The absence of a response was confirmation enough. He crouched down and placed the seal in the middle of the symbol drawn on the floor. Just as with the first time, it sank in and, when it was at the same level as the floor, it began to spin slowly without making a sound until the symbol on it lined up perfectly with the activation rune.

  “How cool!” exclaimed Rylan, pushing his way past his brother so he could see better. “Did you see how it complements the drawing?”

  “We see, Rylan, we see. We’re not blind,” replied Nelson dryly.

  The same deep, muffled sound that Rick remembered from the first mission rumbled through the room. The pillars rose a few inches and hung in the air.

  “It’s amazing!” shouted Rylan enthusiastically. “I have to see it up close.”

  Nelson stood dead still before the incredible sight as his brother took off like a shot toward the closest column, determined to discover the secret of how it stayed suspended in air. Rick, who’d been afraid of something like this happening and was therefore prepared, reached out when Rylan went past him and grabbed him by the neck of his sweater. The scientist’s feet went out from under him. He stumbled clumsily backwards.

  “No touching the columns when they’re active,” Rick warned, still holding his sweater and dragging him back. “There’ll be time to analyze all kinds of incredible things, I guarantee it. You’ll get your fill of seeing objects levitate.”

  “I just wanted to see it close up,” Rylan complained as he straightened the collar of his sweater.

  A soft humming filled the room as the pillars began to spin in place. The humming was gaining intensity as the speed of the spinning increased until the square columns appeared round. Rylan watched in awe; he didn’t want to move a muscle for fear he’d miss something. Nelson and Susan were also completely focused on the process, and Rick realized that, once again, his mouth was hanging open at the sight of it all.

  The humming suddenly stopped and a bluish cloud appeared in the center of the room. It was moving in all directions. As it slowly grew in size, it changed to a gray, ashen color and appeared to be more dense. And through it all, the portal remained completely silent.

  “Get ready, Rylan” said Nelson, “we’re taking a trip.”

  “Not yet,” said Rick emphatically. There was something different this time. He was quickly reviewing his memories of the first portal, and something didn’t fit. The mist that had formed this time was much smaller; they’d have to go through one by one . . . but it wasn’t just that.

  “What do you mean, not yet?” Nelson’s tone was threatening. “Care to tell us what’s going on?”

  “Something is wrong. It’s not like the last time.”

  “Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but we have a job to do and we’re going to cross that cloud right now.”

  “Shut up!” Rick shouted at him. “I know something is wrong. That fog is not the same. The first time, there was a light shining in the middle of it that showed the way we needed to go so we wouldn’t get lost in there. I don’t see a light in there anywhere this time. And this fog is more dense; it’s like the Hyde Park Fog or any other static fog bank around there. We can’t cross through it.”

  “You’re right.” Susan stepped forward and put her hand on Nelson’s arm. “This fog looks lethal.”

  “Bullshit!” he growled stubbornly. “You aren’t scientists; you have no way of knowing if what you’re saying is true. We found the portal—my brother and I. You two can do whatever you want, but I’m going in right now. Are you coming, Rylan?”

  Indecision flashed across his brother’s face. The portal captivated him. It was like a dream for a mind brimming with curiosity the way his was. But Rylan was speechless. When Nelson took a step toward the portal, Rick stepped in front of him and shoved him back, stopping him in his tracks.

  “No one is going in there,” he warned. “It’s suicide.”

  “Don’t put your hands on me again. I don’t know who you think you are, but you’re not giving the orders.”

  “Actually, I think I am giving them. I’m the only one who knows about any of this, so no one is taking a single step until Jack sees this. He was with me the first time, so he’ll confirm that no one could survive inside that fog. There’s no light.”

  “Listen to him, Nelson,” begged Susan.

  “Your scare tactics don’t work on me,” snarled Nelson, his face red with rage. “What’s going on here is that you’re a damn coward. You’ve got no balls and—”

  The blow cut him off mid sentence and split open his upper lip. His head snapped back and he fell to the floor. The powerful punch had come too quickly; he wasn’t expecting it.

  “I’m sick of your shit!” Rick vigorously rubbed his knuckles. “If you argue with me again, I’ll break your face.”

  Susan sprang at Rick and threw her arms around him in an attempt to restrain him while Rylan ran to his brother.

  “Are you crazy?” Rylan was visibly frightened.

  “That’s enough, Rick,” Susan protested, pulling him away from Nelson as best she could. “That’s not the way to handle this.”

  Rick settled down, not without some effort, and Susan pulled back from the bear hug she’d been holding him back with. He went to the activation rune and pulled the seal out of it. The fog quickly dissipated until it disappeared without a trace. The pillars stopped turning and slowly descended until they were once again touching the floor. Rick put the seal back in his backpack and threw it over his shoulder.

  Nelson sat up with the help of his brother. As he wiped his hand over his lip, streaking it with blood, he threw Rick a furious look, steeped in hatred.

  “Are you okay?” asked Rylan, concerned.

  Nelson shook his brother’s hand off his arm and stood up. He turned away without saying a word and left the room, irate.

  “There was no reason to hit him.” Rylan looked at Rick in disappointment, then went after his brother.

  “Let him go,” said Susan when Rick attempted to call out to Rylan. “For now it’s for the best. Leave them alone awhile to see if they calm down a little.”

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  “I did it for his own good. If he had gone in there . . .”

  “I know. I tried to convince him, too, albeit with a different approach.”

  “All right. I shouldn’t have hit him,” he admitted, feeling a little ashamed. “But he was driving me crazy.”

  “I know, Rick. We all need to just take some time to calm down. And I’ll need to bring Jack up to date. Then I think it’s better if I be the one to try to talk to Rylan and Nelson, too.”

  “Okay,” Rick agreed, hoping he wouldn’t have to see Nelson for the rest of the night. “We’ll hang out here and tomorrow we can work through this mess. I’ll sleep in the adjoining room.

  Susan went after the two brothers and Rick was glad to finally be alone. He didn’t know how he should feel about having punched Nelson. Of course, it wasn’t the most elegant solution. But if anything really bothered him about it, it was that he’d upset Rylan. He could swear he’d seen real fear in his eyes when he’d slugged his brother. The kid was kind of irritating, and his unmeasured enthusiasm tried Rick’s patience sometimes, but he was a good guy and, deep down, Rick liked him—which was something he couldn’t say for Rylan’s older brother. That guy was a jerk, and he’d totally deserved to be punched. It had felt good . . . sort of like taking out a splinter . . . and that’s exactly what bothered him. To have enjoyed hitting someone who was supposedly on his team, even a complete idiot like Nelson, made him uncomfortable in a way he didn’t fully understand. At any rate, he didn’t have a choice since he couldn’t have let him go into the Fog. By the time Rick left the room with the portal to go to the adjoining room he was convinced he’d acted appropriately.

  He laid out his sleeping bag on the floor, got in, and closed his eyes, but he absolutely could not get to sleep. He spent hours turning over in his mind everything he didn’t understand about what had happened over the last few weeks. He pushed himself to think about something else, something that would let him relax enough to fall asleep, and finally he did.

  A loud thud woke him up. He had no idea how long he’d been sleeping but judging by how tired his whole body still felt, it couldn’t have been long. He sat up in his sleeping bag and listened intently.

  He heard a humming sound that was getting louder coming from the other side of the wall.

  “The portal!” he yelled, scrambling out of his sleeping bag.

  Rick looked around frantically, a horrible suspicion welling up in him. His backpack was gone! And inside it was the seal that activated the portal. Hoping against all hope that he was wrong, he took off up the hallway. As he ran through the hallway he dragged one hand along the wall while rubbing his eyes with the other, trying desperately to get them focused.

  “What was that?” shouted Rylan, his voice wavering. He was approaching from the other end of the hallway.

  “It’s the portal!” Susan was one step behind the young scientist.

  Rick was the first one to the door where the portal was. He grabbed the doorknob and tried to open the door.

  “Damn it! It’s locked from the inside.”

  Just then, the humming stopped.

  “Break it down!” screamed Susan. “The Fog will appear any second!”

  Knowing there was no time to lose, Rick drew back and then threw his shoulder into the door. The impact reverberated throughout his body. He’d managed to dent the door but it was still locked shut.

  “Nelson! Don’t do it! Don’t go in there!” shouted Rylan in desperation. He pounded on the door with his fists as he broke into tears.

  Rick took another step back and kicked the door with the bottom of his foot, making contact right next to the knob. The door burst opened, and the three of them ran into the room.

  The pillars were spinning, suspended in air, and the small cloud of Fog was once again visible in the middle. They’d gotten in too late to stop him. In perfect clarity they saw Nelson’s silhouette, his back to them, just as he stepped into the dense, dark mist.

  “Nelson, no!” Rylan ran toward his brother, and Rick had no choice but to tackle him to the floor.

  Several grayish threads of fog twisted up Nelson’s back, shielding part of him from view. The last thing they saw of him was his blond hair, sliding into the tongues of smoke.

  Rylan let out a heart wrenching scream and, even though he had a small frame, it took everything Rick had to hold him down. He was flailing so violently that he managed to get his arms out of Rick’s hold. Rylan was still screaming and thrashing around like he was possessed. He was elbowing Rick, but Rick kept hold of him.

  “There’s nothing we can do for him.” Susan tried to hold Rylan’s head still so she could look him in the eyes. “You can’t help him. I’m so sorry.”

  “Do you have any sedatives?” asked Rick, a bit out of breath. “If he doesn’t stop this he’s going to hurt himself, and I’m not going to be able to hold him forever. Grab his arm.”

  Susan shook her head; she had no sedatives. Rylan was shrieking now, out of his mind with grief. He was hysterical. His face was stricken with anguish; his eyes were clenched tightly shut, and tears were streaming down his face. They held him for what seemed like an eternity until he finally stopped sobbing and lay still on the floor, completely exhausted.

  Rick carefully relaxed his hold. He was still lying on top of Rylan, so he slowly got off him and sat beside him. He looked at Susan, not knowing what to say, his eyes asking for some kind of help. He had no brothers and had barely even had any contact with his parents since the Wave, so he wasn’t exactly in the best position to offer consolation to someone who’d just lost a family member.

  Rylan’s breathing was slowly returning to normal. He opened his eyes and pushed himself into a sitting position. He looked lost and confused.

  “I’m so sorry,” Susan said softly as she stroked his hair. Rylan didn’t even seem to notice her touch.

  “The seal was in your backpack,” he said distantly, never taking his eyes off the floor. “How could my brother have gotten it?”

  “He must have come in my room while I was sleeping,” replied Rick. “I didn’t hear him. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m going to look for him”

  “You can’t do that.” Rick shot a worried look at Susan. “You’ll get lost in there, too. No one has ever come out of the Fog.”

  “You have,” he stubbornly replied.

  “That was a different fog. This portal is different than the one I crossed. We need to find out why there isn’t a light.”

  “I promise you, we’ll find a way to get to the other side, Rylan,” said Susan. “But I’ll need you to help me. Without you, we won’t find a solution.”

  Her voice appeared to have a calming effect on the scientist. He took his eyes off the floor and looked at her face. His expression showed he was fighting not to fall apart again.

  “I’ll help you,” she affirmed. “We’ll cross that portal and find out what is going on once and for all.”

  Rick stood up; then Susan did. Rylan started crawling across the floor as if he were looking for something. The two of them watched him, wondering what he was doing.

  “I lost my glasses,” he explained as he crawled in circles.

  “They’re right here.” Rick had seen them fly off during their struggle. He picked them up off the floor about six feet from where Rylan was crawling. “Here you go. They’re not broken.”

  Rylan took them and put them on. He readjusted them on the bridge of his nose several times, as though looking for the ideal position. When he found their comfortable spot, he took his hand away and then, still on his knees, looked up at Rick and Susan. His coloring suddenly brightened, and the expression on his face turned to one of amazement. His mouth dropped open, but he said nothing. He raised his arm, and pointed his finger at them.

  “N-Nelson,” he finally managed to stutter.

  Rick then understood he wasn’t pointing at them, but rather at something behind them. He turned and saw a shadow in the Fog. It was moving bizarrely and, though they couldn’t completely make it out, it was without a doubt the shape of a human. The shadow seemed to be turning around and around, and Rick thought he saw a sparkle where he guessed the hands would be. The shadowy figure’s foot emerged through the mist just long enough for the three of them to get a glimpse of it, only to see it disappear back into the blanket of gray a second later.

  “It’s my brother!” shouted Rylan triumphantly, scrambling to his feet. “He’s come back!”

  The figure stopped its erratic movements, as if it had heard Rylan shouting. Its edges were perfectly silhouetted, and since it was now at the border of the Fog, Rick could clearly make out its outline.

  “It’s not Nelson,” he announced. “He’s too tall.” He reached out sideways with his left hand, protectively placing it across Rylan’s chest. With his right hand he took out the sword and directed its flames toward the Fog. “Everybody get back.”

  Once again, the foot emerged from the mist and the rest of the body followed this time. A tall, extremely thin man suddenly appeared. His lanky body swayed a little, making him look slightly drunk. He waved his hand and seemed surprised to not recognize where he was. The stranger pulled his black, scraggly hair away from his face, revealing dull blue eyes and a disproportionately large nose.

  “No, Rick. Stop!” shouted Susan, terrified.

  But it was too late.

  He had sprung at the stranger with both hands gripping the sword.