Holy fucking hell, if this fog doesn't clear up soon, I swear someone's going to die. Meredith thought to herself as she stared out onto the long, winding road, trying to squint past the heavy blanket of fog that made it more difficult to see more than it already was. She was short, and this car was too damn big, and no matter how much she adjusted the seat, it was still uncomfortable as she had to crane her neck over the wheel a little bit to even see in front of her. She had been doing plenty fine earlier, but after going hours in this position, it had started to wear her down, making her more irritated than anything. She lightly tapped the steering wheel, shifting her body to try to make herself more comfortable and a bit less awkward. She didn't want to make the others nervous; she was a good driver through and through, well, minus her road rage tendencies, but it was just this damn car that she hated.
Continuing on the seemingly endless road, she had barely managed to spot the well worn sign covered in the brush on the side of the road. As any sign would, it read Welcome to Riverway in small letters, that were faded with age and weather. It stood tilted on the edge of the road, tall grass and large bushes covered most of it up, obviously making it noticeable that it had not been touched for years. The dense fog still hung lifelessly over the pine forest that they drove through, the trees tall and bountiful, untouched by humanity except for this single road that led to the small town. As she carefully watched the road ahead of her, the trees seemed to bend slightly over the road ahead, as if they were watching curiously, or perhaps questioning, she didn't know. Other than the old welcome sign, there weren't any other road signs that Meredith could catch. The fog seemed to only thicken on either side of the road as they neared the small, isolate town.
There wasn't much to be said about it; it was basically empty compared to all of the cities she's lived in, not that she didn't like it, the less people the better in her opinion, it just seemed out of date and worn down. There seemed to be plenty of houses, though many of them looked to be vacant for a long period of time, but she couldn't really tell because most of them looked the same. She spotted a few gas stations here and there and maybe a grocery store? It looked to be a bit small, then again the whole town was that way. Very few people were out, probably due to the thick fog that clouded everything, or maybe the light rain that had begun to fall, which she only noticed when it had start to cover the windshield, but everytime they did pass someone, they seemed to stare at them as they drove by. No, they did stare. There were a few times she was tempted to throw something at them, or pull over and ask why the hell they were staring so hard, but she resisted, blindly following the GPS to the cabin they were staying at, foolishly hoping that it would at least have electricity. Of course, there was none.
Finally arriving, the cabin seemed like the only “up to date” building there was. As much as up to date one could get around here, she was basically just sugar coating it at this point. She was a modern kind of gal; she enjoyed e-books and heat sources you could adjust with a thermometer, she wasn't good at this manual bullshit. She wanted to get away, but not this away. As they pulled up to it, the rain was falling much harder, and they sky had darkened significantly, signaling the end of the day as well as the storm that was occurring, making it difficult to see. The fog had cleared due to the winds that were quickly picking up, but that honestly wasn’t any better than before. She stopped the car and popped open the trunk, honking the horn to wake anyone who may have been asleep.
“Make sure to grab all of your stuff,” she said, opening the car door, frowning at the heavy rain that was before her. She sighed. “And clean up any messes, remember that I have to take this car back, so I’d rather not have car salesman jumping down my throat for anything I refuse to clean because it’s not my mess. Thanks.”
She then hopped out and quickly made her way to the back, flinching as the rain touched her, slinging her bags out before rushing toward the cabin door. Temporarily setting her things down, she stood on her tiptoes and reached on top of the door frame, lightly feeling for the key that would allow them to enter, but all there were were cobwebs. No key. She sighed, pulling her hand from the top of the door, but as she did, she felt something light crawl across the back of her hand causing her to flinch, flicking her hand in surprise and a small yelp escaping her throat. She didn't make out what it was, but she was sure it was a spider.
"Nasty fuckers," Meredith mumbled to herself, glancing at the van in the driveway. She hoped no one saw that.
Sighing, she took a quick look around for where the key might be, but finding no sign of it. Already off to a great start. Finally, she just shook her head and tried her luck to open the door. This thing better not be- and as she turned the doorknob, the old wooden door opened with a long creak. Her shoulders tensed as she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm down a bit. It had been a long ride. Too fucking long. A moment later, she instinctively reached for a light switch on the side of the wall, but not finding it. Guess they'd have to use the lamps, which she hoped they wouldn't have had to use, but of course they did.
Using her phone as a light, she noticed that the cabin itself was pretty small: It was built like a small house, it had two bedrooms, both of equal size; a living room with no t.v, but some furniture built like your stereotypical hunting cabin. It had a fireplace, one brown sofa, whether that was the original color or it was just old, she didn't know. A round carpet covered the dusty floor and a deer's head hung above the fireplace; The kitchen looked outdated as fuck, but she should have guessed that; each of the bedrooms had two beds, one of them she already claimed by throwing her stuff onto it and some small decor; and a working bathroom. Thank God. Though it looked like they had a lot of cleaning to do.
Yelling from the bedroom, she said, "Anyone know how to start a fire?"