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Dreamer Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By Rebecca LarecePublished 6 years ago 11 min read
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“Sneaky Ghost is in the house.”

The soldiers normally separate into two smaller teams, Josh, Eve, Max on one team and Nicole, Chris, and Joe on the other. However, this time they stayed as one group and headed onward. They would check out the city itself tomorrow but they wanted to secure and set up the base first.

Eve was ahead of her team, she invisible while she scouted ahead to note those around in the dead of night. She in full gear, dagger in hand but perfectly fine being a little less sneaky because of her invisibility.

She moved forward, her team a few clicks back and she was right at the edge of town. They were all in radio silence until they heard from her.

She looked around when she arrived, going down the sidewalk and through a neighborhood. It was strange in her opinion to run into a neighborhood first when entering a town but it’s not like this town made any sense anyways.

The neighborhood was pretty silent; everything seemed to be asleep or gone, and the silence was a little strange considering all there was is wind. Everything seemed quite, empty and it made her feel a little nervous despite not being visible.

Adjusting her large backpack, she moved down the road, continuing onward until she reached her destination, a somewhat small house on the other side of the neighborhood, what looked like small business buildings further past.

She approached the front door, and pulled out her key which was just as invisible as she and unlocked the door. It took a few seconds but she got the key into the door.

She unlocked the door and headed inside, closing it swiftly behind her and checked out the place, making sure it was empty. It was a two story, three bedroom and two bath house, rather plain on the inside despite looking so fancy in the neighborhood.

She placed her bag and everything else in the living room by the fireplace and made sure all the curtains and blinds were shut before flipping on a switch. She noted when she checked out the place, that Fireteam still had everything in place. Weapons in the rooms, beds made, food in the fridge and so on. The place looked as if someone was living here when it was normally protocol to empty the place and make it appear as if nobody lived there. She wondered how they were able to secure this house anyways but was something she probably would never find out.

She opened the side pocket of her bag and pulled out the radio, turning it on. “Sneaky Ghost is in the house,” She said, the grin in her voice completely showing. “I repeat, Sneaky Ghost is in the house.”

“About damn time,” Josh replied. “What's the situation?”

“Well,” She started and sat down on the couch that could seat five people if they squeezed together, “The place looks occupied but clearly no one has been here for a while. The neighborhood is too quiet and other than the street lights, there are no lights. I will scout the neighborhood more thoroughly now that my backpack is off but I get the strong feeling that the neighborhood is completely empty or everyone is asleep.”

“Go do that. Let us know if anything changes.”

“Roger.”

She placed the radio back on the side of her bag, and stretched for a moment before turning off the lights and slipping out the back. She moved through the mostly empty yard, surprisingly trimmed as she wondered if Fireteam took care of the house while here. She expected the grass to be rather tall in the back but it looked like it was trimmed recently just not sure how recently that was.

She ran climbed the fence, jumping over to the other side and landed in a crouch on the other side, already invisible once again. She looked around, noting this house has a pool, and moved towards the back door. She looked inside through the glass slide door, finding it a bit difficult to see but the curtains were open. All the lights were off on the first floor in the windows she could see. She tested the door, and noted the slide doors were unlocked.

She paused, unsure but went inside, closing it behind her and looked around, as this place did look as if no one lived here in comparison to the Fireteams base. No furniture, fridge was empty and nothing was upstairs and nobody was in the house.

She moved to the next, and even though the layout was different the houses she looked into were empty down the road. She moved to the other side of the road and checked them and they were all empty as well.

This is really weird, she thought when she finished the last house when had circled back to base. All the houses are empty and this is the middle of the neighborhood.

She grabbed her radio. “Sooo...I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but all the houses on this road are empty. Was there anything mentioned in regards to having neighbors?”

“None that were mentioned, only that the nights were unusually silent,” Max mentioned.

“Well, I know why that's the case, they didn't have neighbors,” Eve said, sitting on the floor and resting her back against the couch. “What's everyone's ETA?”

“Should be there in about 20 minutes. See you when we get there.”

“Move your slow asses, want to see you guys in 10!” She demanded.

“Roger that.” Josh responded.

After about 10 minutes, they arrived and spilled into the living room, Eve closing the door as warm air washed over them.

“What took you guys so long?” Eve joked, returning to the kitchen and grabbed a plate of sandwiches and offered it to the squad.

“Well aren't you thoughtful,” Josh teased, grabbing a sandwich.

Josh gave everyone a moment to relax, eat a sandwich and warm up. It was a bit weird for a night like this to feel so cold. Despite moving quickly, he barely warmed up at all.

“It's a little weird that all these houses are here but it's empty. Are you sure you just didn't go blind and just can't see people?” Chris teased.

“I'm pretty sure, I mean, would explain why I'd be dating your ugly butt,” Eve countered with a grin.

“Touché,” Chris replied while raising both his hands up as if surrendering.

“After everyone is done eating, let’s all double check and go through the neighborhood, see if anyone is here. I can't believe that the entire neighborhood is empty, just wouldn't make sense,” Josh stated.

“To be fair, none of this makes sense,” Max commented. “Let’s get started sooner rather than later.”

“Yeah, finish up guys and get ready to move out,” Josh ordered, grabbing a leftover sandwich and finishing it quickly, downing it with a cup of water before heading to the door. “Will refer to our code names while we are outside of these walls, and should we actually run into someone, then our aliases. Eve, Chris check the north side of the neighborhood.”

“Gotcha,” Chris replied before finishing his food while eve was already done and putting on a coat.

“Nicole, Max take the east part, Joe take the south and I will take the west and double check the houses Eve has already looked at. Return here when done. Let’s go.” He turned and left the house through the back door, checking his hand gun and a combat knife before he left.

They each left a few minutes after the other with a gun or a knife if not both before checking the different areas.

After a few hours, everyone returned, giving the same report.

All the houses are empty.

“We should have a party,” Nicole joked.

“Not like we are going to wake up the neighbors,” Eve added.

“Can we be serious for a moment?” Josh asked a little annoyed. “The neighborhood shouldn't be empty; based off the map this is the only one, and it's big enough to house a decent amount of people. The only other place they could be is the apartment buildings throughout the town, but the entire population of a town in an apartment and not in a neighborhood makes little sense.

“Maybe they all disappeared,” Max suggested. “Everyone has been disappearing, one a day, and I don't recall how big the population is. Time seems to also not be consistent considering it was built over night so maybe it's been a few days, a month even and everyone in the neighborhood went missing.”

“I have my doubts on that one,” Eve stated. “I think time is consistent, but the objects aren't, the objects being the people and the buildings."

“Just an idea, I'm as clueless as the rest of us.” Max shrugged and pulled out a laptop. “Things are more than a little particular. As far as our experience with these things, if it made sense, I think it would be a problem.”

“Why would it be a problem if it made sense?” Chris asked, looking at Max puzzled.

“Because if it made sense, then anyone could do it and it would be a wonder as to why we are here in the first place,” he answered and typed his password into his laptop. “Fireteam would have come and went and not have gone missing and we would be comfortable at home or in our barracks.”

“I guess that's fair to say,” Eve stated.

“Any wi-fi, Max?” Joe asked, expecting to hear a no.

“There is, actually,” Max answered, turning his screen towards them with list of connections showing. “Quite a few actually that are in range. Maybe our neighbors are ghosts.”

“Hold on, let me see that,” Joe ordered, getting up from the couch and walking towards Max who was sitting legs crossed on the floor by the plug in.

“Huh, interesting,” he said, looking at it before sitting by Max. “I don't recall seeing any routers or anything of personal belongings when I went through the houses I saw. What about anyone else?”

“Not that I can recall,” Chris stated.

“I wasn't looking for routers but the houses were empty as far as I can remember,” Nicole answered.

“That's really weird.”

“We should make a list of what's weird at this rate,” Josh said, seeming annoyed again. “Everyone get some rest.” He checked his watch. “It's about 0500, set your alarms to 0800. We'll start again when we get some rest.

Interestingly there were two beds in each room. Max and Chris took the one down stairs, Nicole and Eve took the one upstairs and Joe and Josh took the master bedroom that was also upstairs. Josh couldn't help but feel as if the place was set up for them but that was impossible, they didn't even know they were coming, and Fireteam only had three people, there wouldn't be a use for three extra beds, but there it was.

Time passed and they awoke from there alarms, however Josh was up after an hour of sleep. He was tired but not enough to bother him. He stood in the living room, looking out the window intensely, eyes narrowed as thoughts ran across his head. He didn't realize it until Joe called him for perhaps the fifth time.

“Josh, are you there? Hello?” Joe jabbed his side then.

“What is it?” Josh asked, looking at him finally.

“Earth to Josh, I've been trying to get your attention for a little while now.”

“I was just thinking.”

“About?” He asked, looking at him a bit concerned.

“Nothing,” He stated, looking back outside noticing the tail end of a dog walk by.

“What's the plan?”

“Scout the area, see if anything has change,” he said, sounding distracted and headed outside, looking in the direction of the dog.

"Josh?” He asked, watching him leave and looked outside, not spotting anything.

Josh ran towards the direction he saw the dog go, making a left and seeing it strolling down the road but something seemed off about it, it had two sets of ears from what he could see.

He whistled to get its attention, and its head turned towards him, both of them, looking at him with its white eyes.

He stared at it for a moment before putting his hand on his hand gun, however the dog didn't seem interested in him and turned away to continue walking.

He whistled again, the dog looking to him again. But this time, noting Josh move to one knee as if beckoning it to come.

The dog turned, both its heads looking at him curiously, ears cropped up as it looked like a two-headed Doberman.

Josh tapped the ground, inviting it to come closer with his left hand, however his right hand didn’t leave his side. He wished he had something to get it closer but he didn’t think about it before he ran out of the house.

The dog stared at him for a moment before approaching it, it trotting over.

He put his hand out, letting the dog sniff it before it sat down and looked around.

He hesitated before deciding to take a chance and pet one of its heads, but it didn’t seem to mind.

I’m either dreaming or there really is a two headed dog in front of me, he thought to himself before standing up.

“If only interrogating dogs was a thing…” he said, standing and looking around and noticed people were walking around.

How did he not see people before?

He looked at the dog, who was just sitting quietly and only with one head.

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