But, he was undeniably trapped in the physical world, bereft of knowing what was or was not out there beyond the senses. There was no gateway or conduit to other worlds, no matter how hard he wished that it could be otherwise.
Janus would simply have to pick himself up, bandage his soul’s wounds that he knew would not heal in this lifetime, and trudge forward even if each ensuing step was harder to take. Only the passage of time itself would aid him.
“Man, that’s pretty odd… came in quick, it looks like,” Kent remarked, sharply breaking through the ambient noises of the boat’s engine and the breezes wafting across them. “I know I haven’t had that many beers.”
“Real weird,” Derek murmured. “There was nothing when we came down the lake.”
Janus could sense the absolute surprise reflected in the vocal tone of the others. He sighed and opened his eyes, to see what had so suddenly gripped their attentions. With the back of his right hand, we wiped the thin trails of wetness from his face.
The shoreline on both sides of the lake was still visible, but the headlights on the boat now formed solid beams. They could barely cut through the outskirts of a vapor that hovered over the water, rising up as a vast wall of fog about a hundred feet before them.
Janus shared the great puzzlement of the others. They had passed right through the area such a short time before. There had not been any fog or mist in the area whatsoever.
Janus took a deep breath, and his first impression was that something far beyond normal was occurring. He battened the thought back down, knowing fully well that it was just a rising fog caused by water and temperature shifts. It had just emerged much faster than he had thought that a fog could.
“What do you think caused it?” Janus asked them.
Kent shook his head. “I can’t figure it out. Fog just doesn’t form like this. Not this fast, at least. I don’t know, maybe someone channeled a bunch of hot water into the lake or something, like their entire hot tub spilled over or something. Must be an amazing party going on nearby.”
He laughed nervously, and Janus could see the anxiety in Kent’s eyes.
“It would sure have to be a lot of hot water,” Derek added, his eyes fixated upon the thick vapors looming ahead of them. “Pretty big hot tub.”
“Maybe it is the mists of time, and we are going to end up on the shores of some ancient land,” Kent remarked. “Then we can be like barbarian invaders and pillage and plunder. Let’s stake our claims… I get the wenches and beer, you guys can have the rest!”
“Creative, Kent, but probably not gonna happen,” Derek said, a flicker of deep concern manifesting in his face.
Derek cut down the speed of the engine, until the boat was going at a slow crawl. The fog soon enveloped them entirely, shearing off any extended vision to any side of the boat.
“Lovely, just lovely,” Kent remarked sourly. “We’ll have to take it very slow, and very carefully.”
“Maybe we should just stop,” Derek suggested.
Janus concurred with Derek, as they were now unable to see more than a few feet ahead of them.
“We take it real slow, if we keep going. And we keep talking and listening, because if there are any other boats in this, they need to know we’re here,” Kent said, his lightheartedness dissipating rapidly, and his mood sobering up quickly.
Janus knew that the last thing that Kent wanted to do was to wreck Mr. McNeeley’s boat. Each passing second invited that possibility.
“Keep talking. Keep it slow. Keep listening,” Kent repeated again.
Janus did not argue with him, as his eyes strained to look through the shrouding fog.
ERIN
Erin, as was usual, slumbered lazily until it was almost three o’clock in the afternoon. There were no classes or work to be concerned with, though such things ultimately mattered little. Neither of those issues would have obstructed her intended pursuits for the coming evening.
It took about another half-hour to rouse herself sufficiently awake to take a shower, eat, and check up on her messages. By phone and computer, the messages were the typical kind, of a largely vacuous content.
It did not take her long to sift through them, responding to some and deleting most.
Time slogged onward, until Lynn finally arrived to pick her up for the planned excursion. Almost as an afterthought, Erin left a brief message behind for her parents that she was going to be out for the evening, camping with friends in the woods.
Slinging her large backpack over her shoulder, she locked the front door on the way out.
At a mini-mart near the main highway bypass, Lynn and Erin made their rendezvous with Razor, Uli, and the others that would be going on the camping trip. The group took a few moments to fuel the vehicles, and to procure an assortment of drinks and snacks, before finally setting off for their intended destination.
In total, the entourage consisted of a convoy of ten people situated in three different cars. The two-hour trip passed by quickly enough, the travel broken up by various antics as the cars took turns passing each other on the highway, the occupants giving each other obscene gestures.
It seemed like only moments before they were unloading the vehicles within an official national forest parking lot. Packs readied, and hiking boots laced, the ten started off together in a loose column onto the trail.
About two miles inward and upward, they broke off of the trail to find themselves a suitable spot for the evening. The park rangers required a minimum distance from the trails for overnight camping, but they elected to go well beyond that limited requirement, with Razor in the lead.
Eventually, they found themselves on the summit of a small hill, surrounded by thicker growths of brush. It was far away from any of the main trail paths, and required a little effort to reach.
It was not likely that the place would be disturbed by fellow hikers or park rangers. Razor, Lynn, and Uli quickly set to making a clearing for a small campfire, as the others staked out their camping spots.
A few tents were set up, three suited for single persons, and three larger capacity ones to accommodate the others, with two couples each claiming a tent.
It was not very long before the drinking and festivities began to get underway. The frivolity grew as the afternoon dipped into night, the sun tucking itself away below the hills.
As night drew onward, the group started to fragment as the flow of libations continued. A few of Erin’s friends opted to go farther up the hill to get a grander view of the area, while one of the couples headed in the opposite direction to find some space for privacy.
Erin, Lynn, Uli, and Razor were the last four remaining around the campfire. Erin was simply glad that the quartet was not sitting in Uli’s cluttered living room.
“Dissipation. Always happens on these trips,” Lynn said, laughing in a carefree manner as she looked into the flames of the campfire.
“Dissipation, like this,” Uli repeated, as he blew out a puff of smoke from the tightly rolled joint that he was taking deep inhalations from. The mind-numbing herb left a sweet smell hanging in the air, a scent that Erin had become quite accustomed to. Uli laughed hysterically.
“Surprised that you even know what that word means, Uli?” Erin teased, laughing, though her words had an intended jab within them.
“Don’t care much ‘bout words, but this will do,” Razor said, carefully accepting the rolled herb from Uli.
He held it reverently, as he closed his eyes and inhaled upon the end of it. The others could see the flaring red of the other end as it burned down towards its stump. Razor held the smoke inside for several moments, before finally exhaling in a broad puff.