A town named Winter

Todd

We continue hiking and the farther we get away from our last camp, the less tense everyone is. I speed up today's pace so we can reach the town sooner. Maybe if they are busy exploring Winter, we can all forget about this morning's events.

It's about midday before we see the trees clearing. As the forest become more sparse, the town can be spotted in the distance. I turn back to gauge the groups' reactions. Mostly they all look tired. Perhaps I pushed them too hard today. I keep forgetting they aren't used to this like I am. They aren't my normal clientele. When we reach the outskirts of the town I turn to them.

"Today is a relaxing day. Spend the remaining daylight hours to explore the ruins. Please be careful and courteous to not break anything. This is a historic sight. Take only pictures. Leave only footprints. You all know the crappy national park rules. Apply them here."

As soon as I finish, the small crowd disperses. I'll take this opportunity to snap some pictures for my portfolio. If they all enjoy this, I will host this trip again in the future. Hopefully next time I'll get more experienced hikers to sign up.

I start wandering around some of the buildings. They look similar to the ones in the starting town. Probably built around the same time. The difference is that these homes are neglected. There's no one to repair or take care of them so they are in poor shape. The roofs of most of them are caved in. Years of built up snow took its toll. The windows are almost all broken out. The doors are even rotted off of the hinges in a few of the outer structures.

The inside of the homes are normal furnishing you'd expect in these old houses. Some animals may have knocked down a few things scavenging for food, but the inside besides that looks untouched. No supplies or clothes were taken. There are even antique looking rifles in some of the houses.  The owners must have just gotten up and left. If they were running from something or just moving they would've taken most of this stuff.

I want to know what happened here. The internet said there were only two survivors. If the whole town vanished then where did they go? The only town in walking distance was our starting point. If they left the town of their own accord they would've taken their guns. I doubt it was a witch or demon, but something strange occurred here.

I wander out of the desolate town and head towards the evergreen forest surrounding us.  I find a tree down just inside the tree line. I can still have a decent view of the area from here. I take out my camera and start going through footage of the trip so far. I get the the beginning and notice a video. It seems strange because I've taken only pictures so far. I click to play it and smile instantly.

The video is of my wife and sons. They appear on screen sitting in the living room of our California home. A vast comparison to my environment now.

"Hey love! We just wanted to give you a little going away gift to remind you of home!"

Her melodic voice carries through the camera speakers loudly. It warms my heart in the coldest of places. The video continues with little sweet messages from my sons. I'm not sure when they took the time to record this, but just seeing them makes me homesick.