Horror's True Form.

My name is James. I am 28. Working a good job in IT for a major company. My brother was 23 and had just graduated college. He now has a job as a Vet. We were going on a hunting trip to celebrate him getting his first job. We were headed North to the top of Minnesota, to hunt deer. We left the small town our parents lived in on a Thursday afternoon to meet a few friends at a shared cabin in the northern wilderness.The forecast for the weekend was great. When we left it was sunny outside and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. A beautiful day for Minnesota, especially in November. I was driving my dad's old expedition from 2008. It was blue and ran absolutely amazing. I bought it from him for cheap when i was in college and I keep it around just for fun. Normally I drive a Maserati but an SUV is much more suited for a trip like this, even though it may be an older vehicle. The guns my brother and I were bringing along included a 243 and a 30-30, but we had many more than that stored up at the cabin. I also brought my Beretta. I carry it pretty often but normally I have an M&P Shield as a concealed carry. The cabin was about 8 hours away near a small town, and when I say small town I mean a town that consists of a gas station and a bar and grill. We were glad to finally get away from the stress of school and life. Before we left we were watching the news with our parents. We saw on the news the usual stuff, like war in the middle east, Russia still not liking us, that sort of thing. But there was a new thing we were hearing about, I think it was called the Zika virus . It was more common in South America but there were a few cases in America recently, nothing too big though. We just ignored it like we normally do for most news stories, and went on our way.

My friends were Samuel, Gregory, Meg, and Sonya. My brother didn't know them very well, but I did. We all lived in various parts of Minnesota. We were staying at a lodge we all designed and had built together about 3 years prior. It was big enough each of us had our own room with 2 extra rooms, in case we wanted to have friends or family over. It has 3 levels, the main level, where the commons rooms are; the basement, which we use for storage; and the top level where the bedrooms are. The main gathering room has a ceiling all the way to the top of the cabin where the roof vaults. There is a fireplace and a few couches, no TV set up though, and I like it that way. There is no door to the kitchen since its all an open design, but the kitchen area is smaller and underneath the lofted rooms. A small hallway leads into a room on either side and a full bathroom on the end. Above all of this is where the rest of the room are located. Up the stairs there is a small "chill out area" as I like to call it with bean bags and a record player. But after that it is a hallway that leads into all of our rooms. Everyone of my friends designed their rooms to how they liked it but they are generally the same size. There are 3 bedrooms on each side, and a bathroom on each side. At the end of the hallway there is a door leading out to a deck that overlooks the woods we live on. My room is on the end and on the right side of the hallway. We also built a panic room at the request of Sonya, beneath the 2 end rooms and next to the guest rooms. The only way in is through my room and Sonya's rooms via a hatch in the floor. I am not sure why she wanted this but we did it anyway. We also have a small basement where we store things like food, water, batteries to supplement the small solar array we were building, and some other general supplies. There are some prepping like supplies down there too that meg and I put together. The lodge was built on 640 acres of woods, most of the lodge was built with the logs we cleared to make space for it. It is a beautiful cabin really, with all wood walls and wood floors in most rooms. There is also a lake nearby, not huge but big enough to be called a lake. There is a small cabin built across the lake, but we don't know who owns it, in fact we have never seen anyone there before. We like to make jokes about who lives there when we sit around the campfire at night telling stories and making jokes.

The trip there was long, but I have made the journey many times before. We stopped at a gas station when we were almost there to take a pee break and pickup some snacks and fill the tank. I had become good friends with the owner of the gas station and I made sure to stop and talk to him. He was an older man, named Al. A little grey in his hair. Looks mean but he wouldn't hurt a fly. We told him about how we were going hunting. He seemed kind of nervous and said,

"The Zika virus seems to be a bigger deal than people thing it is."

"What do you mean?" I said

"Well there were a few reported cases up in this area, more north, by Canada i think."

"Oh yeah? We should be OK out in the woods though right? The mosquitoes are almost non existent this time of the year, and plus I am a dude, I don't have to worry about birth defects since I don't want kids anyway"

"No, no that's not it. The virus keeps evolving they say. Its eating at and taking control of the brain."

"No way, that cant be possible." I said Jokingly

"Well its just what they say. They also say it causes an urge to eat flesh, but i think they are just trying to scare us away from south america."

"Well whatever it is, we should be OK out in the woods."

"Yeah you will be alright, i wouldn't worry if i were you. You guys have a good weekend now!'

"Thanks, Al, you too"

We continued on our way to the cabin, my brother and I chatting the whole way there about what Al had told us. We were not too concerned, we are prepared for whatever. After about an hour more of driving we finally turned into the long gravel driveway of our cabin. Let me tell you, we were happy to finally have arrived after a long drive. It was late by this time, about 9:30. We were the last ones there and everyone greeted us merrily. All our friends helped us unload our gear into the cabin. We carried everything into our rooms. Each room had its own gun safe, so everyone could keep their guns locked away and safe, but know that they are not far away for when they needed them. It really was an irrational idea and was a little sketchy at first because we figured it was unnecessary, but eventually it turned out as a major convenience to just have the guns where we like them. My room also has a 42" TV and a surround sound system in it, which my friends don't appreciate but I like it since I am kind of a movie buff. I have a closet with a bunch of survival gear and random knives and things I've bought from military surplus or on impulse or both. I have quite a large collection of survival gear. My friends thought I was crazy and that I was just wasting my money. But I like having lots of gear to cycle through. I have personally tested almost all of it too. I know the woods better than anyone else at our cabin. I believe i have explored all of it but I don't really know for sure. We finished bringing all of our stuff in and I helped my brother unpack his stuff. We went to bed as soon as we finished unloading everything since we needed to wake up early in the morning to go hunting. All of us were very excited, especially my brother. It was the first time I had ever brought my brother with me, but i had a room built for him anticipating him coming. Our family makes use of the guest rooms fairly often when its not hunting season and our family also has reunions there sometimes. I finally said good night to everyone and slipped into my room. I locked my guns in the safe, changed into my pajamas and went to bed. But i couldn't help but think about what Al had said at the gas station. Were we really in for more than we think?