The smoke

Jess’s POV

I was sitting on the bench with my older brother waiting for my parents. We did this on the first Saturday of every month. My Mum, Dad, Brother and I would all meet at this same bench. It overlooked the town where my parents lived.

“My god they are taking forever” Moaned Justin. Justin was slouched on the bench wearing his usual skinny black jeans, Black t-shirt, black docs and his black leather trench coat.

“Chill out would you. They are only 5 minutes late” I told him.

Justin stared at me. To look at us you would not think that we were related. I have long blonde hair that falls in ringlets down my back. Justin has black spiky hair. I have bright green eyes. Were as Justin wears black contacts. Today I was wearing a cute little white dress with pink ¾ leggings underneath.

“Babies” mum squealed from across the park

“My god woman I am 28 and she is 25 we are not babies” Justin yelled as he crossed his arms in an act of defiance.

Mum just smiled at him as she gave me a huge hug. “How have you been my sweetheart? Is there a man in your life?”

“Mother as I tell you every month, no I am still single, and I like being single”

My mother was not impressed she did not like me being single and living on my own she was old fashioned and felt that a woman should have a man in her life to protect her. I was not that type of women. I get along fine on my own. I have a great job, a nice house and my dog a cute black and white border collie called Romeo to keep me company.

“Come on let’s go for a walk” Dad suggested

We were just about to get up when Romeo started growling. We all looked to see what he was growling at and saw that the meat processing plant had smoke coming out of it.

“Look at all the workers coming out. They all look so calm. They are walking in single file. Maybe it’s just a drill and they borrowed a smoke machine for added effect?” I commented

“Dude, they look like zombies. Only their skin is not decaying” Justin gave a nervous laugh.

I looked around the town and noticed that smoke was starting to come out of more buildings.

“I think we should get out of here. I have a bad feeling about this” I told them as I started to back away.

“Come on Jess your just being silly, letting your overactive imagination get the better of you again.” My dad sighed.

“No dad this is creeping me out I am out of here anyone who wants too is free to come along” I started walking towards my van. My van was my baby it’s a black and orange VW kombi. Romeo jumped straight into the back.

I was about to get in when I heard Justin calling out to me “Jess wait”. He was running towards me with mum and dad right behind him.

“What?” I yelled I was still pissed off after dads comment

“You are right we were wrong can we come too?” Dad asked looking bashful.

“Why? What happened to make you change your mind?”

“The fact that the rest of the places that were on fire had the same thing happen to the staff they were all just too damn calm”

“Something odd is going on. Come on let’s go to my place”

“Ok we will meet you there hun. Can you take Justin with you though I don’t like the thought of you being alone” my mother begged.

“Fine” I moaned “get in the van Justin”

Justin looked pissed off as he got in my van. He hated vehicles as they polluted the air that he breathed. Mum and Dad walked back to their car that was only a couple of spaces away and then we all set off back to my place. It was a long drive back to my house as I live in a small country town. On the way what we saw scared the crap out of us. We passed about ten more large companies that all had smoke coming out of them and the staff all came out looking brain washed.

“Have you noticed that none of the buildings we have past there have had flames coming out of them? They only have smoke” Justin commented

“Yeah, I did. The smoke was also too white, when there is a fire, the smoke is gray” the closer that we got to my place, the less smoked out buildings we saw (no point calling them fires when there is no fire only smoke). Fifty minutes later we arrived at the start of my driveway.

“Yeah, only ten more minutes of driving” Smirked Justin

“Hey” I growled “I think that this is one of the safest places to be since we have no idea at all about what is going on around here”

“For once I will have to agree with you little sis”

I pulled my van around the back of the house so that it could not be seen from the main road. My parents followed me.

“What the heck is going on around here” my father yelled.

“I have no idea, but I think that we should all go inside and start trying to figure it out.”

Once we were inside, I got out a couple of maps and a couple of marker pens.

“Ok Mum and Dad, I want you to start working on this map and circle everywhere that you saw smoke coming out of a building. Justin and I will do the same on this one and then we can compare and see if we can see a pattern”

“While you do that, I will put the TV on so that we can see if anything comes on the news” Justin leaned over and grabbed the remote.

“Good idea” I agreed