"The Madness of the Mist"
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Please do not post here yet.
I am only just now putting this idea together.
Feel free to subscribe to the Conversation Thread, though,
and you will be informed of when we are ready.
28 December 2017
The Hampton Center
Hampton, Iowa
Post for Mary Richards:
The Christmas shopping season was finally over, but the mall was no less busy than it had been a week earlier. There were returns and exchanges to be made, gift cards to be burned up, and the after-Christmas liquidation frenzy.
Mary Richards went to the window of her office to look down upon the food court. It was still packed, despite the fact that the vendors stopped serving food at 8pm and there were only 15 minutes left until the mall's 9pm closing.
"Go the hell home," she murmured as she watched the milling crowd. "I can't leave until you're all the hell out of here."
That wasn't exactly true, though. When she'd taken the job as General Manager, Mary had had to make some cuts in Administration and Security. She'd taken a lot of flak from those under her who -- after no pay raises over the past 6 years and a recent hike in their health care costs -- rightfully felt that they were doing more work for less pay day after day.
Mary felt for them, but she had had no choice. She had a boss, too. So, to share the pain, she'd taken over some administration duties, which had added about 8 hours to her already typical 50 hour week; and then she had offered to share the end-of-day tasks with security, which meant that she was now the person to leave the mall, with the exception of the night time guard.
A light knock at the door caused her to turn. The graveyard security officer, Security Sam as they lovingly called the ancient yet still spry Samuel Howard, said with concern, "Ma'am, you should probably head out early tonight. There's a fog coming in from the hills to the west, and it might make your commute home dangerous."
"Thank you, Sam," she replied with a smile. "But I'll finish up with you like usual."
"But--"
She silenced him with a hand raised in a stop gesture. "I'll be fine, Sam. It's just 2 miles."
Sam departed, and Mary collected her things before locking up and heading downstairs to help encourage the stragglers out the doors. But when she arrived at the main floor, she found a large crowd gathered near the mall's main entrance at the food court. They were all facing the glass doors, staring out into the night.
Only it didn't seem like night at all. Despite being after 9pm on a day when the sun had fallen before 5, the sidewalk area beyond the exit seemed more gray than black.
"What's going on?" she asked one of the food court janitors who was just staring at the back of the crowd.
"Mist," the woman said, pointing. "It's, it's thick! Strange."
Mary headed through the crowd, politely asking them to make way for her, and arriving at the glass saw what the janitor had described. Beyond the doors, a slowly swirling fog filled the parking lot, which was unseen beyond the curb of the 20 foot wide sidewalk. She looked around the crowd and saw fearful expressions as they chatted in hushed, concerned tones.
"What's wrong with everyone?" she asked a man with a New Balance name tag that identified him as Alex. "It's just a fog. Mist coming off the reservoir."
"No it's not," he answered. "It came off the hills to the east. But the wind is blowing from the west, off the lake, like it always does this time of year."
Mary looked out the glass again, finding the banners announcing the post season sales blowing just as Alex had suggested.
"And..."
She turned to him, asking, "And what?"
He hesitated, his face almost pale with fear. "There were sounds."
"What kind of sounds?"
Another man nearby said, "Screams!"
Alex clarified, "Like someone was being attacked by someone else."
"Or like someone was attacking someone else," a woman chimed in, "like a wild animal."
Mary looked back to the doors again, and after a moment she laughed, nervously. She didn't believe what the others were telling her, but then she was also sure that there was something strange going on.
She moved to the fountain near the middle of the food court, stepped up onto the granite stones surrounding it, and looked out upon the still gathering crowd. She identified herself, then reassured them that everything was fine.
"Its just a mist, and I'm sure it's fine for you all to go home," she told them. But the fear and uncertainty was obvious in their faces. She added, "However, if you want to stick around until the mist clears a bit, until it's safer for you to drive or walk home, the food court will remain open for another hour, until 10 o'clock."
Some of the patrons moved to find seats, while others just continued to mill about or watch the mist. Mary did the latter for a moment, then returned to her office to find her radio to call for Sam.
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