Chapter 320
Path mission rule #1. Do not overcomplicate the briefing.
Path mission rule #2. Survive at all costs.
- Division 16, Special Investigation's Numero Uno's Special Absolutely Smartest Duo, Kyle and Clyde
The sky outside the cabin windows had turned into a deep orange, fading into a dark purple from the east. Mia's phone noted that it was now 6:30pm, almost dinner time.
She stood in the kitchen, stirring a pan of taco filling on the gas stove. The smell of seasoned ground beef and onion filled the whole cabin, drawing eyes from the living room, especially Jacob's. On the counter beside her sat a bowl of salsa she had thrown together from tomatoes, cilantro, jalapenos, and lime juice.
All of it came from the interstate gas station they stopped by briefly during the bus ride. Surprisingly, it had a small grocery section. Must've been for the truckers driving by.
She would've gotten more ingredients if the bus driver hadn't started honking in just 5 minutes. Could've made something other than tacos. But all in all, it was a good grocery run. No way in hell was she going to eat the 6 MRE boxes that they were given from the bus driver for 3 days straight.
"Jacob!" Mia shouted toward the living room. "Get in here and help me carry this stuff!"
Shuffling footsteps approached. Jacob appeared in the kitchen doorway, taking a deep breath to take in all the aroma.
"Why me, though?"
"You doing anything?"
"Not really."
"There's your answer. Andrew's setting up the sleep stuff and you're slacking."
Jacob sighed but walked over anyways.
Mia handed him a bowl of salsa and a stack of soft tortillas enough servings for 6 people and then some. "Careful. Don't let it fall."
"Relax! I won't!" Jacob picked it up but then stumbled on his fingers before catching the bowl back. That almost gave Mia a heart attack, and she glared at him.
A forced smile appeared on Jacob's lips, but then he hurriedly went to the living room and put down the bowl on the coffee table. Mia followed him with the filling and 6 plates. Setting the bowl down, she sat cross legged in front of the coffee table.
"This isn't a picnic," Bernard said, glaring at Mia as she set the pan of taco filling on the table. In his hands was the box of M.R.E.
Jessica, on the other hand, had a big smile on her face. "Mexican! My favourite. Thank you, Mia! Can't believe you actually cooked."
"Someone had to," Mia said. "No way I'm eating those MREs."
Yuri picked up a tortilla and started assembling a taco. "Mia's actually smart. Food is part of morale. Can't argue with that one, military nerd."
Andrew looked at the MRE box on Bernard's lap. "You know those things are filled with tons of salt, right?"
"Awakened bodies are stronger than mundanes," Bernard said. "We can handle more."
"Doesn't mean you should," Mia said. "If you want to eat your sad little MRE, go ahead. But I better not see you take any of my tacos."
Bernard's glare softened, and then he put the MRE box aside and reached for a tortilla.
"That's what I thought," Mia said.
The team started digging in, each one making their tacos with their individual spoons, taking from the centralised filling and salsa bowl. A sudden moan caught their attention, coming from Jacob.
"What?" Jacob asked.
"Don't do that," Bernard hissed.
"You know, Mia's mom makes the best food. Like seriously," Jacob commented.
"We're in public, idiot. Don't moan," Andrew said.
For a while, no one said anything. Mia could see that Jacob was suppressing his moan. The first time he did that at her house with mom's cooking, mom looked at him weirdly and just burst out laughing. Then she just got used to the stupidity of this idiot.
"The mission briefing," Bernard said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Did anyone else notice how vague it was?"
"What do you mean?" Jessica asked.
"It just said 'stay in the cabin for at least 72 hours.' That's it. No objectives or anything." Bernard looked around the group. "Doesn't that seem suspicious to you?"
Yuri swallowed the bite of the taco in her mouth. "Now that you mention it, yeah. Recruitment tests are never that simple. There's always a catch."
"Exactly." Bernard leaned forward. "They wouldn't send us out here just to sit around and do nothing. Something's going to happen. Or something's already here, waiting for us to find it. With those proctor fuckers, that's gotta be it. They'd give you shitty instructions to fail you like the disgusting pieces of shit they are."
"The Path doesn't waste resources. If they rented out this cabin and transported all of us here, they expect something to happen," Andrew said. "Probably something's up anyway."
"So what are you suggesting?" Jacob asked. "That we go looking for trouble?"
"I'm suggesting we scout the area," Bernard said. "Figure out what we're dealing with before it figures us out. Information is power."
Mia sighed. Knowing what she heard from Gale about the Path, if they didn't bother writing more instructions, it's because there weren't any more. She spoke up, "Or we could just do what the mission says. Stay in the cabin for 72 hours. Don't touch anything suspicious. Don't go poking around in places we shouldn't."
Bernard turned to her with a look of disbelief. "This shit can't be that simple for Sterling. It's one of the 3 major Aurian academies."
"Yes. It is that simple." Mia chewed on her taco. "The mission didn't say 'explore the cabin.' It didn't say 'investigate the surrounding buildings.' It said stay here. If we go messing with things we're not supposed to, that's on us. Could also be why there's always someone dying every year."
"Spoken like a true rookie," Bernard said. "You think the proctors are just going to let us sit here for three days eating tacos? They're watching us right now, probably through hidden cameras." He pointed at the deer head. "If we don't do anything interesting, they'll make something happen, and that's 100% certain from the horror stories of this specific location."
"Then let them make it happen. Wouldn't you rather defend a castle than attack it?"
"Let's put it to a vote. Who thinks we should explore the cabin and the buildings around it?" Bernard raised his hand.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Yuri raised hers as well.
Andrew's hand went up next.
Jessica looked around, then slowly raised her hand too.
Jacob turned his eyes to Mia, making continuous eye contact as he slowly raised his hand.
Five hands. Everyone except Mia.
"Whatever," Mia said.
"Majority rules." Bernard looked around the room and to the front door. "I checked out the surroundings earlier. There's a shed out in the back and a basement door beside it."
"The basement?" Jacob said, his voice trembling. "Why does a cabin in the woods even have a basement?"
"That's what we're going to find out."
Mia elbowed Jacob. "Serves you right for voting against me. You too, Andrew."
Andrew casually shrugged.
If they were going to do this stupid thing, might as well make sure they did it in the least stupid way possible. And that was to stick together. "I call for not splitting up. We stay together, always."
Bernard looked at her and nodded. "Agreed."
"Agreed," Yuri echoed.
Bernard reached into his bag and pulled out six flashlights. He tossed one to each person.
Mia caught hers and then glanced at Jacob, who looked too excited for an exploration mission. In the previous supernatural adventures they had, he was the most scared out of the three of them. "You're somehow not scared compared to our last adventures."
"I'm awakened now. And I can heal. What's the harm?"
"Didn't you say it still hurts?"
"It'll be fine."
The group filed out of the cabin one by one. Bernard took point, his flashlight sweeping left and right as they walked around the side of the building. The night air was cool, carrying the smell of pine and damp earth. What was odd was the silence of the forest. There was no breeze nor any animal noises.
Mia stayed near the back with Andrew. Jacob walked in the middle with Jessica, while Yuri walked just behind to right of Bernard at the front.
Their flashlight beams bounced across the trees surrounding the cabin. Every shadow looked like it could be hiding something. Every rustle of leaves made Mia's heart jump slightly.
"Didn't they say to stay inside and close all your curtains when the sun falls in the Appalachian mountains?" Mia asked from the rear.
"Mundane legends. Don't believe that BS," Bernard said.
But mundane legends had to come from somewhere, like the ghost at the Yorkdale Adult Learning Centre. Apparently, that was true.
Reaching the back of the cabin, two structures appeared in their view, lit up by their flashlights. A wooden shed and, right beside it, a set of metal doors built into the ground at an angle; the basement entrance.
Bernard stopped and turned to the group. "Which one first? Basement or shed?"
"Shed first," Yuri said immediately. "It's above ground."
Bernard nodded. "Shed it is."
Approaching the shed, it looked old, and the planks were grey and looked to be almost rotting, except it was dry. Bernard grabbed the rusted handle and pulled. With a loud creak, the door swung open.
Flashlights swept across the interior, revealing rakes, a rusty lawn mower in the corner, and chipped, rusted trowels.
Turning the flashlight further inside, it landed on a familiar wooden board sitting by the shelf. Letters and numbers were carved into its surface in a serif font. A sun in one corner and a moon in the other corner. The words Yes, No, and Goodbye.
It was a ouija board.
"Jacob, you better not touch that shit," Mia said. Mundane item or not, anything brujeria was off limits.
"Wasn't planning to. So angsty, Mia."
"Shut up."
Yuri walked up to a mirror propped against the back wall. The frame was a thick floral victorian design made of brass. The glass itself was cloudy, but clearly it could be polished with just the right cleaning tools.
However, when Mia saw her reflection in the mirror, there was a tall figure beside Yuri that looked like a woman with long nails. Though it was just a silhouette.
When Yuri moved, her body blocked the silhouette, and then once Mia saw the mirror again, it disappeared. Rubbing her eyes to see if what she saw was real, it wasn't there anymore.
"Ah!" Jessica screamed, snapping everyone's attention to her. "Sorry." She pointed to a doll on a shelf. Victorian style as well, with a porcelain face and a glass eye, missing one of the eyes. It had a faded red dress that had splotches of dark red fluid.
"Ok, I think we should go back now," Jacob said. "Please?"
"It's just a doll," Bernard said.
"How is that not creepy?!" Jacob squealed.
That was the Jacob Mia knew. Even Andrew had chuckled at his comments.
Yuri ignored them both. She walked past the items and grabbed an axe that was hanging on the wall near the lawn mower. She swung it a couple of times before nodding with a smile on her lips.
"Wooden handle, but it'll do," she said.
Jacob looked around, then picked up a rusty cast iron pan from a pile of old cookware in the corner.
"Seriously?" Andrew asked.
"It's a shield."
Mia didn't grab anything. Admittedly, she had no physical advantages, and all she had were her brains in the most literal sense. If zombies couldn't get headaches, then she might as well conserve her energy to make a run for it.
"We done here?" Jessica asked.
"Basement next," Bernard said.
Exiting the shed and leaving everything behind but the axe and cast iron pan, they went to the basement doors that were beside it. The door was painted grey, chipped from the years of resisting the weather.
Bernard pulled it open, and it groaned, revealing the concrete steps that led down into the darkness. He went first as the vanguard, pointing his light ahead. Yuri followed, close behind, then Jessica, Jacob, Andrew, and lastly, Mia.
The basement was larger than she expected. Concrete walls, concrete floor, exposed pipes running along the ceiling. Standing shelves in the interior and the walls were filled with boxes, crates, toys, and other stuff that didn't look too interesting.
Jacob's flashlight landed on the counters on the left side where they entered. On it were green glowing cups and green plates. Running towards the tableware, he stopped right beside them. "Oh shit! You guys know what these are?!"
Andrew avoided getting near the tableware. "Aren't those radioactive?"
"I mean, technically, yes," Jacob said. "But we're awakened. No harm, right?"
"That logic is going to get you killed someday," Mia said.
Bernard wasn't paying attention to any of them. He had moved to the far end of the basement, his flashlight illuminating something that was glinting at an object hanging by a hook.
Reaching and grabbing it, the chain suddenly snapped, creating a ringing that echoed in the concrete basement. Turning his palm over, what he saw were dog tags, military style.
Yuri moved over, tiptoeing to see what was in his hand. "What's that?"
"Dog tags." Bernard turned them over in his hand, trying to read them. "The name's etched out. Can't tell who they were."
He pocketed the tags and moved deeper into the basement. His flashlight found something else at the very back, leaning against the wall.
A shovel.
Mia spoke up. "Hey, maybe you shouldn't touch any more stuff. The owner might already be pissed that you broke the military dog tag, maybe?"
"Relax. I'm just going to use this as a weapon." Bernard reached for the shovel. His right foot caught on something, stumbling him sideways, arms pinwheeling. He crashed onto a shelf, shoulders hitting the wood, and the impact sent a jar tumbling downwards and shattering.
Jessica laughed. "Smooth moves, soldier boy."
"It wasn't my fault!" Bernard straightened himself back up. "Something pushed me. Or tripped me. Whatever."
"Sure it did."
Mia looked at the broken jar on the floor. The liquid was seeping into the cracks of the concrete. From the smell of it, it was vinegar.
"Is everyone happy now?" she asked, her voice sharp. "We explored. We got weapons. Now can we please just hole up in the living room like I originally suggested?"
Bernard looked like he wanted to argue. But even he seemed slightly unnerved by the broken jar and its disappearing contents.
"Fine," he said. "Let's go back."
"Finally," Jacob muttered.
The group filed back up the basement stairs. Mia was the last one out, and she made sure to close the metal doors firmly behind her, even putting the chains around the handles that were by the side of it.
Returning to the cabin, everyone was starting to yawn. Even though it was only 9pm, there was technically nothing else to do.
Once inside, the group dispersed to do their night routines.
The men's routine was simple. Bernard, Andrew, and Jacob lined up at the bathroom sink, brushed their teeth for approximately two minutes, and were done.
The women took longer.
Mia washed her face with cleanser and applied moisturizer. That was it. She wasn't about to do a full skincare routine in a potentially dangerous cabin in the woods.
Jessica and Yuri, on the other hand, had brought sheet masks. They sat on the sofa in their pyjamas with sheet masks covering their faces.
"You kidding me right now?" Bernard asked, taking a seat on the sofa as well.
"Skincare is important," Jessica said. "Even during missions."
"We're in a recruitment test!"
Mia plopped down on the makeshift comforter bed on the floor. She fluffed up her pillow and propped it against the sofa to sit up. "Why are you so on edge?"
Bernard pointed at the deer head mounted above the fireplace. "Have you not been listening? The proctors are watching us. Right now. Through cameras or magic or whatever. And they're the most vile people in the Path. They get off on watching recruits suffer."
"So?"
"So we should be alert! Ready for anything!"
"Relax," Mia said. She reached into her duffel bag and pulled out a project. "Anyone wanna watch something before we sleep?"
Bernard's eye twitched.
"Ooh, can you put on a true crime documentary on YouTube?" Jessica asked.
"True crime?" Yuri said. "I'm down for that."
"How about a sci-fi movie instead? Fall of Space is supposed to be amazing. Brady Howard's in it," Andrew said.
"Yeah, Fall of Space!" Jacob said. "I've been wanting to see that one."
Mia ignored the boys and put on a random true crime documentary from a playlist she had followed. It started playing as soon as the page loaded.
"Seriously?" Andrew groaned.
"Democracy," Mia said. "Two votes for true crime, two votes for sci-fi. I'm the tiebreaker."
Bernard threw his hands up. "This isn't a sleepover!"
Yuri pulled a blanket over her legs and settled deeper into the sofa. "It is now."