There was about a hundred feet of asphalt between the loading docks and a chain link fence that bordered the mall parking lot. Beyond that, trees and a drop-off to a drainage ditch that, right now, would either be bone dry or have no more than an inch of water in it. Archie knew if he could make it to the fence, scaling it would be simple, and traversing the ditch would be equally easy. Even if one or more of the cars could smash through the fence without getting tangled up, they’d never make it across the ditch. These Arrivals might be versatile little vehicles, but they weren’t Jeeps.

Once past the ditch, Archie believed he could make it safely home if he stayed off roads and sidewalks. But that hundred feet across the parking lot to the fence might as well have been a hundred miles.

You could not outrun one of these cars.

Nick was proof of that.

And yet . . .

Archie studied how the cars had arranged themselves. They certainly deserved points for neatness. Three rows of cars, four deep, all faced his way. If he were to leap off the loading dock and run between them, how long would it take them to turn around, all bunched up like that? How quickly could they reorient themselves and begin their pursuit?

Archie glanced at his bare arm and saw goose bumps. Maybe that made sense. He was scared, after all. But then he realized he was feeling cold. The temperature was dropping. At first, he wondered if it was because he was standing just beyond the meat department. Plenty of freezers back there. Frosty air could be drifting out.

But no, the coolness seemed to be coming from outdoors. And then he saw why.

Fog was rolling in.

It was drifting in from the left of the loading docks. It happened often on the island. Archie wasn’t exactly sure why. He’d never studied climatology. He didn’t watch the Weather Channel. But he’d heard about what happens when cold air passes over warmer water, and by this time of year, the water around Garrett Island had been warming up all summer. Every once in a while, fog rolled in, and quickly.

The low hanging cloud of mist was enveloping the cars. Before long, the fence at the far end of the parking lot had disappeared.

Archie wondered.

How well equipped were the Arrivals to handle fog? He knew there were plenty of sensors and cameras mounted all over them, even if you couldn’t actually see them. Would fog disable an Arrival’s ability to navigate? Did they have the kind of radar that big planes had? Planes landed in fog, didn’t they?