Who: Carson & Jared Where: Waterfront Fitness When: Early Thursday morning 12/28 Status: complete Warnings: creepy shit
The last sixteen hours had been miserable. Jared hadn't gone home since the fog hit and he'd only gotten a few hours of sporadic sleep back at the station. The radios rarely worked and the longer the fog dragged on, the more his job description changed. People didn't seem to be going out anymore but he and the other deputies had driven around looking for people stranded in their cars. Right now it was important just to be available in case of an emergency since the phones were down. It was deadly cold and their cruisers had good high beams but even then it was hard to get by. Slow was key and the slow was killing Jared. It hurt to look out at the nothingness for long, like it burned his eyes, and getting out of the car was torture. He'd never minded the cold, which people found odd considering he was Texan, but this felt different, like the cold was assaulting the senses and creeping underneath his protective layers.
He tried the radio on the regular and the one in the car occasionally worked but he hadn't heard anything from anyone for the last couple of hours so he was worried about everyone, Ty in particular. He'd planned to stay out another hour but now he just wanted to check in at the station to battle that irrational fear that something was wrong. He hadn't seen a living being for a while and his mind was starting to play tricks on him.
He'd just driven past his gym when he saw something moving ahead of him in the fog. At first he thought it was a truck and somebody was dumb enough to attempt driving. Irritation welled up inside of him. It was damned stupid, taking that sort of chance and he was already thinking about giving them a piece of his mind when it got closer and... That was no car. It didn't move like anything mechanical and as it got closer Jared's blood ran cold. It was a creature, something big, something with claws and fangs. Big didn't do it justice. It was huge. Jared wanted to put the car in reverse and floor it but that wasn't smart when visibility was zero. Instead he watched it come closer, his heart thudding sickeningly fast in his chest as he hoped and prayed it would ignore the car if he just kept still.
It didn't ignore the car. One second Jared was staring up at what was legitimately a monster, the next he was clutching the wheel while metal groaned and cracked and his car was turned upside down. First on the side, then on the roof and Jared fumbled for the seatbelt, feeling like those kids in the first Jurassic Park movie. He did not want to get crushed in here but he really didn't want to go outside either. Being inside a car that was upside down was fucking awkward and he shuffled around and tried to get the door open as the car started slowly spinning. He didn't have time to wonder what the fuck this thing was, it seemed to hate his car and wanted it dead. Jared was not going to be inside it when that happened. He managed to get the door opened and as soon as he found the chance he rolled out of there and stumbled out into the blind, aiming his gun up at the creature. He didn't pull the trigger. All he could think was that if a gun like his would only piss a bear off, it probably wouldn't do much against whatever the hell this was. So he holstered it again and ran, cringing at the screech of metal behind him.
It took him a while to orient himself and a few times he thought he would run straight off the harbor. It didn't make sense, he hadn't been that close to the ocean but the fear was still there and all sense of time and space had been ripped from him. He hit a wall and fumbled his way along it until he found a door. It was the gym and by some miracle the front door wasn't locked.
Carson wasn’t alone in the gym, which was the only thing that made their situation bearable at all. There were three other people trapped at the gym -- another employee and two guests. Only one of whom had gotten a little hysterical so far, which Carson was grateful for. It felt like they’d been locked in by fog for eternity, but Carson knew it hadn’t even been a full day yet. At least they had power, water, and even showers and padded mats to sleep on. There wasn’t much to eat beyond the lunches people had brought and the energy bars the gym sold, but those were holding up well enough for now. Carson was just worried about Rylee.
It was morning again and Carson was lying flat on his back on a lifting bench, staring up at the ceiling and trying to stave off the desire to check his useless phone again, when someone thumped on and then burst through the door. Everyone jumped and Carson bounded to his feet, shocked to see Jared Gaines rush in. He hurried over, already trying to look Jared over for injuries or fingers falling off from frostbite or whatever. “Dude, what the fuck?” he asked.
Jared pulled the thick scarf he'd been wearing away from his face so it was easier to breathe and he seemed to be needing all the oxygen available in there at the moment, gasping in big gulps of it as he pointed to the door and tried to think of a way to calmly tell anyone there was a fucking monster out there. "My car," he panted, shaking his head because no, that wasn't it, that wasn't even close to it. "There's something out there. It flipped my car." He wasn't hurt, he didn't think, a little scraped up maybe but he couldn't feel it and couldn't care at the moment. A dinosaur looking motherfucker had flipped his car. He left his gun in the holster but only because it wouldn't do a damn thing to stop this thing if it tried to get in here. The only thing that might possibly stop it was the size of the door. "Jesus Christ," he breathed. "What the fuck was that."
Carson had never seen Jared look scared. Granted, they hadn’t spent a ton of time together and the guy was a cop, but that just made that look on his face even more unsettling. If the man whose job it was to face horrible shit every day was unsettled ... well, damn. “Something flipped your car?” Carson echoed, his brow furrowing. “You all right? Did you get hurt?” The other people in the gym were inching forward, their attention rapt on Jared. If they’d had any burst of hope when he’d shown up that they were going to be rescued, it was already gone.
“I saw something too,” the lady guest piped up. “Through the window, earlier. I thought ... I thought maybe it was just my imagination. It was big, though.” She glanced around at the rest of them, her tone slightly defensive, like they might start telling her she was crazy.
Jared normally didn't like to tell civilians about whatever horrors he saw out there, he preferred keeping calm and making sure others were oblivious and safe. Today was different in so many ways and he was badly shaken so any sense of calm for the sake of duty was out the window. "Yeah, some thing," he said, ignoring the question because whether he was hurt or not was so not important right now and he was pretty sure he was okay. "Unless this is a fever dream callback to seeing Jurassic Park when I was twelve, then yeah, something is out there, something big enough to flip over a police cruiser." He wanted to call the national guard, get a fucking military in here with armored tanks and big weapons but he couldn't even reach his own police station on the radio so that wasn't going to happen. "I don't know what's going on or what that is but Jesus Christ... It's big." He was staying clear of the doors for now but he couldn't help eyeing them suspiciously from where he was standing. They were too small for whatever that thing was to fit through but he'd seen Cloverfield and what if the Big Thing had Smaller Things with it? "We need to secure all doors and windows," he said hurriedly. "Just in case."
Carson’s face bunched up with confusion when Jared mentioned Jurassic Park. Surely he didn’t mean there was a dinosaur out there. But what the fuck could be big enough to flip over a car? Things had suddenly gotten a lot weirder, and part of him wasn’t sure he wanted to believe it at all. But someone besides Jared had seen something out there, and it was obviously dangerous, no matter what it was. Carson looked around at the inside of the gym. All eyes were on Jared, most of them set in pale, worried faces. “The only other door is locked up,” Carson offered. “So ... secure how?” There was a lot of heavy equipment they could use as barricades, but there was also quite a bit of glass surrounding the front door, so he wasn’t sure how effective that would be.
Jared look around a bit helplessly, realizing everyone was waiting for him to have answers and solutions. It wasn't just the uniform, he was a big and capable man so he'd somewhat gotten used to that look over the years but it was multiplied today and the uniform certainly didn't help. Shaking his head he realized Carson's question held more weight than he cared for. "God damn it," he breathed. "What's the safest spot to be? Locker rooms?" There were no gigantic windows there at least, he knew as much from coming here, but maybe there was a room for the staff he hadn't seen yet.
Carson and the other employee -- Kim, who was cute and only twenty -- exchanged glances. “Yeah uh ... I would say the locker rooms or the employee breakroom, in the back,” he told Jared. “No windows in any of those, a few layers of doors to lock if we need to ...” This was his domain, he was here almost every day, but he felt scarily helpless at the moment, and he definitely was looking to Jared for answers. Everyone else stood up from where they were and shuffled a bit on their feet, ready to move if they were instructed to.
"That sounds good," Jared said, relieved that these people didn't need to be told to get moving. He wanted everyone somewhere safer on the off chance that that thing out there did try to get in. The less chaos and screaming, the better. He gave Kim a little reassuring smile, then grabbed Carson's arm to give it a squeeze. "How have y'all been holding up? Got enough food and everything?" Not that he could do much about it now, not with his cruiser out of commission.
The others started heading for the back, carrying the few personal items they had, and Carson saw Kim grab a few boxes of energy bars from under the counter and load the front of her shirt with bottles of Gatorade from the little cooler. There was more in the back rooms, stock waiting to be put out, but it was nice that she was thinking ahead. Carson refocused on Jared, the grip on his arm giving him an uncomfortable reminder that he’d killed this man’s wife and probably deserved to be pummeled into paste by those strong hands. He did his best to shake it off, since they were in a crisis situation. “I mean, we’ve got tons of water of course, food is pretty limited to protein bars and the vending machine in the back, there’s just not much else,” he said. Carson gave the windows another wary glance. “Do you think it’ll last long enough for us to starve? Jesus.”
"No," Jared said firmly, even if he wasn't sure. Logically this weather wouldn't last that long but there was nothing logical about this fog so who really knew how long it would last. His mind ran away with him, forming plans for the eventuality that they might run out of food and water, how they could get back out there, where they could go. It was premature to be thinking about it so he shook it off for now. "Protein bars and water is not the worst supplies we could have," he added. "Be worse if it was just candy bars and empty calories. Sugar only gets you so far." He started walking after the others but thought better of it, slowing to a halt. "I'm going to do a round, try the radio and see what we're working with here. You wanna hang back? I'll only take a few minutes."
Carson hoped like hell Jared was right about that, because he wasn’t sure he could stand being in this place for days. It had already been too long, and he got filled with dread whenever he thought about Rylee, and things just weren’t going well. He started to go along with Jared, then stopped when he stopped and cocked an eyebrow. “Uh, sure,” Carson answered. He made a small ‘help yourself’ gesture around the gym, then felt like an idiot for it and slipped his hands into his pockets. It would be just his luck to get stuck here with Jared Gaines, so very close to the spot where his life had changed forever and made him a murderer. And now there were different sorts of monsters outside. Fuck.
Like before, Carson's awkwardness could be chalked up to circumstances and Jared didn't pick up on his discomfort regarding his presence at all. He gave him a wan smile before testing the radio and walking out into the main area. It was strange enough to be here with nobody actually working out, knowing what was out there and seeing the fog, thick and heavy against the windows made it all even stranger. The radio crackled and hissed when he pressed the button but that was the only indicator it even worked. He tried more channels but all of them were dead. It was hard not to imagine Ty out there, getting eaten alive by one of those things and he had to really try hard not to go there. Ty was strong and capable and smart, he was okay, Jared needed to cling to that thought and let any other thought go the way of the dodo.
He returned after a few minutes, wishing he had any news but he felt just as lost as before. The shitty thing was he didn't even feel better equipped at dealing with all of this than anyone else in there. He might have a gun and a badge but they didn't do shit against something that size. "Guess we hunker down here a bit," he muttered miserably. At least they had power.
Carson watched Jared walk around for as long as he was visible, his gaze ticking warily to the windows and the front door. If there was something actually monstrous out there, big and strong enough to flip a car, what was to stop it from bursting into the building and fishing them all out like stubborn pieces of candy in a box? Nothing, that was the true answer. It all made him feel sick to his stomach. Why couldn’t his curse have been like in the movies -- under his control, able to be used to defend him and the people he cared about? It was fucking bullshit. He felt about as miserable as Jared sounded when the cop came back to him, and Carson gave a little nod. “It’ll pass,” Carson murmured with a bit of forced confidence. “Everything always does. Just gotta ... wait it out. Doesn’t seem like that thing wants inside, so ...” At least for now. He turned to lead the way into the back where everyone else had gone to hunker.
Jared hoped he was right. They'd all been through so much already, death and injuries, creepy ghost trains, creepy ghost ex wives... He at least felt a little more at ease when they reached the locker rooms. Walking around he'd felt like a giant claw would come crashing through the window to crush him to death but that was stupid because whatever was out there hadn't been that big, but worried minds rarely cared about logic. It was hot inside the gym compared to outside and he pulled off his hat and scarf though he didn't quite feel ready to discard his coat. What if he had to run back out there? The thought was jarring, like running into a burning building was stupid without all the protective measures a firefighter had. He was not equipped for this, jacket or no jacket. Swallowing down that overwhelming urge to do something, he unbuttoned his jacket and removed the radio off his shoulder. "We're safe in here," he said and hoped at least this very reluctant action would make people believe him because he wouldn't be getting comfy if he wasn't sure. "I'll keep trying the radio but right now we just gotta to wait it out."
Waiting it out was their only option, and it was a crappy one. The small group of five tried to keep themselves entertained as the hours crawled past, telling stories about themselves and reading workout magazines none of them were actually interested in. They tried to nap, but the mats were only so comfortable, and a person could only sleep for so long. Carson took a shower for lack of anything better to do. He even tried reaching out to Nic again through their connection, but the other man didn’t have a lot to say. Regularly, they checked the gym proper, making sure the doors stayed locked and the fog was still pressing against the windows. Nothing tried to get in. Carson found himself almost wishing that would happen, that something would happen.
Finally, a long time after night had fallen again and it was clear that they would be stuck there at least for another night, something did happen. Carson was on his back on one of the mats, doing some crunches, when the lights went off. It was like being struck completely blind, and he heard one of their female companions give a little shriek elsewhere in the locker room. Carson sat up, his heart picking up the pace as he heard the air system whir down to a stop, the usual soft white noise replaced by eerie quiet. “Oh shit,” he breathed. That was the opposite of good.
Jared was in the shower when the lights went out and thankfully he had already rinsed off all the soap and was really just standing under the stream of water, his thoughts racing. His heart lurched in his chest when everything went black and he fumbled around to shut off the water. It probably wasn't healthy to be this terrified all the damn time, over and over something seemed to come up that genuinely scared him and he half expected Sadie to show up in the dark, like she had in the Rogan house, bloody and distorted, a horror visage of what she once had been. Nothing happened for those few seconds he stood there deadly still, trying to hold his breath so he could listen. This definitely wasn't good. All day the thought had occurred to him that at least they had power and food but now one of those things was gone and the rest... the rest would run out too eventually. He blindly made his way out of the showerstall, feeling his way around until he found the towels. He didn't even bother to dry off, just wrapped it around his waist and continued feeling his way around until he found the door out of there.
"Hey!" he called out, trying to keep his voice steady. "Anyone out here?" It was so damn dark everywhere but he could see the faint glow of the exit signs that still worked.
Carson was positioned fairly close to the entrance to the showers, and while he knew Jared was in there and he’d heard the water shut off, the sudden voice startled him. He jerked and hissed, then let out a nervous sort of laugh. “Yeah, right here,” he said, standing up. He heard the others answer in the positive as well while he felt around until his hand bumped into Jared. Who was apparently still wet and not dressed. “Shit, sorry,” Carson muttered. He moved his hand to the doorway and left it there, somehow feeling better touching something solid. More grounded in where he was. “Uh ... fuck, well ... we’ve got a flashlight in the office and one under the front desk, at least.” It was the first thing he could think of, getting more light, because the power couldn’t be off for long, right? Or they were really fucked.
Jared didn't normally feel self conscious about his body but tonight it felt a little too vulnerable to be nearly naked and he flinched a little at the touch. Hearing Carson's voice was reassuring, just hearing any other living person would have been. "I have a flashlight in my jacket," he muttered but he had left it out here in the dressing room. His gun was along with his clothes still at the showers and it was probably negligent to leave it there so he figured he should go back there and find it before he did anything else. Lights would be good though, he still felt freaked out. "Do you know what happened?" he asked quietly and it was hard not to wonder if whatever was out there had somehow knocked out the power in the building, however farfetched that was. "No backup generators?"
That was three flashlights, so that was good. Carson had no idea what they were going to do about heat, and part of him was terrified to even think about it yet. He just had to focus on one thing at a time. “No idea,” he said, his own voice low and quiet, following Jared’s lead. “I mean, no idea what happened. We don’t have any generators, I know that for sure.” He sounded regretful about that, and he was. But it was an expense the owner didn’t want to keep up with, he just tended to close the gym when the weather was getting bad, just in case. No need for generators when nobody was there. “I didn’t hear anything weird out there or anything. Should I go check the doors?”
Jared was shaking his head before he even spoke but it was wasted on darkness. "No," he said quickly. "See if you can find a flashlight and we'll work from there. I guess we're all huddling up in one room tonight." Was it only going to get worse from here on? He thought about tomorrow, how maybe he'd end up having to sneak back to the cruiser and get the shotgun from the trunk, try the radio again. How long would supplies even last them? Was that thing still out there. He took a deep breath, tried to calm himself and focus on one problem at a time. Lights. Right now they just needed lights.
“Okay,” Carson murmured. “I’ll uh, I’ll go to the office.” It was in the back too, up the hall from the entrance to the locker room, and Carson knew his way there like the back of his hand. He could hear the others talking, and one of the voices sounded like it was getting louder and more panicked. Jared was probably way better trained than he was for crowd control and calming people down, so he started to feel his way toward the locker room door. “I’ll be back as fast as I can,” Carson said over his shoulder. As he went, he reached out mentally to Nic and Neil and Jules, urgently trying to see if the power had gone out everywhere, or just for them.
Jared was better at that when he was dressed and not close to panicking himself but thankfully someone in there pulled out a cell phone and turned on its flashlight. It wouldn't last but it was still reassuring to see it. "We're safe in here," Jared said loud enough for everyone to hear him. "We'll have some light in a couple of minutes, try and stay calm." He slowly made his way along the wall trying to figure out where he had left his jacket but then thought better of it. It would be easier when Carson returned and he didn't want to go too far from the showers because that was where his gun was. Never leave your gun, it was imprinted into his brain like it had become part of his DNA. Never leave your gun.
His fucking cell phone. Carson banged his palm against his forehead before he dipped his hand into the pocket of his pants and pulled his phone out. The screen was blinding in the dark, and he squinted for a second as he found the flashlight and turned it on. “Fucking idiot,” he whispered to himself. He moved much faster toward the door and then slipped out into the hallway. The rest of the gym was quiet enough to be creepy, and Carson’s stomach was full of knots as he made his way into the office. He found the big flashlight easy enough and grabbed the extra batteries that came with it, then made his way back to the locker room. He was briefly tempted to check the back door, but the idea of going back there in the dark, with who knew what outside ... no. Carson found Jared again and offered the flashlight out.
A proper flashlight calmed Jared more than he expected it to but maybe it was also the fact that Carson returned. There had been a moment where Jared wondered what he would do if this became a horror movie scenario where Carson didn't return and then things only got worse from there. He accepted the flashlight and gestured back to the showers. "Gonna get dressed and then find my flashlight," he muttered and there was no need to mention the gun but it and the radio were also important to him. The radio might not have worked for a long time now but he had to cling to hope. Ty was out there somewhere and he would hear his voice again. He had to.
After a brief flurry of activity to get everyone together and settled with every jacket and hat and pair of gloves and towel they could find to use as blankets, the next few hours gradually shifted from worrisome to miserable. The heat in the building faded very quickly, and while Carson couldn’t tell the exact temperature, he knew it was dipping to dangerous levels. The five of them ended up huddled together in the locker room, sitting on mats and wrapped in as many layers as they could, keeping much closer than they normally would with strangers and acquaintances for body warmth.
Carson ended up with Jared’s side pressed against his, and he wondered vaguely if this was some sort of torture created just for him. Guilt burned in his mostly-empty stomach like acid. He tried to sleep, but it was impossible to get more than a couple minutes of shut eye before he shivered himself awake again. Wasn’t sleeping dangerous in the cold anyway? Was drowsiness a sign of hypothermia? It was hard to remember. The later it got, the more he wondered if they were actually going to survive this, and the more he wanted to tell Jared the truth. It was an insane truth, but that didn’t seem to matter tonight, because they were trapped like sitting ducks in the dark and cold, with fog and monsters outside the walls.
Carson gave Jared a tiny nudge with his arm and looked over at the cop’s profile. “Your phone die yet? Do you know what time it is?” he whispered.
Jared didn't want to move. He'd found some kind of position where he wasn't freezing and moving to pick up his phone meant he might feel the chill again. He'd put the phone on battery saver and tried not to use it too much but it was still at fifteen percent the last time he checked. It felt a bit too much like count down, like his own life expectancy was linked to the battery life of his phone. He huffed a soft breath when Carson whispered to him, not moving just yet but then relenting and with movement as minimal as possible fished the phone out of his pocket. "It's two fifty three," he whispered and it felt like it should be more. They'd been here forever already and he'd been unable to sleep to kill the time. It wasn't just the fact he felt like he should be awake to protect everyone, he just couldn't seem to drift off no matter how tired he was. His thoughts drifted to Ty all the time and when he wasn't thinking of him he was thinking of all the terrible ways this night could end.
Carson didn’t mind that Jared took his time. Time had seemed to lose most of its meaning anyway. There was just an unending parade of worry and misery, it seemed like. There was no real getting warm or comfortable, with everything aching like it was, there was just lesser degrees of being cold. “Shit,” he breathed in answer, pulling one hand out of where it was tucked inside his coat to rub at his face. He fell quiet again for a few long moments, his stomach still churning. Could he die with this on his conscience? Only Rylee knew what he’d done, and that was how it should stay, right? He’d sworn to himself he would take it to his grave, but now that he was potentially headed that way much sooner than he thought ... “Hey, uh ...” Carson started. He licked his lips, but that just made them cold, so he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “You find out anyth--”
"Shhh," Jared whispered, raising his head in sudden alertness. "Do you hear that?" He furrowed his brows as he listened, trying to block out the sounds of people breathing and moving around them. He didn't need to focus too hard because the sound he thought he was hearing grew louder and he couldn't help but wonder if this was like the train thing. It was too insane to be real. A jaunty and slightly out of key song was playing, rising in volume like it was getting closer to the gym. It sounded like an ice cream van but that was impossible in this fog. The song was interrupted by a mechanical and creepy voice joyfully sputtering 'hello', then the song resumed and Jared looked at Carson, his expression one of pure freaking out. "Please tell me you can hear that."
At first Carson didn’t hear it, his brow furrowing as he stared hard at Jared’s face. What he could see of it, anyway. But then the sound filtered in to him too, and an extra chill ran down his spine. It was beyond eerie, the happy notes reminiscent of hot summer days instead of freezing fog. “Yeah,” he breathed in answer, the horror on Jared’s face mirrored on his own. “Is that a fucking ice cream truck? What the fuck.” It wasn’t really a question, because he knew there was no answer for it. Was it some sort of weird rescue mission? A weird way to draw people outside? The awful feeling it gave Carson made him think it wasn’t anything friendly.
Rage shot through Jared and for a few seconds it almost felt like it was warming him up. He'd had it with this fog, with the ghosts, with all the terrible things life kept throwing at him. Now something else was out there and it felt like it was taunting him. "Stay here," he whispered. "Close the door behind me and push the blanket back." They had sealed the room as best they could, knowing a smaller space would be easier to keep warm. There just weren't many small spaces in the gym to begin with. The anger passed as quickly as it consumed him, or at the very least mixed with faint hope. "Maybe the fog lifted or... or someone is trying to communicate." It was a possibility with the phones and radios down, maybe this was the only way someone could reach out.
Those were thoughts Carson had too, but his pessimism was pretty sure that wasn’t the case. If the fog had lifted, people couple come to the door, and he hadn’t heard any knocking yet. Just that creepy ass music. It was still going, loud enough that he thought the source was right out in front of the building. The idea of Jared going out there alone sent a wave of alarmed discomfort through him, and Carson gripped at his arm. “No, don’t-- let me go with you,” he whispered urgently. “Buddy system, right?” Maybe it was ridiculous, but Carson had the strong feeling that if Jared went out there alone, he just wouldn’t come back. It was equally possible that neither of them would come back, but Carson couldn’t stand that uncertainty. Without giving Jared a chance to decide, he started to get to his feet.
Jared almost pulled his Authority voice to insist Carson stay behind. There were other people there who would be helpless if something happened to both of them. But - and he would be loathe to admit this - he was scared and having someone at his back would help. Buddy system. "Just stay behind me," he muttered as he got to his feet and fuck, that was hard. His body ached and argued that he should stay very still, it was the few bruises he'd obtained when his car rolled bitching and complaining but truly it was his whole body feeling cold. So moving was probably a good thing and he wouldn't be doing Carson any favors making him stay here. "Don't open any doors or windows," he whispered and it was probably unnecessary. As far as he knew Carson was a smart guy but he had seen smart people do stupid things so it was still worth mentioning. "Just follow my lead." He strapped the radio to his shoulder and made sure the gun was secure. He might not need the radio but it could still be useful in making a noise if it came to that. Jared really hoped they'd go out there and find the fog gone. Then at least they could all get into someone's vehicle and get somewhere safe - maybe.
Carson shot him an incredulous look at that warning -- as if he would do something that fucking stupid -- but he let it go. His own body hurt from the cold as he got himself upright, but he knew that moving around would be good for them. His stump ached more than anything, the skin inside his prosthetic burning and itching with phantom pain. It always got worse when he was under physical strain and hadn’t eaten or slept well. He could still hear the weird warble of the ice cream music as he followed Jared out of the office area. No one asked where they were going, though he heard some murmurings among the others. Carson’s hands were gripping the cuffs of his jacket sleeves and he felt like he had to look everywhere at once as they made their way down the hall toward the gym proper.
Jared was very thankful for his winter work uniform as it gave him a lot of protection from the cold but it still wasn't enough and he felt pretty miserable as they made their way through the dark gym. Everything about this night felt unnatural and it was weird enough to be in the gym when it was this dark without everything else that was going on. The music stopped, that eerie mechanical voice going 'hello' again and when the music started up again it moved away too fast for it to be a car in the fog. And there was still fog, there was no mistaking that from what little Jared could see out the windows. "Just so we're clear," he whispered, feeling a little defeated now. "You heard the... ice cream truck too?" Carson had said as much but Jared needed the verification. Next up train sounds, then possible some perversion of Sadie's memory. He was losing his fucking mind.
It took work not to cling to Jared as they moved. It was dark as pitch outside, and with the power off it was hard to tell, but Carson was pretty sure the fog was still there. Which just made the ice cream truck even more eerie. Especially with how fast it was moving, like it was driving normally through all that. Fuck, this got more nightmarish all the time. He glanced up at the cop’s shadowed face and nodded. “Heard it loud and clear,” he whispered back. “Like some ... fucking ... ice cream truck from hell.” Carson didn’t have any better words for it. It didn’t make any sense for something like that to even be gassed up this time of year. “Maybe the fog brought the crazies out? I dunno how the fuck they’re not crashing into everything.” And where was the monster to flip that damn truck over?
Jared shook his head. There were no logical explanations for any of the things that happened and it was breaking his brain. Maybe it would be reassuring to know it was just him who was going insane, they had medications for that, right? But it was reassuring that he wasn't, that it was just some supernatural and possibly lethal bullshit. What's wrong with me? he thought because really, insanity was the better option out of the two. "I don't think it's anything of this world," he whispered. "Maybe it's linked to the fog too. Maybe it's the same thing, trying to lure us out there." He could think of better ways to lure him outside and he was thankful he wasn't hearing those particular things right now, hearing a loved one call out to him would be far more jarring than some creepy tune. "We can't stay in here forever," he muttered. "Come morning, if the fog doesn't lift, we're going to have to do something."
Even with everything he’d been through, everything he’d seen, the phrase ‘not of this world’ still unsettled Carson. He was something not of this world -- at least not the world that most people knew about. But whatever the hell was going on outside made turning into a werewolf seem tame in comparison. That thought reminded him that he only had a handful of days before that happened again. What if they were still stuck by then? What if his safe haven had been destroyed? Nic and Zania and Vex and Lem all gone? Carson was starting to freak out a bit, his breathing getting heavier in the quiet dark, the possibility of going wolf and slaughtering four more people almost more terrifying than the shadow monsters in the fog. If it got to be full moon time and they hadn’t escaped, he would do something, he resolved. Go outside and run as far as he could get. Steal Jared’s gun and shoot himself. Something. He couldn’t have more deaths on his conscience. “Like what?” he asked Jared, his voice breathy and unsteady. “Make a run for it?”
Jared shook his head again because no, he was not running out there with four people in tow just to watch them get slaughtered by something. "I'm thinking," he muttered as he inched his way to one of the windows to try to get a better look outside. It was colder out here in the larger hall but it still felt good to be up and moving, even if it was terrifying. "If I can make it to the cruiser there's a shotgun in the trunk. There are some emergency supplies too and the car radio worked on and off unlike this one." He tapped the one on his shoulder. "If I go alone I can move quick and quiet, maybe that thing will be gone by then." There was a restless feeling inside of him that wanted him to go now but morning was better and there was still a chance this damn fog might clear up by then. "If we're not sure, maybe you guys can try to distract it while I run."
Even though he was supposed to stay close to Jared, Carson hung back away from the window. It was all too easy to imagine a huge clawed hand bursting through it out of the fog. Or, fuck, some kind of tentacle or something. He looked a bit alarmed at Jared’s plan, his eyes widening a touch in the dark. How the fuck did you distract a monster without putting yourself in a bunch of danger? “Can you even get back to your car?” he asked. Carson wasn’t keen to argue with a cop, but Jared was a good guy and he didn’t want to see him get eaten or some shit. Or just disappear into the fog to never be seen again. A tiny and shitty voice whispered that would be an answer to his problem, but Carson pushed it down.
"I know where it was," Jared muttered. "I'll have to think this through and figure out the quickest and easiest way to get there." He couldn't see anything outside, just darkness and fog. The ice cream truck or whatever the hell that had been was now gone and it was eerily quiet out there. "I'm thinking about this as a last resort. We can't spend another night here." He looked back at Carson, sighed quietly and then tried his radio again. Just one more time, that's what he thought every time he tried it. Maybe this time it'll work. It didn't and that pit in his stomach just felt like it was getting deeper with every minute that ticked by.
It was one thing to know where it was in the fog, it was another to get there and back safely. The visibility was so bad, he could see someone getting turned around and lost in it very easily. But there was something in Jared’s face that made him not want to say so. “Last resort,” Carson agreed quietly. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, he really hoped the fog was gone and the power was back on in the morning. If it wasn’t, in spite of his concern, Carson knew his tune might change on the subject of Jared going back out there. The cold sucked, but his stomach was okay for now, and not having that always changed things for people. The lack of response on the radio didn’t surprise him, but it was still mildly disappointing. “We’ll see what the sunrise does,” he murmured. “C’mon, let’s go back and warm up again.”
Jared knew he wouldn't sleep tonight. He'd go over it in his head, over and over, how to best get to the car, what he could do once he was out there, how he'd get back. Then what? Get the others safely away from the gym? How? Maybe if the radio worked he could get help but whatever was out there had flipped his cruiser like it was nothing. What kind of vehicle could they get that could withstand that sort of assault? Could he shoot that thing if he had a shotgun? Could they get the military to show up in Point Pleasant to help? He nodded a bit numbly and stepped away from the window, reluctant to turn his back on the glass. "Just a few more hours," he whispered and he needed to believe it for now, to get through the night.