u/Tiger_764

It’s a sunny day in New Hamburg, and Dave is going hunting again. He goes there every Sunday, and doesn’t want to miss this week’s trip. He gets in his truck with the rifle in its bag on the bed. Then he is off to the forest. 
Dave Joseph is a middle-aged resident of the New Hamburg community for a long time, and he likes to hunt, because according to him, the community doesn’t have anything else to do. Dave turns right on to the state route, and presses the gas pedal. A new, white SUV drives towards Dave on the highway. Dave does recognize the driver as the mayor, but doesn’t greet her, because Dave isn’t a fan of her, and the mayor knows it. She doesn’t care for Dave either, as she understands that she can’t win him over in the next election. He turns left from the State highway to a narrow and windy gravel road going up a slope towards the nicest Appalachian forest for hunting. 
Soon he gets to the small cul-de-sac, where he always leaves his car. He gets out of the truck, walks over to the bed, and grabs his rifle from the bag. He loads it, and is off to the forest to catch some deer. Dave often keeps apples from his old apple tree that he has in his front yard in a plastic bag, from where he tosses them to an open spot in the woods as bait for the poor deer. Then he stations himself lying on the mossy ground close enough to fatally shoot the deer, but far enough to not be spotted by them, leading to them running away. 
Despite his efforts, Dave isn’t having much luck with hunting today. It could be the steadily warm weather that keeps the deer lying low in the shade, or them doing their homework before deer school starts again on Monday. 
Dave is exhausted after lying there for over an hour, changing positions every fifteen minutes. He’s ready to go, but just when he’s about to stand up, he sees something under the moss. A metal trapdoor. It looks like it’s from the 19th century with rust all over it and ornaments on the handle. Dave knows he should just forget about it, but he does have a gun with him. That does give him enough courage to check it out. He slowly grabs the handle, and notices that the door is unlocked. He turns the handle, and opens the door while it creaks the whole time. Then Dave puts a branch on top of the door, which now is lying on the ground to keep it from closing while he is inside. 
It’s dark inside, and it smells wet. Dave thinks it probably is infested with mold. He uses the torch he has in his bag as light inside. There is a flight of stairs leading approximately one floor down. As he goes in further he sees one small coffee table covered in dust with four wooden chairs around it. On the table lies a car key. It’s for a Ford. Strange, because Dave didn’t see any other cars on the mountain road. He sees a door at the end of the dark hallway, but he also sees a bright red padlock on it. He doesn’t want to try to open the door, because he feels that something is wrong. As he hears a thud coming from the other side of the door he is ready to leave. He takes the car key from the table and starts to walk towards his car. As he leaves the mountain road he sees a red Ford crossover parked on the side of the road, almost falling into the ditch. Dave parks his truck in front and sees that no one is inside. He walks around the car and observes it, but nothing seems off. He tests the key, and the doors unlock. As he peeks in he notices a set of zip ties and a pack of vinyl gloves. Dave hopes for this to be a weird coincidence, but senses something wrong. He leaves and goes home.

As Dave is getting ready to go to work the next morning the doorbell rings. Who could it be? It’s the police chief. He is Dave’s childhood friend. They grew up together in Florida, and for some reason they both ended up here. 
“May I come in?”
“Sure, Anthony. What’s up? I need to leave for work so please tell me quickly.”
“So I imagine you went hunting yesterday to your usual forest, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you find a car key there?”
“Yeah, I have it.”
“So the owner of the car called us, and when we searched up his name it turned out that he is wanted for kidnapping by the county’s sheriff’s office. We can’t arrest him for being a suspect, but we need the car key.”
“Alright I’ll get it.”
“Hey Dave. Come over to the station after work to answer a few questions.”
“Sure, Anthony. I’ll come there.”

Dave heads over to the construction site, which is a small detached house two blocks from where he lives. There is some redevelopment happening. An old barn and the fields surrounding it had been converted into a new development as the farmer died and the inheritors decided to sell it to Dave’s company because they weren’t farmers and honestly couldn’t care less about a small town in the middle of nowhere. After work Dave turns the wrong way from the site towards his home, but luckily he quickly remembers what Anthony said and makes a U-turn because he doesn’t want to drive the extra distance because petrol is so expensive nowadays.   
At the police station his friend Anthony greets him and directs him to a room where they can talk. It’s not an interrogation room, but something more casual. Anthony asks where Dave found the key, and Dave tells everything he saw and heard. The bunker, the key on the table, the red padlock, the thud and the car he found in the ditch that matched the key. Anthony tells Dave that he could be in serious trouble for taking the key if they can’t prove that the kidnapper is guilty. 

When Dave tries to sleep he can’t. He keeps thinking that he might be in trouble for taking the key in the first place. As he tries to think that everything is fine he is filled with guilt from the thud he heard but didn’t react. He decides to go to the bunker himself but because he isn’t stupid, he takes a handgun with him just in case he needs it. It’s an old single-shot Liberator from World War 2, as Dave’s father was a veteran. He hasn’t used this one before, just once at the range down in Florida a week after he got it in inheritance. His father was one of the few survivors of the Allies’ storming of the Normandy beaches.   

It’s dark out, and not a single car can be seen driving on the main route in the town that also leads to Dave’s hunting spot. As Dave is about to turn on the gravel road, he notices that the red Ford is gone. He drives up the mountain road and parks his car in the same spot. He exits the car and hesitates a second, but he knows that if he leaves now he won’t get any sleep. He notices that the branch is still holding the door open. Dave clicks the torch on as it’s pretty dark and bravely goes in. Just as he thinks that no one has been there, he notices that the table and chairs are gone and the red padlock is on the side and not keeping the door closed. Dave slowly opens the door with the gun in his right hand, but the room is completely empty. He hears footsteps and quickly shuts the torch and hides in a dark corner of the room. The footsteps become louder and clearer and Dave can see a hand. It has scratches on it. Something is also hanging from his back pocket. It’s a keychain with many different keys all labeled. One label reads “Mountain Creek Rd”. It’s the name of the mountain gravel road that leads up here. He also sees a car key. It’s for a Ford. Dave tries to stay quiet, but it’s easier said than done. Suddenly some dust particles enter Dave’s nose and he is about to sneeze. Dave has to hold it in. Just when he thinks he successfully held the sneeze in, it comes. Loud as a gunshot and clear as day. The man turns toward the corner where Dave is hiding and yells something. Dave can’t quite make out what he says because he is shaking in fear. Just when Dave is about to move to another corner he spots the faint glare of a blade. This man has a sword-like knife, and he is moving towards Dave. He is sneaky in his movements and tries to distract Dave, but he doesn’t know that Dave has a gun and he has no other choice but to shoot him. Dave can’t shoot, because his gun only fits one round and he would have to reach into his pocket for more bullets, and shooting wrong would alert the kidnapper that Dave has a gun. Dave is cornered and he hears the blade swooshing right in front of him. He is shaking like hell now, and he is afraid that he will miss the shot, but when the attacker is only making his way closer Dave has no other choice. Just as he thinks this Dave gets the courage from all the adrenaline built up and points the gun towards the blade. He aims a bit lower aiming for the torso. Then he hears a thud similar to the one he heard the last time he visited this bunker, but this one is heavier. Dave doesn’t even want to turn his torch back on. He pulls out his phone and calls 911. Dave thinks that it’s sort of surprising that you can make calls from this cellar in a forest, but ultimately he is happy that it works. 
It takes almost 10 minutes for the police to arrive. Dave is waiting for them in the cold Appalachian night with his pistol on the ground. He hopes that Anthony is the one to respond, but instead it’s the other cop Dave doesn’t remember the name of. A minute later he is outside looking shocked and calling for backup. 
“What's wrong?” Dave asks innocently.
“I’m afraid I can’t disclose”
“It’s alright” is all Dave manages to say. It is in fact not alright. Dave just shot a man and he is dead.

Five minutes or so pass and then they hear sirens. They aren’t ambulances. Dave is now certain that he killed the man. As the corpse is brought outside to the already brighter environment Dave gets to see a sight. The man he just shot is Police Chief Anthony Davis. His childhood best friend. Dave doesn’t understand how this man became a kidnapper and potentially also a killer. He is devastated. How could he trust Anthony his whole life? How didn’t anyone notice? How didn’t Dave notice? He is frustrated with the pressure of all these thoughts about their childhood and life as friends. When did he become this monster? 
Before he has really processed anything, Dave is brought into questioning, but now they aren’t looking at him to prosecute. Only as a witness. The cops want to hear everything Dave knows, and he tells them all they want to know. A detective from the county is brought in to investigate. Pretty soon they have a clear picture of everything, and Anthony is pinned as the kidnapper of five. Luckily all are found alive in similar spots around the town. 

A few weeks pass and Dave has now gathered every inch of his life and he wants to move and start over. He is ready for a bigger city, because he can’t stand the eeriness of a small town anymore. In early June Dave has packed everything and he is moving back to Florida where his relatives live. He also hopes to buy a nice house on the beach because he would like to retire soon. As he gets in the plane leaving for Fort Lauderdale, he takes one glance at West Virginia for the last time. 

I am aware that it ends pretty fast compared to the start. Sorry. Didn't have time. This is for a school project, and I thought that is ended up pretty good (at least for my writing) so I decided to post here just to see my level. I am interested in writing so I just want feedback. Thank you!