"They come out at nine,
What's mine is theirs,
As they snare me too.
What a fool I was!
Now they come again,
In the darkness they linger,
The bringers of death,
The deceivers of life,
The Poes whom we call our foes,
Come again on this unholy night."
The Poe –Strange creatures that only come out in the fog. Their origins unknown, only that they started showing up when the fog did. Nobody ever see what they actually looked like, only what they were capable of doing to anyone they come across. From what the group gathered, they're not necessary hunters or aggressive, but if they come across a person, they will gravitate towards them and with a touch, burn them from the inside out. It was unknown as to why or what they're doing in an area like Prudence. Leona and the survivors haven't found out whether or not the Poe appear elsewhere, as they haven't been able to reach out to anyone.
"Are they aliens, too?" Karen wondered as she sat around the makeshift chairs with Matt and the others. They been going over ideas as to what to do to stop the Poe and get home.
"I don't know," Ripley furrowed her brow. "They're no spirits either."
"I wonder," Matt tapped his fingers against his chin as he sat on a stool opposite of Ripley. "Could they be the ones causing the smog?"
"They do seem to only come out when it does," Arthur noted as he crossed his arms. "Wonder why they're here, what caused them to come here, the people?"
Ripley pondered as she rested her hands on her knees. They only come out when the smog does, gone when the smog goes, it made sense, but the motives behind their presence remained out of reach. It didn't appear they wanted to lay siege. Nor, did they want to make the lower wards their private playground where their "games" played constantly, thankfully.
"If they hurt people, then, that'd make them dangerous," Karen pointed out. She was one of the few that didn't want to go Gun Ho on everyone and everything without understanding the situation. She didn't want to harm these Poes, unless they're truly a danger to everyone around. With what she heard from Leona and the missing child… she dreaded to know what her answer was.
"Wish we can get back to the police box," Arthur frowned as he uncrossed his arms. "Do you think it'd have anything to combat them, if they are?"
Matt closed his eyes as he tried to visualize his answer. They didn't seem to find out every secret the police box had to offer, it seemed every time they found something unexpected, two-ten more secrets pop up. It got to the point he had to categorize what he found, unfortunately, none of them ever did pinpoint on the origins of the police box.
He did not know if and what the police box had that could help with this matter, but even if it did, they were nowhere near it.
Some would argue, he and the others should've taken their chances, gone back to the police box, gone back to their world, and then some. It wasn't their job to help this world with its problems, after all. Not worth risking their lives to help people, they'd never see again after that fact. However, Matt felt the urge to help this world. He wanted to do it, not out of some twisted sense of morality and earning brownie points with people, not only because it was the right thing to do, but something else. One could say, it was a calling, a call that he had the urge to heed.
"I don't know, can we really help them, I mean, we're nowhere near the police box, the smog's not letting up any time soon, and we don't have any weapons," Arthur rubbed the back of his head as he frowned.
Ripley spoke up. She summed, "These Poes only come when the smog does. That's no coincidence. What if they're the ones who created this smog, it'd make sense. If we can find where they congregate, then maybe we can stop them."
"If we can stop them," Arthur wearily interjected.
Karen spoke up and said, "If we can even find them."
Matt felt cogs in his head turning.
"Where do they go when the smog isn't 'round?" he finally asked. The trio looked to him as he gestured with his hands. "It makes sense, they'd have to have a place to go until the smog comes in," he explained to them.
Ripley contemplated this and added, "Then where would they go?"
"We've passed a lot of boarded up buildings, what if one of them is housing these things?" Karen raised a finger. Arthur looked at her with horror on his face. "We've passed over thirty, how'd we know which one's got them in?" he asked her.
Ripley placed a hand under her chin as she brought up, "They're not that big, that Leona told us, suppose that they don't need a big of a place to house, at least until the next smog."
"Well even then, we don't know which one has them," Arthur reminded her.
Matt snapped his fingers and said, "Then we'll just have to follow them!"
"Follow them?" Arthur questioned as he crossed his arms. "How're we going to do that, they'll disappear even before we catch up."
Matt lowered his hand as he remembered, then frowned.
Ripley interjected with, "We don't."
She met with looks before she elaborated. "We don't follow them. Where they're coming from, if they follow the basic laws of nature, there's a path to wherever they reside they always subconsciously take to and fro," she lowered her hand from her chin.
They discussed until they settled on Ripley's idea. They have no hope following the Poes since they're always agile and potentially dangerous. However, if they follow the paths the Poes take, then they could in theory find where the Poes call home and with a plan, they could deal with the Poes and stop the smog from ever occurring again.
It was a matter of how to pull off the plan with the allotted time until the smog disappears again.
The smog was still dangerous and still difficult to navigate through it. They still needed their breathing apparatuses to walk through the streets.
They couldn't wait for it to dissipate, if it stayed longer each time, they have no idea how long it'll be before than. Even, if the police box would still be there when they retrieve it.
"How do we know they haven't found out where we are?" Arthur brought up as he settled in his spot. If the Poes actively searched for humans, then surely they would've discovered the Hole and the enclave underneath it. Ripley pondered this before bringing up, "The smog's not evaporated water."
Leona came with a tray of food for them and they told her the plan. She was aghast at the idea they would follow the path the Poes took to find where they resided and with the knowledge they picked up and stop them from hurting anyone else. She asked how would they manage it, but Matt cheerfully told her not to worry. With a bewildered look, Leona agreed and said she would have their breathing apparatuses ready for them as well as provisions.
After finishing their food, the four packed up their things and went over the plan once again. Once sure of it, they took the DataPad with modified software provided by Leona that showed them the last sightings of the Poes before led out of the enclave.
Arthur crossed his arms as he walked with the others. He asked them, "We're not going to keep using that thing, are we?"
He referred to the police box.
"Art, we in a million years would never see this world if we didn't use it," Matt reminded him.
Arthur said flatly, "Aren't science fiction shows enough for that?"
"You could've stayed at the shop," Ripley brought up.
Arthur shirked before mentioning, "Surely there are consequences using it, we're altering a state we have no business of altering. What if we altered something that shouldn't?"
He made a valid response. Even though it seemed what they were, doing so far hadn't caused anything permanent, it wouldn't always be the case in another world.
"It's not like we're altering history, Art," Karen pointed out before Arthur quickly replied. "Yeah, but what if?" he pointed at her.
"My word still stands; we are not using that thing again. Once we complete our task and get home, I'm chaining that thing up, and throwing away the key," Ripley hadn't let up on her concerns about the police box either. That kind of power at the touch of a button or a lever was too dangerous for her to allow it exposed. It was for the good of the group that they never used it again. Even if Matt disagreed, too many variables would make it impossible for them to keep incidents from occurring and the high chance of something going wrong.
Matt frowned at Ripley's assertion. She wouldn't budge from it and Ripley rarely changed her mind, if ever. He couldn't make another deal with her for him to use it again, like a match, it was one and done.
Karen would argue against the idea of chaining the police box up, but Ripley was never the one to back down from an argument and she would keep on until Karen wore out.
Arthur was elated that it wouldn't be used anymore. He already seen space in person once and he didn't want to see what other worlds existed. He doubted they'd be any similar to theirs or this one in particular.
They kept walking until Matt stopped them at a spot where a Poe sighting took place and looked at the map. He made a mental note of where the Poe sighting was and looked up the road from where it was and pointed for them to follow.
They followed Matt until he came across another Poe sighting, the natural path as Ripley described. They went a certain path and back, never deterred from it, always set.
He glimpsed with his torchlight and stopped when he noticed far off in the distance two bulbous lights. Ushering the others to turn off theirs, he had them get off the road and onto the sidewalk; he kept the DataPad's screen off, as the bulbous lights slowly grew bigger.
They watched as the bulbous lights continued to get closer and small shadows hovered over the ground. Silent, they never made a noise, and the bulbous lights always seemed to be over their heads. Their arms outstretched to hold their lights, like a scarecrow on a pole.
Matt kept them away from the Poes as much as he could as the Poes glided effortlessly through the smog. He noticed they had small pinprick eyes that had their own glow, but nothing else about the Poes showed even though the bulbous lights lit up the surrounding area.
They hovered past Matt and the others, didn't even recognize their presence before disappearing down the street the four walked up from.
Only when they stopped seeing the bulbous lights, the four took a deep breath. "What the hell are those things?" Arthur squeaked. "Did you see their faces?"
"No," Ripley shook her head.
Matt cautiously led them away from the area and followed the path until the next sighting spot.
More homes boarded up, they all checked them to see if there were any openings made by the Poes to enter. None of them did, but they found scorched marks on the woods used to board up windows. The scorched lines made it seem that the bulbous lights used by the Poes were hot enough to create the lines.
"Where did they come from?" Karen wondered.
Leona and the survivors didn't know, only what they told them.
"Space, maybe?" Arthur shrugged.
Ripley shook her head, "Doesn't seem like it."
"Well, maybe they're a mutant species created by the smog?" Matt suggested. He received a look from Arthur as he hissed, "Don't jinx us!"
"I don't think it's that either," Ripley shook her head at Matt's suggestion.
Karen flashed her torchlight and stopped when she heard chittering noises coming from down the alleyway. She brought this to the others' attention and they stood beside her as they looked down the alleyway.
"You think it's them?" Karen asked.
Matt looked down to the DataPad and noticed there been another siting down that alleyway. He grimaced as he glimpsed up to the darkened alleyway where no light permitted even with all their torchlights pointing down at it.
"What if they're coming up?" Arthur worried. The last two Poes didn't notice them because they hadn't used their torchlights, but with all four using them, it was a matter of time before a Poe saw them.
Matt ushered them to the side of the buildings with their torchlights off again and waited with bated breathe. He waited for the bulbous lights to show through the dark, but they never did, all they heard were chittering noises.
Neither of them wanted to risk going down the alleyway to check, because of this. However, the DataPad showed the sighting down the alleyway.
Ripley volunteered, finally, but Matt flatly refused. He cited her cane and knee, but she told him to stop worrying about him and that she'd be fine. He wouldn't let her go down the alleyway and opted to volunteer himself instead.
"You're serious?" Ripley blinked. Matt nodded. "I think he's finally cracked," she shook her head at his assertion that he wanted to be the one that walked down the alleyway and not Ripley.
"You're insane, Matt, what if they get you too?" Arthur pointed for Matt as he was about to walk down the alleyway. Matt shirked in his spot as he nervously laughed, "I'm sure I'll be fine."
Matt puffed up his chest and walked down the alleyway, while the three watched him.
Ripley grew worried as she saw his outline disappear into the darkness. She muttered under her breathe how stubborn he was and how thickheaded he been, but quickly retracted it as she took a deep breathe.
They waited by the alleyway. It been at least ten minutes since Matt went down the alleyway and he hadn't returned. Worried, the three stretched their necks out in hopes of catching his outline coming up from the alleyway, but he didn't return.
"He should've been back by now," Karen gritted her teeth.
"Oh god, did they get him, too?" Arthur looked around nervously.
Ripley frowned as she tried to see past the darkness in hopes of catching a glimpse of Matt, but when she still didn't see him, she grew frightened.
"We should go after him," Karen suggested.
Arthur shook his head. "What if he met the Poes?" he gulped.
Karen and Arthur argued as Ripley stared into the darkness, hoping for Matt's return. She started feeling a creeping feel come over her and she turned her head to the top of the road they were on and saw bulbous lights in the distance. She looked down the road and saw more. They were slowly coming towards the alleyway in droves and Ripley grew weak in her knees as she came to the sudden realization.
She hissed at Karen and Arthur to stop and to start running down the alleyway. Arthur protested at first, until he saw the lights comings towards them, and he changed his mind.
They hurried down the alleyway just as the bulbous lights grew bigger.