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SUMMARY: The fifth in a 14 part serial short story- a new one every week. I wrote this to be recorded as an audio story- you can hear it at www.williamhrdina.com- but I think it holds up as a regular short story as well, and its finished so it won't disappear.

Part V- Croucher
By William Hrdina

The village, which seemed quaint from far away, grew in menace with each step they took. There were no people around, and judging from the run-down look of the place, it was abandoned. The entire village sat in the shadow of a massive mountain peak which rose up out of the ground just beyond the buildings, like the world's biggest fortification wall.
"It really is like the Lost world." Cliff said, chuckling through his nervousness.
Cliff counted 8 buildings, each made from logs and lacking glass windows- or any windows at all- which made Cliff begin to think of the structures as huts instead of homes. The buildings were laid out around the perimeter of an invisible rectangle. All the construction was centered around a thick wooden post that served no clear purpose. Vines and wild weeds were everywhere, growing up over the houses, but the central area was free of vegetation- no matter how abandoned it looked- someone traveled through this area frequently enough to keep plants from growing.
"Hello?" John called out suddenly, scaring the hell out of everyone. "Sorry." He said when everyone jumped, but Cliff didn't think he was really sorry.
Dottie said, "You really need to warn people before you do that."
"Well, I'm going to do it again so be ready." John said, before calling out again.
They were all silent, waiting to see if there was a response. At first, there was nothing, but then Logan pointed at the tree line where the forest started again.
"I just saw someone, or something, moving- over there."
Everyone followed Logan's gaze, but no one saw anything.
"Are you sure?" Dottie asked.
"I'm not sure of anything." Logan answered, scared, but interested.
"The village is supposed to still be inhabited." John said, "Maybe we scared the people away. I imagine they saw us coming."
Without any further discussion John walked to the thick door of the closest windowless cabin, and pushed. With a loud creak the door swung open. John was hoping no one bothered putting locks on a door this far out in the middle of nowhere, and he was right.
The first hut was small, cramped, and held four beds. The linen on them wasn't fresh- but it wasn't decrepit either. Someone needed to change the sheets, but it didn't strike John as necessarily abandoned. He went to the next building. This one was larger and had an extremely large chimney. John was guessing it was the mess hall. He pushed the door open and looked inside.
Peaking over his shoulder, Cliff said, "What is this place?"
"Appears to be the kitchen." John answered, squinting into the dark room, the pots hanging on the walls and the large open cooking fireplace barely visible. The tables were clean, especially in comparison to the building. John walked over to the massive wooden cook stove and held out his hand toward it. It was mostly cool, but he thought he could still feel some ambient heat. He set his hand against the side. It wasn't hot, but it was warm.
Cliff was watching John.