"Can I eat it, Daddy? Can I? Please! I'm hungry!" little Bobby refused to remain silent in the back seat of the family car. This trip didn’t unfold the way John and his wife Sarah had hoped it would. First, they lost an entire day when their GPS led them to the middle of nowhere and they had to spend hours searching for their campsite. Then the campsite itself turned out to be nothing like the website advertised – instead of a well-prepared holiday spot, they arrived at a dirty and neglected glade that had neither running water nor electricity. To top it all off Julie, one of their two daughters, came down with fever and so they were now returning home – tired and annoyed, with three bored and unruly children in the backseat.
“Robert, let your father drive, he has to concentrate on the road” Sarah always used the kids’ full names when she was angry “And no, you cannot eat that chocolate. Just wait a few more minutes and I’ll fix us something good for dinner when we get home”. “But I’m hungry now!” complained the boy.
“Bobby” John’s voice was tired and resigned “Listen to your mother. Look at Becky. I’m sure she’s as hungry as you are but she’s not complaining. Do you want to be beaten by a girl, champ?” playing on his son’s male ambition usually worked, except for those times when… “John!” he winced as he heard his wife’s indignant tone. “I don’t think that’s something you should be encouraging in him, John” “Well, I don’t know about you” her husband retorted, anger rising in his voice “but I want our son to grow up to be a man and not some kind of pussy!” He put more pressure on the pedal and took that last turn just a little too aggressively. They were driving up the last hill they needed to climb before they would see the town. Sarah’s eyes widened in sanctimonious shock. “John!” she started “Not in front of the chi...” “Quiet!” he interrupted her sharply. She was just about to forget about the children and give him a piece of her mind when she saw why he had silenced her.
What was normally a gently sloping plain that met the ocean was now covered in a thick veil of white mist that rose hundreds of metres into the air. The town was completely obscured. The border between this nebula and the rest of the world was eerily distinct. John slowed down, turned on the fog lamps and drove into the milky vapour. “Weird” he thought when he looked at the bonnet “It’s like the damn thing is clinging to the car”. He tried to dismiss this as just a phantasm but the feeling of uneasiness that it gave him remained.
“What is it, Daddy?” ask Bobby. He didn’t seem frightened, just confused. He was at an age when he was still mostly unaware of how the world functioned. And how dangerous it could be. “I don’t know, champ” responded his father “Turn on the radio, honey” he turned to his wife “Maybe they’re saying something about it” Sarah pushed the button without a word of protest. The argument that was about to explode just a minute ago was thousands of kilometres away – just behind the border they had just crossed.
The radio icon lit up but all they could hear was static. “Try another station” he asked. She did try another. And then another and another. “Strange” she said “They’re all gone. What do you think happened, Johnny?” “I don’t know” he responded “Maybe radio towers are malfunctioning because of this fog?” She knew by the tone of his voice that it was just a wild guess. Her husband had no idea what was going on and that scared her more than the whole situation. “Anyway” he went on “We should be reaching the town about now. We’ll ask somebody, maybe they know” he accelerated. The fog seemed to thin and he wanted to get out of it as soon as possible. For some reason he assumed that it would be less condensed in the town’s streets. At any rate, they would at least find out what was going on. Somebody had to know something.
“Can I eat it now, Mommy? I’m so hungry!” Bobby started again. He seemed to have adapted to the unusual state of things quit quickly. “Not now, Bobby!” said John dismissively “Mommy’s gonna fix you something lat…” he didn’t finished as the car jumped suddenly. He slammed on the brakes. “Did we run something over, John? A dog” Sarah’s voice was trembling. “I hope not” he said “Stay here, I’ll check”. He unfastened his seatbelt and halted. His heart was pounding. “What’s going on?” he thought to himself. The overall situation was far normal, to be certain, and the possibility of mowing some poor animal down was nothing pleasant but John felt just a few steps away from panicking. This was not normal.
He took a deep breath making a conscious effort to come down. Sarah looked at him worried “Everything ok, honey?” she put her hand on his forearm. He looked at her with what he hoped was a reassuring expression “Yes. I just felt… funny. Nothing to worry about, darling” he smiled at her and look back at the kids. Bobby and Becky were sitting still, probably a bit scared by their parents’ behaviour. They felt that something was wrong, even if they didn’t understand what or why. Julie had been sleeping all this time. “That’s probably for the best” thought John and got out of the car. He didn’t see Julie open her eyes. He didn’t see that her eye-sockets were empty.
John gazed around. The fog was so thick that when he extended his arm, his fingers were obscured. He felt a chill pass through him. “Keep it together!” he whispered. He had to be strong for Sarah and the kids. John knelt on one knee and cautiously looked under the car. “Honey!” he said loudly “Don’t worry! It’s just some branch! Nothing to worry about! Just a stupid old bra…” his last word was interrupted by Sarah’s shriek of terror. “Oh my God! Julie… Julie! No!”
John sprung up. His panicked eyes swept over the car’s interior. Bobby was seemed to have fallen asleep alongside Becky. Only… only some black liquid was oozing from under their eyes and slowly trickling down their cheeks. A struggle in the front caught his attention. Sarah was writhing frantically and embracing Julie. No… Not embracing. Desperately trying to pull away because her daughter had bitten into her neck and didn’t want to let go.
John froze for a second that felt like an eternity. His wife was screaming but his baby didn’t utter a sound. She just really wanted to rip her mother’s throat with her teeth. “Sarah!” he screamed waking up from his trance when he saw a shadow in the corner of his eye. The world went dark.
When he came to, the car was empty. Sarah’s seat was spluttered with blood. He looked around in panic and called out for his family, but nobody answered him. Suddenly he noticed something. Some of the fog had dissipated. Right in front of him was a clear passage that led towards the ocean. John looked that way and for just a moment some shadow flickered on the horizon.
“Sarah! Bobby! Becky! Julie!” he screamed and rushed towards what he though was his family. He ran and ran, too focused to realise that the mist was swallowing the corridor behind him. Something wanted him to go that way. Something wanted him to go towards the ocean. He didn’t register any of it and even if he had, he wouldn’t have cared. All he wanted was to find his family.
Finally he reached the quay. Panting, he raised his hand to shade his eyes. The setting sun was shining right at him. It took a second for his sight to adapt and then he saw it. A behemoth of a ship had torn its way into the wharf crushing all the boats and yachts in its way and ending up with half of its hull ashore. The plating was badly damaged and the whole craft looked battered and neglected.
John scanned the fuselage for a moment and then he saw something. His heart stopped. Sarah was leading the kids towards the ship. They were heading for a big fissure, certainly large enough for a grown woman and three children to go through.
“Sarah! Stop! Sarah!” he shouted repeatedly as he darted towards them but it was too late. They boarded this strange and ominous ship. John reached it a minute later. He stopped just before what looked like a filthy orifice on a body of a lumbering leviathan. He reached for the edge to climb inside. He touched the metal. It was freezing cold. So cold, that when he moved his hand to reaffirm his grip, he felt his flesh had stuck to the surface for a second. There was something else he felt. He slowly turned his head and saw that neither the town nor the quay were visible. The fog had swallowed both of them and halted a few centimetres from him as if urging him to proceed. And so he did. He had no choice.
The interior was dark. John extended his arm and slowly advanced. Every step was accompanied by a wet splash but it wasn’t water that covered the floor. It was something viscous, like tar, because he had to make an effort every time he raised his feet. After a few paces he encountered resistance. Unsure of what he had touched he groped around and then inhaled in horror. For a second he couldn’t move. Before he could make himself do anything the lights inside the ship came alive. Cold illumination gradually flooded the area around him until he could see what he knew was around him.
Cold, desiccated bodies where hung in rows like animal carcasses in a slaughterhouse. He looked around with wide eyes. He recognised the faces. Those were his neighbours. His friends. And there were hundreds of them here, maybe thousands. Perhaps even the whole town. This… This was…
“Daddy!” Bobby’s voice woke him from his stupor. “Daddy! I’m hungry!” the sound was coming from further on. John followed it. He bumped into the corpses as he went by, trying to forget about the revulsion and horror he was feeling. All he wanted was to find his family and keep them safe. He saw them.
They stood in a small space surrounded by husks of the town dwellers, a grotesque glade surrounded by a phantasmagorical forest. He came out to them from between the bodies. Sarah was holding Julie in her arms, his wife’s neck a bloom of torn flesh, his daughter’s mouth still caked in blood and tissue. Bobby and Becky were standing next to their mother.
John looked at his wife and his children. Their eye sockets were empty. They looked at him with their empty eyes, each a hollow abyss of blackness. He slumped to his knees trying his best not to be paralysed by despair, feeling a paroxysm of horror and disbelief welling up inside him.
Little Bobby left his mother’s side and slowly walked towards him, each step sending a soggy echo into the semi-gloom around them. He’s unseeing eyes met his father’s gaze. “I’m hungry, daddy!” he said. “Can I eat you, daddy?”
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