"Are you two really not coming in?" The three splashing around in the lake kept waving at Nick and Martin on shore. The surroundings really were lovely. The lake water was clean and clear, with little silt beneath it, and a clean layer of fine sand and pebbles stretched from the bank into the shallows.
Nick and Martin sat on the rickety little wooden dock, each holding a cigarette, watching the other three splash and play in the lake.
"Does anything about this place feel strange to you?" Nick smiled and waved at them, then turned to ask Martin.
The scruffy man looked up at the bright sunshine, then at the lush green woods around them, his expression slightly hesitant. "Something does feel strange, but I can't say why."
"There aren't any birds singing in the woods," Nick pointed out.
Besides staying out of the water because he was worried about monsters like piranhas or monstrous crocodiles appearing, and quietly keeping watch over the three in the water, he was also observing their surroundings.
The monotonous food chain in the artificial biosphere on the alien planet in the Predator series had left a particularly deep impression on him.
After entering this isolated area, apart from the feeling of being watched, he had keenly sensed that everything before him likewise had a deliberately manufactured atmosphere.
The Cabin in the Woods, left empty from last year until this year, showed not the slightest trace of small animals having been inside. Although the furniture and appliances were covered in a layer of dust, everything was completely intact. He had not found so much as a single wire chewed through by mice.
Someone had deliberately arranged this "secluded paradise" and had begun tracking and watching them before they entered. What was the purpose?
Could