Caroline’s head whipped up at the sound of the scream. She was one of the first out of the conference room, sprinting towards the sound while the others were still getting a handle on having yet another thing to deal with.

  Oliver was next out the door, and Laura kept pace right behind.

  Another scream—it was definitely coming from outside the hotel.

  “I thought you said there weren’t any other people here,” Laura said as they jogged down the hallway.

  “We didn’t think there were,” Oliver said. “None of us have seen anyone else out on the boardwalk.”

  They slowed down as they reached the sliding doors that led outside. On the boardwalk outside a half dozen people were being attacked by the gulls.

  Four of them were off to the side, swatting off a stray attack here and there. The majority of the swarm were focused on a small young woman and a man. They threw rocks at the gulls and dodged the swarm while the other four gave pointers. Everyone cheered when the woman scored a direct hit and a gull went down. “Alright, Hannah!” one of the onlookers yelled, cheering her on. The man screamed when the remaining enraged gulls started to dive bomb him in unison. He grabbed a golf club that had been leaning against a bench and started swinging, knocking birds out left and right.

  When it became clear that the group was holding their own against the birds, Oliver, Laura, and Caroline headed outside. The others who had followed from the conference room held back just inside the sliding doors.

  “Hey,” shouted one of the four onlookers. “Other people!” He peeled off and jogged over to them with a big smile. He introduced himself as Russell. “Did you also get the whole deal from our creepy floating friend?”

  “Yeah, definitely not my typical wake up call,” Oliver said. “We’re grabbing what we can and we’ve got a couple of us who are going to try and make it to the exit.”

  “We woke up in the Boardwalk Suites over there,” Russell said, pointing towards the right end of the boardwalk at the hotel closest to where the park entrance would be. Now that they were outside, Laura could see that there were three hotels in their little segment of boardwalk walled in by the towering masses of fogs at either end. “Just getting in a bit of practice before we head in.”

  The gulls had gone back to attacking Hannah, who was crouched shielding her head. She’d run out of rocks. Laura watched the patterns as the group wheeled around in unison. The gulls were unusually coordinated in their attack. “Watch out!” Laura said, pointing at the group preparing to swoop at Hannah.

  The man near Hannah dropped his golf club and grabbed a rock that had rolled near his foot and hurled it at the diving birds. It slammed into a gull at the front of the group with a spray of blood, knocking it away from Hannah’s head, and causing the rest of the group to scatter. He raised his arms in victory. “Yes, Mitch! Nice!” Russell shouted, clapping his hands.

  “Good looking out!” Mitch shouted back at Laura, giving her a thumbs up.

  The gulls finally wheeled off, cutting their losses. A third of the birds now lay dead or stunned. Hannah collapsed to sit on her butt, wiping the sweat off her face. She wrinkled her nose and wiped her sleeve at some bird excrement that had dripped down her shoulder.

  “Fancy swinging there,” Oliver said to Mitch, as he strolled over with the club slung over one shoulder.

  “Mini-golf putter,” Mitch said, hoisting it up. “Nabbed it from a little course connected to our hotel. Not too shabby, eh?” He gave it another jaunty swing and it made a whistling sound as it cut through the air. “Better than nothing anyway. So where’d you all come from?”

  “The Coastal Inn.” Laura pointed back to their hotel in the middle of the three buildings. “Any sign of life over there?” She pointed at the last place, Motel on the Boardwalk, at the far end.

  “Haven’t seen anything,” Russell said. “Not that we’ve been out here very long. Speaking of,” he glanced back towards where a handful of gulls were still circling. “We probably shouldn’t hang around too long.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted back to the rest of his group. “Ready to go?”

  A stern, compact woman with short silver hair was helping Hannah up off the ground. The woman looked like an older, even shorter version of Hannah. Hannah dusted herself off, then gave Russell a thumbs up.

  Both groups walked to the right towards where the park entrance would be. The wall of fog loomed larger.

  Up close it was even more clear how abnormal it was. With ordinary fog, as you got closer you regained some visibility, even if it wasn’t very far. But even close up there was absolutely nothing discernible within it, just swirls of gray. The sole exception was a wide arching doorway shape that looked more liquid and viscous than the rest.

  That must be the entrance.

  “Think it’ll hurt?” Mitch asked as the six of them huddled near the entrance, while Laura, Caroline, and Oliver hung back to watch. Hannah pressed her hand into the surface of the doorway, the pads of her fingers just barely sinking in before she pulled it back. “Feels okay,” she said. “Kind of cold.” She went over a few feet outside of the entrance, and rapped her knuckles on the fog wall.

  Russell stepped to the front of the group, then turned and said, “See you guys on the other side, I guess.” Then he turned back and stepped into the fog.

  It was like he was sinking into a pool of mercury. The minute a part of him entered the fog it was completely indiscernible, like it had been cut off. He didn’t scream, just shivered a little. Laura remembered Hannah’s comment about it feeling cold. A strange flickering staticky sound accompanied every movement into the liquid fog and the entire wall flickered with different colors. And then he completely disappeared into the doorway.

  Hannah was about to step in next when Laura said to her, “You were able to pull your hand back out.” Hannah turned to look at her. “Can you see if you’re able to come back again once you’re all the way through into the parks?”

  Hannah nodded, gave a little salute, then jumped into the fog with a little whoop.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  The others waited. The silver haired woman stared especially intently at the wall. Patterns swirled in the gray, almost looking like fingers extending and grasping, but it was just Laura’s mind attempting to make sense of the patterns. No sign of Hannah. The minutes ticked by.

  “One way trip,” Caroline said, grimly.

  The four remaining members of the Boardwalk Suites group looked at each other.

  “Guess you have to be pretty sure you want to go in,” Laura said.

  One of the group turned to the other and said, “That change anything for you?”

  The other shrugged. “It’s either go in or stay stuck here.”

  They both walked into the fog, leaving Mitch and the silver haired woman as the last of their group.

  Mitch started panicking. “Oh god,” he said. “Oh shit. What if they just died. How do we know we’re actually going anywhere when we step in there?”

  The woman grabbed his hand and pulled Mitch in along with her.

  “Wait,” Mitch said, still talking as they hit the fog. “What if we’re only supposed to go in one at a time, what if we’re a jumbled mess when we get to the other—” His voice cut off abruptly as he disappeared in the fog.

  Laura, Oliver, and Caroline watched the patterns in the fog drift in front of them. Laura glanced at Oliver to see if he was second guessing anything. Instead he was bouncing slightly from foot to foot, laser focused on the fog like he was already mentally preparing.

  “Holy shit,” Caroline said, voice overly loud in the still air. “You guys. My phone’s working.” She turned her phone to show them. The screen was crammed with new notifications. Caroline tapped on one and then her fingers flew over the screen. She paused and stared intently, biting on her fingernails as she waited. Then she shook her head. “Fuck. No service again.”

  Laura checked her own phone. She also had a wall of notifications.

  Where are you? (From Danny.)

  Pictures of news coverage he’d sent her showing a dome of fog encasing the entirety of Adventureland Parks and their portion of the boardwalk. Emergency vehicles attempting to access the dome but being unable.

  Please tell me you’re not there.

  Missed calls from her mom and her dad.

  And then from Danny one last text. Just, I love you.

  Oliver sagged with relief, looking at his own phone. “Oh thank god. Sofia and Teddy.”

  A gull screamed overhead.

  Oliver craned his neck back. A handful of gulls were circling high overhead, eyeing them. “Maybe we should get back inside,” he said.

  A few hours later, Laura watched Oliver step up to the fog. Joel, Brett, and Agnes with her backpack stuffed to the brim queued up to step through next.

  Laura stood nearby with her phone clutched in her hand watching as Oliver dipped his hand into the fog. Since they’d successfully received messages when the first group had gone through the door, she and Caroline were back outside as their own group prepared to go through, hoping it was a chance to get in contact with the outside world.

  As soon as Oliver pressed through into the fog Laura hit the call button. The phone rang.

  A gull screamed overhead as the phone continued to ring. Laura glanced up nervously. They’d managed to sneak past the gulls and had made it to the far end of the boardwalk without triggering an attack by sticking close to the buildings, but the noise they were about to make was bound to draw their attention sooner or later.

  Please pick up, please.

  “Laura?” Danny’s frantic voice was on the other end. “—you?” The call cut out briefly as Oliver disappeared into the fog.

  “Danny!” she yelled as Brett entered next. “I’m alive! We’re all alive.” She yanked the phone from her ear and jabbed the send button on a video she’d taken of them at the hotel, of the boardwalk and the fog. Hopefully he could pass it on to various news agencies and give a small window into what was happening inside the fog. And others would know their trapped loved ones were still alive.

  Caroline stood a few feet away also speaking rapid fire into her phone. “Mom, I love you! Tell dad—”

  Laura yanked her phone back up to her ear. “They’ve trapped us here.” Even if she knew who “they” were she wouldn’t have had time to explain. She glanced up at the gulls again. There were more now. She tried moving away towards the entrance to the Boardwalk Suites, but the call threatened to cut out as she got too far from the entrance gate. She retreated back to where Caroline was pacing with her phone.

  “Right now most of us are in the hotels nearest the park,” Laura said. “Some of us have to go into the parks and fight our way to an exit—”

  The gulls attacked. Wings beat around her head and a large speckled gull knocked the phone from her hand. It skittered away on the boardwalk planks.

  She turned and grabbed the rock she’d been carrying out of her pocket and threw it at the speckled gull. The rock harmlessly bounced off the gull’s side.

  Warning: You have not distributed your stat points yet. Your current stats are too low to affect this mob.

  Laura swore. None of them had distributed their points yet since Oliver had suggested it might be better to wait until they saw what they were facing in the parks. Laura lunged for her phone but it was surrounded by gulls who sliced a gash in her hand the minute she grabbed for it.

  Joel and Agnes had stopped the moment they heard the attack, and they now backed away from the fog, dodging the bird attacks as they waited to see if they could buy some time for them to finish their calls.

  Laura turned and sprinted towards the Boardwalk Suites.

  “Where are you going?” Caroline screamed after her.

  Laura ignored her and pelted towards the sliding doors. She skidded to a stop so she wouldn’t smack into them as they leisurely drifted open. “Come on, come on!” she yelled at the doors.

  There had to be something, somewhere in here…. A tray of cookies sat on the lobby desk. That’ll work! Laura snatched up the tray, and ran back towards the doors, losing several cookies in the process.

  Caroline had reached over the side of the boardwalk and was digging into the sand with one of her hands, flinging handfuls of sand at the gulls. At best it was mildly pissing them off. “Come at me, fuckers!” Caroline yelled at them, clutching her phone in her other hand. One of the gulls nipped at her hand, trying to grab her phone, and she punched it in the head. It looked stunned.

  Laura shouted, “Heads up!” And flung the tray of cookies as far away from them as she could across the sand.

  A message popped up in the middle of her vision.

  You have successfully distracted these mobs.

  The gulls veered away and started to dive bomb the cookies, any semblance of order breaking down to infighting over food.

  Laura snatched up her phone. Joel nodded at her, and pushed his hand into the fog.

  The call had dropped. Laura dialed again.

  “Can you hear me?” Laura yelled into her phone as soon as Danny picked up.

  “Yes,” Danny said. It sounded like he was crying.

  “I love you. I will see you again.” One more thing occurred to her. “Also don’t tell my parents!”

  Joel tried to slow down his entry into the fog, presumably to buy them more time, but seemed to have difficulty breathing once his chest entered. He disappeared into the fog completely. Agnes stepped up next. They were running out of people.

  “What?” Dannny said. “They already know where you are—”

  “No, I mean don’t tell them I’m pregnant! I didn’t get the chance! It’ll only make them worry more.”

  Another message popped up in her vision.

  Warning: Mobs have been buffed. Constitution and strength have both increased to 3.

  Warning: Mobs have entered state “frenzy”. Strength of all attacks will be doubled for the duration.

  Maybe feeding them hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

  Danny said. “I love you too. Please just—”

  Searing pain made her drop the phone. Her health bar dropped precipitously, as she shook off the bird that had latched onto her hand. She scooped up the phone and started sprinting back to the Coastal Inn. Caroline was right behind her. Wings flapped all around her, something tore at her ear and she felt warm liquid spill down the side of her face.

  Please what? Stay put? Be careful?

  A few people were crowded around the lobby doors. They must have turned the sliding doors off off so they could peer out at what was going on without having to be exposed to anything outside. The older man was at the front, and as they came barreling towards the doors he heaved them open just wide enough. Laura and Caroline slid through into the lobby and someone else crashed the doors back together and threw the lock.

  Birds thumped into the glass, leaving streaks of blood. The glass cracked but the doors held.