Free Ending ELE (ELE Series) by Rebecca Gober, Courtney Nuckels Page A

but I didn ’t even see what he pointed out in the binoculars, let alone any sign of a dwelling place in this area.
    We walk a few more steps before Tony shakes his head, looking perplexed. “No, I think we passed it.”
    “ I didn’t see any signs of a cabin,” Alec says, scratching his head.
    “ It’s very well hidden, at least from what I remember. We need to look closer,” Tony answers while he turns around and starts doubling back.
    We walk slowly , examining the landscape around us carefully. After we walk a few hundred yards, I make out something from the corner of my eye. I look a little closer and find something sticking out of the snow. It’s small, red, and out of place. I wade through the snow so I can examine the little piece of red metal. My knee hits something in the ground just below the red flag-looking thing. I reach my hand out and gingerly touch the piece of metal. It takes only a second for me to grasp what this is. I start brushing snow off around the metal and find that it’s screwed into the side of a brick base. I push more snow off the structure to find the black mailbox door.
    “ A mailbox,” Tony says simply.
    I turn and smile at him , then I look back at my dad. The memory of the few times I was allowed out of the house in the years prior to Project ELE, comes flooding back to me. I would walk with my dad each evening out to the mailbox. Together, we would take the mail from the box and place it in a sterilized bag. He would sometimes leave a letter or a small package in the mailbox for the postman. My dad would then allow me to raise the small, red flag that tells the postman that there’s outgoing mail to be picked up. I always felt so official raising the little warning flag. It’s strange thinking back on it now. I used to breathe in deeply on those short trips outside. I’d try to take in all the landscape I couldn’t see from my windows. I used to wonder what life on the outside would be like if we didn’t have to stay indoors all the time... Now I know. Sometimes I find myself longing for those times of simplicity—when even if everything wasn’t all right in the world, in my child’s mind, it was.
    Tony puts his hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. “The house must be down that way just a little,” he states.
    I begin to notice that the trees are spaced out in a way that tells us they line a trail, or a driveway. With the snow covering everything, those telltale signs are hard to spot. Walking around the mailbox, we gesture for the others to follow us. We walk a few yards before we see the outline of a fireplace breaking out from behind brush and overgrown trees.
    “ This is the place. This is it!” Tony says excitedly. He starts walking quickly towards it—a man on a mission. The closer we get, the more we can spot the features of the huge log cabin behind the vegetation and under the snow. It’s just not noticeable from the road but up close, it’s very much a house. Great camouflage—perfect for our situation.
    There isn ’t an entryway on this side of the house. We walk around it to the back and find the porch. It wraps around the side of the cabin and is covered in snow. This side is much clearer and easier to see. Windows cover nearly every inch of the home along the porch. I turn to see the view that the owners must have built the house to capitalize on. Mountains for as far as you can see line the landscape, looking perfectly majestic in all their glory.
    “ It’s unlocked!” Claire calls.
    I turn to find Connor and Claire hustling inside with Lillie. “Wait, shouldn’t we check it out first?” I yell.
    “ Nothing’s here,” Tony tells me. “I don’t know how I know that, but I can feel that this place is empty and has been so for a while.” He holds out his hand for me to take.
    I nod my head and take his hand. If it’s good enough for Tony, then it’s good enough for me. Together, we follow the others inside.
    The cabin appears to