Death City (Book 1)

Chapter 4: Rain

Dawn followed Josie through the silent hallways and all the way up to the third floor. No lockers were located on this floor and the classrooms were spaced out much further from each other than usual. Paranoid, she frequently turned around to make certain that they were not being seen. Josie, however, reassured her several times, insisting that the majority of faculty members were in attendance of the Principal's speech. 

Josie explained to Dawn that the third floor was the location for the school's library, as well as most of the club rooms. As such, it was typically quiet during the passing periods. A few minutes later, after reaching the dead end of the hall, Josie led Dawn up a short flight of stairs and through double metal doors. They had arrived onto rooftop of the building. Josie closed one of the doors behind them as Dawn ran to the center of the spacious roof and slowly spun around a single time with her arms open.

"This is awesome," she said. "You can really feel the breeze from up here. It's still pretty cold though..." Dawn brushed the bangs of her dark brown hair back from her face.

Josie smiled at her, then walked to her right and leaned on the silver railing. "Well if there's one thing to appreciate about this shithole I guess it would be the always chill weather. Anyway, come here." Dawn walked beside Josie and held on to the rail. The two of them looked on at the western side of the town. The vantage point of the roof allowed for a view of nearly the entire town, but from their position all that could be seen were a few nearby buildings, the river, and of course the all of the nature, including the St. Verina Forest. Josie pointed to a particular area in the middle of the forest. "See that there?"

Dawn squinted and held back the locks of hair that had been blowing in her face. Far out in the distance, miles deep into the vast forest, she noticed a structure of sorts. She tightened her focus, leaning forward several inches further. Gradually, Dawn began to make out a very tall, gray building sticking out above the thousands of surrounding Douglas-fir trees. As a blanket of fog dissipated, the image became clearer and Dawn could see that the building was in fact a clock tower. 

While the area below the tower was still somewhat shrouded in fog, she could just barely see the outlines of multiple other rooftops through the tips of the trees. Once the picture came fully into view, she reached the realization that there seemed to be an entire town based deep within the forest. She slowly stepped back from the railing and tossed her bag to the side. Josie turned to her and shrugged her shoulders. Dawn's eyes narrowed as she stared down at the ground, lost in thought. A few seconds later she looked back up at Josie in pure astonishment.

"What exactly are you showing me?" 

"Hey, you've seen it yourself now," said Josie.

"Okay." Dawn paused for a brief moment before continuing. "There's a town buried in the woods. Definitely weird but–wait, do you think it's related to those people who went missing out there?"

"Maybe. It's not even a town. It's an actual city from what I've heard."

"So...you've never actually been there?"

"Hell no," said Josie as she sat down on a power box. She crossed her legs and then spread her arms behind her. "It's completely abandoned. You know what they call that place? Death City."

Dawn walked in front of Josie and folded her arms. "Death City?"

"Yeah cause anyone that goes there dies."

"You can't be serious..." said Dawn.

"Well technically they've never been found. They just went missing like the ones here. But, I mean, after five years or whatever go by...what else are you gonna assume happened?"