Captive by the Fog Read online

  The door on the UFO snapped shut, and the smaller craft rotated toward us. It began to whirr, creating the revving noise I had heard. I could see what looked like a spotlight on the very front of the mechanical jaws. It twisted around and sent forward a bright beam of yellow light that cut through the fog like a knife slicing butter. The fog had little choice but to disappear in its path.

  “Sam!” my dad exclaimed hoarsely. “Help me up. We need to get out of here.” He struggled to move his torso off the stairs, so he could stand up.

  The hovering metallic beast started toward us. I forced my gaze away and helped my dad up off the ground. He helped me more than he was usually able to, thanks to the adrenaline running through his veins. I searched his eyes once I got him in a standing position, wondering if he had any clue what we should do.

  Bruce’s truck was parked across the street in the parking garage, which was situated behind the hovering craft’s location. Running was out of the question in his condition. We didn’t even own a wheelchair. He had refused to have one delivered, even when the doctors insisted.

  The whirring grew louder. The bushes and small trees near us twisted in the wind as the machine drew near. Neighbors screamed, and within their screams, the horrific sound of metal grinding was audible. I was afraid to look, but couldn’t help myself. The jaws of the beast swung open as the arm grabbed what looked to be a man and thrust him inside its metallic belly.

  The jaws then snapped shut, and the machine advanced toward its next victim, a woman clutching a small child. She ran with all her strength and then dove behind a parked car as the arm grabbed for her. The machine moved faster than she could run. It crushed the car like an insect and seized the terrified pair. Their screams echoed out into the fog as the metal jaws snapped shut on them. I couldn’t tell whether the machine captured them alive or instantly killed them.

  “We gotta try to get to the truck!” I yelled to Bruce, urging him forward and away from the monstrosity. “Wait!” I stopped, and then steadied him again. “Stay here a sec! Simon!” I charged back into the warm house and almost tripped over the coffee table as I ran into my bedroom to find the cat where I had left him. He was hissing now and growling, yet remained frozen in fear. I grabbed him and dashed back out the door.

  My father was leaning on our mailbox, breathing heavily. He had tried to move on his own, stubborn as he was, but had only made it about five steps. I tucked Simon under an arm and grabbed my dad with the other. I wrapped an arm around his waist and he leaned against my shoulder. Together we walked. I urged him to take longer strides, but it felt futile. Simon squirmed and yowled under my arm.

  “Simon, c’mon, be good just this once!” I yelled. I could barely hear my own words as the roar of metal got louder and louder behind us.

  Bruce tripped over his own feet and fell onto the pavement again. Our neighbors rushed past us with bags and screaming kids in their arms. My dad gave me a desperate look, sweat forming on his furrowed brow.

  “Leave me!” he said. “You can get away faster without me!”

  I stopped and hesitated above him then grabbed his arm, yanking it upward. “It doesn’t matter! I’m not leaving you!”

  “Go!” He shoved my arm away, and his terrified eyes met mine.

  I hesitated again. “I—I can’t!”

  I didn’t have time to run if I had wanted to. The machine roared behind us, and its arm grabbed Bruce by the shoulders. He screamed, and the spotlight glared into my face, blinding me. All I could see in front of me was a yellow light in the shape of an eyeball. It was bright as the sun. I was lifted off the ground as pain jolted through my shoulders and neck. I lunged forward, trying to twist and fight against the appendage, but the metal claw dug deeper into my back. Simon kicked against me with all his strength in an attempt to break free, but I grabbed him with both arms and clutched him tightly to my chest. I didn’t know our fate, but I knew I couldn’t bear the thought of never feeling Simon’s soft fur against my face again. I huddled my head against his shaking body and screamed as the pain overtook me.

  The arm released me onto a pile of warm, frantic bodies. I still couldn’t see anything. My back was on fire, as if the mechanical arm was still attached, ripping out my spine. I smelled the sickly-sweet smell of blood all around me, felt it dripping down my back. Simon was still wailing under my arm, his claws digging into my flesh.

  “Dad, are you okay?” I yelled. I couldn’t hear myself. Everyone around me was screaming and crying, and each scream sounded exactly alike. Children, parents, grandparents, and teenagers—it didn’t matter—our terror was the same. The blinding eyeball and its metallic iris blocking my vision eventually faded to absolute black as I passed out from the piercing pain in my shoulder blades.

  Chapter 2

  When I awoke, I opened my eyes and found the gleaming robotic iris gone. I could make out hazy shapes floating in the subdued darkness around me. Fleeting specks of light bounced off the metallic walls every now and then. I could barely make out my father’s shape next to me. He was sprawled against a sloped wall, eyes closed. His T-shirt was covered in the glint of fresh blood, as were the few gray wisps of hair left on his head. My entire body felt sticky with sweat and blood.

  Soft whimpers and cries sounded around me. The voices were suppressed, as though everyone had decided to reserve their energy by resting instead of shouting. I could still hear the whirring and clanking of the machine we were in, but it was quieter. The mechanical beast must have taken a break from capturing new victims, but I could tell we were still moving.

  My shoulder and back ached though the pain was somewhat tolerable. I moved my head slightly to get a better view of the people around us. It looked like Bruce dragged me away from the pile of people we were thrown on top of and into a corner. Simon was lying rigidly on Bruce’s lap, eyes wide. He saw that I was awake and cautiously joined me. His tail flicked in annoyance, and he gave me his best pitiful “momma, take me home” look.

  “I wish I could, baby,” I told him, giving him a hug. My father stirred in his sleep.

  A piece of flannel was wrapped around my shoulders and across my chest and back. Another piece was wrapped around my father. I smiled weakly. Bruce must have made makeshift bandages with the thin flannel jacket he always wore. He was such a pain in the ass most of the time, but he did care.

  A short distance across from us, there was a small girl and her father. The father looked to be about my age and had dark hair and a mustache. He held his tear-stained daughter in his lap.

  The father noticed me watching them. “She’s finally asleep,” he murmured, careful to keep his voice down.

  “How long have we been in here?” I asked him quietly.

  He looked down at his watch with a grimace. “About two hours.”

  “I wonder if they’re taking us back to the…” my voice trailed off.

  “Mother ship?” The man finished my sentence. He sat up and then scooted his sleeping daughter off his lap.

  I nodded.

  His eyes met mine. They glittered in the dim, reflected lighting. “That was my initial thought, yes. But we’re not headed in the right direction. We’re going way off course. They’re taking us…elsewhere. Perhaps they have a base already established here.” He gazed toward the front of machine, as if trying to distinguish its course.

  “I guess that’s possible,” I admitted, raising an eyebrow at him. He sounded excited about being here. Leave it to me to find the crazy people.

  “One thing does surprise me, however,” he continued. “If these beings are executing a full-blown attack, why have they stopped tossing people in here like raw meat? There’s room for at least twice as many people in here. It’s almost like they’re being considerate.” He ran one hand over his mouth and mustache.

  “I…I think I’m grateful for that.” A shiver ran down my spine.

  My dad stirred again, opening his eyes. “You all right?” I asked him, thankful for someone somewhat sane t
o talk to.

  “I think so,” Bruce said. “How about you? You gave me a scare.” He cleared his throat softly.

  “I guess. It’s not bleeding anymore at least.” I pointed to my shoulder. “And it doesn’t hurt as much now. Thanks.” I gave him an exhausted smile.

  “Your gash was deeper than mine. You must have struggled more.”

  “I couldn’t see anything. That headlight thing blinded me temporarily.” I forced myself to sit up taller and test out my shoulder. At least I was able to move it somewhat.

  “Careful,” my dad cautioned. “You might want to keep it stationary.”

  I nodded at him and patted my legs for Simon. The cat climbed up on my lap and lay down, his posture a bit more relaxed.

  The man across from me turned to us. “My wife and our other daughter are still somewhere out there.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “Were they nearby? Maybe they’re safe.”

  He shook his head. “Julie was with me at my office. I had some paperwork to grab, and I had just picked her up from a dance recital. Right before we were snatched up, I saw another machine leaving in the direction of Third Street, where our apartment is.”

  I couldn’t think of what to say. A few moments of silence passed. My dad fussed with his makeshift bandage. “Maybe they were able to hide from it,” I said finally.

  “Hopefully. I just wish we were all together.” The man sighed, then searched his pockets, and pulled out an expensive smartphone. “Does your phone work? Mine isn’t powering on, and it was fully charged when I left the office.”

  I dragged mine out and checked it, shaking my head. “It’s dead completely. I can’t even access any of the menu screens.”

  “I wonder if this is their doing. It’s possible that they have the technology to block all of our satellites. If I could just find a way to talk to my wife, find out if they made it.”

  “They’re safe,” I said, trying my best to be comforting. “They’ve got to be.”

  “My name’s David by the way. Not the best circumstances to meet, but we may as well get to know each other while we’re stuck here.”

  “I’m Sam. This is my father, Bruce.”

  My dad nodded to David. I guessed it was supposed to be one of those friendly nods. I had a hard time telling. A part of me missed the old Bruce, who would hungrily strike up conversations with strangers just because he got lonely. That was before his diagnosis. He’d talk to me for hours about all sorts of random stuff. I used to think he just liked to hear his voice prattle on. I wasn’t sure whether the cancer or his life surrounding the cancer made him change. I knew it hurt him to talk too much. He used to try and explain that to people, but he had stopped doing that, even. Explaining got tiring.

  We were quiet for another minute as the whining and clanking noises of the machine settled around us, reminding us how helpless we were.

  It was an uncomfortable surrender. David blinked a few times nervously, as if chasing away any hint of it. He looked at me with the same gleam in his eyes he had previously. “Maybe I shouldn’t ask this, but I’m curious.”

  “Go ahead,” I said.

  “Did you happen to see…them?”

  I shook my head. “Just this stupid machine and the larger one it came out of.”

  David let out a strange chuckle, shaking his head with me. “I don’t think the larger ship we saw was their mother ship,” he said. “What if there are more than one? What if their metal hulls are covering every known surface of the planet?” His glittering gaze disappeared somewhere I couldn’t see.

  “Anything’s possible,” my dad said.

  David slumped back against the wall, careful not to wake Julie. “It’s hard to believe this is actually happening. Our science fiction isn’t so fictitious after tonight.”

  “I used to write about this stuff like this,” I said in a quiet voice.

  “Yeah? I love science fiction. Movies, books, cheesy comic books. My wife thinks I’m crazy.” His mustache curved upward in a smile through the dim light.

  “I can tell,” I admitted. A timid smile crept onto my face as well. I liked David more now that I could sympathize with his bit of craziness. “Never had anything published, but yeah, I love sci-fi too.”

  “Fantastic, a fellow geek! Pretty ironic that both of us got caught up in this metal belly to chitchat about it all, isn’t it?” He paused. “You said you used to write? Why’d you stop?”

  I shrugged, the smile disappearing from my face. “Life happened, I guess. I graduated from college with a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing and then never did much with it. I hope to get back into writing, but it’s hard.”

  My dad grumbled under his breath. I wasn’t sure whether the grumbles were the result of our geek talk or my writer talk. He wasn’t particularly fond of either subject.

  “Life seems to steal the fuel from our jets at times,” David said. “I hope you get back into writing, Sam. The world needs more dreamers.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “I really do miss it.”

  “So which stereotype do you think our aliens belong to? We’ve got our old-fashioned green, slimy dudes with antennae and bug eyes, the gigantic bugs that spew slime, and even the helpless little goo balls living inside impenetrable suits of armor.”

  I had to admit I was thankful for the conversation. My dad and I by ourselves may have let the cacophony of the machine lull us to a state of fearful sleepiness. “Who the hell knows,” I said, “but from the size of their spacecraft, I’d say they’re fairly similar to our size.” I shook my head. “I feel like I’m dreaming, caught in some massive patch of fog.” My eyes opened widely as the last word escaped from my mouth. I thought back to the old woman at Crazy Cluckers. “She was right,” I murmured.

  “Hm?” David asked.

  Before I could answer him, the whirring and groaning of our machine transporter stopped. The three of us exchanged nervous glances as the memory of the crazy lady vanished from my mind. Julie stirred, and David tried to hush her, but the silence startled the traces of sleep away from the little girl. Her bright green eyes darted around our enclosure. Everyone else around us sat up and held their breaths. Simon’s eyes went huge like saucers, his tail fluffing up in apprehension. The silence was deafening as we sat and wondered what was going to happen to us next.

  An echoing, ancient, creaking sound shuddered through the walls around us, like an old door was being forced open. The creak turned into a splintering thud. The device we were in began to whir again as it jolted upwards at an incline. My dad and I were at the very top, and we had no choice but to scoot forward, away from our wall. Simon dug his claws into my thighs and started hissing. I wrapped my arms around him and spun him around, forcing him to sink his claws into the flannel shirt covering my chest. The incline steepened, and we slid down the smooth metal floor toward the front of the machine and its ominous jaws. I winced as waves of pain shot up my back and into my shoulders as we were tossed forward.

  Bruce grunted as he landed on an old lady. The woman barely noticed. Her eyes shone with fear. Simon yowled in my ears. David held Julie close to his chest. She started screaming again as we all fell forward and ended up in a giant pile, directly above the closed jaws of the beast.

  The whir that surrounded us shifted into a roar, and the jaws opened wide, spilling us out of the mechanical beast. We landed with a sickening thud and blare of screams and yowls on a surface that was sturdy, but not as cold as the metal we had just been encased in. A musty darkness closed in on us.

  I glanced up from my position near the top of the pile, hoping for some kind of inkling of where we were or a glimpse of what our captors looked like. The spotlight above the device’s jaw was turned off, as were the blue hover-lights. All I could see was a glint of metal in the gloom. My gaze trailed after the glint, and I saw a narrow tendril of fog streaming in from outside, where the moonlight shone dimly. We were inside another type of enclosure. That single strand of fog called out to me, and I
leaned forward, reaching toward it.

  “Show yourselves!” David screamed.

  Someone below me shoved me off them forcefully, and I flailed off course, shouting out as my shoulder hit the floor. Simon flew off my chest, yowling miserably, and sank his claws back into my thighs. I ground my teeth together to stop myself from screaming out.

  “Watch it! Some of us are hurt!” my dad exclaimed. He leaned against me protectively, and I laid a hand on his, letting him know I was all right. I then reached out and stroked Simon until he lessened his hold to my legs enough for me to pry him off my jeans and back into my arms and the flannel shirt. His yowls shifted back into growls and hisses.

  “Where are we now?” an elderly woman cried, bursting into tears. The same woman Bruce had landed on.

  Julie cried from somewhere nearby. I forced myself to ignore the pain in my shoulder and sat up, trying to discern whether we were inside the larger spacecraft or someplace new entirely.

  It wasn’t much relief, but at least we were still on Earth. The ever-so-slight glow of moonlight was proof of that. I once again felt the need to reach out and brush my hand through the moonlight, gather up the tendrils of fog, and never let either out of my sight again.

  As I shuffled forward, grasping for the evasive wisps of fog, they were taken away from me. The jaws on the machine snapped shut, satisfied that we were all in a desperate pile. It began to roar again, drowning out the cries, screams, and growls around me. The blue lights below it lit up as it hovered into the air, rotated around, and began to exit our new enclosure.

  The eerie glow flashed from the hover panels long enough for me to realize that the moonlight came from a straight-edged doorway. The creaking we heard was a set of metal double doors being forced open.

  I hastily shoved Simon away and lunged toward the doors as the machine backed out of the building. The metallic beast slammed the doors shut with its arm just as it inched away from the opening, leaving me to smash my body against the closed doors. I cried out as pain arched through my body, and the blue light disappeared, along with any trace of the moonlight or the familiar fog.