The driveway was about a hundred meters long and ended at a massive house. It was clear that no one had lived there for quite some time. In front of the house, on what could be considered its front lawn, copses of weeds broke up the driveway's cement.

The house had a front porch extending its width and was covered in dirt and leaves. The porch even had one of those swinging benches, but one side had broken off and was lying on the ground. Even though the house was brown paneled wood with green trim for blending into the area, it was clearly covered in dirt. The thick grime was especially visible on the windows. However, all the windows seemed intact, at least in the front.

"As long as there aren't any giant creatures on the inside, this place looks perfect," I said, half-jokingly. Melody frowned at my comment about giant creatures, and my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. "Will we find any giant creatures?" I asked her.

"I don't know what's in there," she replied. "But, I think that we should probably scout around the outside of the house and peer in all the windows first. I'm not going in there without checking."

"Well, what kind of giant creatures could we find in there?" I asked.

She looked at me for a moment, her eyes glazed over as she recalled some distant memory. "Do you really want to know?" she asked.

I didn't really want to, but I didn't want to find out later, so I nodded my head for her to tell me.

She let out a breath. "Spiders," she expelled.

"On second thought, I don't think I like this place," I said.

---

Thankfully, there were no giant spiders; I would've had to kill them with fire and burn the entire house down. I'm not scared of spiders. I usually leave them alone.

But, those spiders are tiny ones that hang out in dark corners and eat bugs. Who knows that giant spiders eat. I assumed a giant spider would eat a squirrel, but I didn't know anymore after seeing a squirrel.

We meticulously searched the perimeter of the property. Once we found it clear, we moved closer and explored outside the house. We peeked into every window, wiping the years of the grime away and looking for any type of giant creature that might want to kill us. We couldn't see up into the second-floor window, and it also seemed like there was some type of attic, but the first floor looked clear, so that was a start.

We decided to go into the house through the back door. There were more windows in the back, so we could see where more things were. I checked the back door to see if it was locked before using my power, it was, but it only took me a moment to unlock it.

The door creaked loudly as it slowly opened. It didn't want to move since the hinges were rusty with years of disuse. It was so loud I decided to wait at the entrance and see if anything was rustled up by the noise.

While waiting, I peered around to get a better look as sunlight flooded in. The back door opened into a large kitchen and dining area covered in a thick layer of dust. Cobwebs filled nearly every corner. But, as they were struck by a light wind streaming through the open door, they were torn to shreds.

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I could see several areas from where I was standing in the doorway. The dining room table was still present and covered with a transparent tarp. Apparently, the owners planned on returning and didn't want to deal with the dust.

The rest of the house was similar to the dining room. Dust covered almost every surface, cobwebs hung in the corners, and the most prominent furniture was covered with tarps. We looked around for signs of an attic entrance, and I found it after a couple of minutes.

It was one of those built into the ceiling, and a cord was used to pull it down. Unfortunately, it didn't have a rope, so we decided to leave it alone. None of us wanted to go up there anyway.

The house smelled like dust and mildew, and there were some interesting - to say the least - growths in the bathroom. After we were done clearing all the rooms, we opened the windows to let it air out. After that, we took off all the tarps. When we brought everyone back, we wanted places to sit and plan.

Clearing and cleaning the house took us a few hours. By the time we were done, the shadows were growing long on the ground. We were happy with the house and discussed ways to defend it while we cleared it.

We headed back to town afterward, following the road instead of cross-country. I wanted to see the path up to it and know how long it was since we had to move everyone out of the hotel and back to the house. It would be much better for everyone to travel on the road than to go through the woods at night. I was worried that there might be some type of giant owl that could swoop down and snatch us up. I brought this concern up to Melody.

"No, most of the birds didn't gain that much size, so they wouldn't try to snatch us," she said. However, she did look down at her brother. "Also, I've never heard of a giant owl, just sonic ones."

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "We're going to sit down when all this is over, and you're going to tell us all the weird creatures you know about."

"Why do you think they didn't tell you anything about that?" she asked.

"I think they told some of us in the camp, but not the majority of us. Definitely not us." I gestured to myself, John, and Randy, to imply all the Carpenters. "I know they did it to control us, but I'm not really sure why they decided to keep that type of information from us."

We all lapsed into silence as we continued walking back. I couldn't understand the cadre's reasoning for withholding that information. As I thought about it, it made more sense to tell us.

Then we would feel the need to be more reliant on the camp. I knew I would have been much more apprehensive about escaping if I knew there were giant squirrels, sonic owls, and shiver-inducing chipmunks running around. I wondered if they were trying to protect us, which made the whole mess much more confusing.

We rounded a final bend in the road as the sun shone the last light of the day over the mountains. Darkness blanketed the mountainside as the sun's red glow shone behind it. The horizon faded into purple as it reached the sky, and the moon's crescent glow illuminated the heavens with a star accompaniment. As we approached the hotel from the opposite direction we had left, I could see a lone figure standing a little ways off, looking at the rise of the hill.

Sarah waited diligently for us to return, and I wondered if she had been there the whole time worrying. It seemed like something she would do. I signaled to the others to be quiet and slowly walked behind her. She didn't seem to notice as I got as close to her as I could.

"What are you looking at?" I asked loudly.

She jumped, screamed, and spun around all at once. "What the hell, Aidren?" she yelled, looking furious. We all laughed at her reaction. "It's not funny," she said and stormed into the hotel.

I turned to the others with a smirk and followed her inside. Contrary to what Sarah said, it was funny. Still, we had work to do.

Everyone was in the lobby and ready to go when we stepped into the hotel. We briefed the group about what we found and our plan. When we were done, we all headed out. It didn't take long to get everyone moved over to the cabin, which was really a testament to Sarah's leadership.