"We could always count on Mr. Grey to make us feel perfectly safe. Not."
-Matt
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One thing I would definitely say I was thankful for at this moment, if anything, was that the bag that we still had was the most important one. If Mr. Grey had taken the one with the gun, keys, and map I don’t know what would have happened. That would add even more of an advantage to what he already had.
“I just…why? How?” Amy muttered a lot of nonsense under her breath, and I knew she was also trying to piece together what had just happened. “He…they were…”
My eyes darted around the woods, and I noticed Andrew joining me as I tried to find anything suspicious in the trees. Out of my own nervousness, I pulled out the gun and decided to keep it in my hand from that point on. The others at first looked almost startled by this action, but they knew what I was thinking and didn’t say anything.
“Are we almost at the cabin?” Johnny complained, kicking at some stones along the ground. Kyle, in answer to his question, pulled out the map and started showing Johnny the route.
“See? The key says that each inch is equivalent to this distance…so the distance left we must cover is…”
“Nevermind! I can see it through those trees!” Johnny, Kyle, and Ethan all bursted forwards, ignoring my warnings to be careful of roots and branches.
I used the key to unlock the door to the cabin, carefully opening it afterwards. Shock spilled over all of our faces at what was in front of us, and I quickly rubbed my eyes to see if I was somehow being deceived.
“Our…our bags. They are right here.” Amy started pacing back and forth, clearly baffled. “Nobody can get in here without a key. This is not okay, guys. Did any of you do this? Please tell me you did!”
“Guys…someone had to have gotten in to leave these there…” Kyle double checked for any unlocked windows or back doors of any sort, and he came up short.
Almost as if it had become a reflex, I gripped the gun tightly in my hands. I turned on my heel in a circle, slowly surveying the cabin. It looked completely normal though, everything in the same methodical arrangement we had left it in. How could someone have possibly gotten in and out without doing any sort of damage, unless they had a key. I already knew the answer though.
Mr. Grey.
He had a position of authority in te school, he had an opportunity to get a key. Mr. Grey was a man who always found a way to get what he wanted, and I was sure that if he wanted a key to our cabin he would get one.
"Now, guys, this isn't something to panic about..." Andrew left his words hanging fragilely in the air as we all looked at him in question. "We are perfectly safe in here right now, nobody is in this room, so we are just fine at the moment. Let's all calm down a little before freaking out like I know we all want to."
Ignoring Andrew's words in his attempt to assuage our fear, I took some time to walk around the room and inspect every little thing there was. Under the mattresses, behind the door, everywhere. There wasn't anything I wanted to miss. But I came up empty, without an answer. Everything looked perfectly the same as to how we left it, and, as Kyle had said, the only way someone could have gotten inside was with a key.
We could always count on Mr. Grey to make us feel perfectly safe. Not.
Compared to the power Mr. Grey had shown us he had, we were like feeble old men and women, not capable of defending ourselves. I wished that I could give Ethan back his childhood, let him be a guileless little boy again. None of us could be so ingenuous about everything, we had to act as if nobody was trustworthy.
“Well. I personally think this is a sign,” Julia paused carefully, picking out her words. “We are all going to die.”
“Such a morbid way of thinking,” Johnny muttered, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, shut up you two. Don’t get started on something that won’t lead us anywhere.” Amy pushed her brother away. “My speculation is that we are just…nope, nevermind. Julia’s thoughts might be headed in the right direction.” Amy sat down on the ground in a huff. “I’m looking through these.” As her hand reached for the zipper, I sprung into action.
“Don’t touch anything!” I screamed. Amy startled, removing her hands from the bags. “I just think we should be cautious in case anything happened with them.” I continued, this time at a lower decibel.
“Matt…” Amy sighed. “I think it’s okay to open the backpack. It was probably only done to scare us a little. There isn’t much you can do to a backpack.” So what that I had the propensity to be very careful and protective about things like this, it wasn’t that bad to make sure everybody was as safe as possible. They didn’t have to act as if I was being ridiculous.
“Whatever,” I mumbled through my lips.
Watching attentively as Amy unzipped each bag, I let out a breath of relief when nothing happened. The bags were all okay, everything exactly the same as when we had them. I was never letting anything out of my sight again though, especially the gun.
The agency was right, we would need it.
***
Dinner was very taciturn that evening. We didn’t exactly have much to eat, so we were left nibbling on little things like granola bars in our silence. The only thing we ever heard was either Andrew or Amy on the few occasions they decided to act as a provocation to one another, and then one of us would have to step in to quell it all before it got out of hand. I wouldn’t say that they would become friends anytime soon with the way things were going.
Now we were each preparing for sleep though. I, myself, didn’t think I would be getting any, but we could always try. We were all moving slowly, dead on our feet. Ethan, Johnny, and Kyle dumped out a bag on the ground so they could find everything they would need easier. While they were picking through it I studied the map with our path for tomorrow and the others each did their own things to get ready.
“So!” Kyle jumped up, jolting us back to life. “I propose we take a good look at that key!” He held out his hand, waiting for me to hand it to him. I obliged, as I was just as curious as everyone else about where it possibly lead to.
“It looks like any normal key…” He ran his hands over the shiny yet weathered piece of brass. “Any normal key…hmm…”
“Well. That was helpful, Kyle. But, as interesting as examining a key is…it isn’t. I’d rather figure out what happened with our bags than what some stupid key has to do with this trip.” Johnny’s eyes scanned the room. “Unless…” He trailed off with a smirk.
“What?” Amy asked flatly.
“Oh, nothing.”
“What?” Her voice was bored, uninterested. Obviously she couldn’t care less about whatever Johnny was abut to pull.
“Unless it is for a door that leads to a secret underground portal to-.” Johnny paused midsentence, staring at something on the ground. He brushed a few little things from the ground, letting water bottles and a box of matches roll around. His eyes widened, increasing to the size of baseballs.
“What? What is it?” Kyle kneeled down to where Johnny was, looking at the ground. “Oh, wow. How did we miss this?”
“Oh…oh my…” Julia gasped, covering her open mouth with a free hand.
I tried to figure out what they had found, and when I did I just wished it wasn’t there.
On the ground were two hinges, as if to a door, and a small outline for where the door would open up. A little keyhole was also in the wood. We hadn’t even noticed it until now since a bed used to be over it, we had only moved it a few minutes ago so that it wasn’t right next to a window. With us all a little nervous from the bag incident, we were trying to do anything to make us feel better.
“Obviously it leads to below the cabin. Probably a storage area.” Kyle looked down at the key in his hand and something seemed to click. “Guys…”
We all knew where he was going. The key we received must be the one that opened the lock on the door. The only thing was, what would it lead to?
As soon as the thought was forming in my mind though, we were all given an answer. When Ethan brushed off more dirt that covered the door, there were three little numbers written over the lock and keyhole.
Three small numbers that shocked us all.
203.
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