17 Conifer Village / The Coniferian Job, Pt 2

Previously, on Usagi Days: Ruby and Anemone are back in the Usagi, ready to carry out the Professor's mystery job. Are they up to the task …? Slowly, they enter the Backwoods, a restricted area behind the Village.

- 17.1 - The Usagi Creeps Through the Backwoods -

The Usagi inched over the dirt road, which was just narrow enough to accommodate the width of the vehicle.

Ruby and Anemone could feel the crunch of dirt underneath the vehicle's wheels, the bumps of rocks.

Before them the road ahead fell quickly into darkness. The midday sun was nowhere to be found, its light blocked by the thick canopy of leaves overhead.

Without the headlights, Anemone wasn't sure they'd be able to see much at all.

- 17.2 - Anemone Recalls the Professor's Advice -

Anemone thought back to the jail, when the Professor had first briefed them on the task they were now in the middle of carrying out.

(Prof K: "Drive. Fast. That's the only thing I can say. If you want to make it out of this alive, you're going to have to go fast. Drive fast. Get in, grab it, get out. And then drive back, fast.

"Speed is the only way this is going to work.")

Anemone furrowed her brow at the memory of the Professor's words.

Anemone: "Rubes … We're going too slow."

Ruby: "I know, Annie. I have to get a feel for it first. Don't worry."

- 17.3 - Ruby and Anemone Pick Up Speed -

The road twisted and turned. The automatic gearbox shifted up and down as Ruby braked and accelerated through the bends of the road. Blind curves. Sharp corners.

With each turn, Ruby grew more confident, and she gradually picked up speed. She tested the limits, letting off the throttle whenever she lost traction, or when the car began to slide, before easing back into it again.

Before long Anemone could feel her friend start to synchronize with the rhythm of the road. Internalizing its shape, its flow. Ruby, with a look of pure concentration on her face, was begining to anticipate the movement of the road. Braking at the last moment. Accelerating at the apex. When to push, when to ease off.

Anemone felt her mouth begin to curve into a smile. She turned away to hide her face, and hoped Ruby hadn't seen it.

- 17.4 - Ruby and Anemone Wind Around a Mountain -

At one point the canopy of trees opened up to open, blue sky as the dirt road became a precarious mountain pass as it wound up the side of a mountain.

There was nothing to keep them from plummeting down the steep cliffside into the trees below.

Anemone closed her eyes, and gripped the handle above the door.

Ruby hardly even slowed down.

- 17.5 - Ruby and Anemone See a Sign -

After the mountain pass, the road curved back once again into a dark and dense forest.

More turns, as before, which Ruby was now handling with relative ease.

Before long they came across a wooden sign, the words on it nearly erased by time, barely visible in the Backwoods gloom.

They barely had time to try and read it before it passed by in a blur.

- 17.6 - Anemone is on the Lookout -

Apart from the road, Anemone kept a close eye on their surroundings. She scanned the trees around them, the bushes, the overgrown vines, the shadows within them. Looking for any hint of movement. Anything that shouldn't be there.

The more time that passed without see anything strange, the more Anemone thought about the Professor's words.

(Ruby: "What's out there, exactly?"

Prof K, grinning, hmm, not un-maliciously: "Well … You know those sounds you keep hearing at night? …"

Violet: "Eimi said that was just wolves."

Prof K: "Well, no offense to Eimi, but what she doesn't know could fill an entire shipping container. Speaking of which …")

Ruby, too occupied with driving to pay any mind to their surroundings, asked: "See anything yet?"

Anemone shook her head. "Not yet."

- 17.7 - Ruby and Anemone See a Light at the End -

The road had been on an incline for some time now. The path straightened out the higher they climbed. Light began to peek through the trees.

A wooden gate, similar to the one at the entrance. The end was in sight.

And then they were out.

- 17.8 - Ruby and Anemone Come Out the Other Side -

Anemone: "The Professor wasn't lying."

Ruby: "Yeah. I can see that."

They were in another village. Similar in size to Confier, but all the buildings were either crumbling down or overgrown with vines and other plants.

(Ruby: "And what awaits us at the end of the path, Professor? What's so important there? What's worth risking our lives for?"

Prof K, seemingly on a tangent: "Did you know Confier had a sister village? No. Of course you wouldn't. They had taken care to remove all references to it on the tourist information boards around the village. Notice how the entire eastern side of the mountain range is missing from all the boards? Not even many villagers are aware.")

A sign welcomed them to the sister village, its words faded but still readable.

WELC_ME TO

FIRGROVE VIL_AGE

- 17.9 - Ruby and Anemone Look for a Shipping Container -

It didn't take very long to find what they were looking for.

(Prof K: "Bright red shipping container sitting in the parking lot of the tourist information center. You'd have to try and miss it.")

Ruby pulled into the parking lot. She put the Usagi in park, but left the engine running. She let out a big sigh.

Anemone: "We're not out of the woods yet, Rubes."

Ruby: "We literally are."

Anemone: "We've got the return trip. And we still haven't seen … it."

Ruby: "Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe we won't see it at all."

Anemone, doubtfully: "Yeah. Maybe."

Ruby: "You see what's on top of the container?"

Anemone: "Yeah. A solar collector. Just like the one on the warehouse."

Anemone stepped out of the car, and walked up to the container. She was still on high alert, looking around for any sign of movement. The swaying of a tree. The gliding of a crow. She couldn't help but feel like something was watching her, and it wasn't just Ruby waiting in the car.

She unlatched the shipping container, and swung open the door.

Inside it was completely empty.

- 17.10 - Anemone Goes Down -

(Prof K: "Look in the back. There will be a trapdoor. Which leads to stairs going down. What I need will be down there.")

Anemone found the trapdoor.

She opened it, revealing the stairs.

She descended. Each clank of her shoes on the metal steps reverberated in the enclosed space.

At the bottom, she found herself in a hallway. Sunlight from the collector outside lit up the area, more than enough for her to see clearly.

The hallway lead to different rooms. Four in total. Each one marked with a different number on the metal sliding door that separated them from the hallway she was in.

Two room on her left, two on her right.

(Prof K: "Room number 4 is the one you want.")

- 17.11 - Anemone Finds What She's Looking For -

Room number 4 was, or had been, someone's living quarters.

A fold-out cot with a thin mattress. A small cookstove with a firebox, its flue venting the smoke outside above ground. A small desk, with a chair. An entire shelf full of books. Physics textbooks. Books on computer engineering. Microprocessor design, operating systems.

Several of these books lay open atop the desk, writing scrawled all over the margins of each page.

It was directly in the inner crease of one open book, nestled snugly in that narrow valley, that she found exactly what she was looking for.

She picked it up, and held it up to her eyes, looked at it closely.

Then she put it in her pocket.

- 17.12 - Anemone Finds an Interesting Picture -

Having found what she'd come for, Anemone was about to leave, but something in the corner of her eye caught her attention as she headed for the hallway.

A framed picture hung on the wall.

She walked over, picked it up, inspected it closely.

The picture was taken with a simple box camera, as most photos were these days—anything more complicated than that rarely worked anymore.

The developed photo had the tell-tale distortions and warping caused by the SDF's effects on the film, especially around the edges of the picture, but the faces of the four main focal subjects were clear enough.

She took the picture out of the frame, and slid it into her pocket, next to the Professor's item.

- 17.13 - Room 3 Calls Out to Anemone -

Back in the hallway now.

If she weren't pressed for time, maybe she would have stayed and checked the other rooms for supplies, for anything useful.

But Ruby was waiting, and they needed to hurry back.

And she was about to leave, to go back up the stairs, but …

Room Number 3.

Something about it was calling to her. An aura of some kind.

She had no idea what lay behind the door, but she knew two things: she would regret sliding open that door, and yet, in that moment, she had never wanted anything more in her life.

She reached a hand out toward the handle.

- 17.14 - Anemone Hears Ruby Calling -

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! BEEEEEEP!

Anemone had just placed her hand on Room Number 3's handle when she heard frantic honking coming from above.

Anemone snapped out of whatever trance the door seemed to have put her in, and she ran for the stairs.

Above ground, she could hear the Usagi peeling out. The sound of tires screeching on the pavement. Where was Ruby going?

She ran up the stairs, nearly losing her footing along the way.

Back in the shipping container now. The door at the end was still slightly open. A beam of sunlight peeking in, illuminating floating specks of dust.

She ran to the door, and saw the rear end of the Usagi as it sped off, away from Anemone.

Close behind the car, giving chase, was the monster Professor Kay had been talking about.