The Cabin

“Don’t worry, we are almost there,” the voice of my AI companion spoke from within my head, trying her best to keep me moving. It had been two hours since we left the forest clearing and began walking, two hours since I was almost smashed to pieces by an acid-fire-breathing creature known as a blood bat.

We hadn’t encountered any more monsters along the way, thanks to Rachel expertly navigating us by avoiding unnecessary fights.

Although my injuries were pretty severe, with a few broken ribs, a punctured liver, and a ruptured spleen, due to the augmentations I possessed as a monster slayer, none of the injuries were bad enough to prevent me from walking.

It was still pretty dark outside, but from Rachel’s calculations, dawn was quickly approaching.

“Rachel,” I called, leaning over the side of the road to cough up blood. That one hit from the big ugly creature had really done some damage to my organs. I was also bleeding internally, and my health continued to drop. I was now at fifty-seven percent of health.

“Yes, Hunter?” Rachel replied, trying to keep her voice calm, though I could sense an undertone of worry for my sake.

“I really need to rest for a bit,” I said, spitting out saliva mixed with blood. “Is there a place nearby where I can just sit for a minute? I feel like I’m about to hurl.”

“Scanning…” she replied, taking a few seconds to process my request. “There is an abandoned cabin nearby. You could rest there for the time being, but we need to get going afterward. We need to get you to a healer.”

“What’s a cabin doing in the middle of a forest like this?” I asked Rachel, feeling some relief and standing up straight.

“I did say it was abandoned, didn’t I?” Rachel shot back with a sarcastic quip. “Maybe whoever built it eventually realized living in the center of a monster-infested woods wasn’t the perfect getaway spot they were hoping for.”

***

No sooner had I resumed walking than I found the place. The cabin was situated at the center of another clearing. There was a fairly decent-sized lake to the side, and the water looked calm and inviting. I had the sudden urge to take a bath, to wash off all the grime, dirt, and sweat sticking to my body from the scuffle with the blood bats. But I needed to check out the cabin first.

I walked up to the wooden structure, pushed open the door, then lowered my head before stepping inside. The interior was too dark to see anything.

“Hold on,” Rachel said, and I did as she suggested. A second later, the lights in the room came on with a metal click.

“How did you do that?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “I just… did it.”

I looked around the small room much better now. Everything was bathed in a soft yellow hue from the light bulb connected to the ceiling. “The moment you entered through the front door,” Rachel continued, “I suddenly had access to the electronics in the room.”

I moved deeper into the cabin and began to inspect the place.

“So, there’s electricity in this world,” I stated.

“Not exactly,” Rachel replied. “Whoever built this place utilized modern technology from Earth in certain aspects. Like the electricity, for example. However, the rest of this world doesn’t have access to technology of this level. Whoever the owner was, he or she must have been transported from Earth like you.”

I continued looking around and discovered there were three rooms, a kitchen with a few pots and pantries, a living room with a chair sitting in front of an examiner’s table that had an electric lamp on top, and finally, a bedroom with a single feather mattress. That’s where I found the most stuff.

There was a rack on the wall which held three things of interest to me in that very moment, a brown coat jacket, which seemed long enough to be my exact size if I chose to wear it, a pair of washed-out jeans that were going to be a perfect fit, and a black belt with a silver buckle. The remaining useful items I found were a pair of black combat boots and a cardboard box at the head of the mattress.

I picked up the box, then sat on the mattress as I opened it. What I found inside appeared to be junk at first, but upon closer inspection, some of it became extremely valuable.

There was a tiny bottle with a strange blue liquid inside.

“Drink that right now,” Rachel demanded.

“Why? What is it?” I asked.

“Healing potion,” she replied, and I didn’t wait another second. I flicked open the cap, then threw back my head as I downed the whole thing in a single gulp. A cooling sensation washed through my body from the inside, causing me to suddenly feel less pain and discomfort than before.

“That should keep you settled for at least an hour,” Rachel said. “It dulls any immediate pain and helps with internal bleeding, but not by much. We still need to find a healer for you as soon as we can.”

Setting the empty bottle aside, I continued rummaging through the box. I pulled out what looked like a flash drive, and Rachel instantly let out a gasp.

“Put it in,” she said excitedly.

“Excuse me?”

“Connect the drive to the port at the back of your skull,” she corrected.

“Why?” I asked, worried. “What if there’s a virus or something? I don’t want that in my head.”

“Just trust me,” she said. “It’s safe.”

Sighing, I did as she told me to. I took the flash drive and connected it to the empty port at the back of my head. There was a slight vibration as whatever was on it booted into my system. A loading screen appeared in the center of my vision, showing a progress bar from left to right.

“And… done,” Rachel said. At the same time, the loading screen vanished. “You can take it out now.”

“So, what’s on it?” I asked, removing the flash drive and setting it aside beside the box.

“Processing…” Rachel replied. “One moment.”

While she was occupied with that little task of hers, I continued inspecting the box. There were two other items left inside: a small black notebook and a pair of gloves. “What do you think these are for?” I asked Rachel, holding up the items after I had taken a look and failed to understand the language the book was written in.

“Hmmm… I’m not sure,” she said. “Language recognition is unavailable at the moment, so I can’t read the pages. As soon as I’m able to transcribe the notes, I’ll let you know. So keep it close. It might come in handy.”

Absorbing the items into my inventory was a straightforward process. I focused, and both the black gloves and the book simply vanished into thin air, adding themselves to my available weapons and items list.

I remembered it was a technique we were taught during training, one I had practiced hundreds of times back on Earth during VR simulations. Although I still couldn’t recall everything about the island or what my life was before this world, some things were gradually coming back to me on their own.

Also, I absorbed the gloves because I figured I could use them when fighting, to protect against friction from the weapons I would be holding.

“Analysis completed. Uh oh. That’s odd,” Rachel suddenly said, stealing my attention for a moment.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I think you should take a look at this.” She brought up a window at the center of my vision, containing hundreds of half-opened files, but with a singular large file hovering over the rest.

“What the…?”

“It’s a security lock,” Rachel responded. “Basically, according to this, we can’t access any of the files within the drive because the person who sent you to this world doesn’t want you to have that information. At least, not yet.”

“But why?” I asked, briefly remembering the woman I saw in my last flashback, the one talking to me in a hospital room while I slowly lost consciousness. I couldn't remember what she was saying.

“I don’t know,” Rachel replied. “And I wish I could help you with this, Hunter. But regarding your origins and the purpose of being in this world, I only know just as much as you do. Nothing more, nothing less. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I replied. “I’ll just figure it out somehow.”

***

After I had finished inspecting the contents of the box, I placed it back into the corner. I went outside, took off my blood-soaked jean shorts, then went for a swim. The water was cold against my skin and very refreshing. At some point, I thought I saw a tiny reptilian creature swimming in the water toward me, but as soon as it appeared, it disappeared. It was strange, but I didn’t think too much about it.

When I got out of the water, I went to try on my new clothes. Everything fit like I suspected: the coat jacket, the boots, and the pair of blue jeans. Finally, I was somewhat fully dressed. Although the jacket didn’t have any buttons, it wasn’t a bother. I kind of even preferred it that way. Whoever I was back on Earth must have been the kind of person who didn’t mind showing off some skin, specifically the chest muscles and abs.

I plopped onto the bed a second later. I was exhausted. Since there was no food or clean water in the cabin, I decided to wait until I got to town before eating or drinking anything. And with that settled, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.