Alexander Fable suddenly opened his eyes and immediately closed his eyes from the bright sunlight. The head was splitting, the mouth was dry, and the body felt strange - too light and at the same time unusually strong.
"So it wasn't a dream," he thought, slowly sitting down. Hard earth under your hands, the smell of freshly cut grass and... pines? He looked around. Indeed, there were pine trees around, and he himself was on the side of the road next to the sign.
- Bridgeton, - Alexander read aloud, feeling his new body. - What the fuck?
He stood up, shook off his dark coat and corrected his glasses. An old car drove by, behind the wheel of which was a typical American provincial in a checkered shirt. The driver gave him a suspicious look, but did not stop.
"Bridgeton... Maine? Stephen King?" - flashed through Alexander's head. - "How many film adaptations were there? Damn hundred. Great."
He moved along the road towards the city, thinking about his situation. The devil did not deign to provide him with a map, clues, or even basic information about where he is and what he should do.
- System, - Alexander said softly. - Open the status. Show the task. Menu.
Nothing happened.
- Well, of course, - he hummed. - Where the fuck did I see the game without a tutorial? Damn horned asshole.
As we approached the city, the road became busier. Passing cars looked old-fashioned - many American models of the 80s and 90s. People in Bridgeton turned out to be the same: provincial clothes, provincial faces, provincial habits. A small town lost somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
"Some movie about a maniac? Or zombies? Or a cursed place?" Alexander thought, passing by the central square with an inevitable monument to one of the founding fathers.
People gave him curious glances. His appearance - pale face, dark clothes, round glasses - clearly stood out among the locals. Alexander didn't pay attention. He was a stranger all his life, this state has long become familiar to him.
"What if we try to activate the ability?" he thought, remembering the Devil's words about random abilities.
He stopped in a quiet place between the two houses, concentrated and strained his muscles, imagining energy flowing through his body.
- Activate, - he commanded. - Strength. Ability. Turn on.
Nothing happened.
- Great, - Alexander muttered. - It's just fucking wonderful.
He continued on his way, analyzing the situation. According to the Devil, he needs to find the main monster of the movie and the main character. Save the last one, destroy the first one. But what movie did he end up in? And who is the main character?
A police car drove past, then a fire truck. People on the streets looked worried.
"Something happened," Alexander said. "Perhaps this is the beginning of the plot."
Following the direction of movement of cars and excited people, he went to the supermarket "Food House". The parking lot was full of cars, people rushed inside with worried people.
"Strage," Alexander thought. "It looks like an evacuation, but everyone goes to the store, not from it."
He went inside and froze. The supermarket was full of people, many looked excited, some even scared. The conversations were mainly about the storm last night.
- ...half of the trees on Kansas Road felled...
- ...there has been no electricity since three in the morning...
- ...they say the military base was also damaged...
And then Alexander seemed to be electrocuted. Bridgeton. Storm. Military base. Supermarket.
"Your mother. I'm in the 'Mig'," - the realization fell on him like an icy soul. - "I'm in Stephen King's fucking 'Mist'."
He feverishly tried to remember the plot of the movie. The mog envelops the city after an experiment at a military base. People are hiding in the supermarket. Monsters from another dimension appear. Most of them die. The ending... God, this ending.
"I need to find David Drayton and his son," Alexander reasoned feverishly. - "And then somehow save his wife and..."
His thoughts were interrupted by the noise of an approaching car. Through the supermarket window, he saw an old jeep drive into the parking lot, from which a middle-aged man and a boy of eight or nine years old came out.
"David and Billy Draytons," Alexander recognized them. - "So I got here shortly before the main events started. Now they will come in, start shopping, and then a fog will appear."
My heart beat faster. The hunt began, but he didn't even know what weapons he had in his hands.
Alexander once again tried to activate an unknown ability. He concentrated, directed a strong-willed effort to find inner strength. To no avail.
- Fuck you... - he muttered, attracting the disgruntled glances of the old lady standing next to him. - Sorry.
He decided to postpone attempts for now and focus on the main task: it was necessary to somehow change the events of the film. But how? Warn everyone about the impending danger? He will be considered crazy. Try to get people out of the store before the fog appears? It is unlikely that anyone will follow a strange stranger.
While Alexander was thinking, David and his son entered the store and headed to the grocery department. Alexander quietly followed them, listening to their conversation.
- Dad, can I have some cereal with chocolate? - the boy asked.
- Only if you promise to eat vegetables at lunch," David replied, looking through the shopping list.
"Ordinary family," Alexander thought. "They don't even suspect that in a few hours their life will turn into a nightmare."
At that moment, David turned around and noticed Alexander watching them. Their eyes met, and Alexander saw in them a fleeting confusion - a natural reaction to a strange stranger in a small town where everyone knows each other.
Alexander quickly turned away and pretended to study the goods on the shelf. "You have to be more careful," he thought. "It wasn't enough for me to be mistaken for a psycho or a pedophile watching a child."
He decided to change tactics and approach David directly. But what can I say? "Hi, I'm from another world, and soon you'll all be devoured by monsters from the parallel dimension"? No, we need something more plausible.
Meanwhile, the store was getting more and more crowded. Alexander recognized the characters of the film: here is an elderly teacher Mrs. Repler, here is a young cashier Sally, and here is lawyer Brent Norton, David's neighbor and enemy.
Through the loudspeaker, they announced that the store would soon close due to power outages, and asked buyers to hurry up with the choice of goods.
"There is less and less time," Alexander understood.
Suddenly he felt a strange tingling in his fingertips. Like static electricity, only stronger. He looked at his hands, but didn't notice any visible changes.
"Is it really?..." he thought, but was interrupted by the loud sound of the siren.
Everyone froze. A moment later, a growing hum was heard, as if from an approaching train.
"It's too late," Alexander realized with horror. "She's already here."
The supermarket shuddered from a powerful blow, as if something huge had crashed into the building. The light flickered and went out, and then the emergency generators turned on, illuminating the room with a dim yellowish light.
People panicked around the store. Someone rushed to the exit, someone screamed.
- What's going on? - shouted the elderly man.
- Earthquake? - suggested a woman next to him.
"There are no earthquakes in Maine," someone else objected.
Alexander heard a scream outside, then another one that turned into a heartbreaking scream, which suddenly broke off. Everyone froze, looking at the front doors.
At that moment, a bloody guy ran into the store, shouting:
- There's something there! Something in the fog! It took Jim away!
Panic began. People rushed to the windows, trying to see what was happening outside, but all that was seen was a thick white mist that enveloped the parking lot and everything around.
David grabbed his son and pressed him to himself. Alexander saw the man looking around, trying to assess the situation.
"Now the real hell will begin," Alexander thought, feeling the tingling in his hands intensifying. - "And I still don't know how to activate my fucking ability."
At that moment, the doors of the supermarket opened again, and a fog came inside, and with it something big and fast. A tentacle the size of a car tire wrapped around the legs of the person closest to the door - a young loader - and dragged him out. The guy's scream was cut short when he was drawn into the impenetrable whiteness.
- CLOSE THE DOORS! - David shouted, rushing to the entrance with several other men.
Alexander rushed after it without hesitation. When they got to the door, he saw another tentacle sliding on the floor in their direction. Acting instinctively, Alexander grabbed him with his bare hand.
And at that moment something happened.
A bright blue flash lit up the room. Electrical discharges that jumped on the tentacle ran through Alexander's hand. The creature made a high screeching sound and pulled away, leaving a charred piece of flesh on the floor, from which smoke and the smell of burnt rubber came.
Everyone froze, looking at Alexander with shock and fear. He himself looked with amazement at his hands, around which tiny blue sparks were still dancing.
"Here it is," he thought with gloomy satisfaction. "I'm a fucking electric battery."
- Who the hell are you? - David asked, not taking his eyes off his hands.
Alexander looked at the stunned faces around and grinned crookedly:
- Someone who knows what's going on. And believe me, this is just the beginning.
***
The doors of the supermarket were barricaded in record time. People used everything they could find: bags of fertilizers, boxes of food, even carts tied together. Only a white wall of fog was still visible outside, but now everyone knew that something deadly was hiding in it.
Alexander stood aside, watching the defense organization. He was still trying to understand what was happening and his newfound ability. Electricity. Contact defeat. Not so bad, if you think about it, but far from omnipotence.
David approached him, holding his son's hand. The boy looked at Alexander with undisguised curiosity and fear.
- We have to talk," David said quietly, nodding towards the utility room.
Alexander shrugged his shoulders and followed him. A group of people has already gathered in a small staff room: store manager Alden Brown, assistant manager Jim Norton, cashier Sally and a few other people.
- So, - David began when the door closed behind them, - you seem to know more than all of us put together. And also this thing with electricity... Who are you?
Alexander thought for a moment. It was pointless to tell the truth - no one would believe him. We need to come up with a story close enough to reality to sound believable.
- My name is Alexander Fable, - he began. - I'm... a researcher of paranormal phenomena. I came here because I caught a strange activity around the local military base.
- Strela project? - one of those present asked. - What happened there?
- Experiment with a space-time continuum, - Alexander replied, recalling details from the film and the book. - They tried to open the portal to another dimension. And, apparently, they succeeded.
- But this thing with electricity... - David nodded at his hands.
Alexander took a deep breath.
- These are the consequences of my previous contact with such phenomena. I... mutated, if you want to know. It can help us survive.
People looked at each other. Alexander saw a mixture of distrust, fear and hope on their faces.
- Why should we believe you? - Alden Brown asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
- Because the alternative is death, - Alexander replied harshly. - I saw what happens when these creatures break into our world. No one survives if they don't know what they're dealing with.
He paused, giving his words the opportunity to achieve the goal, then continued:
- These creatures react to movement and sound. They are almost blind, but they can feel vibrations. Some have stings with a paralyzing poison, others use acid or simply tear the victim apart. They multiply incredibly quickly and adapt to the environment.
David looked at him carefully, as if trying to decide whether to believe him or not.
- What should we do? - he finally asked.
Alexander thought for a moment. He had to change the course of the film, prevent Mrs. Carmody from taking control of people's minds, prevent a suicide expedition to the pharmacy, and most importantly, prevent David from leaving at the end to save his wife.
- First: we have to stay here, - he said. - This is the safest place. Food, water, strong walls. Second: it is necessary to organize duties and strengthen all possible entrances. Third: no panic. As soon as people start to give in to fear, we will lose.
He turned to David:
- Do you have a family?
He nodded:
- My wife stayed at home. We live outside the city.
- I'm sorry, - Alexander said sincerely. - But we can't do anything yet. Trying to get there now is tantamount to suicide.
He saw David's face tense, but the man nodded, accepting the bitter truth.
- How long will we have to stay here? - Sally asked in a trembling voice.
Alexander looked into her eyes:
- Until it becomes safe to go out. Or until help comes.
"Or until I figure out how to save all of you, including David's wife," he added mentally.
At that moment, there was a loud blow from outside, and the building trembled again. Everyone shuddered.
- Well, - said David, straightening up, - then we'd better prepare for a long siege.
The group returned to the main hall of the store, where people got together in small groups, whispering what was happening. Alexander noticed an elderly woman with a stern face who was reading the Bible, surrounded by several attentive listeners.
"Mrs. Carmody," he recognized her. "A religious fanatic who almost ruined everyone in the film."
The woman looked up and met Alexander. An expression flashed on her face, which he could not decipher - as if she saw something hidden from others in him.
"I wonder," Alexander thought, "what will she see in a man who went to hell and came back with a contract from the Devil himself?"
He turned away and went to the window, looking into the white veil outside. Somewhere there, in this impenetrable fog, there were many nightmarish creatures. And somewhere there was David's wife, whom he had to save.
"How?" he thought. - "How can I change the events of the movie? How to save those who are doomed to death?"
He scatteredly rubbed his chest, where the Devil's stamp was hiding under his clothes. It was slightly pulsating, as if in time with his heartbeat.
"Did you want the game, you horned bastard?" Alexander mentally turned to his infernal employer. "Well, the game has just begun."