The Long Dark- A Journey Through Frozen Hell

Coastal Highway

The dog sled sped past trees until it came upon a road.

"A road!" Miho said, holding onto Bodega to make sure he doesn't fall.

"This road goes to coastal highway." Vaughn said.

"Let's follow it." Miho said.

"Gee!"

The dog sled rushed down the road, passing a large fishing cabin with ice huts on the ice.

The sled eventually made it to the gast station garage, stopping as they climbed off.

Miho approached the door and opened it.

"Hello?" Miho asked into the building.

Vaughn walked in with his rifle in his hands and looked around.

"Grab this food." He said.

Miho quickly moved past Vaughn, grabbing what food was left as Vaughn searched the garage.

After Miho packed all the things she could find into her backpack, she looked at the counter and hopped over it, looking behind it to find something of use.

Vaughn was in the garage, opening tool drawers, searching shelves until he discovered a note.

He picked it up and read through it, analyzing every word.

"Mister Vaughn?" Miho asked.

Vaughn turned to see her holding up a Mossberg over and under 12 gauge shotgun in one hand and a box of shells in the other. There were a few rounds of buckshot and mostly birdshot, but better than nothing.

"Where did you find that?" Vaughn asked.

"Behind the counter."

"Good work." He said.

Miho held into the shotgun as Vaughn continued reading the letter.

"What does it say?" Miho asked.

"Someone wrote this about two guys on a horse stopping here. This person also talks about them having food and how an Irishman named Sean is sharing to her."

"Does it say where these people went?" Miho asked.

"No, but I want to find them." Vaughn said.

"So what do we do?" Miho asked.

"Well, we search coastal highway first, then we'll try to track them if we have enough time." Vaughn said.

"I want to find them too. To help." Miho said.

"I know." Vaughn sighed.

"What about Bodega, though?" Miho asked.

"What about Bodega indeed. He only has some minor lacerations on the front left shoulder. It'll take some time for him to heal up, but if we're going to be bringing back a lot of supplies, we'll need him to pull, too."

"So what do we do?" Miho asked.

"Well, there's a bed in that corner and a burn barrel in that one. I suggest we set up shop here." 

"What about Yukari?"

"That girl is okay. She should have enough food to ration it out, including the stuff you guys brought."

Miho looked at the concrete floor stained with oil years ago.

She didn't want to leave her friend alone too long, especially with the convicts roaming about.

"Don't worry, it'll take two days max." Vaughn said, walking to the garage door.

He lofted the steel door up and approached his dogsled, getting it inside and letting his dogs loose.

He set Bodega down on a pile of blankets near the desk, letting the big dog rest for his brave actions.

Miho walked outside and looked up and down the asphalt road.

Houses were scattered few and far between, but ice shacks and the building they passed earlier might have some good stuff in it.

She returned to the garage and set down her shotgun, shouldering her rifle and walking towards the ice shacks as Vaughn went towards the houses.

As she walked toward the shacks, Currie and Pinetop ran towards her, wagging their tails and barking.

"Do you want to come too?" She asked.

Currie barked as Miho smiled.

"Let's go then." She said.

She walked toward the nearest shack, finding matches and lamp oil.

She searched the other shacks, finding items similar to that nature.

Currie and Pinetop followed closely, ensuring her safety.

She saw a large cabin perched onto a plateau in the middle of the ice.

Miho stared at the formation and raised an eyebrow, wondering why that was there.

Regardless, she approached it, walking inside.

She searched the inside of the house, finding little food and supplies but found a cowichan sweater sitting on the bed.

She quickly put it on and went outside, instantly realizing how much warmer it felt.

Miho looked in the distance to see the large building they passed by earlier, but it was far from the garage.

Still, the idea of finding supplies suited Miho, so she went towards it.

After a while of walking across the ice, she made it to the building where canoes and fishnets lay across the ground.

As she walked across it, the net tentlded to get caught on her boots and the dogs, which she had to use her knife to free by cutting the net.

She went inside, searching for any supplies.

After some searching, she found a pretty good haul of sardines and matches.

When Miho left the building, she looked up to see the clouds begin to shift as snow fell.

"I think we should go." She said.

She walked forward, down the asphalt road as the dogs followed her.

Rather quickly, the snow began to fall faster, and the wind blew harder.

Miho clutched her rifle as the dogs followed her.

The blizzard quickly set in as Miho followed the asphalt road back to the garage.

She made it, and quickly went inside.

Vaughn sat on the sled, staring at the wall before glancing at Miho.

"Well, you made it." He said.

Miho nodded and set down her backpack full of supplies.

She looked at Vaughn's feet to see lead from a car battery, stump remover, and dusting sulfer.

"What's that for?" Miho asked.

"Stuff to make bullets." He said.

"Oh." She said.

Miho looked around the garage, feeling a small feeling of loneliness despite Vaughn being in the room with her.

She sat down next to Bodega and stared at the wall, awaiting the blizzard to die down.