The man who designed it told me that the time I spent inside the pod would seemingly be over instantly. Strangely, I remembered what felt like an entire lifetime of dreams. It was a little embarrassing to admit more than a few of those dreams revolved around one person.

"Can you hear me?" An almost electronic voice jolted my mind into a wakeful state. The feminine tilt to it had me churning my memories over to find where I had heard it before, but my brain was too sluggish. My eyes adjusted enough to the darkness to allow me to observe my surroundings which further distracted me.

The moment I saw its claustrophobia-inducing interior, I remembered the stasis pod and everything leading up to my getting into it. Some of the paneling was damaged, with wires hanging out, and it was too dark to tell much of anything else.

"Hello? Who is this?" I tried speaking to the voice as I ran my fingers around the edges of the pod. It remained sealed even after its primary purpose of keeping me asleep had failed.

"It’s me, Machine Spirit." Her calm response jolted the proper memory into the forefront of my mind. She was a member of my team who possessed the frightening ability to separate from her body and dominate machines. I had last heard her synthetic voice when we inspected the payload shortly before getting into these pods. She was also the woman I had been dreaming about.

Feeling around the pod, I searched for the manual release as I questioned her. “What happened? Have we arrived?” We planned to wake up once the ship landed on Mars.

“I don’t believe so.” Before I could push for more answers, my hand found the release. The snap and hiss filled my ears as I forced my way out of this metal coffin. Something that chilled my blood was waiting for me.

“The mist? We’re still on Earth?” Mumbling to myself in frustration without expecting an answer, she responded anyway as I glared at the cursed mist surrounding me.

“There must have been some major issue after we went into stasis. Only a few pieces of the ship survived reentry.” I was going to trust her on that. I was unable to tell if we were even currently on the ship. My vision barely picked up what was a foot in front of me.

The mist, or fog depending on who you are talking to, appeared on Earth suddenly many years ago. Since then, it spread and ruined a great many lives. The hope to escape this unstoppable force was precisely what our mission was about.

Turning around, I glanced at the pod I had emerged from. The blue lines I knew to be a sign of Machine Spirit's power covered it from top to bottom. "Lead me to your body. We gotta regroup with the rest of the team and check on the cargo."

She was one of the few people able to navigate in the mist, but separating from her body was extremely risky when we were inside. In her spirit form, the unnerving fog appeared transparent to her eyes. This aspect of her power had been a crucial help during evacuations from cities overtaken by it.

“It’s gone, Morgan.” Her response was quick and without any hesitation catching me off guard. Also, the mere fact that she used my real name instead of our monikers set off my nerves. We always used our codenames in the field.

“What do you mean, gone?” If the cargo did not make it, that would be a prominent setback for our efforts against the mist.

“I woke up after my pod got crushed by debris. My body died.” The shock of her statement silenced me for several seconds. We had wondered what would happen if she lost her body while outside of it, but I never predicted her spirit self would survive with her still inside. Her power must have activated on its own when she died.

“What about the others, the cargo?” Pushing past my concerns, I switched tracks. She had not died even if her body had, but our other team members would not be privy to the same luxury.

“They’re dead. I didn’t wake you until after scouting the area. I found each of their pods scattered in the area. Kenny woke up, but the mist got to him before I did.” Her robotic voice lacked any emotion. It also failed to transmit the comforting tone of her regular voice.

"And the payload?" My hesitation in asking the question was noticeable to her.

"Destroyed." One word was all that she needed. This mission had failed in nearly every way possible.

“Then we need to go. Do you know where we are?” Remaining in one location within the mist for an extended duration was a foolhardy idea. I could mourn my friends later if I kept myself from joining them.

“We crashed outside a city that I can guarantee was abandoned long ago. Just guessing from the amount of decay, I’d say it must have been one of the earlier places taken over by the mist, but I don’t recognize it.” The blue lines on my pod began to converge in the middle as she spoke. Once they had overlapped in a single place, a spectral arm extended out from it, followed by the rest of her ghostly body.

“Let's head there first and see if we can find anything. Worst case, we can look for a highway to follow out of town.” Any plan was better than standing around. “It's going to be ok, Jeanie.” I was not confident I could even believe my words.

The floating silhouette of Jeanie just silently flew forwards. She knew I could navigate the mist without her help, and we needed to hustle.

I got a lot of weird looks from people when I first used my power. More than once, it was called creepy. Focusing, I summoned a copy of Jeanie’s eyes. They floated ahead of me and then turned blue as I partially activated her ability while closing the pair of eyes I was born with. The mist appeared to thin out as I looked through her eyes. A barely recognizable chunk of our ship greeted me.

“Looks like it went through a blender.” I shook my head at the destruction. The techies would have a fit if they could see what happened to their baby.

Glancing around, I found Jeanie waiting by a large hole in this barely recognizable part of the ship. She drifted backward out of it while looking toward me. “Let's not leave the lady waiting.”

With a thought, several disembodied arms materialized before me. The hands stretched out to grip my arms and legs while a few wrapped around my chest. I used them to lift myself into the air and flew toward Jeanie as she turned around and took off.

While we flew toward the nearby city, I mentally sorted through my collection of limbs. I still had all the important ones far as I could tell.

By touching someone, I could project copies of their body parts. Oddly enough, it only worked on their limbs, so I was limited to heads, arms, and legs. For whatever reason, I always failed to recreate torsos, no matter whose they were. My ability let me break each limb down and summon them in pieces, so materializing a single finger was possible. Regardless of what part of them I recreated, I could control them through telekinesis, giving them the power to fly independently.

In the distance, the city Jeanie mentioned came into view. Not many buildings stood higher than a couple of floors, and the roads were so overgrown that it made the once-bustling metropolis look ancient. Had I been describing this place myself, the first word to come to mind would have been a ruin. This location was a bust.

“This has been abandoned for too long. We’re not finding anything here.” Jeanie stopped flying at my announcement, so I hovered beside her to talk. “Let's get a little higher. Maybe we can spot something in the distance.”

Jeanie’s gaze stopped me from flying up as I followed it. Far below us on the ground, I spotted a crowd of ordinary-looking people crawling out from underneath the rubble of the buildings. We both knew those things were only pretending to be human. Their vacant expressions filled my thoughts with brutal memories of them. They were the people that inhabited the mist.

They were waving to us with fake plastic smiles. These monsters could and would chase you down, but they enjoyed tricking people. Of course, anyone who has encountered them before knows to keep your distance. If you get too close, they will rip you apart.

“Guess they noticed us.” My comment got Jeanie to focus back on me. In her current form, they were not a threat to her safety, but my body was still just as fragile as ever. Luckily for me, my powers were very versatile.

“Let’s go.” I shot up while Jeanie followed me. An aerial view would hopefully allow us to get our bearings.

We stopped once the surrounding area came into full view. Nothing but wilderness for as far as the eye could see.

This broad viewpoint allowed me to notice something strange about the city. Going all the way across were a set of tread marks. I could not see them before due to their sheer size. Each one had to be as expansive as several city blocks.

“I’m gonna send these eyes out to check each direction.” If I could summon more than a single set of eyes to peer through the mist, it would make searching for the exit far easier. Our vantage point would have to make up for it. “Keep an eye on the surroundings. None of the big ones have bothered to appear yet, and those things down there are unlikely to stay docile forever.”

If we could avoid giving those monsters time to adapt, our travel back to civilization should be moderately safe. Knowing my luck, this was going to take a while.

Authors Note:

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