The Valley of Bradburn

In The Valley of Bradburn

Part 1

There was a mountain ridge not too far from Bradburn, a valley town. It had snow caps. No one ever went up the ridge, climbed it, go around it, or through the cave in it, at least not until today. No one was ever curious about that mountain ridge or about the world just over it.

No one ever tried to leave Bradburn. Bradburn had everything anyone could want. It was a town full of mom-and-pop businesses, who could supply you with anything you could ever need.

Bradburn had its own doctor's office, and Dr. Common seemed to be able to cure anything with his holistic approaches. He was married to his nurse, and they were happy. They were always so happy.

There was hardly ever any crime, so the one sheriff there could rest most of the day. He kept a garden behind the old jailhouse. The cells were always empty.

The small valley town had a nice sized population, not too big, not too small. There were plenty of houses. Each house mirrored the one next to it. The blueprints of the homes basically resembled each other, all the homes over a hundred years old. There was never a reason to be particularly creative about what they built, the old things were good things.

It always seemed like it was sunny outside and happy, children playing, birds singing. There always was a cool breeze and the temperature was always perfect. No one was particularly curious to why.

A group of teens, while hunting in the woods below the mountain ridge that surrounded the town-became a little curious to how deep the cave in the mountain ridge was. How dark is it inside? What's at the end of the tunnel? No one had ever told any stories of going inside it.

No one was ever as curious as these boys were. Curiosity was always considered a bad thing in Bradburn. They don't even know what curiosity is. The new generation has it like a genetic mutation, or something magical.

The people in Bradburn lost History long ago too and now they're happy. They're all happy.

The boys found something in the cave, they couldn't explain what they found except for it was a man. He was wearing the strangest uniform. They didn't know it was a Civil War uniform. He was dressed like a Confederate soldier.

They traveled back to town as quickly as possible to get help because the man was frozen solid. The boys thought the man was dead. Why wouldn't he be dead? It'd been over a hundred years since the Civil War- a war the town's people had long ago forgotten.

The boys thought their find was mostly interesting but a frightening find. Was this some alien? They didn't know anything about aliens, but they could only think this was strange thing they'd never seen before. Very strange.

The man had long hair. No one in town had long hair. His hair was brown and cut to right above his shoulders. His beard was closely cut to his jawline.

The town had a fire department- to them it was a brigade. It was quite small because there were never any fires in Bradburn. Maybe there would be a cat in a tree. So, the boys had to get the men that were builders as well. Although the people were leery to check out what the boys had found, they decided to follow back to the cave with them.

The cave tunnel was long and dark. It was freezing cold. Everyone was surprised the boys had traveled so far into the unknown space. The townsfolk carried torches to see through the darkness.

The end of the tunnel was closed. There had been a collapse. Broken rock littered the sandy ground.

Laying on the ground was that man. He was laid out straight, on his back as if he'd just went to the ground and gone to sleep. His body was rock solid, a thin sheen of frost covering his skin and clothes. A lot of blood had soaked through his uniform because of a stomach wound.