Back to Balton Cabin

There was a strange feeling in the air as people started to walk into the building Monday morning. There was a sense of dread just hanging there. No one could really figure out what it was. Everyone seemed to have come to terms with The Puppeteer coming back. They either got transferred, a pay raise, or were fine as they were. The building just seemed to be full of doom and gloom. The reasoning came shortly after noon.

Hanson called Adam and Juliet to the conference room for an emergency meeting. Hunter was already there sitting in the back with his face covered. Hanson started the presentation with a deep sigh, "Glad you could make it. Here is what we are dealing with." The projector flipped on showing an aerial view of a serene building mixed within the surrounding woods. It looked rather peaceful with the snow on the ground. According to the timestamp, it was around early spring before it fully melted away. What was going on?

Hanson flipped to the next slide with a newspaper article. The blaring headline brought the room back to the reality of the situation. "Nearly a Dozen Killed at Balton Cabin Vacation". There was no need to continue reading on. They all knew what this was about. Hanson shuffled on the spot reading the faces in the room, "We… have been assigned to this contract. It was reported that we were present the weekend of this incident so we would have insight into the issue at hand. How they found out who we were, we are still uncertain but we will be burning those aliases."

The first time around was bad enough. It was a well-intentioned trip that turned into a nightmare. The nightmare turned into hell for those who stayed behind that weekend. There was nothing they could have done at the time to convince them to leave. Hunter tried but for some, accepting that monsters are a real thing is just beyond their ability. But growing up thinking that they are just myths and fairytales, it's hard to change that thinking. And they paid for it.

Adam tried not to fidget in his chair at the thought of going back. He managed to avoid the worst of it. Juliet felt horrid. She was the instigator of their experience there. She had no idea that her snowy vacation for the team would turn into a cannibalistic nightmare yet here they were.

Hanson had to start going over the worst of the presentation. They were lucky enough to skip over the phone call from the guide calling for help. They got to listen to that when it was released to the public. Now they had to go over the history of this contract. Hunter was familiar with the early attempts at it. His interest waned when the price kept going up with no report of any success. But Hanson has the pleasure of doing the mortality report. There had been a dozen groups that had made the attempt. Very few had walked away. A few were lucky and encountered nothing after a week-long investigation. They had nothing to report and didn't think there was an issue at the cabin.

The group already knew better. It was nearing the end of summer going into fall. The cabin wanted to do their winter tours and getaways again but with this stigma about the place they wouldn't be able to. The option of "just let it go" didn't fly well with them. It also didn't help that the word of a ravenous monster on the mountain had made its way into their world. It was a monster, and what do they have to do to monsters?

Put them down.

Being the person that he is, Hunter gives Juliet and Adam the chance to pass on this job. He explained that Juliet's ability to "hunt" and search would be valuable with the dense forest area around the cabin and Adam's technical abilities would be greatly appreciated with surveillance and monitoring. This was not going to be an easy job. There was no way to really look at it as anything else. This was going to be an elimination mission. And even then it may not be enough.

Hanson started going over the mythos that is the Wendigo, "It's a spirit of native folklore that hungers. Its appetite is insatiable and cannot be quelled. It will eat the wildlife but hungers for humans first. In this case, we know that this spirit took the body of a little boy. We know now that he is no longer that little boy," Hanson flipped the slide to a photo that someone had managed to take. Or looked like a photo. It's possible that it was from a recording moments before that person's recording went missing. The image was blurry but there were a few details that were distinct.

No one wanted to look at it. The figure was deformed with elongated arms and legs. Its body is warped by the spirit and transformed. His head looked stretched, almost to the form of a goat or an elk. Its face and chest were covered in a rust-colored stain that matched the discoloration of its fingers. This was no human being anymore. This was just a monster. "We know what we are up against. We know what must be done. Now we have to make it happen."

He flipped the slide to a blank one lighting up the room in a white light. "We will be well armed and well equipped. We will arrive in the early morning under police escort and with assistance, placing cameras around the grounds, inside and out. We will also have trail cameras installed watching around the grounds further out. Don't expect a lot of sleep at night. We are going to have every motion set to an alarm. We cannot miss this thing. It could mean that we don't make it home if we do."

The gravity of the citation really began to set in. "Hanson brought up that they are having a custom iron trap made. They are hoping that they will be able to contain and remove the monster so that it cannot terrorize the area anymore. If the monster is killed, according to legends, then the soul is released back into the area where it can hunt again. It will find a new host and take over repeating the cycle once more. They want to solve this problem once and for all. This is one monster that will need to be locked up and forgotten about. It cannot die if it does not feed. It just exists at that point.

They were given the week to prepare. They had supplies to get, contacts to get aligned, and to mentally and physically prepare themselves. Hunter was working with a not-so-well-known part of their team to get together a contraption that would be able to contain a beast of this magnitude. They did what they could and engineered a one-way trap. It could only be activated once. Once it was, there was no way to reverse it. It would lock in place. The only way to open it would be to cut it open. They made the design to test it. Hunter volunteered to be trapped for a few hours while they cut it open. It worked as intended. There was no way for it to be opened from either side.

The second one was constructed in just a day, placed in a crate, and loaded into a truck with the rest of their supplies. It would need to be placed somewhere they would be able to snag this beast with as few risks as possible. They still had a lot of work ahead of them though. There was the mapping, hunting, and hopefully, during this excursion, they would be able to find its lair along with some of the individuals that had gone missing. The contract had gotten a lot more complex from the first days that it was issued. The list of tasks that needed to be completed just kept getting longer as more and more people went missing trying to finish it.

Throughout the week, there were regular meetings. Once in the morning about the layout and actions to be taken at Balton Cabin and once in the afternoon to provide an update to those plans if anything changed, new information that was brought back from the cabin, and information on the trap being built. Friday was their final morning meeting. This was the last one before that plan went into action. There is one apparent problem that Hanson and Hunter have not addressed yet. It was time that they brought it up.

Hanson had done enough of the hard work this week of telling the horror stories of the cabin. It was Hunter's turn to break some bad news for once. "We've been talking about this trap all week. It was shipped out from our building yesterday to make sure that it arrives before we do or shortly after. We've already scouted out a few places that we could get it set up but once we get there we'll have to do one more sweep with proper measurements before we get it finalized. We'll have to work fast to get it going. If we miss it before nightfall then we run the risk of attracting this thing to us. It's not quiet. So that's the bad news; the worse news is that we need bait."

Any trap meant for a creature would need bait. In this case, they needed something enticing for this beast. The wendigo craves human flesh so a human would be the most tantalizing bait they could use. Hunter skirted around it as long as he could, "We need to lure it in and activate the trap. Once activated the trap cannot be undone. If it's too early then the bait will be trapped inside with the wendigo. Clearly, we want to avoid that. The bait would die and we want everyone to come home. Activate it too late and the wendigo gets through to where the activator is plus we are out of a trap. But in this case, the bait and everyone dies." Juliet and Adam were waiting for the good news that never came.

Hunter took a seat at the front of the table sitting up properly. This was unlike him to do so. "I'm not asking for volunteers to be bait. We already have that settled. Hanson will spring the trap after I am out of it."

He was going to use himself! The table erupted as Juliet and Adam stood up yelling and shouting. They knew what they were up against. They knew the danger that was coming down on them. They knew that this was the dumbest idea ever! Yet at the same time, it's how Hunter operates. If there is danger, he puts himself forward to absorb the blow for his team. He didn't act like a boss distributing the work to others. He worked as a leader showing them where to go. He wasn't always hands-on with every project or action but he made sure that if they didn't know, then they would be able to learn. Most of the time that was with hands-on training with Hunter going step by step.

The protests fell on deaf ears. They already knew it would but the two still needed to have their voices known. Hunter shut them up with one slam of his open palm on the table. The two dropped back into their seats, hands in their laps, mouths tight. "We've already looked at the risk and we've been taking every precaution that we can. Hanson has been working with the engineering team with a resettable door to get the timing down. I'm also calling in another one of our field teams to assist us with this. They will be off-site monitoring the situation and advising us from afar. Like with the dragon abduction, they will be using drones and short-range communications to assist."

There was so much information being thrown at them that they weren't entirely sure that they were ready. But they had to be. This was not a job they could make a mistake on. The meeting adjourned with the shuffling of the group to their vehicle. They were given instructions to pack for a weekend with the possibility of a week. Their ride took them to the airport where they jumped on their plane. The landing at the airport was all too familiar. It wasn't often they returned to a site. Juliet's eyes caught the TV where they stood watching the newscast of the phone call. It was all coming back.

Their ride was waiting for them as they exited. They hit the road and were off at a blistering pace. They needed to reach the cabin, aiming for midday, so they could get set up. They would be staying in the room they had before and use that as their onsite base. The room had already been reinforced by a previous team in the building. The room held up even if the team didn't. They passed the restaurant where they stopped for food along the way. Hunter wondered what that old Indian was doing today. He helped them a lot more than he knew, even if it didn't end well. The air started to turn cold the higher up on the mountain they got. It wasn't where it was snowing just yet but there was always a risk. They passed a large, unmarked moving truck that honked as they passed. Everyone looked to find the driver waving at them. Hunter cracked a smile for the first time this trip, "There's our heavy gear and trap." They passed their own delivery truck.

The road started to look familiar even without the snow on the ground. A rock wall let them know that they were close to the cabin but the large trucks and small campsite were the dead giveaway that they were finally on site. There were a few items that really struck them as strange. There was a ring of burning lanterns from the rock wall to the open area across the street. The last time they were here, there were trees across the road. They had been removed and turned into this base of operations. It wasn't Hunter's group that did it, it was local police and investigators that did. They had used this area as a base camp for their investigation. Any group that came after did the same. It ended up expanding and building more on it.

Their car rolled to a stop on the dirt area where they were directed by an officer. The group disembarked the vehicle where they were greeted by a swarm of unfamiliar faces and one familiar face. A man in his mid-20s walking around with a cane adorned with carvings, bones, and all kinds of beads hanging off of it. He shoved his way through the crowd to get to Hunter. He knew who was in charge of this.

The two greeted each other with familiarity. Hunter started asking questions and pointing around the site. Hanson was pulled away taking Adam with him to get their system set up so this gave her a chance to intrude. Hunter had his back to her as the two were looking over the road towards the trail towards the cabin, "...What we want to do is avoid being outside as much as possible. Today we want to get the trail cameras up on the major walkways and a few in some areas where herds of elk have been spotted. They might be popular hunting areas so we are expecting a lot of activity." The other person was nodding in agreement but gave him warnings, "Well, I can only protect this area. If you want to hunt this thing I"m not going to be able to set up an area of no entry. It has to be able to come to you."

"I know, and it sucks but I want to make sure that if everything goes sour that we have a place to return to before trying again."

"Yup, this place is as safe as it can get. We haven't seen any activity from the wendigo which can mean that it's working or that it doesn't know we're here. I know it's here. I've been following the general area that it is without going past our barrier."

Juliet interrupted by patting Hunter on the shoulder. He turned around realizing who it was, "Right! Juliet, you've met Cooper." The name rang a bell from a long while ago. The last time she saw him was at the museum on the Egyptian artifact job. He hadn't changed much. He had a few more tattoos and his hair was longer. His demeanor was the same though, as cheery as ever. He shook her hand, gave her a warm greeting, and assured her that the area was under control. Juliet was a bit confused, "Did you call him in as a specialist for this one?" Hunter looked between the two before it clicked, "Right, he's one of our people. He's been running a small field team for the last couple of months looking into more paranormal jobs."

He had his own team! Juliet was busting her ass with Hunter and Hanson for a year and he walked in and got his own team! There was a bit of salt in her words, "I would have never imagined. That's why I never saw you in the office." He still had some pep in his voice, "Yup! This is the first time in a long time I've gotten to work with the boss directly. We've been out here all week putting down a safe area, some light tracking, and wards to try and reduce the search area. This thing is angry though. It's been breaking through some of the larger ones where it's not as concentrated."

She looked around the area trying to judge the size of the base camp. Her worry was easy to see. "This is the smallest ward we have up at the moment so it's the strongest. It creates an uneasy feeling in the wendigo as though something is hunting it so it will avoid it. It's a very instinctual spirit so it's not too hard to manipulate. It's the physical form that does the damage." He was talking as though he had become an expert on this beast. But he was also the go-to for spirits and the paranormal. The briefings they went over time and time again kept saying that the wendigo wasn't a physical being but a spirit that possessed a physical being to use to sate its everlasting hunger. It would be within Cooper's wheelhouse of knowledge.

The base camp looked bustling. Cooper was keeping an eye on his people while they worked. It quickly became easy to see why he was put in charge of the team. They worked quickly and efficiently getting anything they needed together in a timely fashion. Each seemed to have a deep understanding of a subject. If they didn't have an answer to it, they knew who did. Hunter was bounced around from person to person but he got the information he needed. Hanson worked with Adam to get the lay of the land from the local experts. They started looking at the trails that were already there along with a few that had been discovered while they were working this past week. Some looked like they were beaten down by animals. Others looked like they were torn through by a beast.

Then the sight everyone had been waiting for showed up. The large truck with all the gear. The driver hopped out with his passenger. They had a small hydraulic lift in the back to move the cage and the other crate of gear. The cage was inspected with care making sure that nothing was jostled during transit but also not to set it off. Hanson and Adam started going through the crates looking for their technical gear. Their trail cams were found quickly. Under them were the stationary cameras they were going to mount inside and outside the cabin.

This became a full-scale effort in a flash. Orders were being barked, and people started moving. Hunter was pointing and getting those with the gear to where they needed to be. Hanson took a group on the trails to set up those cameras. Hunter worked with a group of people to get everything moved to the cabin. The trap was lifted on a small hovercraft to prevent it from jostling on the rough path. Others grabbed the camera gear and ladders. They all started down the trails. Time was limited. They had to get everything up before sundown.

Hunter had Juliet head inside the cabin while he worked outside for now. He wanted her to go inspect the room they would be staying in. Her mission was to make sure that the barricades were still sturdy. They needed to hold should things get hairy.

She was left alone. The noises from the people working still echoed through the halls but there wasn't a soul inside with her. Everything looked familiar to her. This was the cabin that she had booked for their trip. Not a thing had changed to the cabin itself but there was a story behind it now.

The main entryway was clean. There were a lot of shoes and boots left behind by their owners still stacked against the wall. She walked down the hallway to find the kitchen. The door to the main living area still had a massive hole in it. It looked as though something had punched through the door in a rage to get out. The floor was stained a rusted color in a familiar shape. She heard back to the phone call where they screamed after the door had been ripped through. She didn't want to believe that it had happened, but there it was. As she moved around the cabin she found more signs of a fight. Some bullet holes in the wall, scratch marks on the floors and furniture. One of the railings had some of the banisters missing.

There was one more place she had to check. She didn't want to but she knew for her own being she had to. On the upper floor was the utility closet. Hunter had hidden away in there with John to explain to him what was going on. And supposedly, that was where John met his end. Her hand hit the doorknob freezing her in place. With one deep breath, she opened the door. The supplies were littering the floor. Everything had been torn apart or thrown. Across the floor, the wall, the shelves, and the ceiling was that familiar rust color contrasting against the wood. Most of the smell had faded. There was still just enough to burn at her nostrils.

She had had enough. She needed to get to where she needed to be. It was obvious which door would be the one she needed. The outside had almost been redone in the time they were gone. The old wooden door was replaced with what could almost be a safe door. The frame was reinforced with metal to prevent it from being kicked in by anything. The room they stayed in during the vacation was a beautiful room. The windows were open allowing them to see out into the forest. It was designed to enjoy the visuals of nature. It was now nothing but shade. The windows were covered with metal bars that blocked the sun and view. Even the old glass was removed with something that looked thick, almost bulletproof. This wasn't the vacation she had planned. This was a nightmare she would have to face once again. This was going to be their field operation base. They would eat, sleep, and work from this room.

She kicked around looking at the metal. Nothing seemed to want to budge as she pulled, pushed, and threw herself against it. If anything broke in here, it would have to be strong. She knew what they were going up against was a powerful being. Was this going to be enough? It had stood for this long already.

Hunter took lead on the operations outside the cabin. He had plenty of people ready to do what they needed to to get everything up and running. He was using a portable screen to check the cameras as they got them online. They needed to be facing where they could see as much as possible. They were up on ladders, climbing on the railings, hanging from the roof. Everyone was doing whatever they needed to ensure that everything was covered. Once the cameras were set up, the next step was to set the motion alarms. The idea was to have a noise play and a screen light up with the camera detecting motion.

To help with the constant alarms they were expecting, they were going to be working in shifts to ensure people got sleep. The schedule would be posted on their board once they got settled in the room.

On the wilder side of things, Hanson and Adam were working on getting the trail cameras set up with extra power sources. They would only need to be changed once a week. They were hoping there wouldn't be a need for that, but better safe than sorry.

Their local guide had a map of the trails that were discovered during their own investigations. They would be placing a lot of trail cameras around the property. They had brought about 30 with the need for 20. Extras were there if they needed to be replaced. It was a toss-up if they really wanted to put some on the more beaten-down trails. Would the Wendigo follow those or use ones that were more hidden? Did it even really care? They had to weigh the options.

They all connected together with a wireless antenna to feed the image back to their base. They would be set up to the same alarm system to report movement. The cameras that took priority were the ones on the cabin. If something was that close then it was the immediate threat. The last thing they wanted to do was bring it into the cabin before they were ready.

The end goal was to funnel it into the main entryway where it only had one way to go. The cage would be mounted to the floor until it was activated. Once it would be set off it would be unmounted and could be carried out. The design was difficult to do. They had to build a cage inside a cage. The inside cage limited the reach and movement of the wendigo so those outside would be able to work with the cage to move it and store it with minimal risk of attack and injury. They had to separate it into two parts to get it inside the entryway. Once it was sprung, they were just going to have to remove part of the entryway wall and replace it.

The team moved in to get it set up for use. Hanson oversaw the construction while Hunter started getting their camera hub set up in the reinforced bedroom. Adam was assisting in making sure the wireless repeaters were working as intended. Everything seemed to be working. The screens lit up, signals looked good, and the alarms worked. They had a few people walk around to set them off. There was a chime as the screen changed focus to the motion. It only worked within a certain range, but it would be enough for what they needed.

The background was filled with the sounds of drills as they got the trap mounted to the floor and wall. It started getting dark around the time everyone had started to wrap up. It was perfect timing too. They knew better than to be out at night unless they were hunting. In this case, tonight would be their restful night. They were not going out to lay any more traps or lure the monster anywhere. The last check they had to do was make sure that the wireless feed made it back to base camp. Cooper gave them the all-clear as everything tested green. In any case, no matter what happened, someone would know what transpired with this group. There was not going to be a report that the group went missing under extraordinary circumstances and written off as a loss.

The group got settled for the evening. Hunter was the one who went out to the generator for the last fill of the evening. Since it wasn't winter, the generator wasn't under such a heavy load. A smart idea would have been to have batteries installed on the side of the cabin for an emergency backup. Any excess would be charged to the battery for later use. This would have been helpful last year when they were short on gas.

His eyes caught with the window where he saw the goat-like figure before. He stared hoping it would come back. If he saw it again he could think that this was all a dream and the spirit was still wandering instead of inside the body of what used to be someone's baby boy. The figure never came. His mind wanted it to. He imagined it clear as day from when he first saw it in vain hope. He let out a deep sigh turning back to the cabin. Everyone from basecamp had already been called back for the evening.

Their last contact was with a phone call wishing everyone a quiet night. They would be watching the cameras as well. The first night, everyone was allowed to rest. Hanson and Hunter took the king-size bed leaving Juliet and Adam to share a queen that was brought in from one of the other rooms. The lights went out with an uneasy feeling spreading across the room. Everyone's breath could be heard from the tension. They all knew that come first light, the real job would begin.