Fog on the River

As Jack and Sarah zoomed through the City, Jack felt that he was too stiff and tried to loosen up and fully embrace the scooter life. It led to some early wobbles but he quickly adjusted and started showing signs of improving his skills.

As Jack was leisurely enjoying the ride, Sarah's face was flushed red as her heart was pounding hard. Every time the scooter wobbled her heart skipped a beat.

It was too scary.

With Jack constantly remaining at the max speed of the scooter, Sarah couldn't help but imagine the gory scene of what would happen to them once they crashed. Yet once Jack fixed the wobbles she breathed out a deep sigh of relief.

"Can't you stop making it wobbly?" Sarah complained.

"What was that? You want me to wobble?" Jack asked with a smirk.

"What no," Sarah said while pouting.

"Let's switch for a second. I want to drive." Sarah said since she felt that she could drive more safely.

At least she could control the speed. Even if she starts falling she will make sure Jack is below her to act as a cushion.

"Sure, just let me try something first. Oh and hold on as tight as you can." Jack suddenly said with sparkling eyes.

Sarah's eyebrows scrunched up with confusion and was about to ask him why, when she suddenly noticed they were at the top of a steep hill.

"You aren't thinking of going down this way right?" Sarah asked as she felt her heart racing again. She was both terrified and excited by the prospect.

"Of course, this is the fastest way. We might even be able to get past the scooter's speed limiter with the help of gravity." Jack said truthfully.

His mind whirled as he clutched the handles. In just a few seconds they would start going down hill.

"We might be able to get to twenty-five miles per hour or more." Jack analyzed.

"If you're going to do it make sure to angle your body to protect me." Sarah said as she stared at the big drop. She gulped as she felt her heart was about to rip out of her chest.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't do this if it wasn't safe for me. I can take the fall." Jack said with a smile.

With his upgraded defense that had stepped into the door of being mythical this slight tumble wouldn't harm him much. He might even come out unscathed.

"That includes me, right?" Sarah asked.

"When did I say that?" Jack said as he rolled his eyes.

The drop was here.

Sarah's face twitched as she felt the urge to punch Jack but simply held on tighter as the zoomed down hill. They easily passed ten people who were actually being careful with ease.

Just as Jack had expected they kept on accelerating until they were going faster than the scooter's man made speed limit. The chilly wind hit Jack's face as he kept a lookout for anything that would cause trouble and avoided them.

While Sarah was enjoying being spared from the wind and watched as the buildings around them became blurry from their sheer speed. With how smoothly everything was going she slowly began to relax and enjoy the ride like before.

By the time they reached the bottom of the hill, she was screaming with joy and thrill.

She almost wanted to go back up to experience it all again.

"So how's the ride? Are you going to give me five stars?" Jack asked while chuckling.

Sarah nodded fiercely before shaking her head as she said, "Terrible service! I got no water, no charger, and the driver was rude. Three stars!"

"Eh, so strict. But that's good enough for me." Jack shrugged his shoulders before slowly coming to a stop.

"Why are you stopping?" Sarah asked with curiosity. Her face was still as flushed from before and her legs were slightly trembling from a mixture of excitement and fear.

"We are swapping, remember?" Jack said.

Sarah's crimson eyes blinked before she came to a realization that she did say that but why would she want to do that now.

"You know what, yeah let's swap. Hop on." Sarah said with a cheeky smile. She jumped on the lime scooter and played around with controls.

Feeling Jack grab onto her shoulders. Sarah did a kick off and twisted the handle. The scooter zoomed a quick seven miles per hour while Sarah got used to controlling it.

Not before long, the scooter began to wobble and Jack grabbed the handle and adjusted it before letting Sarah regain control.

After a while Sarah became more confident in her skills as she figured it out and increased her speed to ten miles per hour. Feeling the cool wind hitting her face, Sarah narrowed her eyes and felt relaxed.

"How are my riding skills? Do you think I can go pro?" Sarah grinned, glancing back at him.

After experiencing the difference in their skill, Sarah was convinced that Jack must have been practicing his scooter skills for years without anyone knowing.

Jack rubbed his chin as he pondered before speaking, "Give it ten to twenty years then you will be at my level."

Sarah clicked her tongue while rolling her eyes. Twenty years wasn't that suggesting he had been practicing for most of his life.

"Tsk, I knew you were an old man." Sarah said as she burst out laughing.

After getting her fill and almost causing the scooter to wobble, Sarah returned her focus back to controlling the scooter.

Not long after Jack and Sarah saw the bridge and realized they were only a few minutes away.

After parking at the nearest lime scooter charging station Jack and Sarah walked onto the bridge and looked at the massive river flowing underneath. As ships with all sizes moved under the bridge constantly.

It was a sight to behold as the faint fog that was growing thicker, on the horizon of the river made the whole thing even more beautiful.

Jack and Sarah soaked it in silence before walking back to their parked scooter.

"Just the view alone was worth the trip even if we don't visit the library. That Fog especially made it seem like the ships were appearing from thin air." Jack said with a soft sigh.

That scenic view definitely refreshed his spirit.

"Yeah, that fog was incredible. But I think we should really grab something to eat first. I'm starving." Sarah said softly before freezing up.

"Fog? We saw fog." Sarah repeated.

"Yeah, why are you repeating it?" Jack said before freezing up himself.

"You don't think…it's Fog Flies."

Jack and Sarah locked eyes as they both came to the same realization and began sprinting for the scooter. After grabbing one that had a full battery, Sarah unlocked it and jumped on the back.

Just as they did, their phones began ringing as a siren started playing across the whole city.

An automatic announcement played that made everyone understand the severity of the situation.

Warning! Warning! Warning! Disaster level two threat Fog Flies have been detected. Make your way to the nearest shelter. Those too far away from shelter immediately take shelter in a secure building and make sure all entrances, exits, and windows are closed and reinforced.

Jack was speechless. His luck was horrible.

One after another he kept finding himself in dangerous situations. First, he encountered a vengeful ghost girl not long after losing his system and now the entire city was under attack by Fog Flies.

Jack's eyes glowed as he turned to Sarah who was already looking up the nearest shelter to them. After a few tense seconds, her face became bitter and pale.

"The nearest shelter is forty minutes away. We won't make it before the fog rolls in thirty minutes." Sarah said with her voice laced with panic.

Although she had already experienced this type of danger before she usually was close enough to a shelter to get protection. If the shelters became full she was also near her home so she and her family weren't in too much danger.

This was truly unlucky.

Jack frowned as his mind raced and pulled up information of Fog Flies as he tried to figure something out.

Fog Flies are a new species with unknown origins. They bore a resemblance to a mixture of fruit flies, mosquitoes, and praying mantis. They are incredibly dangerous and are known to stay in massive hoards of up to a hundred thousand.

Their living habitat is large bodies of water and only leave during their breeding season, which happens every three to four years, to collect food and find mates. During the breeding season they will make landfall only after the fog that is created by their bodies covers a sufficiently large amount of area.

Threat level: Don't confront. Hide in a shelter.

Going through what he knew, Jack's face brightened up as he saw hope. Even though the fog would catch up to them before they reached the shelter it would take some time for the Fog Flies to make it over to them.

As long as they drive fast and don't get blocked they should be able to make it in time.

"But it would be better to take shelter as soon as possible." Jack thought to himself.

He looked around and saw that nearly all the skyscrapers and tall buildings near them had acted far quicker than them. People were rapidly and orderly being evacuated out.

Being inside these buildings was simply too dangerous. They were simply too close to the river and the buildings were too vulnerable to attacks.

Ordinary Fog Flies might not be able to break the glass windows but the Queens could. And there was simply too much glass to reinforce in time.

It was simply too dangerous to try and stay in these buildings.

After Jack saw that there wasn't anywhere safe they could stay, he knew that they had to take the risk.

"Sarah, guide me in the direction of the shelter. We can still make it if we go now." Jack said quickly.

Sarah blinked her teary eyes with surprise and nodded her head. Although she felt that the chances of them making it were small, it was better than being close to the river.

She hopped on the scooter and entered the address of the shelter. After securing herself tightly, Sarah took a deep breath.

"Go straight until you see Acorn Street where you will turn right." Sarah said as calmly as she could.

Jack didn't reply and immediately twisted the scooter's handle and sped up rapidly. Sarah's stomach lurched as she felt as if their acceleration was much higher than before.

The wind played with her hair as they zoomed by the increasingly complicated environment. With more and more people leaving the buildings close to them, the streets began to have traffic.

To save time, Jack moved through the traffic with ease and kept accelerating faster and faster. Glancing at his speedometer he saw that he had already reached thirty miles per hour.

Just like he guessed during this disaster, the artificial speed limits on the lime scooters were turned off. Although this increased speed wasn't much, it gave them more hope of reaching the shelter in time.

"Turn right here," Sarah hastily said after seeing that they were about to reach Acorn street.

"Alright," Jack said as he looked for a route between the cars.

He found one and immediately took action, since they were going so fast, Sarah's heart nearly jumped out of her chest after the scooter drastically tilted to make the sharp turns.

Glancing at her phone, she saw that it had swapped to driving mode since they were going so fast. The little arrow that represented then frantically moved side to side causing the GPS tracking to have difficulty figuring the direction they were facing.

Yet seeing how they were quickly getting closer to the shelter, Sarah felt the hope in her heart slowly growing.

"We might really make it." Sarah thought to herself before instinctively feeling like she was going to fall from the tilt and clutched onto Jack so tight he felt she would break his rib cage.

"Can't she ease up?" Jack thought to himself helplessly.

Jack silently sighed and returned his focus on driving. This time he didn't try to improve his skill since this was a dangerous environment.

If he made the wrong move they would hit a car. And with the current situation the driver might not stop to help them up.

If things went badly he and Sarah could get injured and would no longer be able to escape towards the shelter.

He couldn't take the chance. So he focused on their safety first.

With Jack's high skill in the Scooter Savant skill, they were able to get further and further away from the river. The traffic also began to lessen before seeing cars on the road was quite rare.

"Hester, we are still eight minutes away." Sarah said as she turned her head around, her heart rate shot up when she saw the thick flood of white flood rushing towards them.

"Don't panic," Jack said, his voice steady despite the hammering in his chest.

"Just keep guiding me to the shelter."

He couldn't see a single thing in the mist. It was like a white avalanche about to consume them but it held something more terrifying.

Sarah understood what Jack meant and clutched her phone. With the fog this thick, seeing where they were going with their eyes was going to be difficult.

If they were not careful they could easily miss their turn and have to take a detour that would drastically reduce their chances of surviving.

The fog closed in, a silent avalanche swallowing the city whole. The temperature dropped, and the air thickened with the scent of fish and mud.

Jack tightened his grip on the scooter handles, eyes scanning the opaque wall ahead. Beside him, Sarah's shallow breaths quickened, each exhale trembling with fear.