Chapter 1

The sun had begun to set as I pulled into the long gravel driveway that led to my grandpa’s cabin just outside the small town of Conconully. When my Grandpa passed away last month he left the cabin to me in the will and I finally got a long weekend off of work to go check it out. I had many fond memories of Grandpa and his friends playing Dungeons and Dragons and letting me join in when I was there to visit, often falling asleep halfway through the session. Grandpa had a lot of fun home brew rules that made the experience unique. 

I pulled the car to a stop at the bottom of the driveway and turned off the engine. I grabbed the envelope from the lawyer containing the keys to the house and the code for the as the paperwork put it “significantly large safe” in the basement. I walked up to the front door and used the key to unlock the door. I entered into a small tiled area for shoes divided from the living room by a half wall. Kicking off my shoes I walked into the living room. An old comfortable looking couch was against one wall with a coffee table in front of it facing a surprisingly modern flat screen t.v. The wall opposite of where I stood was taken up mostly by a classic wood fireplace built into the wall. I could see through openings on either side into a kitchen dining room space. 

To my immediate left was a door opening it up I found a master bedroom all the sheets were stripped off the bed and folded neatly on top, grandpa had left instructions for the lawyer to have the place cleaned but to stay out of the basement and it looked like the company that had done it had done a good job. I opened the other two doors in the room both on the right side one was a small walk-in closet and the other led to the master bathroom. The bathroom had another door on the farside that had a laundry room which had four doors, two on the right and the last one across from me.

The one across from me had a small window that let me see a back deck. I opened the first one on the right and flipped on the light to see stairs leading down probably to the basement mentioned in the paperwork. I decided I would deal with that in the morning and closed the door. The last door opened to a familiar dining room and kitchen. I walked through the dining room and checked the kitchen, sure enough the cupboards were empty of food but the dishes looked like they went through the dishwasher recently. I was glad I had stopped and picked up a pizza on the way out, I started to preheat the oven to that special 425 degrees and went to finish my exploration. The last door off the living room was right next to the gap to the kitchen. Opening it I found a short hallway, a door on my left had been left slightly open revealing another bathroom. The last two opened up into two rooms the same size as the master but with two sets of bunk beds each with sheets and blankets folded as well.

After checking the main floor of the cabin I went outside and brought in the rest of my stuff including the pizza, my laptop, and my overnight bag. The rest of the night passed quietly. I set up the master bedroom and hooked my laptop up to the t.v. The internet had been turned off when grandpa passed so I busted out one of my favorite anime’s I kept on dvd and resumed watching where I left off with a guy firing a rocket launcher at a very annoying dragon. Turning everything off, I put the plate in the dishwasher and went to bed. 

* * *

The next morning I woke up early having forgotten to close the blinds luckily for my sanity I didn’t forget to bring supplies for coffee, grandpa was a big coffee drinker he had an antique looking coffee thermos that never seemed to be empty no matter how much he drank. I put my creamer back in the fridge and drank my coffee waking up to start my day. It was the middle of summer so no reason to start a fire but I did wander out back to take a look at the wood stalk pile. The cabin was nicer than my apartment and all paid off but the job prospects in the area were pretty minimal so I could really only afford to use it as a vacation place during summer trips and hunting season. The wood pile looked sufficient for about three months. There was also an outside fire pit I noticed. The property was backed up to the national forest making it easy to scavenge deadfall for personal use. Grandpa also had what looked like a small pistol range set up.

Returning inside I decided I would go down and see what grandpa kept in the super secret basement. I went down the stairs and found what looked to be an old root cellar concrete on all but the back wall which looked to be rock. The shelves were empty but surprisingly the rock wall had an old heavy duty door with an ancient looking lock. I had brought the envelope down with and pulled out the last key which fit in the lock the lock clicked open and the door creaked open “ that is going to need some oil” I said out loud to no one and went in I found a light switch and turned it on the tunnel looked like it had once been a mine shaft but had been worked to serve as a basement I followed it for a little ways until I hit a T intersection to the left looked to be an old cold war era bomb shelter that had been converted into into a small medical ward the shelves were full of bottles with odd colored liquids. I shrugged assuming this was something left over from when grandpa bought the place in the 60’s  then I turned to his pride and joy. I had only ever seen a picture of this place when I visited grandpa and grandmas regular house on the west side of the mountains. 

The right side of the t-intersection led to a giant much newer steel door. The control panel was newer than anything I had seen before and I punched in the code. “Please state your name and read this” a computer voice came from speakers in the panel. “ Jack Mikelson, the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” I stated clearly “voice print added welcome James Mikelson, in the future you can simply say open and close to open or close the door, more options are available see your owner's manual for details.” as the computer finished the door swung open and I got to see what grandpa kept inside and I was shocked. Inside was not just a gun room but an armory with enough ordinance to make the ATF interested. On the left wall were an assortment of long arms. what looked like five FN Fals, three AR-10s with long range optics and one very pretty Tavor 7 with a Trijicon ACOG. but the top of the group had me gaping in awe. 

An M-60 machine gun hung from the mounting pegs below it was a manila envelope. I opened it up and found the original purchase receipt, and NFA forms. I paused double checking the purchase date and forms and realized that the M60 wasn’t a replica but a fully functioning machine gun, quickly I checked the will I had it listed the property and everything on it including firearms but said the firearms were listed in appendix c which I hadn't checked before now finding it I didn’t take a breath until I saw that the M-60 was specifically listed. Owning and having a machine gun are always challenging no matter what people think and nearly impossible in Washington State. But luckily it looked like everything was in order. The will even had contact information for an experienced firearms lawyer which was to be paid for out of the estate to cover the transfer expenses.

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Now that I knew I wasn’t committing a crime just by walking into the room I continued to look around. The other wall had 5 Glock 21’s and 5 FNX tacticals. Higher on the wall were sets of odd looking armor. Huh, I didn't know grandpa did conventions I thought to myself then I noticed a more regular door in the back of the work area next to a reloading bench. The door had a sign on it. I walked over to take a look. It was a classic 8-bit scene with an old man in a cave. The caption read “it’s dangerous to go alone take these!” instead of the classic sword there was a pistol, flashlight, and brown shoulder bag below it was a big red arrow pointing right. Following the arrow I saw a bank of flashlights and five brown shoulder bags. “Message received grandpa.” I chuckled while grabbing a flashlight. The first one I tried was died, but the second one was going strong so I grabbed a few spare batteries and tossed them into the satchel. The satchel had a plastic water bottle full of red tinted water. I took the lid off and sniffed it smelled fine so I took a sip and it had a slightly fruity taste. “Flavored water, nice!” I exclaimed then found two vials with a much darker red and a note saying “ use half in stream water to purify”. It must be some kind of flavored water purification thing like iodine. I haven't heard of a good tasting version though. I thought to myself making sure the bag fit right to my height. Then for fun I grabbed one of the FNX’s they had holsters and I grabbed the one left handed holster checking the red dot sight to make sure it was working I holstered it and grabbed the belt spare magazine holder and two spare magazines to fit in it. After a moment of thought I grabbed three loose rounds from the ammo box marked .45 and went upstairs.

Out at the pistol range I realized I forgot to grab ear protection cursing quietly I debated just shooting anyway but sighed and went to my car I found my electronic set in the trunk luckily for me the batteries were still good. I set a pop can filled with water on a piece of firewood and out of habit yelled hot range, I waited for a second to make sure no random hiker was about to stumble out of the woods behind the shooting berm and put the ear protection on. One shot followed by two in quick sections the pop can was shredded and I knew the firearm was working properly. I ejected and topped off the magazine then reupholstered the fire arm. I decided to just put the ear protection into the bag and head back downstairs. I had the armory open the door for me and then went to the nondescript wooden door. 

I opened it up but found just a long stony hall way that faded to black I didn’t see a light switch so turned on the flashlight and followed the tunnel it ran about three hundred feet before I found a set of craggy stone steps leading up to a door that was dogged shut on a ship. Releasing the locking bar on my side I spun the hatch and pushing hard I swung it open.

I was greeted by a bright sunny day which wasn’t a surprise because I had only been inside for about ten minutes. But what was surprising was the hill behind me. I didn't  remember seeing a hill like this when I arrived yesterday but maybe I missed it on the drive in. I climbed out and shut the door behind me just so no one could wander into the armory without trying. Still, I didn’t plan to go far since I didn’t have a way to lock it from this side. I was in some kind of crumbling structure. If I was in Europe I would think it was a bunker or castle but those aren’t really a thing in Washington, maybe some forgotten factory or ww2 base?  The open flat field in front of me stretched out a few hundred yards until it ran into a forest. I hopped up on one of the destroyed walls and looked around but I couldn’t see any landmarks. I was about to jump down when I noticed an object catch the light under some rubble which I moved aside. I reached down and picked up a coin that looked gold and had some writing on it. I didn't understand I was about to pull out my phone to try to look it up when I heard a yelp and animal whimpering somewhere in the ruins and what sounded like laughter. 

I was mad I was a hunter and didn’t mind killing animals. I knew where meat came from and was ok with that. I also understood trophy hunting wasn’t my thing but so long as the meat wasn’t wasted. You could have at your water buffalo or whatever.  But I hated it when people were cruel to animals just because they felt like it, it was just bullying with a target even less likely to report you then the scrawny kid on the playground. So I was pretty pissed off when I rounded the corner. “ Hey, this is private property and if you don’t knock it off right now I’m going to call the cops you assh-” my tirade died as I finally registered what I was looking at what I thought were a few teenage boys abusing a dog turned out to be half correct, there was a dog being abused, but the things abusing it weren’t teenagers. “Goblins?!” I half asked and half said. Sure enough four little green guys about as tall as my belly button and only wearing loin cloths were kicking a dog curled up in a corner. One was poking it with what looked like a curtain rod it was trying to use as a spear. 

We all froze for a minute not moving then one of the Goblins pointed at me and shouted one had a bow and started to point it at me and draw it that snapped me out of my stupor and I stepped around the corner as he loosed it the arrow was short and would have missed me anyway but judging by how the others were acting that was a mistake not a warning. One had a nice looking dagger and he and the one with the curtain spear were charging me. I drew the FNX and leaned out to see this happening so I drew a bead on the nearest one. Two quick squeezes and the dagger wielder went down. I missed the curtain rod holder with the first shot at him but two more and he was out. The archer had reloaded and fired again, this time hitting the wall closer to me earning my attention and three bullets for his trouble. The last one turned and fled and I let him go, not understanding the situation I found myself in and not yet ready to shoot an unarmed person running away even if the person was a goblin.

 I walked over to the whimpering puppy and kneeled down, it tried to bark at me but it turned into a sad whimper. “ Easy buddy I’m not going to hurt you shhhh shhhh shhhh” I got out my water bottle and poured some into my hands. And presented to the injured pup it sniffed for a second before lapping it up, I reached down to pet the puppy and felt a zap about like licking a 9 volt battery “hahaha that tingled” I said rubbing the little guy or girls ears. A chill ran up my spine and before I knew what was happening I was flopping on my side a longsword sized machete like blade crashing down next to me where I was just kneeling. Looking back I saw a goblin holding the handle. My pistol was trapped between my hip and the ground so I drew my leg back and gave the goblin a solid kick. staggering him back causing him to drop his sword while I rolled onto my back drawing my pistol. He pulled a stone knife and jumped at me. I started shooting and didn’t stop until the body landed on me, not moving.

 “gross!” I shouted, shoving the body off of me and standing up. I couldn’t remember how many rounds I had fired but a quick check showed the slide was locked back. I ejected the magazine and threw the empty in a pocket. Taking out the spare I slotted it home and released the slide which snapped back into position. Learning my lesson, I looked around for threats this time not seeing any. I holstered my pistol again and looked down at the puppy who looked slightly better but still injured and wouldn’t be safe here. As gently as I could I picked the injured puppy and slowly made my way back to the tunnel and home.