Chapter 209: Eyes in the Darkness (Patreon)

The lake was the same lake. The three ice-fishing huts still stood out on the ice, and the makeshift door panels Isac had built were still leaning by their entrances.

But dusk was close. They had to hurry across the big lake, and Isac had no intention of revisiting old memories.

The kerosene lamps were already lit. If you pulled the camera up and back, you'd see four points of light strung out in a line across the wide white expanse, winding forward like a snake.

Isac picked his route along the blue-green ice, listening for any groan from the ice beneath his boots the whole way. But after more than two months of winter, the ice below the surface had frozen thick. With him and his pack together weighing a few hundred kilos, stepping onto the lake felt no different from stepping onto solid ground.

Actually, there was one difference. The sleds glided over the ice with less effort than over snow, and they were moving faster than they would on a paved road.

It took a little over half an hour for the group to cross the entire lake and reach the far shore.

Once they were on land, Isac tried to recall where the lakeside cabin sat. As he remembered it, they only had to get over the little hill ahead, walk a bit farther, and the cabin should come into view.

The only problem was that the hillside was thick with trees and tangled with brush. When he and Hayasaka Ai had come this way before, they'd each carried just one pack, so it hadn't been a big deal. Now they had sleds in tow, and getting over this slope would be a real headache.

"Would it be better to go around the edge?" Hayasaka Ai suggested.

The slope was nothing but trees, and fairly dense ones at that. Hauling sleds up through them would be exhausting and time-consuming, never mind the risk of an accident.

They might as well skirt the hill. It wasn't a big one, and this wasn't their first time here. Since they roughly knew where the lakeside cabin was, a detour shouldn't take long.

"Then let's go around. We'll have to hurry, though. Judging by the sky, it'll be pitch dark in an hour," Isac said, taking Hayasaka Ai's suggestion.

Yukinoshita Yukino and Kaguya had no objections to the decision. They trusted the professionals' judgment.

It was getting late, so once the detour was settled, the group moved out at once. Same as always: Isac took the lead and cleared the way, and Hayasaka Ai guarded the rear.

Isac carried the kerosene lamp in one hand and held his gun in the other. He trudged through the snow, one step shallow, the next deep, and picked his way carefully along a forest trail that had lain abandoned for years.

The woods around them were dead quiet. Apart from the faint rustle of wind through the trees, there wasn't a sound.

The light faded bit by bit and the temperature dropped with it. None of the four spoke. They kept their heads down and pushed on, watching for danger that could pop up at any moment. Whenever fallen branches or brush blocked the trail, Isac had to stop and spend time chopping them aside with his axe.

After about half an hour on the mountain path, only a sliver of light was left in the sky, and the lamps had taken over all the lighting for the squad.

Faced with the unchanging forest and the lakeside cabin that refused to show itself, Isac started to wonder whether he'd gotten lost, or walked right past it.

It had been half a year, after all. Fuzzy memories were only natural.

If they didn't find it soon, it would be truly dark. Were they really going to end up camping in the wilderness tonight?

Isac's face tightened. Even he couldn't help feeling a flicker of anxiety, and his pace picked up noticeably. Sleeping out in the open in this cold was the worst possible option. Even with their warm deer-hide blankets, it would be miserable.

Yukinoshita Yukino noticed the change in him and tried to reassure him. "Don't rush. The more you hurry, the more likely something goes wrong. We still have time."

"I know." Isac nodded, but he didn't slow down at all. His eyes kept sweeping the trees around them, trying not to miss a single detail.

But the darkness was thick and the trees blocked the view. He could see ten meters at most, and once night fully fell, even that would be gone.

Isac said nothing more and poured all his focus into finding the cabin they'd stayed in before.

A heavy mood settled over the whole survival squad. Every couple of steps, Kaguya stopped to look at the sky. Once it was completely dark, she'd have to tell Isac it was time to make camp. Stumbling through the woods blind was far too dangerous, and one careless moment could leave them lost.

Isac knew that too. While searching for the cabin, he was also scanning for terrain suitable for a temporary shelter. If it came to that, they'd have to sleep in the open.

That hollow over there looked promising, and there was even a wooden wall shielding one side.

Wait. A wooden wall?

Isac stopped dead and stared at the spot his eyes had just passed over.

The three girls behind him noticed the change and stopped too, following his gaze. But the light was far too dim. All they could make out was a dark blob, nothing more.

"Let's go check it out." Isac started moving again. He'd made up his mind: whether it was the lakeside cabin or not, he wasn't going any farther once he got there.

It was fully dark now. The odds of finding the cabin by pushing on were slim, and it was time to cut their losses.

"That looks like... a cabin up ahead?"

After a few more steps, Yukinoshita Yukino spoke up, not quite sure.

Hayasaka Ai, at the very back, narrowed her eyes at the faint outline in the dark. "It's definitely a cabin. Whether it's the lakeside cabin or not, one thing's certain: we don't have to sleep in the wilderness."

Isac's expression eased, and his steps got lighter. Whatever it was, a roof over their heads was all he needed.

Before long the survival squad reached the cabin. Rounding to the front, Isac found a house that was both familiar and strange, and little details matched the one in his memory.

"Yep, this is the lakeside cabin," Isac said with certainty.

"Let's get inside first," Yukinoshita Yukino replied.

They pushed the wooden door open, hauled all their supplies inside, and shut the door behind them.

The nerves that had been wound tight for hours finally loosened.

"I'll start the fire." Hayasaka Ai took the Accelerant and matches over to the wood stove. A pile of firewood the group hadn't used up on their first visit still sat beside it.

After half a year, the logs had dried out completely. Hayasaka Ai picked two small ones, sprinkled them with Accelerant, then built a stack of kindling around the pair. When she was done, she pulled out a match, lit it, and tossed it straight in.

Pale blue flames shot up, the sign that the Accelerant was burning cleanly. With the stove lit, the temperature in the cabin began to creep slowly upward. Isac walked over to the workshop door. That was where he'd gotten his axe.

He hadn't come to revisit old memories, though. He'd come to shut the door.

The window in the workshop was broken, so the door had to stay closed. Otherwise the room would never warm up.

After closing it, Isac dug two pieces of cloth out of the sled, folded them up, and stuffed them into the gap at the bottom of the door.

The lakeside cabin was a bit better than the forest cabin, but it still leaked wind from every direction. If they wanted a comfortable night, they'd have to do the weatherproofing.

Yukinoshita Yukino got the ingredients ready for dinner, while Kaguya helped Isac patch up the cabin. The guiding principle: wherever the wind comes in, plug it.

By the time they finished, food was simmering on the stove and the group finally had a moment to breathe.

The lakeside cabin had only one chair, so Isac simply dragged the bed over next to the stove to serve as a makeshift bench. That way they wouldn't need to move it back at bedtime. They could just sleep right there.

The only catch was that the bed wasn't big. Four people could sleep across it, but their feet would hang off the edge. Isac, being tall, would have his whole lower legs dangling, while Yukinoshita Yukino and the others would only have their feet out.

Back at the forest cabin, they'd solved that with an extended bed frame made of logs.

In their current situation, building a frame was obviously out of the question. Tonight Isac would have to make do by holding one randomly assigned beauty.

Once the feeling returned to his frozen hands and feet, Isac began explaining to Kaguya and Yukino which window he and Hayasaka Ai had watched the bear spirit hunt from.

"We heard something outside while we were in the house. When we looked out this window, there was a half-grown moose out there. We were thinking of trying to hunt it, but before we could even line up a shot, the bear spirit pounced and took it down."

As he talked, Isac pointed toward the spot where the hunt had happened. It was pitch black outside now and he couldn't see a thing through the window, but he pointed anyway.

Pointing was harmless right up until he did it. Then he noticed something wrong.

In the direction he was pointing, in that black hole of a forest, two points of light had suddenly appeared. At first he thought it was a reflection off the glass, but a second look told him it was nothing of the kind. Something was out there in the trees!

The realization drenched Isac in a cold sweat. A pair of eyes suddenly appearing in the night woods, glowing eerily? Anyone would jump.

But when he tried to look closer, the eyes had already vanished. Maybe whatever it was had left. Isac couldn't be sure.

"Did you see that?" Isac asked the two long-haired girls beside him once he'd collected himself.

"Some kind of wild animal, maybe? A wolf?" Yukinoshita Yukino wasn't certain.

"I don't think so. A wolf's eyes aren't that big or that bright." Kaguya had seen how wolf eyes shine at night, and it didn't quite match the pair they'd just seen.

"You can tell that much?" Isac was stunned.

"Anyway, they definitely weren't wolf eyes. I'm sure of it." Kaguya rolled her eyes at Isac and ignored him.

Hearing the commotion, Hayasaka Ai leaned over curiously. "What did you see?"

"A pair of eyes giving off a creepy glow," Isac replied.

"A wild animal?"

"Probably."

It couldn't be a ghost. Surely.

"I just don't know which animal. Even if we rule out wolves, that still leaves cougars and moose. It could also be a bear."

"Aren't bears supposed to be hibernating right now?" Kaguya asked, puzzled.

"Bear hibernation isn't like a snake's. It's more of a false hibernation, or a winter sleep. They come out of the den now and then, especially when the weather warms up," Yuki-pedia answered.

"Either way, let's drag some stuff over and block the door so it can't sneak in on us tonight." With that, Isac started hauling things toward the entrance.

"We should block the workshop door too. The window in there is broken, and whatever that animal is, it could climb in through it."

After blocking the doors, nobody looked at the windows again. To keep the firelight from drawing the attention of anything outside, Isac even found a few pieces of cloth and covered the windows.

When they sat back down by the stove, dinner was nearly done: a pot of plain tomato venison noodles.

The smell of food made Isac forget about the mystery animal for the moment. Whatever it was, filling his stomach came first.

"Tomorrow we keep heading east. After one more stretch of dense forest, we should see the railway to the coastal town. Once we find the tracks, the rest of the trip gets easier. We just follow the railway the whole way."

When he finished, Isac shoved the last piece of venison, coated in thick tomato broth, into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed. Then he drank the broth left in his bowl down to the last drop and let out a satisfied burp.

"Mm, I hope everything goes smoothly. Want more? There's still noodles in the pot." Yukinoshita Yukino nodded, then noticed Isac's bowl was empty and offered him a refill.

Isac thought about it. "Sure, give me a little more."

Yukinoshita Yukino ladled another half bowl of noodles for Isac, then looked at Hayasaka Ai and Kaguya. "Do you two want more?"

"Yes, please." Hayasaka Ai held out her bowl.

Kaguya shook her head. "None for me. Give it all to her. I'm full."

Yukinoshita Yukino emptied the rest of the noodles and broth into Hayasaka Ai's bowl. She wanted to boil another kettle of water, but found the thermos was empty.

Seeing this, Isac said, "Let's skip boiling water tonight. Tomorrow, once it's light, I'll go out and dig up some snow to melt."

With an unidentified wild animal lurking outside, there was no reason to take the risk.

There was nothing else for it. Yukinoshita Yukino set the pot aside and got up to make the bed.

Kaguya stood and went to help. Isac and Hayasaka Ai stepped to one side with their bowls. Even if they couldn't help, they could at least stay out of the girls' way.

Hayasaka Ai asked in a low voice, "Do you think it could be that bear spirit?"

Isac shook his head and answered just as quietly. "Probably not. If it were the bear spirit, the eyes wouldn't have reflected that small. I'm guessing it's just a moose."

He paused, then went on. "And even if it is the bear spirit, don't worry. I'll protect you all..."