The Legend of Youngs Corner XVII

PART XVII
Resident Evil

I saw shadows, large blocks of black silhouettes were raised in front of me. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the darkness around. Nicholas then rose his flashlight and before my eyes, piles of chests were revealed. They were like treasure chests, wooden and metal, old gothic style, and they were everywhere, dozens of them. What could be inside? The room it seemed was shaped like an L. The wall that I had just climbed through served as the longer part of the letter L. In front of me was a wall with a closet door; that wall continued for a few more feet to the right then stopped and turned to the left. I approached a chest, there were four stacks of them, 3 in each stack. I reached out to touch it-
“Hey! What do you see?” A voice came from outside. It was Bobby’s. I looked to Nicholas, his expression was still one of wonder and fear. Through the window I saw Bobby’s hand, he somehow managed to pull himself up and came in. His face turned cold, his eyes grew wide. He came up beside me, looking at the trunk which my hand was reaching for. I turned to look at him, he looked at me, we knew exactly what to do- we pulled the trunk down. Nicholas walked over and shone his light onto the trunk, there was no lock.
“Who’s gonna open it?” Bob asked. We all gave each other a stare.
“We’ll open it together,” I said. While Nicholas held the light, Bob and I grabbed the lid of the trunk, and slowly, we propped it open…

Books, hundreds of books. The trunk was filled to the brim with magazines of Popular Mechanics. But there was something different about these magazines.
“Guys, I’m coming in,” Gaeten shouted as he was half-way through the window. He nudged his way in, lost his grip, and fell into the cabin. He came over to our group.
“Oh sweet! Popular Mechanics!” he yelled.
“Quiet!” We all shouted. Gaeten reached forward into the trunk and grabbed one of the magazines. Something caught his eye.
“Hey, come take a look at this,” he called to us. He pointed to the printing date at the top of the magazine cover. As I read I was nearly knocked backward.
“1910!” Nicholas shouted. “What are these books doing here?!” Bobby exclaimed. I grabbed a book, they all came from the decade 1910-1920. There must have been 100 of them. I flipped through them, the advertisements were amusing; they were from a time way before ours. These magazines were in mint condition.
“Curt, how much do you think these things are worth?” Bobby asked. I shook my head in disbelief.
“I have no idea, it’s strange.”
“What’s strange is why this trunk, in a cabin in the deep woods, is full of mechanic magazines from the 1910’s,” said Nicholas.
“Point,” I said. “I can’t imagine what else we’ll find in this place.”

And so we shut the trunk and moved on. After passing some trunks over due to their being locked, we finally found one that had no lock at the bottom of a pile. After removing the ones atop it we opened this second trunk. Inside, clothes, lots of them. They were mainly shirts, long-sleeve, button-down shirts.
“These shirts are right out of the 70’s!” said Gaeten. He was right, the colors and styles seen could only have come from that wavy and serene decade. The collars were large and the wrists extended with a flowery fringe. They were all ‘flowery.’
“Quick, see if you can find any names on the collar tags,” I suggested. And so, we each took a handful of shirts and began our search. After a few minutes-
“I’ve got something here,” said Bob. We gathered around him. He held in his hands a long, faded yellow shirt. Above the left-breast pocket hung a nametag. I read the label.
“1969: Annual Meeting: Suzanne Kannegieser.”
“Ah ha! Kannegieser! Finally a name that we can use!” Gaeten said loudly.
“Use for what?” I asked.
“To put a name to the cabin, to the ownership of all this stuff. It’s an identity, our first one. It gives this place a life, reassuring us that it didn’t come from just thin air.” Nicholas spoke. “Although, judging from the way we found this place, thin air explains it best.”