The Fog Part 2

Part 1 "The Fog Part 1"  [18+]

this is a work in progress - any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated




Chapter 5


The persistent beeping of his watch alarm finally brought David awake. He sat up, rubbing his hands down his face as he turned to look at his sister. He smiled at the lump near the end of the sleeping bag. Sometime during the night Cass had obviously wormed her way down to the bottom.

David unzipped his own sleeping bag, stood up, and stretched, sighing with pleasure as his back cracked.

On his way to the shower, David remembered his promise of the night before and gave the lump a kick, hoping he was aiming in the right direction and didn’t accidentally hit her in the head. When he got no response, he gave her a shove with his foot. Hearing what he assumed was a snort, he continued on his way to the shower.

Once his morning rituals were finished, David gingerly made his way across the kitchen floor, the tiles cold on his shower warmed feet. Collecting the coffee cups he made his way back into the lounge room.

Back in the lounge room he found his sister still snuggled up in her sleeping bag, although she had moved at least enough for her head to be seen out the opening. He gave her another shove before bending to put more wood on the fire.


“Geez Dave!” A sleep roughened voice mumbled.
“That’s not the best sight to wake up to.” With that, Cass rolled over and once again tried to deny that morning had arrived.

“Up and at ‘em, Sunshine! The day’s a wastin’.”

Opening her bleary green eyes again, Cass studied the darkened room.

“Hey, the sun isn’t even up! Why the hell are you waking me up already?”

“The sun is out, Grumble Butt. It’s just that the fog that came in last night is still hanging around, so it’s still a little dark outside.”

Hearing the sound of a zipper, David turned from the fireplace and watched as Cass tried to crawl out of the sleeping bag. Hiding his laughter, he watched as her uncooperative legs got tangled before a final kick of her feet sent the bag across the room.

With a slight stumble and a grumbled “Morning,” Cass made her way to the shower.

David chuckled at seeing his sister’s familiar, early morning, bad mood. It reminded him of when they both still lived at home, and he had learned the hard way that it wasn’t a good idea to try and talk to her before her morning shower.

Knowing that once she returned she would be ready to face the day, David started preparing the breakfast.

~~~~~~~~~

Through the mid-morning fog, Red could the hear sounds of people moving in the house he had cautiously approached during the night.

Sensing no danger, he limped to the back window. His already dark back leg now even darker and more swollen. The wounds untended, his injury had worsened during the night.

~~~~~~~~~

Jo jolted awake. She wasn’t sure what had woken her, maybe just the remnants of a dream. Sitting in the middle of the guest bed she looked at the clock, taking note of the late morning hour. She was surprised that her brother had not woken her during the night.

Getting out of bed, Jo decided to go in search of Mike. Making her way through the house to the other bedroom she could find no trace that he had returned.

Entering the lounge room she stopped in alarm. She saw, for the first time, the broken lamp. Further study of the room found an overturned chair and papers strewn over the floor.

She remembered the mess in the kitchen then; remembered it, and knew, now it was more than just an untidy house that was bothering her. Jo began to fear what may have caused those messes before her arrival.

She quickly returned to her bedroom and got dressed in warmer clothes, then contacted the police


After several unanswered phone calls to the local police station, Jo decided to head into town to make the report in person. She grabbed Mike’s address book, wanting to be prepared in the event that the police needed the names of any of his contacts in the town.

Stepping out into the frigid morning air, Jo made her way to the car. She carefully backed it out of the driveway, swearing at the fog that still lingered to impede her sight as she slowly made her way into town.

~~~~~~~~~

Adam had no idea where James had gone. He had woken an hour earlier only to find himself alone in the tent. Assuming that James had decided to battle the cold and fog to get an early start on catching the fish for breakfast Adam had stoked the fire and boiled the water.

But now he was getting worried, he had walked a fair distance up and down the stream trying to find James. Sitting on his own and staring into the fog, Adam was unsure what to do. The fact that James was missing but all his gear was still there was what finally pushed Adam to decide that he needed help.

Dousing the fire, but leaving everything else, Adam raced to the car and headed back into town; hoping that he would be able find the Police Station, he hadn’t paid a great deal of attention as they had driven through the town the previous evening. His mind more on the upcoming weekend and watching the fog as it passed over the few boats moored to the jetties that dotted the coastline on the way into the town.

~~~~~~~~~

Rebecca stood in front of the shop waiting and wishing she hadn’t left home so early. She had wanted to start today off better than yesterday, she had taken the fog into account, and left home nearly twenty minutes early than usual.

The shop should have been opened at least an hour ago. Frank always opened early so he could leave early, while Rebecca chose to start her workdays later so she could close up.

Yet again she wondered where Frank was. It wasn’t like him to be late. Even when he was kicked out of the local hotel, he still arrived at work early, ready to berate her for being just a minute late.

Rebecca decided to risk her boss’s wrath, should he turn up and she wasn’t there, in order to mention the anomaly to Peter, the local police officer. It was always better to be safe than sorry in situations like this.

Leaving the shelter of the shop’s awnings, Rebecca made her way through the fog to the police station.

~~~~~~~~~


Harriett came to a stop in front of the police station. She looked out the car window through the murky depths of fog, debating with herself over just what she would say to prove that she had heard the guns shots the night before.

Trusting that Peter would believe her and not think that she was some paranoid old woman, Harriett left the warmth of her car and headed into the station.


~~~~~~~~~

Cass finished her shower and ran through a brief checklist of the supplies they would need in town, ticking them off in her head as she got dressed.

She was making her way back into the lounge room when a whimpering sound caught her attention, and she stopped to listen.

“Hey Dave, you hear that?”

“What?”

“It sounds like a dog crying.” Cass followed the sound, hearing it grow louder as she neared the back door.

“It is a dog! Dave come out the back and give me a hand.”

Cass carefully opened the back door and moved over to the labrador. When she saw that it was injured she approached with slower, more cautious, steps.

“Just wait there, Dave, “ she called over her shoulder. “I don’t want to scare him.”

Turning her full attention back to the dog, she held out her hand, coming within touching distance.

“Hey, boy, it’s okay,” she coaxed softly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

She waited for the dog to lift its head, before gently running her hand between its ears. When she received a lick in greeting, she squatted alongside him.

“Hey. Good boy, now what have you done to yourself?” While gently patting the dog, Cass took note of the injured leg. “Check this out Dave.”

David took that as his cue to come closer. He moved to the other side of Cass and studied the swollen leg, then he ran his hand along the limb, trying to assess the damage. When he did so he found it unexplainably cold to touch.

“I dunno what it is Cass, but it sure looks and feels bad ”

“Yeah, I think the poor fella needs some help. Might be best if we got him to a vet.”

Cass again studied the injury, carefully raising the limb she noticed on the underside among the dark hairs there was a solid circular shape, whereas on the top there were four long stripes. Lowering the leg her hand carefully wiped over the marks, the cool lines running evenly with her fingers.

“I’ll bring the car around,” David said.
“We’ll load him up and head into town now.”

Cass watched her brother leave, then turned her attention back to the dog.

“Course I don’t even know if this town has a vet,” she told the dog, continuing to pat him as she waited for her brother to return. “Ahh, well. If nothing else, we can stop and ask someone. Or, I remember seeing a police station on the way through last night. Perhaps we should just go straight there.”

David returned with the car, then the two of them carefully loaded the dog into the back and covered him with warm blankets. That done, they headed down the hill and into town.

“I reckon we should just go straight to the cop station and ask where the vet is,” Cass suggested to David. “At least that way we won’t spend all day driving around trying to find it.”

“Good idea, I really don’t want to have to spend anymore time than necessary driving in this fog. It’s really hard to see much further than the front of the car at times.”

“Hmm. It’s pretty weird, really,” Cass agreed. “You would think that it would have gone by now. Or, at least, lessened some, but in places it’s still pretty thick.”

They passed through another dense cloud of fog as Cass was speaking; a patch so thick that the car lights did nothing but reflect the whiteness of the fog back at them.

Cass shivered. Just the thought of the fog outside making her feel cold.

Once they passed through the cloud, she released a pent up sigh, glad that the fog was once again just a hazy mist. It was still hard to see very far into the distance; but this, at least, was manageable.


Chapter 6

“Where’s Pete?” Rebecca asked the sullen young man behind the counter.

“He’s out checking on something,” Mark replied, not bothering to look up from the magazine he was reading.

“Well, when is he due back?” Hearing the door of the station open, Rebecca turned to see a tall woman with long black hair enter.

”Wow!” was all she could think, as she slowly looked the new arrival over.

She turned back, then, to get an answer from Mark and snorted at the undisguised look of lust on his face

”Give it up,” she thought. ”You are so not her type. Hmm. But with a bit of luck I am.

“So?”

“Huh?” Mark dragged his gaze from the dark haired women and back to Rebecca.

“When is Peter going to be back?” Rebecca asked again, shaking her head as he turned to look at the woman again, her curly brown hair flinging about her face.

Mark turned to glare at Rebecca before speaking to the new arrival.

“Can I help you?”

“Yeah,” the woman answered. “I need to report a missing person, maybe a break in. Is there a police officer available?”

“Oh. He’s not here at the moment. Maybe I can help?”

“Mark, you know you’re only here to answer the phones, and maybe take names so Peter can call back.” Rebecca thought it best to cut in before the young man had a chance to start in on one of his fanciful stories

Mark again glared at Rebecca, he had wanted to impress the beautiful woman by helping her with her problem.

“You know Uncle Pete lets me help so I have experience if I decide to join the force,” he told Rebecca.

“Look sorry to interrupt, my name is Jo Phillips. Can you please tell me when he is due back, I really need to speak to him.”

“Hi Jo, my name is Rebecca and that, behind the counter, is Mark.” Rebecca couldn’t hide her contempt for Mark. Sent here to live with his uncle after his parents had one too many problems with him, the young man had caused more than a few hassles for Rebecca and her friends.

“Hi Jo,” Mark said, before giving his most charming smile. “I’m not sure when Pete will be back. When I got here a little while ago there was just a note saying he had to leave urgently and would be back as soon as possible.”
~~~~~~~~~

As Harriett was about to open the door to the police station she stopped to watch a strange car pull into the car park.

A small blonde got out the passenger side and moved directly to the back door of the car, opening it and leaning inside.

“Excuse me.” She heard the driver say.

Realising he was talking her, she went over to the car.

“Yes?”

“Hi. My name is David. Sorry to bother you, but we found this injured dog on the back step of where we are staying, and we’re wondering if you could tell us where to take him.”

Looking into the back seat of the car, she saw the blonde woman leaning over the dog, making sure he was still covered. Taking a closer look she guessed that the dog might be Red. Knowing that it was possible that the gun shots she had heard the night before may have come from Frank’s place she thought it best to get them all into the station in case something had happened to Frank.

“Hi, David. I’m Harriett, and I think that dog may be Red. If he is he is from the house down the road from mine. Why don’t you come inside with me and we will see if we can get in touch with his owner. I would point you straight to a vet but we don’t have one here at the moment. She left a couple of weeks ago, I am not sure why, and we haven’t a replacement yet.”

“Okay, Harriett,” the blonde smiled. “I’m Cass by the way, David’s sister. Red is warm enough for now, so we can leave him in the car until we get it sorted out. It will be better than bringing him back out into this cold air.”

~~~~~~~~~

Adam carefully made his way through the centre of town, hoping he wouldn’t miss the police station in the thick fog. When he saw some people standing to the side of a car, he came to a stop on the other side of the road.

“Hey, there,” he called out. “I’m looking for the police station. Can you point me in the right direction?”

“I know it’s hard to tell with this fog, but you’re actually parked almost right in front of it,” Cass told him.

“Oh great,” he said, then hopped out of the car and ran across the road.

“Thanks,” he yelled over his shoulder before racing inside the station.

The other three followed him inside.


Chapter 7


Jo wasn’t sure what her next move should be. Should she wait here, or go home and see if she could find some clue as to what may have happened to her brother?

As she was going through her choices the station door flew open and a man in his mid thirties came running up to the counter.

“My friend is missing,” the man said.

The words, and their urgency, yanked Jo’s attention back to the counter. Was this, in any way, related to Mike’s disappearance?

Before she got the chance to ask, the door opened again. This time it admitted an elderly lady, followed closely by a large, blonde haired man. Jo dismissed the newest arrivals, and turned to face the counter again, the better to hear the details concerning the missing friend.

Cass had been paying no attention to where she was going, just following blindly in her brother’s footsteps. Having to quickly sidestep when he stopped to avoid running into him, she instead walked straight into someone else’s back.

Jo was jostled forward a step as she was crashed into. Normally a fairly levelheaded person, the situation with her brother had pushed her patience to close to breaking point. Turning to suggest that the person watch where they are going her thoughts were momentarily derailed as she took in the contrite face on the adorable blonde woman standing in front of her.

“Oh God. I am so sorry, “ Cass quickly apologised to the tall woman staring down at her.

”Good one Cass, that’ll teach you to pay more attention to where you’re going”. Hearing the woman speak, Cass stopped her mental chastisement.

“That’s okay. No harm done.”

“Well I’m still sorry for running into you like that.” Cass grinned at the dark haired woman. Her smile grew even wider as the grin was returned.

The sound of voices raised in the beginnings of an argument drew both their attention back to the counter.

“Can you please just tell me when the officer will be back?” Adam asked.

By the tone of voice, the others could tell that he was fast losing his patience with Mark.

“Look. I said I don’t know. When I got here there was just a note.”

“Well, have you tried calling him on the radio?” Harriett, the voice of reason, finally interjected.

Looking at the faces of the people staring at him from the other side of the counter, Mark realised that it might be in his best interests to try and contact his uncle. Turning from the group he went to the back of the room and tried to call up his uncle over the two-way radio.

~~~~~~~~~

Pleased now that some action was being taken, Adam turned from watching the young man on the radio directly into the questioning blue gaze of the tall woman.

“I couldn’t help but overhear you say your friend was missing. So is my brother Mike,” She told him.

“I think my boss has gone missing as well,” Rebecca added.

“Did I hear you say Frank was gone?” Harriett asked.

“Yeah Harriett, he never turned up at work. And, well, you know Frank, even though business has been really bad lately, if there was a chance that someone might come into the store he would be there,” Rebecca told Harriett, though not a regular to the Hardware shop, the two had often chatted about the miserly old man.

“Hmph, well these two,” she pointed to David and Cass, “have a labrador in the car that I am fairly certain is Red. He is injured and it looks like he was out all night.”

Rebecca thought about what that meant. As horrible and mean as Frank was, he did care for his animals, knowing that Red was hurt and Frank was not there was almost certain proof that something had happened to him.

“He’s not answering the radio,” Mark told the group as he returned to the counter.

Harriet raised the bar separating the two sides of the counter and went to the phone. Adam watched as she repeatedly raised and lowered the handset looking for an outside line.


~~~~~~~~~

Jo wandered over to the window not sure what her next step should be, she peered through the fog hoping to find an answer.

Cass, who had moved closer to her brother when Harriett mentioned Red, watched as the tall woman gazed out the window. She could see the frown that now marred the beautiful face, and desperately wanted to help this stranger. Not entirely sure what was going on, but driven by an unfamiliar need to comfort, she walked up to the window and stood alongside the woman.

“Hey, I’m Cass. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on, but if I can help in anyway just let me know.”

Jo pulled her gaze from the almost hypnotising swirls of fog and introduced herself.

“I’m not sure what is going on myself,” she added before again watching the fog ebb and swirl outside the police station. “But it seems that a few people have gone missing, my brother is one of them.” She briefly explained arriving at her brother’s house the previous night to look for him at her mother’s request, and what she had found at the house earlier.

Cass, who had been listening intently as Jo spoke, couldn’t stop herself from reaching out to rub her hand down Jo’s arm, hoping to ease the worry she could see in the blue eyes.

“I’m sorry to hear about your brother. Maybe with the help of the others here we can find him. Except for Adam they seem to know each other and obviously all live here so maybe they’ve seen or heard from him recently.”

“Well I guess it’s a start,” Jo said as they made their way back to the group.

Chapter 8

Mark watched and listened as everyone was introduced, each telling their reasons for being there.
He noticed that Jo and Cass were standing close to each other, not touching, but close enough that he could watch both beautiful women without having to turn his head. His attention soon faded as Rebecca began to speak and he began imagining himself in all sorts of scenarios, all of which starred either Jo or Cass needing his help. He couldn’t decide which one he wanted to try his charm on. Both beautiful, yet very different.

“What?” He asked, his fantasy dissolving at the punch to his arm. He glared at the smirking Rebecca.

“I said…have you noticed how the place seems almost deserted lately?” She repeated. “I was telling the others how I hadn’t seen anyone around recently.”

Mark tried to think. He never paid much attention to what was going on around him; unless he was directly involved.

“Er yeah, now that I think about it. Even the video shop was closed,” he grumbled, remembering that after finding out the hotel wasn’t open again he had wanted to get a movie to pass the time with. Having made his way down the main street, nearly hitting a parked car that he hadn’t seen through the fog, he finally made it to the video shop only to find a pile of videos on the floor under the return shoot.

Cass shivered, the conversation, along with the increasing chill finally getting to her. She looked around at the others in the group. They all, in some way, were trying to keep themselves warm. David was slowly jogging on the spot. Jo was standing, arms crossed, hands rubbing up and down. Rebecca was leaning against the counter blowing into her clasped hands. Oh, if it’s this cold in here I wonder how Red is doing.

“I gotta check on the dog.” She was stopped before going too far by the gentle hold on her arm.

“You better wait a second,” Jo said, while listening to Mark she had been watching the look of panic as it formed on Harriett’s face. “ What’s the problem Harriett?“

“I can’t seem to contact anyone. After Mark said he couldn’t reach Peter I tried a few of my friends here in town and then my son who lives several hours away, nothing worked. There is a dial tone but the calls won’t connect.” She looked to the others. “It’s a bit like we are cut off from everyone.”

“I wonder why the phones aren’t working?” Cass asked.

“Could be the weather, sometimes it plays havoc with the phone and power lines, and we go for days without the telephones working, but that’s just a guess,” Harriett suggested.

“Yeah or could be just our luck that those construction guys dug up the wrong lines or something,” Rebecca mumbled.

“All I know is that we need to get some help, perhaps we should all just get out of here,” Adam interrupted even as he was heading toward the front door.

Jo was torn, as much as she wanted get some help with finding her brother, she also wanted to be here in case he returned.

“Adam I know it's hard to sit around while people are missing and God knows I am worried about my brother, but I’m not sure it’s all that safe to be driving out there at the moment. That fog is pretty thick.”

“I don’t care, I need to do something to help find James.”

Harriett went to stand by Adam

“I’ll go with you Adam. At least that way you will have a local with you and have less chance of getting lost.”

“Thanks Harriett. We’ll head over to the next town and tell the cops what’s going on. And to come and meet you to get more details.”

“If you’re sure that’s what you want to do, then thanks,” Jo smiled, “but I think we should probably wait somewhere a little warmer. Is there somewhere around here we can all go that has a fire or something?”

“Yeah, we could probably get into the hotel. It has a huge open fire that shouldn’t take too long to get going, and it’s not too far away,” Rebecca suggested.

“Okay if you two,” she pointed to David and Mark, “want to go in one car, we’ll follow behind in Cass’ car with the dog.” She now pointed to herself, Cass and Rebecca. “At least that way both cars will have a local with them to help us out of towners find the place.” She grinned.

Mark thought about protesting this plan; surely the two beautiful women would be better having him as a guide than Rebecca. Before he had a chance to say anything David spoke.

“All right, we’ll meet you there shortly,” David said, he turned to his sister. “Be careful,” he whispered in her ear as he passed.

“You bet,” she said as she followed Jo outside into the gloomy fog.

~~~~~~~~


Cass listened to the sounds of the other cars slowly fading into the distance, and hoped it wouldn’t be long before Adam and Harriett were able to send help back to them. Even though she didn’t know anyone that was missing, she had a strange feeling that there was something really bad going on.

Drawing closer to the car she heard Red give a warning growl. Rubbing her hands together to fight against the sudden plunge in temperature she called out to the dog.

“Hey boy, it’s just us.” Opening the door, she was surprised to see Red sitting, hackles raised and teeth bared. “Hey Red, what’s the problem?” She whispered, slightly frightened by the deepening growl.

“Be careful,” Jo cautioned, as she moved to the front passenger door.

“Ahh Red’s harmless, probably scared himself when he saw his shadow,” Rebecca said as she moved around the other side of the car.

Watching Red as she moved slowly nearer, Cass saw that he was looking slightly over her shoulder. Turning to try and make out what it was that he was growling at, all Cass could see was fog, even Rebecca and Jo seemed to have been swallowed by the whiteness.

“Wow,” she heard Jo say, “I’ve never seen fog this bad before, is this normal for around here Rebecca?”

“No, we do get it regularly, but never this bad or for this long. Usually by lunchtime it has all gone, though recently it has been later and later every day before it leaves. Of course being as cold as it has been nowadays it lingers around the hills all day.”

Cass squinted, hoping it might help her see better. She could see nothing. She listened intently, the only sounds, Red’s growls reverberating through the mist and the solid thumps of the car doors closing echoing in the stillness of the town.

As she was making her way to the driver’s door she thought she caught a glimpse of something moving to her left. Trying to see through mist all she could see was deeper layers of fog, the grey of the police station now blending almost seamlessly with the fog.

“Well boy, I have no idea what you were growling at. But it’s getting darn cold and freaky out here, so I think we better hurry and get to the hotel.”

Getting closer to the car she could see that the other two were already comfortably settled, Jo in the front passenger seat and Rebecca huddled up next to Red.

Reaching out to open the driver’s door she stopped suddenly as she felt the air thicken and move around her. Looking behind her she saw a dense clump of fog appearing to move separately to the otherwise still mist that surrounded her. Not sure of what she was seeing it almost appeared as if small specks of grey were moving together; joining and shifting as they formed larger clumps barely noticeable against the white of the fog.

“What is that?” Straining to make out what it was she was looking at, she barely contained a scream as she felt something brush up against her leg.

Quickly jumping into the car and slamming the door, she took a huge gulp of air and slowly released it before turning to her passengers, both of whom were staring at her, the question easy to read on their faces.

“Okay so I freaked myself out a little. You gotta admit that it’s pretty creepy out there.” She trembled slightly, her heart finally beginning to slow from its previous racing.

“Yeah, its creepy, but what got you jumping in the car so quickly?” Rebecca asked.

“Ahh well, I thought I saw something moving around, and then it felt like something touched me.” She turned to look at Jo, hoping she wouldn’t see humour in her eyes. The last thing she wanted was for Jo to laugh at her.

Jo wasn’t laughing, instead she was glaring at the fog, almost as if she was hoping that by her thoughts alone she could make it disappear.

“Let’s just get out of here.” Jo turned back to Cass, “the others are probably already at the Hotel and wondering what has happened to us.”

“Okay.” Cass started the car and made her way slowly down the main street. Her eyes never moving from the only part of the road she could see through the fog; only inches in front of the car. The only acknowledgment that she heard the directions from Rebecca, a faint snort of agreement.



Chapter 9




Adam and Harriett had barely made it to the edge of town before they had to stop suddenly to prevent hitting a car that was parked almost sideways across the road.

“Looks like we weren’t the only ones trying to get out today. It’s a good thing I was only crawling along or we would have run into the back of them,” Adam said as put the car into park before opening the door to see what was going on.

Harriett joined him at the front of the car.

“Hmm. I can only see the back end of the car in front of us, but I can’t hear anybody. You would think that if it was an accident of some kind there would be other people around.”

“Yeah, maybe we should just walk up the road a bit and see if we can help.”

Adam and Harriett inched their way along the cars, running their hands along the side as a guide that they were still walking in the right direction. Touching the bonnet of a car, Adam noticed that it was cool to the touch, not warm as he had expected if it had been vacated recently.

“Ouch”

“What happened?” Harriett asked.

“That’s the fourth open car door I have run into. You would think that these people would shut their damn doors before taking off.” Not wanting to worry Harriett he didn’t mention how strange he thought it was that even though it was obviously a mild accident of some sort, probably a rear-end pile-up, there was no trace of anyone at all.

Walking a little further they came upon a car that had crashed into a telephone pole, and was obviously the cause of the accident. Peering into the fog, they tried in vain to see if this was the reason Peter wasn’t at the station. While they could hear the regular thud of the waves crashing on the shore in the distance, they could not hear anyone talking, or the expected wail of an ambulance or police car.

“Well at least we know why the phones aren’t working,” Adam said, hoping the sound of his voice didn’t reveal how concerned he was becoming. Already worried about the disappearance of James, the thought of all the unoccupied vehicles was almost too much to bear.

“Adam, I know you are really concerned about your friend but I don’t think we should go any further. The fact that we can’t even see far enough in front of us to spot the open doors before we run into them is bad enough. But we have no idea just what is in front of us, and it’s still a fair way before the road gets us to the other side of the hills. I honestly don’t think it would be a very good idea to try and travel in this fog. It seems to be getting worse, at least back at our car we could still see a little way ahead of where we were going, but the closer to the edge of town we get, the thicker it’s getting.”

“Yeah Harriett, as much as I hate to say it I think I might have to agree with you. Looks like we might all have to spend the night here, then try and get help as soon as the fog lifts. How far is it to the hotel?”

“We actually only just passed it before we stopped, the others have probably only been there for a little while.”

Returning to the car, they were grateful Adam had left the car running as the warmth from the heater slowly warmed their chilled bodies.

Concentrating on where they were going, neither saw the wisps of dust that were floating through the air after the car, or the wall of fog that was now blanketing the car they had stopped behind.

~~~~~~~~~



“It should be just here, can’t see a bloody thing at the moment,” Rebecca said as she leaned forward between the two front seats.

Jo jumped at the sound of Rebecca’s voice, she had been concentrating her gaze out the side window, hoping to see some sign that there were other people around.

“Yeah it’s getting pretty bad.”

“Hmm,” Cass agreed. “I’ll be glad to get back inside, trying to see anything is giving me a headache.” Stopping next to another car she heaved a sigh of relief. “Glad that’s over and we got here without running into anything.”

Cass unbuckled her seat belt then pressed her fingers to her temples, rubbing vigorously, trying to ease the ache.

Before getting out the car Jo looked at Cass, frowning slightly at the signs of tension she could easily see on her face.

“I’ll bring Red in, why don’t you go inside and see if you can find something for that headache.”

Rebecca quickly hopped out the car and went around the other side, opening the door so Jo could get Red out.

“Thanks Jo. I think its just ‘cause I was so tensed up, it feels like I’ve been holding that steering wheel forever. I should be right once I can get inside and relax for a bit.” She tried hard not to think about the fact that once she got inside things would be far from normal as they tried to wait for the police.

~~~~~~~~~

Walking toward the hotel, Cass could see the shapes of two people walking just ahead of her through the fog.

“Adam is that you?”

“Yes Cass.” Adam and Harriett both stopped and waited for the others to catch up. “We got just down the road and realised it really wasn’t safe to go any further. There was a car accident that was blocking the road, and since you can’t see where you are going, I really didn’t want to try and drive around it.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“I don’t know Jo, there was no one around when we got there. I can only assume that help had already been and gone,” Harriett said

“Do you think that might be where the police officer went?” Cass asked

“Well, we didn’t see his patrol car, but then since we couldn’t see anything at all until we were almost standing on it…”

“Or running in to it.”

Harriett smiled. “It’s not entirely surprising that if his car was there we didn’t see it.”

~~~~~~~~~


“We were starting to get worried about you,” David said as he came up to his sister, seeing Jo follow her inside with Red in her arms he quickly offered his assistance.

“I got him, thanks anyway.”

“Okay, how about if you put him over there near the fire. With any luck the wood will catch shortly and it will be warmer in here.”

Rebecca, who had been trailing behind Jo, pushed past Cass and placed a blanket on the floor for Red to lie on.

“Here you are Jo.” She gazed up at the tall woman.

Jo lowered the dog onto the blanket, giving him a pat before turning back to Cass.

“How’s the head?”

“What’s wrong with your head? And why did you take so long?” David, who had been listening to Adam explain why they were back looked to his sister.

Before giving Cass the chance, Rebecca answered David’s second question.

“Ahh Cass freaked out. Imagining things that weren’t there.”

Cass frowned at Rebecca, hearing it put like that made her sound a little foolish.

As she was about to defend herself, Jo moved behind her and briefly rubbed her shoulders.

Feeling the tightness in the shoulders below her hands Jo looked at David.

“We got held up because when we got to the car Red was growling at something and Cass was worried about him.”

“Okay but what’s wrong with your head sis?”

Feeling her shoulders begin to lose their tension, Cass rolled her head from side to side before answering.

“Hmm…nothing now,” she smiled at Jo, “I just had the makings of a bad headache from having to stare at nothing but white while driving here. I think I probably had such a tight grip on the wheel, that even in that short distance I might have put a strain on my shoulders and neck.”

“All right then, long as it’s not gonna drop off or anything.” He smirked at his sister.

~~~~~~~~~


Watching the interaction between Cass and David, Harriett couldn’t help but think of her two kids, Paul and Susan. They were both married and lived several hours away, but hearing the concern behind the light-hearted jibe reminded her of how her children behaved when they got together. She had spoken to Paul only a few nights ago when he had phoned to tell her not to expect a call from Susan for awhile as her family had gone camping. She didn’t know whether to be happy or concerned that no one was going to be ringing her; if they phoned and no one answered, her family would worry, however if she disappeared, as it appeared many others in town had, no one would know.

Mark was also watching. He couldn’t help but grin as Jo completely ignored Rebecca, instead focusing her concern on Cass. He and Rebecca had clashed from the moment they met; right here in this hotel he remembered. He had been leaning against the bar, well on his way to being drunk when she had walked in with a few friends. He had immediately tried to chat her up, and though he couldn’t quite remember what she had said to him, the vision of everyone laughing at him was permanently etched in his mind. He sneered, even now, every time they passed each other she always seemed to get the better of him.

~~~~~~~~~

Rebecca wondered what Mark was smiling about. She had given up on trying to attract the beautiful woman’s attention for now and was instead looking around the room. As she was watching, the smile on his face slowly faded to be replaced with an extremely angry looking frown. She was distracted from her musing as David moved behind the bar.

“Well since the fire is going to take a while to warm the place, how about a quick drink to warm us up from the inside?”

“Good idea,” Mark said as he downed the shot in one swallow.

Jo went to stand next to Adam who had just put another log of wood on the fire.

“Okay…then we better see if we can work out what is going on,” she said.

“Well the fire is now roaring so it shouldn’t take long to heat this place up,” Adam told the group.

Cass walked over to the fire, drink in hand, she turned so her back was facing the fire and took a sip, grimacing as it burnt its way down her throat.

“Hey,” she croaked, after clearing her voice she continued. “How did you guys get in here anyway? Where is the owner? Or is this place as empty as everywhere else seems to be?”

“Well now that I think about it, Hank, the owner, hasn’t been seen for at least a week now,” Harriet told her.

“Even though the place appears to be locked up tight the front door was actually unlocked. We did have a quick look around down here but it was empty, as yet we haven’t checked upstairs but I can only assume that if there was anyone up there they would have come down when they first heard us,” David said as he was pouring another drink.

Jo took her drink and went to sit at one of the large dining tables. As she passed the window she took note that the street lamps that came on automatically at a certain time were casting an eerie orange glow as they tried in vain to light the streets that were enshrouded in the thick white fog.

Taking a sip of her drink she turned to look at the others who were spread out around the room.

“We need to work out what we are going to do. We know for certain that two people are missing, Mike and Adam’s friend James. We can also be pretty sure that Frank and Hank have also disappeared. As for Peter, well I guess it’s possible that with the car accident he may have left town with an injured person. But I would imagine that he would at least have to call in to the station first, just to let someone know, so we might need to add him to the missing list.”

As she was speaking the rest of the group came to sit around the table. She waited for them to get settled before she continued.

“Judging by what you guys have said and from what I was able to tell while driving through the town, both last night when I got here and again this afternoon on the way here, there is a pretty good chance that a lot of other people have also gone missing.”

David finished off his drink, before leaning his elbows on the table and speaking.

“Probably the first thing to do I think is find out if there are any other people around. If there are, they may know what is going on or at least they may have seen one of those that has gone missing.”

“Good idea, David but…” Jo said

“Dave.”

Jo nodded her head in thanks before continuing

“Looking out the window there, and from what Adam said earlier I don’t think it’s good idea for us to leave here at the moment. Aside from the fact that it’s almost dark, you can’t see two feet in front of you with that fog. I would hate for us out-of-towners to get lost while we were searching for others.”

“That’s a good point Jo, especially with you and the others being new to the area; if you happened to walk anywhere near where they are doing the construction on what was supposed to be a new beaut shopping centre,” Rebecca snorted, “they started construction a couple of months ago, they got as far as digging up for the foundations then gradually the workers stopped coming back. I’m telling ya some people have more money than sense. They wanted it built in a rush or something and just hired the first people that said they could do it.”

“So what do you suggest we do?” David asked the group.

“Well being a hotel, there is no doubt some food in the freezer, how about we start with getting something to eat,” Harriett suggested.

Cass turned to Harriett and smiled.

“Yeah, then I guess if we are staying here for the night, you guys that live here can maybe work out who you know is missing, who you haven’t seen recently and that will give us something to give to the police to help them.”

“Good idea Cass. Mark can you go and find some pens and paper to start a list.”

Mark nearly flew out of his chair in his quest to help Jo. The rest of the group slowly rose from the table; some moving to the kitchen to prepare a meal, the others going to the bar to prepare the drinks.

~~~~~~~~~

In the middle of town another puff of fog slowly rose from the ground. Constantly forming and separating as it glided across the land. Directed by an unseen entity, there was no rhythm to its movements, it knew only to advance; to seek out more of its kind and join together. Freezing and crushing anything that stood in its path in its quest to form a solid wall. Driven by a need to encompass the land, knowing only that its host body required it to bridge any gap and leave nothing uncovered.

~~~~~~~~~~~




I am still playing around with this, but if you're interested

Part 3 "The Fog Part 3"  [18+]