fire watch - episode 003 - The Delilah fire mystery

part 28 An Investigation without fear

When it was day 122,
Tom was in the tower alone, Delilah said she needed to get some space and clear her mind so decided to go to the lake to draw again. Oswin radioed which surprised Tom “morning Tom isn't this such a beautiful morning this morning” her voice sounded odd, it was way too chipper and high-pitched, it sounded like when they try to force a huge smile and talk while concentrating on the smile. He frowned grabbing the radio “err yeah, why are you radioing?” “Well you know it's easier than going over to the tower and saying things in person, that would be a very long hike” “well have you just completely forgotten what has been happening, or was it really just some strange dream?” “No, no Tom you haven't been having a strange dream believe me this is all totally and completely real!” she was almost shouting now “why are you so chipper? How are you feeling anything but panic or worry” “what is there to panic about? Don't answer that, now I have a job for you, this is very important job” “okay, you're being strange, you must be smoking some strong stuff and I would really love some at this point. What's the job?” “Well I need you to pay attention to this bit because it's very important, okay” “um... okay, I am paying attention all the time” “okay that is very good because I can not stress enough how truly important this is" "okay I get it, what are we doing?" "Go to the back wall of your tower, over the counter next to the water heater is a poster, do you see it? If you do just yes or no, nothing more than that, do you understand?” "Yeah I understand"
He went over to it.
“yes, it's covered in different trees, Oswin what are you doing?” “I'm helping you with the job, now look at this poster” “why?” “I told you to pay attention!... anyway, look at the poster like check it's condition” “okay, it's looking good, I haven't really touched it much, so it would look fine” Oswin radioed “okay now look on the third row of trees, look at the second tree on the third row, do you see it?” he looked it was big tree with many leaves, it was labelled with 'Cottonwood' Tom shrugged “err, yes I see it, it's the c” before he could finish Oswin hurriedly said “no, no, no, no don't say it... just don't say it, I know what it is, you don't need to say it” he was extremely confused “okay, I won't say it” “good, now look on your map” he did “okay I'm looking at it” “there is an area on your map called that tree go to it, there are some cool things over there, you should really go take a hike over there” Tom finally understood “okay, yeah I'll go out there” “good, that's good”
He hiked to the area.
He looked around then saw the cash box Oswin must have wanted him to go to. Tom opened it to see a new radio he turned it on “okay, I have it” she still had the high-pitched voice “okay don't say what it is, right now, quickly look to your right” he did to see a river “put the old one in there” he did it seeing it stop working with a sizzle. Oswin said “have you done it?” “Yep, it's done” she put on her normal voice coughing slightly “there we go, enjoy the new radio, I had to make 6 calls to get that radio, I basically had to go off the grid so the forest service have no idea” “thank you, now we aren't getting listened to, and we can do our investigation without fea, well without fear of being listened to anyway" Oswin replied "thank fucking Christ, you got what I was talking about because that was hard” “yeah, that was smart, at first I thought it was just you being drunk” “no, I'm sober for once, also it hurts my cheeks to do that voice” he frowned “why?” “Well, try having a really happy high-pitched chipper voice and have a constant smile on your face for like 45 minutes it will start to hurt a lot especially when you don't normally act like that” Tom went back to the tower. He explained to Delilah that they were going to start doing the investigation and that no one could be listening any more which she was very happy about, it was like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders. Delilah said she wanted to know what was on the site and where her clipboard was and she didn't want to stop until she found it. Tom wanted to get all the research and everything they had on them because they lost the clipboard he wanted it back. Oswin wanted to get into two forks and started trying to find a way to get in because she just had a feeling it was somehow connected.
When it was day 125.
Oswin radioed Tom "hey I have news" "hey are you alright? What news?" "I was just went out and discovered there is a small man-sized hole in the fence around two forks tower, so whoever is doing this might actually be able to get in the tower, I thought that they couldn't get in the tower, but now I find out they can" "okay" "so do you want to go and see it" "yeah I'll meet you there, Delilah isn't here at the moment, so it'll just be you and me" he set off towards two forks. He found Oswin on the way there. As they walked Oswin said "wait, also if we're lucky we can get through the cave from the other side because the cave leads to two forks which is why I thought it was the only way to get there" Tom nodded "we can only hope, we need to get in there"
When they arrived.
They climbed through the small hole then walked to the tower. It looked creepy like it was old and crumbling apart surrounded by tall grass, Tom said "can we actually walk up the stairs or will it just collapse on top of us killing us horribly" Oswin slightly nodded "yes of course we can climb the stairs... probably" Tom went to climb, Oswin grabbed his shoulder whispering "hold the fuck on, we have to be ready for anything, we need to be quiet, the person might be up there now" they slowly went up, but there was no one in there. It was full of different pieces of paper but none of them were the research on them, however they grabbed them anyway just to read them, and began searching the tower, food packets and bottles were everywhere clearly someone had been living there. Tom said "this is strange, there's nothing here that can make the frequency that would be able to hack the radio" Oswin nodded "no, but I know where it might be" they both said at the same time "the site" Oswin looked around "this is so creepy, knowing people have died in here" she turned "by the way, where is Delilah?" Tom turned "she said she was doing a hike towards the mountains" they radioed her saying to come to the tower. She did, when she arrived, she said "hey guys did you notice that?" she pointed at the rocks between them was a cave entrance which they were about to start looking for. They went to it, but it was cut off with another gate just like the other side, Tom hit the gate in annoyance "whoever closed this off must have wanted something hidden really badly" Oswin said "yeah, we need to get in there" "first, we need to get into that site then we can work from there" "what if we go in the site and the scientists we can assume are in there just shoot us" Tom paused "I don't know"
Oswin and Tom went to leave,
Delilah then noticed something “whoa wait guys look at this” Tom turned “what monkey?” she pointed past the gate. Oswin got a little closer seeing what she was pointing at “is that a tape?” “Yeah, it must have got hit off the gate when dad hit it, can anyone reach it?” “I think you could reach that, you have pretty long arms” she reached for it and managed to push it towards her with her finger then grabbed it. She dusted it off then gave it to Tom looking confused and worried “why is this person leaving tapes around the place? It's really just some kind of psycho” “No idea, let's have a listen, and hopefully it will fill in some of the gaps we are missing” they put it in Delilah's tape machine “I am so glad I got you this when you were 12” “well I asked for it because I like old vintage things, tapes are fucking hard to find though” Oswin smiled “I was like that as a child which resulted in me being like that as a 60-year-old, but it also hurts me because that exact tape player was what I played as a child your vintage things are my young things” Tom laughed "yeah I know this is my old tape player" they began listening to it and got creeped out “hello there Tombo" he gave a strange cackle "so, you have finally found my area of work well a part of it. You do know that you're basically trapped with me, right? In this place and this place is a lot of fun there are words in the woods. I know how you feel about Oswin. You know, I heard your conversation on the night of the Delilah fire. Jesus, I don't even need to listen to the radio, I just heard" he gave a longer louder cackle coughing towards the end like he had no control "now you need to get into the site which isn't mine, but you'll figure that part out another day, I think getting into the site would really open up the investigation, see you around Tom”