Abigail, in a fog of indecision, stared at the rods. Her mind looking for any indication of guidance. She looked to the car wash. They had one of those dancing windsocks with a “GRAND OPENING” sign at it’s base. A queue of cars flowed out of their lot and onto the street. Abigail then looked towards the strip mall. Windows were boarded up. The parking lot had abandoned cars, old tires, a few shopping carts.. then something caught Abigail’s eye.
“What? What is it?” Tess asked, taking note of Abigail’s shift in attention.
“Watch…” Abigail pointed towards the strip mall.
They watched a thick fog roll into the parking lot around the strip mall. Fat white fingers stretched around the building and melted out and filled the parking lot.
“Oo, that’s kind of weird, huh?” Tess stood next to Abigail, trying to position herself to be able to see exactly what Abigail was seeing.
“It’s low land there, so fog makes sense… except it’s late in the morning for it to be rolling in now. But… that’s not the weirdest part.” Abigail started walking towards the strip mall. “Look at the fence.”
There was an old chain link fence surrounding the parking lot. Some sections were missing, one section looked as if a tree had fallen onto it. The fog, however, stayed within the fence line.
“Why does it just stop there like that? Is there glass or something…” Tess questioning trailed off as Abigail picked up her pace.
After a short but too-quick-for-Tess walk, they arrived to the entrance of the parking lot of the strip mall. There was no gate to the fence where the driveway turned into the parking lot.
“Should we climb it?” Tess asked in an almost too excited tone.
Abigail picked up an acorn and tossed it up, attempting to get it over the fence. The acorn’s trajectory was perfect, arching to the other side, but when it reached the plane of the fence, it burst into a tiny flame and dissolved in a puff of smoke.
“WHAT IS THAT?”, Tess leapt away from the fence.
“A forcefield. Someone, or something is protecting that building.” Abigail said as she began to walk the perimeter of the fence. They turned two corners and arrived to the back of the strip mall. It was wooded back there, if you could call it that. Most of the trees were dead or about to be. Trash mixed with branches and brush made walking more difficult. After wading through, they came a pay phone booth. The light inside flickered.
“What in 1993 is that?” Tess picked up an acorn and threw it into the open doors of the phone booth. It went through and hit the floor. Both shrugged and walked into the phonebooth. Cramped inside, they faced each other with inches between their faces.
“Want some gum?” Tess pulled out a stick of gum from her back pocket, handing it to Abigail before she had a chance to answer.
“I’ll take the hint.” Abigail let out a laugh as she popped the gum in her mouth.
“Ok, so… why are we in here again?” Tess asked, looking around like a nervous cat.
Abigail realized they made that decision without thinking. “I think this must be… what we’re supposed to do.” Abigail grabbed her amulet, thinking it must be what was guiding them. Abigail picked up the phone, “There’s a dial tone… it’s in service?”, making both a statement and forming a question at the same time. “I don’t know what to dial. I have a feeling this isn’t connected to a phone company.” Abigail began pressing buttons. After 6 buttons a voice announced “Attempt one of two fail. Please try again.”
“It said attempt one of two failed. I don’t know what will happen if we fail again.” Abigail began to think of all the 6 letter wards she could spell with the alpha numeric numbers.
“Wait! Wait… what about the code on the postcard? Try that.” Tess pulled the post card out of her bag and handed it to Abigail. As this action took place, the flickering light in the phone booth steadied and grew very bright.
Could it really be that easy, Abigail wondered, rubbing the amulet between her fingers. “Or maybe not, maybe it’s a word we’re supposed to figure out.” The light in the phone booth dimmed and returned to flickering. “Ok, well, I think that’s a good enough sign.” Abigail pressed in the code from the postcard. 3 for D, 7 for S, 3 for F, 4-2-7. The voice announced “Attempt 2 of 2 Successful”. The doors of the phone booth folded in. “That’s weir….” As Tess spoke, the entire phone booth shot into the ground like an elevator, but at warp speed, so it felt more like falling. And just as fast as it started moving, it stopped, and the doors folded open.
Before them was what looked to be a maze of cement hallways. Along the hallways were old photos of various construction projects over the years. Below each frame was a small plaque with a year engraved into it.
Abigail read the first plaque, “1399” The photo was of a lake surrounded by excavators with the Dark Star logo.
“How did they have that machinery in 1399? When were cameras invented? This can’t be the right year.” As Tess began walking down the hall to read more of the plaques, they heard the sound of muffled voices. They both froze. The voices began to get louder, indicating whoever it was getting closer. Abigail and Tess ran down the hallway until they reached two stairways, each with a sign over the doorway.
“To Office or To warehouse?” Tess asked Abigail as she read the signs.
👍To have them take the stairs to the Dark Star Office
❤️To have them take the stairs to the Dark Star Warehouse
POLL RESULTS: 2 ❤️ 1 👍
