Flash Master 002: "Fog"

James and Annette Burgess were not speaking to each other as they rode along through the thick fog.

James drummed his fingers on the leather wrapped steering wheel in a manner more or less designed to annoy Annette. They were on their way home from a dinner party and, as usual James had refused to leave until Annette was furious.

For Annette’s part, she was stretched across the cream colored, leather seat looking uncomfortable and clutching at her purse. Jim’s little chat was going to going to cost them twenty dollars with the baby sitter and the sitter had been threatening to quit if

they didn’t start showing up on time.

Outside the yellow Crown Victoria, the white walled tires crunched their way down wet, fog shrouded streets. The fog was thick and still, rolling in off the bay with a sound like a muted stereo.

The windshield wipers clacked back and forth intermittently. Jim stopped his drumming to flip on his blinker. The fog was so thick that the air on the front left of the car lit up yellow but the road wasn’t revealed. A white wooden sign, barely visible,

indicated they were turning onto Bay Shore Drive. For once, Bay Shore Drive really led down along the shore of the bay. In better weather it was a beautiful ride with the beach on the right and a gently sloping cliff face on the left.

They had been driving down Bay Shore for about three minutes when the car ground to a halt.

“What happened?” Annette asked, sitting up.

“I don’t know.” Jim turned the ignition but the car was already running. He stepped on the gas. The car moved forward a few feet but then stopped again after a quick squealing of tires.

“Did we hit something?” Annette asked, peering into the fog over the dashboard.

“I don’t think so. Wait here.” Jim stepped out of the car leaving the door open so that the dome lights would be on and inadvertently giving free reign to the bonger that bonged whenever the door was open.

He noticed immediately that the front end of the car was set much lower than the rear.  As he moved toward the front, he found he was moving through fog so thick it was heavy and hard to push through. Just as he was reaching the front of the car, struggling

against the weight of the fog, the grill popped out of the Crown Victoria and clattered to the ground. A second later the right head light shattered.

“Holy...” Jim turned and practically swam back to the car door as the shocks groaned and the front end of the car settled toward the ground.

“What is it?” Annette asked as he dove back into the driver’s seat.

“I don’t know Anne, some kind of fog.” Jim answered, slamming the car into reverse and mashing the gas pedal.

“Fog?” Anne asked as the rear wheels whined on the pavement.

Jim threw his door open again and watched his rear tires spin helplessly under the weight on the front end. “Yeah. It’s some kind of super dense fog or something.” The left headlight shattered leaving them with only the running lights in front. “Come on,

we’ve got to get out of here.” He grabbed his briefcase out of the back seat and climbed back out into the night. The fog had grown so thick that it pushed his head and shoulders down making him walk like a hunchback.

“Jim. I am not getting out of this car until you explain to me just what the hell is going on.”

The paint on the hood was flying off in spidery lines as the metal was pressed down into the underlying supports. The left front tire popped.

Jim stuck his head back in the door. The bonger was still bonging. “For the love of God Anne, just get out of the car.”

“Jim, I am...” The windshield shattered showering Anne with glass and the dashboard collapsed pinning her legs. She screamed hysterically.

“Hold on honey.” Jim shuffled around the back end of the car under the oppressive weight. He found his wife’s door had popped open but that she was stuck firmly in her seat.

“Oh Jim.” She cried. “It hurts. Get me out of here Jim.”

“O.K. honey, just hold on.” He said, but before he could do anything, the entire roof of the car collapsed down on Anne who screamed briefly and then fell silent. 


Looking down on the destroyed roof of his car, he could see the outline of Anne’s head and shoulder’s pressed into the metal.

“Oh, lord. Oh, lord.” He mumbled, shuffling back away from the car. The weight was so massive and the air so hard to breath that all he could think was to get away. Within seconds he was lost in the fog with only the bonging of the door to give him any sense

of direction. He tried to move away from it.

In a few seconds, he fell off the road and found himself at the opening to a culvert. He slid into it feet first and found that ridiculously, he still had his brief case with him.

“I’m going to be O.K..” He mumbled to himself. “It’s just some freaky fog. It’s not like it’s looking for me or anything. Right? Right.”

He realized suddenly that he couldn’t hear the car bonging anymore. Looking up, he saw that the entry to the culvert had been obscured by the fog. Looking over his shoulder the far end was out of sight as well. The culvert was slowly filling with a very

thick fog.