Chapter 28: The Fog Came on...

In a darkened alley of South Vancouver, a yellow car jerked drunkenly to a halt on top of something soft, wet, and unpleasant. In the last two hours, nearly every panel of the car had been dented or scratched and one headlight was smashed and dark.

On a nearby dumpster a large, striped grey tabby observed the car with eyes that flashed green in the light cast by the car’s one remaining headlight. There was a long moment when nothing happened then the passenger door clicked and was pushed open from the inside. It swung just wide enough to admit the cat who slunk down the side of the dumpster like striped mercury and disappeared into the heated interior of the car.

The door closed and the engine revved before the car clunked into reverse and wove its way out of the alley, knocking over a stack of wooden loading pallets as it did. The car braked hard, the horn honked, and the engine revved again before it lurched back onto the main road and disappeared into the pre-dawn darkness.