34 The Silent Fog

Running deeper into the fog, John quickly looked around, trying to see where the idiot had run off to, but to no avail. The fog was getting denser with every step and seeing more than a few metres in any direction was becoming a challenge.

"Our suits' enchantments are on their last legs, if we don't head back now, we aren't going to-" The mage started to warn, but was cut off by a scream.

The group turned in the direction of the noise and one of the members dashed forwards to see if it was the man who ran off. The fog blew past him, blocking him from view, and started to swirl around them more violently, as if it had gained a will.

"We need to go RIGHT NOW!" Cried the mage, his tone encouraging an extreme urgency as he spun to leave.

The trio were inclined to agree with him as all of them dying would be the worst outcome.

"We can't just leave them!" Cried one of the members, probably a female judging by the voice.

"We can't do anything to help them and the only way to lessen the damage is to bring back the information we ha-" Michael began, as he turned to look at the person who just spoke he saw no one their, just a dense layer of fog.

"Ok this is freaky. Where did they go?" Asked Michael as he quickly looked around the surrounding area, but all he could see were the few people around him and the dense fog, which seemed to be thickening.

"Lets go, NOW!" Cried out the mage, this time with no one disagreeing, and they all started running out of the fog.

Glancing back, John swore he saw two small glowing purple orbs illuminated in the fog, before they were enveloped completely.

All of the group members were running back the way they came at a much faster pace then they came in, but still saw no sign of the fog getting any less thick.

"AARRGGH" Cried out one of the members. Prompting John to toss a glance back to see a quick shine gleam over them and they stumbled to the ground, their mystic armor quickly losing its sheen and cracking before they were encompassed by the thick fog.

Quickly turning back ahead he thought he glimpsed an ethereal figure flicking in his peripheral vision for a split second.

The fog was getting denser, and with no end in sight the expedition members were starting to panic.

"Where is the end? We didn't head that deep!" Someone cried out, who it was however was unknown as the fog had started to distort sound around them.

"Just keep running, we have gone in a straight line so as long as we run in the opposite direction we are bound to- AARRGGH." The man didn't get to finish as Joey turned to look at him just as a massive gash appeared in his flank and he fell sideways, being encompassed by the ever thickening fog.

"What the hell. WHAT THE HELL!" Someone else cried as they kept running.

John was focusing on his sprint while constantly scanning his surroundings, looking for that eerie figure he glimpsed earlier only to stumble on something and lose his footing, tumbling over and onto the ground. He was, however, relatively experienced, and used this momentum to flip himself back onto his feet. Though, as soon as he started sprinting again, he looked around and only saw the dull whites and greys of the fog.

"Shit, just keep running, don't worry about anything else." John quietly muttered to himself as he continued to sprint forwards.

"How large is the area encompassed by this damn fog? I swear I've been running for longer than- SHIT!" John cried as he lunged to the side to avoid a distorted, dark figure, in the shape of a person, ahead of him, however, when he ran past that point, he saw nothing there.

Sighing, he glanced up and saw it again slightly behind him to the right, which also faded from existence.

Then, he heard a sound, a low, hollow, echoing noise. Seeming to radiate from all around him. Being gripped by an unshakable unease at the sound, he started constantly flicking his head around in order to glimpse any obvious abnormalities, which allowed him to only just see the outstretched, shadowy hand reaching for him from the fog. He dodged right in order to avoid it causing it to only narrowly graze his armor.

"Luckily the armor stopped whatever beast lurks in the fog." Muttered John as he kept moving forwards.

Then, as suddenly as it began, the fog ended, and John was bathed in sunshine as he kept running for a short distance before turning back to look at the wall of fog, which didn't look thick at all, he could almost swear that from here, it looked like he could see all the way through it to the other side.

"Wait a second, I can see the other side. It's murky but the fog isn't dense at all. What the f-" John was suddenly overcome with a horrible pain in his head as he then heard shouting from the distance. Looking up, he saw Michael, Joey, and one other person running towards him, it wasn't the mage, or anyone else he recognized.

He glanced up and jogged towards his companions, but upon them getting closer to him, their expressions morphed into looks of shock.

"Dear god, what happened?" Joey asked, in a worried voice.

"What? Apart from having to flee from some spooky fog? That was the only point worth mentioning in my opinion." John replied in a joking tone.

"You… Don't you… feel anything?" Enquired Michael, while looking closely at John's face through the clear face mask.

"Umm, no? I'm fit as a fiddle."

"YOUR ARM! YOUR LEFT ARM!" Cried out the unknown person.

"My arm? What's wrong with my-"

John looked down at his arm and paused mid sentence, looking at where the unknown creature had just managed to graze his armour right below the shoulder, or better described as, where he thought the unknown creature had only just managed to graze his armour. There was only a stump.