them lead her on. She keeps walking. It's only two blocks now.

She crosses the street without looking either way. The children would scold her for that. She always insists they look both ways before crossing the street. But there's not going to be any traffic. Not today. The streets are silent. If she didn't know better she would think they were deserted. But they're only deserted by the people who live here. Lived here.