A Search For The Unknown

The Town

Eric and Asher got out of the car that was waiting for them at the airport. As they get out of the car Thomas is waiting for them in front of the hotel.

“Welcome to Wintersville gentlemen, this is the closest town to the facility that has been having all the trouble as of late. But since it is so late, I want to get you two checked into the hotel so you can rest for the night. And tomorrow we can go over to the facility for the two of you to start your work.”

Eric and Asher follow Thomas into the hotel and up to the counter where a woman was doing paperwork.

“Hello Diana, I would like to help the franks check into their room.”

Diana stopped doing her paperwork and turned to the computer and started typing on it.

“Hello Mr. Winters will the Franks be paying with Winters dollars or will they be paying with credit?”

“The Winters family will be paying for their stay as a part of the agreement of them coming to work for us for a short period.”

Diana looked at Eric and Asher with a bit of wonderment and pity.

“Oh, are they the ones that are going to fix what is going on at the facility?”

“Yes they are Diana, so please take good care of them and make sure they have everything they need that we can provide them with. We want to make sure they can get their job done quickly and discreetly. So as not to cause the Winters International Corporation any more bad publicity.”

“Of course sir”

Diana typed away on her keyboard. As she did, Asher looked at Thomas with a confused look on his face.

“What are Winters dollars?”

“Winters dollars is the currency we use here in Wintersville.”

“Why do you have a special currency for this town?”

“It makes everything easier for us and our workers. We are a long way from any banks or way for them to transfer their checks into cash. So we just have our own currency.”

“How will we get anything in the town then? We don’t have any Winters dollars.”

“You can just pay with a credit card or debit card.”

Asher looked at his father with a bit of concern in his eyes and Eric shrugged his shoulders. Diana finished typing and handed two cards to Thomas.

“Here are their room key cards sir, their room number is 113. It is on the second floor.”

“Thank you Diana, can you tell me where these gentlemen things are?”

“Yes sir, their things were sent to their room when they arrived.”

Thomas then turned around to face Eric and Asher. And handed them their room key cards.

“Here are your room key cards gentlemen, I hope you have a good night and I’m sure you don’t need my help finding your room.”

Eric took the room key cards and responded.

“No, we can find it on our own. Thank you for the help. What time tomorrow can we get a tour of the facility and see where the damage is?”

“Unfortunately, I will be busy all day and won't be free until nine P.M. to show you the area where things have been happening, but you are more than welcome to check out the town and the local woods until I will be ready to show you the area. Or I could have one of the locals show you around the town and give you a tour. Speaking of which I almost forgot to give you this.”

Thomas opened up a briefcase he had been holding the whole time. From the briefcase he pulled out three vanilla envelopes and handed them to Eric.

“The envelope labeled town has all the information about the town including a map and list of stores, also a list of places to eat. Also a map of the surrounding area. The envelope labeled investigation contains all the information the private eye dug up about the locals and their possible religions along with other useful info about the area around the town and facility. The final envelope labeled facility contains all the information to date about the things that have happened at the facility. Including a detailed list and description of everything to date to the point of the construction starting, along with our build permits and permits from the government to build here. And pictures of everything that we could get pictures of. I hope this information helps you in your work. I hope you have a good night Eric and Asher.”

With that said Thomas nodded his head slightly at them and walked out the door.

When they woke up in the morning they checked over the envelope labeled town to find somewhere to have breakfast before they went around the town and started the investigation into why something or someone would want to attack the facility and who or what was. Inside the envelope was a very detailed list of stores on one page on another a detailed list of places to eat and what they served there along with menus from all of them. The map of the area showed that it is a long way to the nearest town with any stores. It was over a two hour drive to another town, but there were two small villages within an hour drive.

As Eric and Asher walked around the town to get a feel for it and to find the diner they had decided to eat at, Asher started to notice strange things about the people there. Every person they walked by never made eye contact with them. Most didn’t even seem to notice them. They didn’t even seem to notice each other and they all walked in unison.

As they walked through the town Asher looked at all the houses and noticed that all the houses and yards were exactly the same as each other. All painted white with black roofs and white picket fences. Each having a birdbath in the front yard and a blue chair in the window with thin white curtains. Each door was blue with a gold door knocker and a small half circle window at the top. And Every house was two stories tall. As they were walking Asher was looking at the house, not paying attention and walked into one of the people on the street. The man Asher walked into didn’t even notice that Asher had bumped into him.

“This town is strange. All the houses are the same and people don’t even notice you.”

Eric looked around and then at his son and responded.

“It’s not strange the houses are the same because Winters International Corporation probably used the same blueprints for all the houses and then furnished all of them with the same things to save time on deciding what to put in the house or how to build the house. They probably didn’t have time to waste on making the house look different. They were more worried about getting it done so they could get their workers in the house and working in the facility. Speaking of which, do you think all those buildings over there on the edge of town are the facility because there are a lot of buildings. Do you think that all of them are having things happen to them or just one?”

“I think the town is strange, but you're probably right. To be honest I don’t know for sure they only said facility when we talked to them about it, but it would make sense with a town this big that they would have more than one facility here for all of these people to be here to work at. When we get done with breakfast we can check the folder about the facility and ask Thomas when he makes time for us tonight. But it would be weird if the thing doing this is only causing problems at one building and not all of them.”

They find the diner and sit down and wait to be served. A woman comes over and in a monotone said.

“Can I take your order?”

Eric looked at the menu.

“I’ll have the omelet special with coffee.”

“I’ll have pancakes and bacon with orange juice please.”

The waitress wrote down their orders and walked away.

Asher looked down at his menu.

“Excuse me ma’am, you forgot to take our menus.”

The waitress didn’t look back or acknowledge Asher.

“The people in this town are so strange.”

“Asher, that's rude to say. You don’t know anything about that woman. She could be tired and not hear well. Or they might just leave the menus at the table for the next person that might be the costumes here in Farfang.”

“Okay, maybe but what about the people outside the guy I bumped into didn’t even respond or notice that I bumped into him. And no one even looked at us; it was like they were all in their own little worlds.”

“You shouldn’t assume people are strange just because they are different from you, Asher. And I think it's nice here. They all have nice homes and I would assume that Winters International Corporation pays them well for them to stay here. And they have a nice town and everything. Plus you don’t know what people are like in this state. This might be normal for this area. We’ve never been here before. You don’t need to worry straight away. Also the people in the town aren't the ones that might be causing the problems, they are just as much victims to the strange attacks as the facility is and the company is.”

Asher looked out the window watching the people outside.

“I know I shouldn’t assume things dad, but I have a bad feeling about this place. Something is off.”

“You always have bad feelings in places with negative energy. You probably just feel the effects of the negative energy left over from the spirit causing all this and are just projecting it onto the town because you can't find the source of the energy yet. When we find the spirit or thing causing this and get rid of it, it will make you feel a lot better. Then you will see just how nice this little town is.”

Asher looked at his fathers smiling face and returned it with a face of worry.

“I don’t know, I still think something is off here, but you may be right.”