At the very end, Ryan bagged up the trash and carried it out to the dumpsters, while Lee tallied up the register receipts and prepared a deposit bag.
Lee paid his two staff members a little extra bonus in cash, and thanked them for their sincere, solid efforts that day. Their job finished, they thanked Lee, wished him a good evening, and left for the night.
Circling around Ryan, Lee bolted the front door behind them and returned back towards the main counter. At last, the restaurant was silent and still, his work for the day finally at an identifiable end. The weight and tension dissipated from his shoulders at that moment, a feeling that he had come to savor at the culmination of a long day’s work.
Ryan extended a can of cherry-flavored citrus soda to Lee, not having to ask as the soft drink was well known at the restaurant as being Lee’s favorite. Lee gave Ryan a tired smile as he accepted it.
Taking a deep breath, and following it with a long and gratifying draught of the beverage, Lee set it down and looked wearily towards Ryan.
“Good job tonight, Ryan. I appreciate your help a lot, I really do. It was a very hard day today, more than usual” Lee observed.
“No problem Lee. Did good biz today, from what I saw, didn’t we?” Ryan replied, taking a sip out of his own can. He raised the can in a saluting gesture towards Lee, “To a good day, Lee!”
“Above average, I am happy to say,” Lee replied. “Campus brought us a few more deliveries than I expected. You must have gotten some extra coupons out.”
“I’ve passed out quite a few for the cause. But must have been giving them to all the wrong folks, because Bob wasn’t too happy about the tips today,” Ryan replied with a chuckle, referring to Lee’s tried and true delivery driver.
The man had grumbled throughout the day about the frugal nature of the campus students. The language that he had used back in the kitchen had often been quite colorful. Lee and Ryan had laughed heartily at some of the creative and very descriptive anatomical suggestions that Bob had for the cheap students.
“Oh, he made us aware of that. But I made sure Bob got a little extra tonight,” Lee said, a hint of worry on his face.
Bob was indispensable to his operation, knowing every optimal route and planning his deliveries to the height of efficiency. He did the work of two, maybe even three, mediocre drivers.
“I saw that. And Bob looked pretty happy about it. He’ll stay around. Griping is natural to him, don’t worry,” Ryan said encouragingly. “And about those students. Just have them all work one day and night like this, and they will learn to tip really quickly. They should make it mandatory for cheap tippers.”
“Very good point. I think that would work too. So, I noticed that you haven’t bolted yet. Is Pamela busy tonight?” Lee asked him.
“Yeah, she sure is,” Ryan replied at the mention of his girlfriend. “Says she is just going to stay home and get some rest tonight. You know what that means. But I’m not too worried. She plays a bit, but she knows who the real man is. Nothing else will compare. She’ll learn!”
Lee chuckled as Ryan’s youthful cockiness emerged. “I’m sure she’ll realize who the real man is.”
Ryan smiled. “Hey now, that better not be sarcasm. Don’t you get in on disrespecting me.”
Lee laughed heartily. “You worked well tonight, so I’ll give you a break. Have you thought about what we should watch for the film festival at my house tomorrow evening, if you are up for some movies?”
“You need to get a game system, some day, Lee. And not a used one at the pawn shop. Get a cutting-edge console. But movies don’t sound bad right now. I could do with just about anything at the moment, except some boring drama or silly chick flick,” Ryan remarked.
“We’ll figure something out, either on satellite or download,” Lee replied, finishing off his soda. He crumpled the can in his hand and pitched it into a freshly lined trash bin that Ryan had prepared towards the end of the counter. “Well, there’s the first start on tomorrow’s trash load. I am about done here. Time to get some rest.”
“And you are just going to leave me stranded facing a boring night. I’m not ready to go to sleep yet!” Ryan commented, as he started towards the door. His steps slowed as he approached the glass-faced door. “Looks like there is going to be a thick fog cover tonight!”
“Fog?” Lee replied in curiosity, coming out from behind the counter and walking down its length towards where Ryan stood gaping.
“Yeah, come over here. I could see it even as I walked towards the front door,” Ryan said, turning back towards Lee while gesturing at the restaurant’s entrance.
Lee walked past Ryan, his eyes fixated through the glass of the front door. He slowly unbolted the lock, and swung it open. Ryan followed close behind as they walked outside together.
As Ryan had observed, a rolling fog bank was gradually invading and conquering the city streets. The fog had already become an impenetrable mass just across the street from where the restaurant was located.
The tall street lamps near his restaurant cast a cramped glow, one that was visibly shrinking. The advancing vapors were steadily wafting in their direction, part of an enormous, rising tide.
“This is just plain strange. I don’t understand it,” Lee commented, staring at the unusual mists.
Enraptured, Lee continued to stand just outside of the unlocked restaurant with Ryan close by. The near proximity to the front door comforted him, as his eyes could not see more than twenty feet ahead of him.
The fog mass seemed to progress as if it had a mind of its own. It continued to engulf the area around them, as the density increased swiftly in the immediate vicinity of the restaurant.
“It is just fog, Lee, don’t get too carried away,” Ryan remarked.
He waved his hands about in the misty substance as it encircled them.
“It is, but I still haven’t seen fog move like this,” Lee commented. “Have you?”
Ryan shrugged and grinned. “Haven’t given it too much thought.”
The fog mass continued to shroud both them and the restaurant building itself, until they could not see ahead, behind, or to either side.
Though they were standing just a few feet in front of the restaurant, the familiar construction had been utterly consumed by the wafting sea. Looking down, Lee realized that he could not even see the ground.
The thickness of the fog was like nothing that Lee had ever experienced before.
Of that, he was most certain.
Section III
MERSHAD
Erika and Mershad sat silently as the mist continued to surround them with its cool embrace. The thick vapors had fully obstructed their vision of the trees that were less than ten feet away.
“This is some fog,” Erika commented in a low voice.
“We’ll have to take it slow, when we head out of here,” Mershad said.
Erika looked over at him. “Probably won’t vanish anytime soon, knowing my luck. Good thing we know the lay of the land.”
“Yes, good for us that we do,” Mershad responded, grinning at her though he felt a little nervous about blundering about in the dense haze.
“The cars must be slowed to a crawl as they come through up there,” Erika stated, as she gestured upward towards where the roadway was. “Or they’ve stopped.”
Mershad then noticed that a permeating silence had blanketed the area, with no sound of anyone or anything coming from the normally active street above them.
“I sure don’t hear anything either,” Mershad remarked. He slowly rose up to his feet, pulling his satchel over one shoulder. “Want to try and start navigating out of this?”
Erika nodded, getting up off the ground herself. “Otherwise we are going to be here all night. I think that this stuff is here to stay for awhile.”
Mershad agreed with her, though he held no objections to spending more time talking with Erika. The lack of visibility simply made him nervous. At the very least the process of getting out of there would be easier to navigate with a friend.