Night Vale Unsolved

32

Carlos got off of the phone and just stared at it for a second, silently shaking his head.
Shane and Ryan glanced at each other. The scientist had excused himself rather abruptly, apparently prompted by something on the radio (which he always seemed to keep on; now they knew why).
"Um..." Ryan ventured. "Everything ok?"
"Hm?" Carlos glanced up at them, as if he'd forgotten they were there. "Oh, yes. Everything is a-ok. I just...need to go. Now. Sorry."
"Nah, it's cool." Shane got up. "It's getting late. We should probably head back to the hotel anyway, go through some of the footage."
"Right," Ryan stood too, "We only have a few days left. We should check if we're missing anything."
Carlos nodded, but he was already at the door. He went through, not even bothering to close it behind him.
"I guess we'll just..."
"Yeah." Shane made for the door, Ryan close behind.

For a town in the middle of the desert, the night air was pleasantly cool. Lights glimmered up above; stars, mostly, but the occasional blink of a plane. And who really knew what else?
The scientists' lab was a few blocks from the hotel, so Ryan and Shane got plenty of sightseeing as they walked back. There was a pawn shop, and as they watched, a young woman walked out, turning off the lights behind her. She saw them watching, and gave a little wave before turning back to the doors.
As they turned a corner, they saw two men walking side by side. A father and his teenage son, engaged in conversation.
And all around them, people walked by. Some alone, some holding hands, some laughing at something someone else had said.
Everything looked totally normal. Perfect, even.
And it was.
Neither of them said anything, but both agreed. As strange as this city was, as scary as it could be, Night Vale was still just that. A city. A community.
One with secrets, no doubt, but by just looking and watching, it was easy to forget about illegal Angels, or monstrous Librarians, or even ghosts.
Ryan and Shane rounded the final corner, and there was the hotel. Nothing unlike anything they'd ever seen or anywhere they'd ever stayed for their job.
Except for the shiny black car parked right in front of the entrance, windows rolled up and tinted so darkly it was a wonder anyone could see our of them to drive.
"Man, that's just rude," Shane commented as they walked up. Just at that moment, two men walked out if the building. One of them was not tall, and wore a dark suit. One of them - this one not short - wore the same suit with sunglasses as dark as the car's windows. The one who was not tall carried a briefcase.
"Um..." Ryan wondered out loud, "Who are they?"
"Government?" Shane guessed.
The two men got in the car and drove off, quickly disappearing into the flow of other cars on the road. Ryan and Shane watched them for a second. Then they turned to each other and, with a shrug, walked into the hotel.
Their room was on the third floor. They waited by the elevator, and when the doors finally opened, a woman walked out.
Ryan stared after her. He could have sworn that she hadn't had a face.
Shane snapped him out of it, and pulled him into the elevator.
Finally, Ryan broached the question they'd both been avoiding.
"How are we going to finish the video?"
Shane though for a moment. It would be easy enough, he supposed, to just not use any of the footage that showed anything actually unusual. But then there was the question of Lucia's interview.
"We could..." Shane started without really having a direction, "I don't know, we could just cut out-"
"Everything?" Ryan finished for him, only really half joking.
"Yeah." Shane scoffed. "Sorry, viewers! No video this week. The town was just too crazy!"
They laughed, once again sidestepping the question.
They were still laughing when they opened the door to the room. Shane made himself comfortable on an armchair by the window, and Ryan sat at the small desk and opened his laptop. He opened the files to access the video and stopped short.
"Shane?"
"Yeah, what's up?"
"Shane," Ryan's voice was shaky. "Shane, the files are gone.
Shane walked over to look over Ryan's shoulder. "Are you sure you uploaded them?"
"Yes!"
"Ok, alright. We'll just get the camera and reupload them."
"Right," Ryan calmed down and went for his camera bag. He took the camera they'd filmed in and opened the little place where the memory chip went in.
He stared at it blankly.
"Ryan?" Shane asked, starting to get really concerned.
Ryan looked up at him.
"It's gone."